STUDY
GUIDE – FINAL EXAM
SOCIAL INEQUALITY
Kessler
– Spring 2002
This
exam will be longer than, but similar in format to the first and second exams: a
mix of definition and short essays. 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 189-249 (251-281 will not be covered
on the exam); Nickel and Dimed (all); Dark Victory, pp 86-104, all lecture,
discussion materials, and special presentations since the first exam; the
documentaries “Who’s Getting Rich and why aren’t You?” and “Living on
the Edge,” and all supplemental readings since the second exam (see your
on-line syllabus). Supplemental
reading materials for the “Savage Inequalities” assignment will not
be covered on the exam.
Be
able to discuss:
The
extent to which social reproduction occurs in a class system, and why
The
relationship between schooling, credentialing (formal education attainment), and
upward social mobility
The
link between the U.S. education system and the reproduction of social inequality
(social reproduction)
Schooling
and the concepts of credentialing, social mobility, and social reproduction from
the point of view of Human-capital theory and Gatekeeping
The
phenomena of post-WWII migration and deindustrialization in terms of how they
contributed to worsening poverty in rural and urban America
Poverty
on a global scale, including differences across nations and across the developed
and developing regions of the world
New
Deal Keynesian economics with its successor, supply-side Reaganomics – and the
groups, entities, and categories of people that seemed to come out ahead and
behind in each economic era
The
industrial workforce with the postindustrial workforce
The
relationship between poverty and the working poor, Reaganomics, and
postindustrial society
Be
able to relate the decline of the New Deal State and the dominance of the
national economy, and the rise of Reaganism and the emergence of a global
economy to trends in poverty and inequality.
Nickel and Dimed
Be
able to discuss Ehrenreich’s findings about the nature of low-wage work, the
situation of the low-wage worker in today’s economy, the “costs” of being poor,
and the power dynamics between employers and low-wage workers.
Be able to integrate relevant information and anecdotes from Nickel and
Dimed into essay responses.
Be sure you have read,
and familiarized yourselves with, the supplemental articles listed on the
syllabus
Be
able to define the following:
Social
mobility
Circulation
mobility
Structural
mobility
Reproductive
mobility
Immigration
mobility
Social
reproduction
Caste
system
Open
(class) system
Status
attainment
Deindustrialization
FDR’s
New Deal
LBJ’s
War on Poverty
The
Welfare State
The
global ghetto