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303 : Race & Ethnicity
315 : Social Class
316 : Gender & Society
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Jennifer Eichstedt
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology
Humboldt State University
1 Harpst Street
Arcata, CA 95521

Office: 707-826-4949
Fax : 707-826- 4418
jle7001@humboldt.edu

315 : Social Class : Syllabus


"When I give food to the poor they call me a Saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist"
(Dom Helder Camara, Brazilian liberation theologist).

The quote above illustrates a powerful dilemma in the approach countries in the Western hemisphere take to inequality and oppression. We profess to want to "help" the poor, we wage tremendous battles over what help should legitimately look like, and poverty and inequality persist. We applaud middle class people who go to homeless shelters and serve food on Thanksgiving, but denounce as un-American and subversive people who argue that structural arrangements may have to change if we’re going to eliminate poverty and homelessness. The intensity of our responses to inequality and efforts to alleviate it arise, I believe, out of the degree to which inequality is woven into the fabric of our society and the intellectual/moral effort it takes for us to develop explanations for this inequality that square with the U.S. credo of equality, liberty, and fairness. We are, as a country, and as a discipline, deeply conflicted over inequality - or to use a more euphemistic term: stratification. In this course we will explore a variety of approaches to and experiences related to inequality. We also will consider how race and gender intersect with economic inequality. In the end, you should have developed your ability to important questions regarding how inequality developed, how it is maintained, and how it may be changed in the future.

Required Texts:

Domhoff, William G. 1998. Who Rules America? Power and Politics in the Year 2000. Third Edition. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing.

Gilbert, Dennis. 1998. The American Class Structure: In An Age of Growing Inequality. Fifth Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.

Shapiro, Thomas M. (Ed.) 1998. Great Divides: Readings in Social Inequality in the United States. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing.

Wagner, David. 1993. Checkerboard Square: Culture and Resistance in a Homeless Community. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

REQUIREMENTS:
There are numerous requirements for this course; most of them are organized around enabling you to fully engage the material of the course in a critical way. To that end, I am going to ask you to write in this course every week. Every week you will either write a 1-2 page response paper to the readings, or you will take a short answer exam covering the readings. I am structuring the class this way so that you are compelled to read the material – success in this course, and the success of the course, is the result of being prepared and able to participate in class discussions. As a pay-off for this, there will be no big mid-term and the final which will require you to apply the theories, and questioning skills you have been honing all semester – but you will not have to do any outside research for the final. If you have been doing the reading all along you will do well. The other components will be doing some field work in local agencies that deal with economic inequality and reporting back to the class (leading a discussion) and engaging in regular participation. The point is that there is no big huge research paper outside the course, and no mid-term. Instead, I just want your steady presence, participation, and engagement in the course. Requirements for the course are:

Attendance: Pretty clear: be here as much as possible. I do not take attendance in this course. However, for your weekly assignments to be counted, you must be here to turn them in. I DO NOT ACCEPT YOU TURNING IN YOUR ASSIGNMENTS WHEN YOU WILL NOT BE IN CLASS - UNLESS YOU HAVE A WRITTEN MEDICAL EXCUSE. I organize the course in this way because your presence, and participation, is vital to the success of this course. I can't do it without you folks. It succeeds or fails because of our collective effort. Plus, I want to see and hear you; your input and perspective is important.

Weekly papers: Most weeks students will submit a 1 -2 page double spaced paper. These papers will constitute a sizeable proportion of your grade in the course. Each week you will be asked to do readings. Your paper will specify what connections you see between the articles/chapters and will point to at least one seminal question that you think arises from the combinations of readings you are assigned. This is not "no-brainer" work. Instead, you are going to have to really think about the articles and the sorts of issues they raise. You will not receive credit for simply telling me what you think the author is saying - you must think about what different readings say to each other - and what use they might be in our study of inequality. Throughout the semester we will break up into smaller groups and one person will "lead" each smaller group by sharing their paper and using that paper to lead the smaller group discussion.

Short Papers: Two times during the semester you will be asked to write a short (3-4 page) paper. (This will replace your weekly paper). The first will ask you to explore your own life in relation to the issues that we are exploring in class. The second will be your consideration of the possibility of change (either for less or more inequality) through the movements and agencies in place (labor, welfare, and so on). Further details will follow.

GROUP WORK: Each member of the class will be part both a "home" group and a "research group." As a member of a specific research group you and your group members will explore specific resources that are available in the community for a given group of people. For instance, one group will probably look at the situation for homeless folks in the County. All members of the group will go to the local homeless shelter(s) and check it out. You will, as a group, decide what you need to know about the shelter – such as who goes there, their budget, their system, etc. – you will divide up the tasks – different people will investigate different aspects of the shelter. You will teach the other members of your "research group" what you know. Then, on a designated day, each member of the research group on homelessness will do a presentation in their "home group" and teach other members of the class what you learned about the local situation and resources available. More details will be handed out about this later, so don’t freak out. The point of this work is to familiarize yourself, and your classmates, with how issues of economic inequality play out in the local community and how people here try and address them. Since people often are worried about working in groups (since there are sometimes freeloaders who want to skate by on other people’s work) I will have check systems built in so that if an individual doesn’t pull their weight it is apparent and they are penalized for it – not the whole group. Possible topics I’ve considered: Homelessness, recently passed Measure F on Corporations and Democracy, Local Welfare System, Welfare Reform and its effects, Food Not Bombs, Wealthy in Humboldt County, Local Unionizing Efforts.

Final Exam: We will negotiate later whether this will be a take home or in class exam. If it is an in class exam you will be able to use the readings from the semester as well as your 1 page papers. In this exam you will be asked to take a scenario and analyze it using perspectives we’ve learned in class.

Late Work: Late papers/work will not be accepted unless circumstances justify it (i.e. you have a medical condition documented by the health center) or prior arrangements have been made. The fact that your computer is jammed, stopped working, won’t print, ran out of printer ink/paper, and so on, aren’t valid reasons for turning in work late. I assume that every student makes a back up copy of their file onto a floppy disk as they make changes, can gain access to campus computers if theirs crashes, isn’t writing their paper at 10:00pm the night before it is due, and isn’t printing their paper out for the first time 10 minutes before class. If you read this, and know that you do/don’t do these things - I suggest you change what you do. I also recommend that students keep a backup printed copy of their papers for their own files. (Faculty do sometimes misplace student papers - unfortunately it’s up to the student to produce another one for the faculty).

GRADING IN GENERAL: In all your work I will take the following things into account when grading: did you write the paper you were asked to write - or did you write something else; to what extent do you demonstrate your understanding of the material - this doesn’t mean you always have to understand everything. Rather, you are expected to be able to demonstrate what you do know and fess up to what you don’t know; do you ask interesting sociological questions in your work; do you write in complete and legible sentences; does what you hand in read as if it was your first draft - i.e. have you worked on the assignment; are there typos and misspellings. While my focus is always primarily on content, I do take into account the quality of writing you turn in. You MUST be able to write well to get an A in this course; if you don’t feel as if you write well, we’ll work on it. Faculty do you no favors when we tell you that your work is exceptional (which is what an A signifies) when it is not. This leads me to my next brief topic: grades themselves.

A C is not uncommon in my classes - C’s signify to me competent, average quality work. You get a C if you fulfill what is asked of you and don’t go beyond it. If your work indicates a standard level of understanding of the material, etc. you get a C. In order to get a B you must submit work that is above average. It is work that demonstrates a more sophisticated and complex reading of the material and your more sophisticated ability to discuss the material. "A" work is work that is truly outstanding. "A" work is unusual in its excellence - it demonstrates a very high ability to handle the course material and ask proactive and important sociological questions. It is often signaled by the ability to synthesize material in creative and thoughtful ways. It is also work that is very well written and organized. It doesn’t come with misspellings and bizarre paragraphs. A’s are difficult to achieve - not because there is anything lacking from students - but because they really do signify excellence - and in a room full of smart, capable people, being "outstanding" is very unusual. I don’t say these things to discourage you, but rather to be clear about where I’m coming from. Please see me if you have questions.

Course Grades:

Total Points possible on each component:

9 Weekly Papers/Quizzes 45 pts. = 45%
2 papers (Due Feb 11th, May 4th) 20 pts. = 20%
Group Participation and Leadership 10pts. = 10%
Write-up of Group Work 5pts = 5%
Final Exam 20 pts. = 20%

Total Possible Pts. 100pts. = 100%


PROPOSED COURSE OUTLINE
*It could always change if conditions warrant..."


Week 1: January 19th and 21st.

• Introductions and Discussion -
• Film Roger and Me


WEEK 2: January 26th and 28th What is Stratification? Or, what does it mean to talk about disadvantage and unearned benefits?

Tues:

• Readings: Shapiro: Readings #1-3 (pg7-28)

Thurs:

• Gilbert, Chapter 1 (pg 1-21)

• ( Short Paper #1 Due: Craft your response to Roger and Me in the form of a 1-2 page paper in which you make links between the readings that you did and the film – you must address Marx and at least one other reading.)

WEEK 3: February 3rd: Thinking about Social Class.

Tues:

• Readings: Gilbert, Chapter 2 (Positions and Prestige)
• Readings: Shapiro, #4-6 (31-48) and #17 (C.W. Mills) (139-144)
• (Mini-Quiz on Assigned Reading)

Thurs: Starting Occupations

• Readings: Gilbert, Chapter #3 (Occupations and Social Class)


WEEK 4: February 9th and 11th : Inequalities and Occupations

Tues: Inequalities and Occupations

• Readings: Gilbert, Chapter 4 and 5: Wealth and Income
• Shapiro, #31 "Black Wealth/White Wealth" (288-299)

Thurs: Discussion of Issues

• Readings: Shapiro: #11-13 (79-103) and #29 (161-271)
* Students come in with a 3-4 page paper that assesses, in relation to the readings, their parents occupational status (or your own if you are a returning student) and your own occupational aspirations. What, given what you’ve read, is most likely to determine the type of occupation you have and the prestige that is attached to it?


WEEK 5: February 16th and 18th. Overviews of Theoretical Explanations

Tues: Approaching Inequality – Reiterations and New Theorists

• Readings: Shapiro, #14 (108-122), and #22 (179-191)

Thurs: More on Thinking Through Inequalities and Intersections

• Readings: Shapiro, #35, (327-334)
• (Mini-Quiz on Assigned Reading – Today’s and Tuesday’s)


Week 6: February 23rd and 25th – Class and Race

Tues: Intersections

• Readings: Shapiro, #8, (53-66);
• #’s 25-27 (216-249)
• (1-2 Page Paper Due – comparing assigned readings)

Thurs:

• Film and Shapiro #42, "Savage Inequalities," (401-417)


Week 7: March 2ND and 4th. Class and Gender

Tues: What Inequality looks like

• Readings: Shapiro #34 (317-326)
• #7 "Capitalism, Patriarchy and Job Seg…" (49-52)

Thurs: More thinking through gender, class and race.

• Readings: Shapiro #36-37 (335-353) and 39-40 (369-387)
• (1-2 Page Paper Due – comparing the main arguments of at least two of the assigned readings)


Week 8: March 9th and 11th: Experience of Class: The Elite

Tues: Who Are the Elite

• Readings: Gilbert, Chapter 8
• Domhoff Chapter 1

Thurs: What the Elite do….
• Readings: Domhoff, Chapters 2-3
• (Mini-Quiz on Assigned Reading – will cover both Gilbert and Domhoff)


Week 9: March 16-18th: NO CLASS - SPRING BREAK


Week 10: March 23rd and 25th. Experience of Class: The Elite

Tues and Thurs:

• Finish Domhoff (Chapters 4-7)

Thurs:

• (Mini-Quiz on Assigned Reading)


Week 11: March 30th and April 1st. Homelessness.

(No paper/Quiz this week)

Tues: Overview of Homelessness

• Readings: Wagner, Chapters 1-4 (1-95)

Thurs: Research Day, NO CLASS!


Week 12: April 6th-8th. Homelessness

Tues: Help for the Homeless?

• Readings: Wagner, Chapter 5 (96-123)

Thurs: Homelessness and Resistance.

• Readings: Wagner, Chapters 6 – 8 (147-187)
• (Mini-Quiz on Assigned Reading)


Week 13: April 13th – 15th. Mobility and Schooling

(No Paper/Quiz Due This Week)

Tues: Mobility Research

• Readings: Gilbert, Chapters 6 & 7

Thurs: Mobility and Barriers

• Readings: Shapiro, #30 "Continuing Causes of Segregation" (272-287)
• #43 "Failing at Fairness (Gender and Ed) (418-427)


Week 14 – April 20th and 22nd. Labor/Other Options for Social Change

Tues: Histories of Change

• Readings: Gilbert, Chapter 9

Thurs: Labor and/or Class Warfare?

• Readings: Domhoff, Chapter 8
• (1-2 Page Paper Due – comparing assigned readings)


Week 15: April 27th and 29th. ….. Contemporary Welfare System

Tues: Welfare….

• Readings: Gilbert, Chapter 10

Thurs: Contemporary experience of Welfare and Welfare Reform


Week 16: May 4th-6th. The Future…..

Tues: What’s Next?

• Readings: Gilbert, Chapter 11
*On Library Reserve, Ryan, "Making it Happen, the Invisible
Class Struggle" and "Towards Equality"
Short Paper #2 Due on Your Assessment of Social Change Options…..

Thurs: Wrap Up Ideas and Thoughts……


Final Exam Time for this class is Thursday, May 13th. This will be the final time that you can turn in your take-home exam. If we decide to have an in-class exam, it will be held at 10:20am, which is the scheduled exam time.