Inequality is perhaps the most central concept in the discipline of sociology; equality (and liberty) were the most central beliefs on which the United States was founded and the struggles to realize and uphold these beliefs characterize the history of this country. There is no idea that is more important to the current era in which we live and to an understanding of the qualities of American culture than that of inequality. SOC311 is an interdisciplinary course,

drawing material from a wide range of disciplines and sources. It fulfills the upper-division General Education Requirements for social science, Area D. It also fulfills a requirement for Social Science majors, for Sociology minors, and is an elective course for Sociology majors.

The objective of the course is to expose students to a very broad array of ideas about inequality and its converse, equality. We will begin with a historical consideration of the development of the idea of equality in the founding of the United States in the late Eighteenth Century. Thus our first reading material will be the Declaration of Independence. I will also offer you (in a mini-lecture) how the American conception of equality differed from the formulation of the concept of equality developed in 18^th Century France.

We will then examine the effects of social inequality that continued to exist after the US was established, in particular slavery, the most extreme form of social inequality. This section will include the reading of Beloved by Toni Morrison, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. It is a magnificent story of the costs of slavery.

The second section addresses the class structure and forms of social differentiation that have prevailed in Twentieth Century America. We will begin with an examination of social class in America after the Second World War and then go on to consider qualities of working class and middle class expectations and experiences. We will be reading Lewis’s The Culture of Inequality and thinking about how the meaning of opportunity has shaped Americans’ perceptions of equality. This sociological examination of the social class structure of American society will offer a broad view of the causes and characteristics of inequality between social classes. This section of the course will also include a literary classic: Arthur Miller's play, Death of a Salesman. We will view a film version of the play with Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich.

In the third past of the course, we will try to gain a clearer understanding of the process and outcomes of unequal treatment and status in current day America. Here we will examine the complex relationship of race and gender to inequality and we will focus on poverty and how work and unemployment and underemployment define social status. Our reading here will be from the prominent sociologist, William Julius Wilson’s When Work Disappears. We will also view a film that addresses issues of interracial and cross-gender problems, Lone Star.

We will consider the causes of the continuance of these forms of group inequalities and how the debates on group rights have played a dominant and defining role in the discourse of America in the last decades of this century. We will conclude with a reading of Schlesinger’s The Disuniting of America, which focuses on the divisiveness which the United States faces as it tries to reshape the meaning of social equality (and inequality) in its third century.

Texts

Click on the Text link (on the SOC311 Home Page) to see the listing of the texts.

Preparation for Class

Students are expected to read the material assigned for each salons. There will be questions and assignments related to each reading that will be given in the salons. Each student needs to respond to each salon. For most weeks there will be two salons. For the week that begins with Labor Day (Sept. 7), there will be only one salon.

Assessment