SOCIOLOGY 5035 SOCIAL STRATIFICATION Spring, 1996
Professor: Martha E. gimenez
Office: Ketchum 205A
Phone: 492-7080
Office Hours: T 10:00 - 12:00 and by appointment
E-Mail Address: Gimenez@csf.colorado.edu
Course Description: The aim of the course is to examine, theoretically and empirically, the social stratification of advanced industrial societies. The study of social stratification includes class structure, socio-economic status rankings, social mobility, and gender/race/ethnic stratification. Besides learning about the stratification of the United States and some of the major theoretical approaches to the study of stratification, will examine recent contributions to the study of class, race, and the intersection of class, gender, and race.
Course Requirements:
GRADES WILL BE BASED ON THE FOLLOWING:
Each week you are to turn in a) a question that you think gets at the hear of the issue(s) in the lectures or readings for that week, and b) an "answer" to it (i.e., your thesis statement), in a few sentences (at most, a page or two). Ask a definite question and provide a definite answer to it typed, double spaced or legibly printed! Put your weekly question-and-answer in my mail box every Monday.
2. Short Essays
Every four weeks beginning on September 28, you are to turn in an essay on the previous readings (for a total of THREE ESSAYS) in which you ask a definite question on any theoretical issue you wish to examine and provide a definite answer to it (in 4 pages or less). Essays should be typed, double spaced or legibly printed! Turn this assignment to me in class.
3. Final Essay
This essay is due on or before MAY 9, the day of the final, whichever is more conveninent for you. It should reflect your learning in this course, consisting of a presentation of those elements in the theoretical analysis of class, race or gender which you found most useful from the standpoint of your research interests and general intellectual concerns. You can choose to write an abstract theoretical paper or a paper where you identify those theoretical insights, issues, and questions most pertinent for the research problems that concern you. The essay should be typed, double spaced or legibly printed and should be 20 pages or less, excluding footnotes and bibliography. Cite works and provide your references in accordance with the ASR reference format.
4. Class Presentations
Each time we meet, two or three students will be expected to give a brief presentation (a maximum of ten minutes each) on the main theoretical and/or methodological principles learned in the assigned readings. Your talk should be designed to provide us NOT with a summary of what you have read but rather with the key theoretical or methodological contributions or key policy questions you have been able to identify.
THE SHORT ESSAYS COUNT ABOUT 30 PERCENT OF THE COURSE GRADE; THE FINAL ESSAY, ABOUT 50 PERCENT. THE 20 PERCENT REMAINDER IS A MIX OF ASSESSMENT OF YOUR WEEKLY QUESTIONS, AND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO CLASS DISCUSSIONS THROUGH STRUCTURED AND UNSTRUCTURED PARTICIPATION.
REQUIRED READINGS
Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein, RACE, NATION, CLASS. Ambiguous Identities. Verso, 1991. (BW)
David Grusky, ed., SOCIAL STRATIFICATION in Sociological Perspective. Class, Race & Gender. Westview Press, 1994. (G)
Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro, BLACK WEALTH/WHITE WEALTH. A New Perspective on Racial Inequality. Routledge, 1995. (OS)
Steven Rose, The American Poster Book.
SUGGESTED ADDITIONAL READINGS
Rosemary Crompton and M. Mann, eds., GENDER AND STRATIFICATION. Polity Press, 1986.
Anthony Giddens and David Held, CLASSES, POWER, AND CONFLICT. Classical and Contemporary Debates. University of California Press, 1982.
Michael Omi and H. Wynant, RACIAL FORMATION IN THE UNITED STATES. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986.
Caroline Ramazanoglu, FEMINISM AND THE CONTRADICTIONS OF OPPRESSION. Routledge, 1989.
Joan Smith et al, eds., RACISM, SEXISM, AND THE WORLD-SYSTEM. Greenwood Press, 1988.
Erik O. Wright, ed., THE DEBATE ON CLASSES. Verso, 1989
Scheduled Readings
Week I Introduction - Organization
The Contours of Social Stratification (G)
Week II The Contours of Social Stratification (G)
The Functions of Social Stratification (G)
The Dysfunctions of Social Stratification (G)
Week III Marx and Post-Marxist Theories of Class (G)
Karl Marx
Erik O. Wright
I. Wallerstein
The Bourgeois(ie) as Concept and Reality (BW)
Week IV Weber and Post-Weberians (G)
Max Weber
A. Giddens
Frank Parkin
Week V The Ruling Class and Elites (G)
C. Wright Mills
A. Giddens
Michael Useem
Gradational Status Groupings (G)
Reputation, Deference and Prestige
W. Lloyd Warner et al
E. Shils
Week VI D. Treiman
J. H. Goldthorpe and K. Hope
D. L. Featherman and R. M. Hauser
A. B. Sorensen
REVIEW
Week VII Theories of Ethnic Stratification (G)
Michael Reich
Edna Bonacich
Michael Hechter
Michael T. Hannan
A. Portes and R. D. Manning
Week VIII Preface (BW)
Part I Universal Racism (BW)
Is there a "Neo-Racism"?
"The Ideological Tensions of Capitalism: Universalism
versus Racism and Sexism."
"The construction of Peoplehood: Racism, Nationalism,
Ethnicity."
Optional: Racism and Nationalism
Week IX The Evolution of Ethnic Stratification (G)
W. J. Wilson
S. Lieberson
M. E. Gimenez,"Minorities and the World-System"
D. P. Moynihan
W. J. Wilson
Week X Book Discussion
Black Wealth/White Wealth
Week XI Gender Stratification (G)
Firestone
Hartmann
Szonja Szelenyi