Comparative Perspectives on Inequality SOCI W2400 Professor Christel Kesler Barnard College 330 Milbank Hall Spring 2011 ckesler@barnard.edu Tuesday/Thursday 4:10-5:25 (212) 851-9481 Diana Center LL104 Office Hours: Tuesday 11:00-1:00 or by appointment Course Description This course focuses on the contours, causes, and consequences of social inequality in contemporary American society. Our objective is to put contemporary American inequalities into sharper perspective by comparing them to inequalities in other contemporary societies and in American history. Through such cross-national and historical comparisons, we seek to challenge understandings of social inequality as a natural outgrowth of unequal individual endowments or achievements, and to understand it instead as a characteristic of societies, shaped by political and institutional processes, and ultimately amenable to change. Our comparisons will focus predominantly on other wealthy democratic societies, those most like the United States. However, the theoretical concepts developed in the course will be useful for students with an interest in a range of other countries. Key questions addressed in readings, lectures, and assignments include: How much inequality is there? Are current levels of inequality in the United States high or low? We focus particularly on inequalities in terms of income and wealth, but also devote some attention to the challenges that income and wealth inequalities pose for the purported democratic ideal of political equality ( one person, one vote ). How do gender, race and ethnicity, and the social class into which we are born affect our life chances? Do these axes of social stratification operate differently in different contexts? Social inequality is, at core, a question of who gets what. Gender, race/ethnicity, and class are central to understanding the allocation of economic and social resources in contemporary societies, though the processes of resource allocation vary considerably across time and space. What role do families, schools, labor markets, and governments play in generating and mediating inequalities? A myriad of institutions, operating in constant interaction, generate social inequalities. Our answers to the previous questions ( How much inequality is there? and Who gets what? ) very much depend on families, educational institutions, labor markets, and government policy. Why should we care about inequality? Here, we address key consequences of social inequality in terms of economic growth, democratic vitality, health, and well-being. We focus particular attention on evidence related to the not-so-obvious assertion that inequality has detrimental effects even for those at the top of the social hierarchy.
Learning Objectives After successful completion of this course, you will be able to: Demonstrate a basic understanding of current political and academic debates about social inequality in the United States and empirical findings relevant to such debates. Contextualize social inequality in the contemporary United States through systematic crossnational and historical comparisons. Analyze key institutional underpinnings of social inequality. Assessment The following components of the course will comprise your final grade. 1. Mid-term exam, March 10 (25%) 2. Paper, approximately 5000 words, due April 19 (25%) 3. Final exam, May 10, time TBA (35%) 4. Participation (15%) The paper assignment, which will be thoroughly described in an assignment sheet and discussed in class, will be due at the beginning of class on April 19. In the paper, you will identify, synthesize, and critique literature (course readings and additional readings selected in consultation with me) and existing empirical evidence related to one theme of your choice from the course, drawing on an explicit comparison between the United States and one other country. A one-page synopsis of your proposed research topic is due on March 22. The synopsis is not graded, but will be useful in gathering feedback (mine and your classmates ) and refining your topic. Participation refers to quality, thoughtful contributions to class discussion, a necessary but not sufficient condition of which is your physical presence. I will periodically gather your thoughts and questions about course readings in written form, as a complement to regular discussion. Students are advised to consult Barnard College s Honor Code at http://www.barnard.edu/dos/honor.html and will be held fully responsible for any failure to meet standards of academic integrity. If any questions or uncertainties arise about issues of academic integrity, students should discuss them with me. Students with Disabilities Students with disabilities who will be taking this course and may need disability-related accommodations are encouraged to see me in office hours as soon as possible or to schedule an appointment outside of office hours. Disabled students who need test or classroom accommodations must be registered in advance with the Office of Disability Services (ODS) in 105 Hewitt.
Readings You are required to purchase the following books for this course. They will be on order at Book Culture (536 W. 112th St.) and on reserve at the Barnard Library in Lehman Hall. You are required to complete all readings prior to each class session. Jeff Manza and Michael Sauder. 2009. Inequality and Society: Social Science Perspectives on Social Stratification. W.W. Norton. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. 2009. The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger. Bloomsbury Press. Claude S. Fischer and Michael Hout. 2006. Century of Difference: How America Changed in the Last One Hundred Years. Russell Sage Foundation. Steven Hill. 2010. Europe s Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age. University of California Press. Lee Rainwater and Timothy M. Smeeding. 2003. Poor Kids in a Rich Country: America s Children in Comparative Perspective. Russell Sage Foundation. Course Outline Week 1 Why should we study inequality? Readings: January 20 Christopher Jencks ( Does Inequality Matter? ) in Manza & Sauder Forward, Preface, Note on Graphs, and Chap. 1 ( The end of an era ) in Wilkinson & Pickett Week 2 Classic views of social inequality Readings: January 25 Adam Smith ( The Division of Labor ) in Manza & Sauder Karl Marx ( Manifesto of the Communist Party ) in Manza & Sauder January 27 Max Weber ( Class, Status, Party ) in Manza & Sauder Thorstein Veblen ( The Theory of the Leisure Class ) in Manza & Sauder
Week 3 Income inequality Readings: February 1 Chap. 6 ( What Americans Had: Differences in Living Standards ) in Fischer & Hout Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez ( The Evolution of Top Incomes: A Historical and International Perspective ) in Manza & Sauder February 3 Chap. 2 ( Poverty or inequality? ) and Chap. 3 ( How inequality gets under the skin ) in Wilkinson & Pickett Chap. 5 ( The Myth of the Overtaxed European and Other Modern Fables ) in Hill Week 4 Wealth & poverty Readings: February 8 Dalton Conley ( Forty Acres and a Mule ) in Manza & Sauder Chaps. 1 and 2 in Rainwater & Smeeding February 10 Chaps. 6, 7, and 8 in Rainwater & Smeeding Week 5 Social class Readings: February 15 E. P. Thompson (Preface to The Making of the English Working Class ) in Manza & Sauder Erik Olin Wright ( Class Structure in Comparative Perspective ) in Manza & Sauder February 17 Chap. 5 ( How Americans Worked: New Workers, New Jobs, and New Differences ) in Fischer & Hout Annette Lareau ( Invisible Inequality: Social Class and Childrearing in Black Families and White Families ) in Manza & Sauder Week 6 Race, ethnicity, and immigration Readings: February 22 Jill Quadagno ( Explaining American Exceptionalism ) in Manza & Sauder W.E.B. Du Bois ( The Problem of the Twentieth Century is the Problem of the Color Line ) in Manza & Sauder
February 24 Chap. 2 ( Where Americans Came From: Race, Immigration, and Ancestry ) in Fischer & Hout Chap. 16 ( The Challenges of Immigration and Integration ) in Hill Week 7 Gender Readings: March 1 Simone De Beauvoir ( The Second Sex ) in Manza & Sauder Paula England and Barbara Stanek Kilbourne ( Markets, Marriages, and Other Mates: The Problem of Power ) in Manza & Sauder March 3 Barbara Reskin and Patricia Roos ( Occupational Sex Segregation: Persistence and Change ) in Manza & Sauder Jerry A. Jacobs ( Detours on the Road to Equality: Women, Work, and Higher Education ) in Manza & Sauder Week 8 Review & mid-term exam March 8: Review for mid-term exam March 10: Mid-term exam Week 9 Spring Break! Week 10 Families and social mobility One-page paper synopsis due on March 22 Readings: March 22 Richard Breen and David Rottman ( Social Mobility ) in Manza & Sauder Chap. 12 ( Social mobility: unequal opportunities ) and Chap. 9 ( Teenage births: recycling deprivation ) in Wilkinson & Pickett March 24 Chap 4. ( How Americans Lived: Families and Life Courses in Flux ) in Fischer & Hout Chap. 4 ( Family Values, European Style ) in Hill
Week 11 Educational institutions Readings: March 29 Pierre Bourdieu ( The Forms of Capital ) in Manza & Sauder Charles Derber, William A. Schwartz, and Yale Magrass ( Spinning Knowledge into Gold: Knowledge as Property ) in Manza & Sauder March 31 Chap. 2 ( How America Expanded Education and Why It Mattered ) in Fischer & Hout Chap. 8 ( Educational performance ) in Wilkinson & Pickett Week 12 Labor markets Readings: April 5 Chap. 3 ( Europe s Secret Advantage: Economic Democracy ) in Hill April 7 Richard Freeman ( Where Have All the Unions Gone Long Time Passing? ) in Manza & Sauder Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn ( The Gender Pay Gap ) in Manza & Sauder Week 13 Governments & welfare policy Readings: April 12 Claude S. Fischer, Michael Hout, Martin Sanchez Jankowski, Samuel R. Lucas, Ann Swidler, and Kim Voss ( How Unequal? America s Invisible Policy Choices ) in Manza & Sauder Gøsta Esping-Andersen ( The Three Political Economies of the Welfare State ) in Manza & Sauder April 14 Chap. 6 ( The Economic Crash of 2008-9: Wall Street Capitalism vs. Social Capitalism ) in Hill Chap. 16 ( Building the future ) in Wilkinson & Pickett Week 14 Health and well-being Paper due on April 19 Readings: April 19 Robert Frank ( How the Middle Class is Injured by Gains at the Top ) in Manza & Sauder
April 21 Chap. 7 ( The European Way of Health ) and Chap. 8 (La Santé d abord: The Formal Health Care System ) in Hill Chap. 5 ( Mental health and drug use ), Chap. 6 ( Physical health and life expectancy ), and Chap. 10 ( Violence: gaining respect ) in Wilkinson & Pickett Week 15 Political inequalities Readings: April 26 Lawrence Jacobs and Theda Skocpol ( American Democracy in an Era of Rising Inequality ) in Manza & Sauder Jeff Manza ( The Right to Vote and Unequal Participation in American Politics ) in Manza & Sauder Chap. 14 ( Consensus Building through Dynamic Democracy ) in Hill April 28: Concluding reflections and review for final exam Final exam on May 10, time TBA