Professor: Martha E. Gimenez Office: Ketchum 205A EMAIL: gimenez@csf.colorado.edu Telephone: 492-7080 OFFICE HOURS: T-Th 2:00 to 3:00 and by appointment. VIRTUAL OFFICE HOURS: All students are encouraged to ask questions using email. Questions and answers will be posted so that everyone benefits. All students are REQUIRED to join the class electronic network.

Additional or substitute reading assignments, important deadlines, reminders, information and general discussion will be posted daily. READ YOUR EMAIL EVERYDAY TO KEEP INFORMED.

ONLINE RESOURCES:

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION HOME PAGE

FALL SEMESTER SYLLABUS ON LINE:

Explore the course home page and adjacent pages, including the page currently in construction for this semester:

You will find previous syllabi, exams, study questions, and useful links to data and sources of information that supplement, in important ways, the required readings. Throughout the semester, I will be adding new links, including those you find and send me through email. Students who make good contributions to the course page, updating or submitting new links accompanied by comments (at most two screens in length) indicating their relevance to the course, will be awarded extra credit.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The study of theories of social, race/ethnic, sex, and age stratification. Social inequality in the United States will be examined in a comparative context, giving emphasis to the analysis of resulting conflicts.

Social stratification is not just a sociological concept; it is the reality that shapes everyone's life and the paramount characteristic of today's world. Understanding the sources and effects of inequality and the manifold ways it impinges on people's lives, on our lives, is one of the main objectives of this course.

General Course Objectives:

At the end of the semester, students should be able to

1. understand the key elements of the main classical and contemporary theories of social stratification
2. describe the historical conditions that generate and reproduce current patterns of social, economic and political inequality.
3. define social class and social stratification and describe some of the complex relationship between these different kinds of inequality.
4. to define gender, racial/ethnic, age and other systems of inequality and discuss their interconnections in modern societies.
5. describe the main characteristics of social stratification in the United States, placing it in a comparative context.
6. describe the effects of social stratification upon the life chances of people in different class and socio-economic locations.
7. contrast and compare the main theories of social stratification, identifying their strengths and weaknesses, and ability to illuminate the realities of social stratification in the United States.
8. develop an understanding of the global stratification system and the connections between the place of nation states within that system, and national stratification systems.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

This is a lecture and discussion course. Students will be expected to attend classes regularly, read all assignments and come prepared to participate in class discussions and structured debates. Class participation will be assessed by the quality of the comments made.

To prepare for class participation, students should read the assigned materials, take notes, and ask and find answers to questions such as, for example: what are the author's main arguments? What new concepts does the author introduce? What am I learning from this author, or chapter, or article? How do these readings relate to my learning in previous courses and to what I know and experience as a member of this society? How am I reacting to these readings? Do they support or challenge my values, beliefs, knowledge? what do I find confusing, difficult to understand, wonderful, abhorrent, etc. in these readings? Bring your notes and answers to class everyday. Be prepared!

Lectures will be brief and focused on theoretical analysis and integration, establishing the connections between the theories, research findings and other information examined in the course, thus setting the background for students' participation. Lectures will be related to but WILL NOT necessarily cover every aspect of the assigned readings; they are designed to supplement, NOT to replicate the readings.

Grades will be based on the following:

1. Class attendance and participation (15 percent)
2. Mid-term exam composed of short essay questions. Date: October 11 (25 percent of the grade)
3. Small Group Local Stratification Project: 30 percent of the grade. (details to be given early in the semester).
4. Take home final exam composed of essay questions. Date due: December 18 (30 percent of the grade)

Important: If you have specific physical, psychiatric, or learning disabilities and require accommodations, please let me know early in the semester so that your learning needs may be appropriately met. You will need to provide documentation of your disability to the Disability Services Office in Willard 322 (phone 303-492-8671).

CELL PHONES AND PAGERS MUST BE TURNED OFF BEFORE ENTERING THE CLASSROOM REQUIRED READINGS:

Chuck Collins and Felice Veskel with United for a Fair Economy, ECONOMIC APARTHEID IN AMERICA. A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity. New York: The New Press, 2000.

Martha E. Gimenez, "Considerations on Race and Wealth" (coauthored with Alice Fothergill and Glenn Muschert)," in Critical Sociology, Vol. 23, No. 2(1998): 105-116. *

Scott Sernau, WORLDS APART: Social Inequalities in a New Century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 2001.

Thomas M. Shapiro, GREAT DIVIDES. Readings in Social Inequality in the United States. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2001. (Second Edition).

Melvin Tumin, Some Principles of Stratification: A Critical Analysis.*(you will find the Tumin article inside a folder labeled Davis, The Continuing Debate on Inequality).

* ON RESERVE AT NORLIN LIBRARY

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTED READINGS

Denny Braun, THE RICH GET RICHER. The Rise of Income Inequality in the United States and the World. Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1991.

Dalton Conley, BEING BLACK, LIVING IN THE RED. race, Wealth, and Social Policy in America. University of California Press, 1999.

Barbara Ehrenreich, FEAR OF FALLING. The Inner Life of the Middle Classes. Harper Perennial, 1990.

Lynda Ann Ewen, SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND POWER IN AMERICA. The view from Below. General Hall, 1998.

Louis Kushnik and James Jennings, eds., A NEW INTRODUCTION TO POVERTY. The Role of Race, Power, and Politics. New York University Press, 1999.

Andrew Milner, CLASS. Core Cultural Concepts. Sage, 1999.

Katherine Newman, DECLINING FORTUNES. The Withering of the American Dream. Basic Books, 1993.*

Kevin Phillips, THE POLITICS OF RICH AND POOR. Wealth and the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath. Random House, 1990.

Paula Rothenberg, ed., RACE, CLASS & GENDER IN THE UNITED STATES. An Integrated Study. St Martin's Press, 1992.

Maurice Zeitlin, THE LARGE CORPORATIONS AND CONTEMPORARY CLASSES. Rutgers University Press, 1989.

SCHEDULED READINGS

Important:
From the very beginning of the semester read all the assignments, particularly Marx and Engels, Weber, Davis and Moore, and Tumin; write down concepts which you do not understand, ideas and conclusions that you find unclear as well as the main issues and questions you think these and other sociologists contribute to the study of stratification. Hand in a copy of those notes every Tuesday beginning Tuesday, September 4. Keep those notes with you and bring up these questions and the authors' contributions every time you think they are relevant to the topics we are examining in class. I will grade these notes Satisfactory, Satisfactory + and Satisfactory -. This exercise counts as class participation and can enhance your grade.

W. 1     SERNAU, Origins of Social Inequality
ch. 1 The Great Debate
ch. 2 The Global Debate
SHAPIRO, Opportunity and Inequality in the United States: READ ALL THE CHAPTERS in PART I
Start reading Theories of Stratification

Ws. 2-3     SERNAU, The Sociological Debate, pp. 16-29
SHAPIRO, How Social Stratification is Generated
Theories of Stratificaton
K. Marx and F. Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party
Max Weber, Class, Status, Party
Kingsley Davis and W. Moore, Some Principles of Stratification
Melvin Tumin, Some Principles of Stratification: A Critical analysis

W. 4     REVIEW
SERNAU, The Gordian Knot of Race, Class, and Gender
ch. 3 Class Privilege
COLLINS, Introduction
chs. 1, 2 and 3
M. E. Gimenez, Considerations on Race and Wealth

W. 5     SHAPIRO - Class Formation and Globalization
E. O. Wright, A General Framework for the Analysis of Class

OCTOBER 4-5 FALL BREAK