Sociology 4035 STUDY QUESTIONS

Required Readings: Kerbo, chs. 4 through 12. Rose, SOCIAL STRATIFICATION; Enarson, "Women's Realities, Women's Choices: An Introduction to Theories of Women's Oppression," and Omi and Winant, "Racial Formations." K. Marx, handout on Ideology

The study questions are based on the readings and lectures.

1. According to Kerbo, class divisions are based upon individuals' location in the occupational, authority, and property structures. Explain. How many social classes can be identified using such criteria? Give examples.
2. Compare and contrast the characteristics of income and wealth inequality in the U.S. What are their effects upon U.S. social stratification? What is the relationship between these forms of inequality?
3. Discuss Davis and Moore's Functional Theory of Stratification presenting its major points and assessing its usefulness to understand current patterns of social inequality in the U.S. What are Tumin's major criticisms? Do you agree or disagree with them? Why?
4. One of the major channels through which the upper class and the corporate class exert their influence is through their ability to shape public policy to their advantage. How do they accomplish their goals? Explain, giving examples.
5. Besides inequality based on class and socio-economic status, inequality in terms of race/ethnicity and gender are also important in determining individuals' life chances in the U.S. Explain, giving examples taken from Kerbo and Rose.
6. Compare and contrast the information provided in tables 2 and 3 (pp. 27-28) in Rose, which give you information on occupations and incomes of male-headed and female-headed households. Given what you have learned in this class, what do those tables tell you about the intersection between gender, race/ethnicity, and income? You will find the poster helpful in the process of preparing your answer.
7. How does the U.S. compare to other industrialized countries in terms of the extent of poverty, and the measures taken by the state to ameliorate its effects?
8. While the poor are less powerful than other sectors, nevertheless they have succeeded, within limits, in their struggles for state aid. There is, as Piven and Cloward suggest, a relationship between class conflict and the development of the welfare state. Explain, discussing the functions of social welfare. Do the events in L.A. which followed the Rodney King verdict support Piven and Cloward's analysis? Why?
9. The most widespread explanation of poverty is the culture of poverty theory developed on the basis of Oscar Lewis' work. What are its major points? Why is this theory open to criticism? Why is it so resilient and popular despite the criticism?
10. Compare and contrast the situational and the structural perspectives on poverty, paying especial attention not only to the economic and occupational causes of poverty but also to the property and authority structures.
11. What are the main kinds of social mobility which take place in the U.S.? Which kinds of mobility do most social scientists study? Why?
12. Do most individuals experiencing social mobility also experience class mobility? Why?
13. Are mobility patterns of whites and non-whites, males and females similar? In other words, can women and members of minority groups expect similar opportunities for status attainment as white males? What are the similarities and the differences in their mobility patterns?
14. How much social mobility is there in the U.S.? Which is more important, in people's minds; individual or structural mobility? Why?
15. Discuss the major determinants of status attainment. Is "luck" an important determinant? Why?
16. Functionalist theorists stress the importance of status attainment, while conflict theorists emphasizes allocation as the most important process. Explain.
17. Discuss the main features of the sociopsychological process of legitimation.
18. Discuss the main features of the macro process of legitimation, examining the role of education, the mass media, and dominant ideologies.
19. Marx's analysis of ideology emphasized that the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class, and stated that the class that controls the means of production also controls the means of intellectual production. Are his ideas still relevant today? Why? Could you identify technological changes conducive to placing some means of intellectual production in the hands of other social classes? Give examples and indicate, whether, in your view, these changes have had some significant effects in challenging the legitimation of inequality or the dominance of the ruling ideas.