Spring, 1998

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Description/Objectives	Assignments and Grading	Course Readings
Week 1:  Introduction, Organization and Overview	Week 2:  Forms and Functions of Social Stratification	Week 3:  Status Allocation Processes
Week 4:  Revisionism and Structuralism in Stratification Research	Week 5:  Evolution of Modern Stratification Systems	Week 6:  Consequences of Stratification
Week 7:  Ascription I:  Gender	Week 8:  Ascription II:  Race and Ethnicity	Week 9:  Poverty and Underclass Debate
Week 10:  Spatial Foundations of Strataification	Week 11:  Immigration, Assimilation and Inequality	Week 12

This seminar will review classical and contemporary approaches to social inequality, broadly conceived as the differential distribution of valued social resources and positions. The first half of the course will: (1) characterize the class structure by defining major social cleavages in traditional and modern stratification systems; (2) review theories and evidence about the relative importance of ascription and achievement in producing social inequality; (3) identify processes by which inequality is produced, legitimated and maintained; and (4) evaluate the social and economic consequences of systems of inequality. The second half of the course will focus specifically on gender, race and ethnic stratification by examining the demographic processes, spatial arrangements, and labor market dynamics that produce and maintain socioeconomic inequities.

Important supplementary course objectives include: formulating publishable research and policy papers about specific topics in social stratification; cultivating skills in critical commentary; and learning to debate controversial issues from various vantage points. Ultimately, students should be able to take a stand on questions about the inevitability of inequality, and the tolerable limits under various social regimes.

Because this is a survey course intended to provide a general foundation for explicit lines of inquiry, we will use a basic text of excerpted readings, which will be supplemented with additional materials. Students will be required to prepare a research paper or proposal for an empirical paper (50%), two written critiques on course readings (one in each half of the course) accompanied by a class presentation (30%), a book review on one of three monographs assigned for class (15%) and to participate actively in seminar discussions (5%). All paper topics must be approved before Spring break.

• Grusky, David B., ed., Social Stratification (Westview, 1994)
• Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton, American Apartheid (Harvard, 1993)
• Paul A. Jargowsky, Poverty and Place. (Russell Sage, 1996)
• William J. Wilson, When Work Disappears (Knopf, 1996)

Week 1. Introduction, Organization and Overview

• Assignment: David Grusky, "Contours of Social Stratification." Pp. 3-35.

Week 2. Forms and Functions of Social Stratification

• Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore, "Some Principles of Stratification."
• Melvin E. Tumin, "Some Principles of Stratification: A Critical Analysis."
• Gerhard Lenski, "New Light on Old Issues: The Relevance of ‘Really Existing Socialist Societies’ for Stratification Theory."
• Aage B. Sorensen, "The Basic Concepts of Stratification Research: Class, Status, and Power."

Karl Marx,

• "Alienation and Social Classes."
• "Classes in Capitalism and Pre-Capitalism."
• "Ideology and Class."
• "Value and Surplus Value."
• Ralf Darendorf, "Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society."
• Erik O. Wright, "A General Framework for the Analysis of Class Structure."

Max Weber,

• "Class, Status and Party."
• "Status Groups and Classes"
• "Open and Closed Relationships."
• Anthony Giddens, "The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies."
• Frank Parkin, "Marxism and Class Theory: A Bourgeois Critique."

Week 3. Status Allocation Processes

• W. Lloyd Warner, et al., "Social Class in America."
• Edward Shils, "Deference."
• Peter M. Blau, Otis D. Duncan, et al., "Measuring the Status of Occupations."
• John H. Goldthorpe and Keith Hope, "Occupational Grading and Occupational Prestige."
• Robert W. Hodge, "The Measurement of Occupational Status."
• David L. Featherman and Robert M. Hauser, "Prestige or Socioeconomic Scales in the Study of Occupational Achievement?"

• Pitirim A. Sorokin, "Social and Cultural Mobility."
• Seymour M. Lipset, Reinhard Bendix and Hans L. Zetterberg, "Social Mobility in Industrial Society."
• Ralph Turner, "Sponsored and Contest Mobility and the School System."
• David L. Featherman and Robert M. Hauser, "A Refined Model of Occupational Mobility."

• Peter M. Blau and Otis Dudley Duncan et al., "The Process of Stratification."
• Christopher Jencks, et al., "Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America."
• William H. Sewell, et al., "The Educational and Early Occupational Attainment Process."

Week 4. Revisionism and Structuralism in Stratification Research

• Michael J. Piore, "The Dual Labor Market: Theory and Implications."
• Aage B. Sorensen and Arne L. Kalleberg, "An Outline of Theory of the Matching of Persons to Jobs."
• Mark Granovetter, "Toward a Sociological Theory of Income Differences."

• James N. Baron, "Reflections on Recent Generations of Mobility Research."
• *Terry N. Clark and Seymour Martin Lipset, "Are Social Classes Dying?" International Sociology, Vol. 6(1991):397-410.
• *Mike Hout, Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza, "The Persistence of Classes in Post-Industrial Societies." International Sociology, Vol. 8(1993):259-77.

Week 5. Evolution of Modern Stratification Systems

• Clark Kerr, John T. Dunlop, Frederick H. Harbison and Charles A. Meyers, "Industrialism and Industrial Man."
• Talcott Parsons, "Equality and Inequality in Modern Society, or Social Stratification Revisited."

• Daniel Bell, "The Coming of Post-Industrial Society"
• Gosta, Esping Anderson, "Postindustrial Cleavage Structures…"
• Ron Eyerman, "Modernity and Social Movements"
• Ivan Szelenyi, "Post-Industrialism, Post-Communism and the New Class"

• John W. Meyer, "The Evolution of Modern Stratification Systems."
• Stanley Lieberson, "Understanding Ascriptive Stratification: Some Issues and Principles."

Week 6. Consequences of Stratification

• Thorstein Veblen, "The Theory of the Leisure Class."
• Pierre Bourdieu, "Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste."
• Melvin L. Kohn, "Job Complexity and Adult Personality."
• James A. Davis, "Achievement Variables and Class Cultures:…"
• Paul DiMaggio, "Social Stratification, Life-Style and Social Cognition."

• *Sheldon Danziger and Daniel H. Weinberg, "The Historical Record: Trends in Family Income, Inequality and Poverty." Chapter 2 in Danziger, Sandefur and Weinberg (eds.), Confronting Poverty. (Russell Sage and Harvard, 1994).
• *Melvin L. Oliver and Thomas M. Shapiro, "A Story of Two Nations: Race and Wealth."
• Chapter 5 of Black Wealth/White Wealth (Routledge, 1997).
• *Robert Mare, "Changes in Educational Attainment and School Enrollment." Chapter 4 in Farley (ed.) State of the Union, Volume 1 (Russell Sage, 1995).
• *Reynolds Farley, "The Evidence About America in Decline and the Challenges of the 1990s."
• Chapter 8 in The New American Reality (Russell Sage, 1996).

Week 7: Ascription I: Gender

• Shulamith Firestone, "The Dialectic of Sex."
• Heidi Hartmann, "The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a More Progressive Union."
• Szonja Szelenyi, "Women and the Class Structure."
• *Gerald Marwell, "Why Ascription? Parts of a More or Less Formal Theory of the Functions and Dysfunctions of Sex Roles." ASR, vol. 40, (August, 1975).
• *Richard J. Udry, "The Nature of Gender." Demography, vol. 31, (November, 1994)

• Paula England, "Wage Appreciation and Depreciation: A Test of Neoclassical Economic Explanations of Occupational Sex Segregation."
• William T. Bielby and James N. Baron, "Men and Women at Work: Sex Segregation and Statistical Discrimination."

Week 8: Ascription II: Race and Ethnicity

• Michael Reich, "The Economics of Racism."
• Edna Bonacich, "A Theory of Ethnic Antagonism."
• *Stanley Lieberson, "A Societal Theory of Race and Ethnic Relations." ASR, Vol. 26:902-910.
• *Joan Vincent, "The Structuring of Ethnicity." Human Organization, Vol. 33:375-79.
• *Robert W. Hodge, "Toward a Theory of Racial Differences in Employment." Social Forces, Vol. 52:16-31.
• Candace Nelson and Marta Tienda, "The Structuring of Hispanic Ethnicity:" Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 8(1985):49-74.

• William J. Wilson, "The Declining Significance of Race."
• Stanley Lieberson, "A Piece of the Pie: Blacks and White Immigrants Since 1880."
• *Verna Keith and Cedrick Herring. "Skin Tone and Stratification in the Black Community." AJS, Vol. 97(3):760-778,
• *Marta Tienda and Haya Stier, "The Wages of Race…" Chapter 31 in Sylvia Pedraza and Ruben Rumbaut, Origins and Destinies. (Wadsworth, 1996).
• *Richard J. Hernstein and Charles Murray. The Bell Curve. (Free Press, 1994) : Pp. 269-368.

Week 9. Poverty and Underclass Debate

• Daniel P. Moynihan, "The Tangle of Pathology."
• William J. Wilson, "The Truly Disadvantaged."
• *Joleen Kirschenman and Kathryn Neckerman, "We’d Like to Hire them But,…the Meaning of Race for Employers." Pp. 203-232 in Jencks and Peterson (eds). The Urban Underclass (Brookings, 1991).
• *Ronald B. Mincy, "The Underclass: Concept, Controversy and Evidence." Chapter 5 in Danziger, Sandefur and Gottschalk (eds.), Confronting Poverty (Russell Sage and Harvard, 1994).
• *Peter Gottschalk, Sara McLanahan and Gary D. Sandefur, "The Dynamics and Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty and Welfare Participation." Chapter 4 in Danziger, Sandefur and Gottschalk (eds.), Confronting Poverty (Russell Sage and Harvard, 1994).
• *William J. Wilson, When Work Disappears. (Knopf, 1996).

Week 10. Spatial Foundations of Stratification

• *Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton. American Apartheid (Harvard, 1993).
• *Paul A. Jargowsky, Poverty and Place (Russell Sage, 1996)

Week 11. Immigration, Assimilation and Inequality

• *Charles Hirschman, "America’s Melting Pot Reconsidered." Annual Review of Sociology, 9: 397-423.
• Douglas S. Massey, et al. "Theories of International Migration: A Review and Appraisal." Population and Development Review 19(1993):431-466.
• Alejandro Portes and Robert D. Manning, "The Immigrant Enclave: Theories and Examples."
• *Alejandro Portes, "Economic Sociology and the Sociology of Immigration: A Conceptual Overview." Chapter 1 in The Economic Sociology of Immigration (Russell Sage, 1995).
• *Alejandro Portes and Julia Sensenbrenner, "Embeddedness and Immigration: Notes on the Social Determinants of Economic Action." AJS Vol. 98(May):1320-1350.

• *Marta Tienda and Zai Liang. "Poverty and Immigration in Policy Perspective." Chapter 13 in Danziger, Sandefur and Gottschalk (eds.), Confronting Poverty (Russell Sage and Harvard, 1994).
• *James P. Smith and Barry Edmonston, "Summary," Chapter 1 in James P. Smith and Barry Edmonston, (eds.), New Americans: Economic, Demographic and Fiscal Effects of Immigration. (National Academy Press, 1997).
• *Reynolds Farley, "New Americans." Chapter 5 in The New American Reality. (Russell Sage, 1996).
• *Alejandro Portes and Min Sao, "The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and its Variants." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 530(1993):74-79.
• *Alejandro Portes and Ruben G. Rumbaut, Immigrant America. Chapters 3 and 4 (California, 1996 ed.).

Week 12. Student Presentations.

• Drafts due prior week for written commentary and review.

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