Syllabus

Patricia A. Roos

Rutgers University
Department of Sociology
LSH A-342; phone: 732/445-5848

920:572 Inequalities
Spring, 2002
Office hours: MTh. 11:30-12:30 (or by appointment)

I. Overview of Course

This will be a seminar examining various forms of inequalities, especially inequalities produced because of gender, race, and/or class. As sociologists, we're particularly interested in how socially-organized hierarchical categories emerge, and reproduce. Our search for the major causes of categorical inequality will take us primarily in structural directions, to processes institutionalized in various forms of organizations and legal institutions. We will approach the study of inequalities topically. Part I will help to orient us theoretically. We'll focus in Part II on issues of immigration and its relationship to race, while Part III explores another aspect of racial inequality, namely race and class. Part IV moves us more directly into class issues, focusing on how the transformations into the "new economy" intensified various forms of economic inequalities. And, finally, Part V rounds out the semester by focusing on the links between gender and economic inequality. The literature we read will span a variety of intellectual fields, including among them economic sociology, stratification, race/ethnic, culture, gender, history, and law.

II. Expectations

Your grade in the course will be based on class participation, analytic memos (due each week), and a final paper. It is not appropriate to miss class; if you need to do so, please let me know before class. Auditors will be expected to do all the reading, fully participate in each class, and write the analytic memos.

Analytic Memos. Each of you will share responsibility for each week's discussion through the preparation of a 1-2 paragraph analytic memo about what you've read (in weeks 2 through 13; in week 14 you will do a class presentation on your final paper). To allow for the inevitable crises, you will be forgiven one week's memo. That doesn't mean that you don't have to do the reading, it just means that you have one week off from writing the analytic memo (you choose the week).

The memos should be critical analyses of one or more of the issues raised by the week's readings. They should be critical commentary, and limited to 1-2 paragraphs. All memos must be sent by email to all class members no later than 5 p.m. the Wednesday evening prior to Thursday's course. The set of memos will form the basis of our discussion. In writing up your memo, carefully consider one aspect of the author's argument, and the evidence he/she brings to bear for that argument. Does the argument cohere? Is the argument a sociological one? What are the implications of such an argument? Who would argue otherwise? Does the evidence support the argument? End your memo with a question, one that makes clear what topic you think we should discuss.

Paper. The final paper should be 15 to 20 pages in length. It can be empirical, or purely conceptual, but make sure you first clear your topic with me. By March 28th you must turn in a written outline (2-3 pages) of your final paper topic, with an initial set of at least five references. On May 2nd, the last day of class, each of you will give a brief description of your final paper to the class. Final papers are due May 9th. I don't like incompletes, and you shouldn't either. You have plenty enough time to expand your paper after the semester is over. Indeed, I encourage you to use this class to produce a qualifying paper or dissertation chapter. So turn in that first draft on time!

III. Readings

Here are the books to buy, available at the Livingston bookstore. In addition to these 12 books, I provide links to other recommended readings for each of the broad topical sections in the course schedule (and I will add to these as the semester proceeds). Check with me about other sources relevant to your paper topics.

Bernhardt, Annette, Martina Morris, Mark S. Handcock, and Marc A. Scott. 2001. Divergent Paths: Economic Mobility in the New American Labor Market. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Conley, Dalton. 1999. Being Black, Living in the Red. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Kessler-Harris, Alice. 2001. In Pursuit of Equity: Women, Men, and the Quest for Economic Citizenship in 20th-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press.

Lamont, Michele. 2000. The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class, and Immigration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

McCall, Leslie. 2001. Complex Inequality: Gender, Class and Race in the New Economy. New York: Routledge.

Nelson, Robert L., and William P. Bridges. 1999. Legalizing Gender Inequality: Courts, Markets, and Unequal Pay for Women in America. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Pattillo-McCoy, Mary. 1999. Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril Among The Black Middle Class. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Reskin, Barbara F., and Patricia A. Roos. 1990. Job Queues, Gender Queues: Explaining Women's Inroads into Male Occupations. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Tilly, Charles. 1998. Durable Inequality. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Waldinger, Roger. 1996. Still the Promised City? African-Americans and New Immigrants in Postindustrial New York. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Waters, Mary C. 1999. Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Williams, Joan. 2000. Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About It. New: Oxford University Press.

IV. Course Schedule

Part I: Theorizing about Inequalities

Week 1: Thursday, January 24th: An Overview

Grusky, David. 2001. "The Past, Present, and Future of Social Inequality." Pp. 1-51 in Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. 2nd edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. [available online through IRIS, Reserve Desk; click reserve desk, type in "Roos" and then click "instructor'" follow links to "Inequalities"]

Paul Krugman's "America the Polarized" (the relationship between inequality and politics)

Week 2: Thursday, January 31st: Inequality: Commonalities and Networks

Tilly, Durable Inequality

Week 3: Thursday, February 7th: Queueing Theory: Labor Queues and Job Queues

Reskin and Roos, Job Queues, Gender Queues (Chs. 1-3 and 15; and choose any three of the case studies from Chs. 4-14)