STUDY
GUIDE – SECOND EXAM
SOCIAL INEQUALITY
Kessler
– Spring 2002
The exam will be a mix of definition and short essay,
similar to the first exam. Remember
that “definition” and “example” are not synonymous. An appropriate example lends support to (but does not
replace) a good definition. Relevant
examples from supplemental reading materials on the syllabus will add to the
value of your essays.
Materials Covered: Worlds Apart, pp 95-187; Black Picket Fences (all); all
lecture, discussion materials, and special presentations since the first exam;
the documentary “Why can’t we live together?” and the following
supplemental readings: “Achieving Racial Justice…” and "Homeless
Shelters, Charities Swamped…”
Preparation for essay questions
Be able to compare and contrast the experiences of
immigrants of color, and Irish and New European immigrant groups.
Be able to discuss and present examples of Portes’ and Rumbuat’s four
types of immigration. Be able to discuss the analytical debate between “cultures
of poverty” and “structures of poverty” as explanations for the existence
of entrenched marginalized groups. Explain
what is meant by the assertion that “the acceptability of language is bound up
in both ethnicity and class.”
Be able to discuss the reasons for the emergence,
persistence, roles associated with, and consequences of the Good Provider and
Motherhood ideals. Did/do the
ideals match reality? Be able to
explain your response.
Be able to define and discuss ways in which prestige is conferred in U.S. society. What are the functions of "social closure" (be able to provide examples)? Be able to identify the principal agents of socialization and explain how they socialize us into our "expected" class positions. What is cultural capital? How does one acquire it? Who gets it, who doesn't, and why? Be able to discuss the difference between the pluralist system perspective and elitist system perspective as they relate to the distribution and concentration of political power in the United States.
Be able to briefly define the following terms/concepts:
Black Belts
The old black elite
Ghetto entrepreneurs
The new black middle class
Code-switching
Social organization theory
Informal and formal social controls
Andrew Jackson’s Trail of Tears
The Treaty of Guadalupe (1848)
Operation Wetback
Secondary labor market
Primary labor market
Middlemen minorities
Ethnic enclaves
Blaming the victim
Goode’s “sociology of subordinates”
The glass ceiling
Differential socialization (as related to gender)
The feminization of poverty
The “second shift”
Social closure
Cultural capital
Conspicuous consumption
The “Bobo” phenomenon
C.W. Mills’ “power elite” versus the pluralism
position