Sociology
149/249
Urban
Studies 112
"The Urban Underclass"
Syllabus
Spring Quarter 2009
Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:15-3:05
Bldg 370, Room 370
Plus once a week section, day and time TBA
Michael J. Rosenfeld
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology
McClatchy Hall (Building 120) room 124
mrosenfe@stanford.edu
http://www.stanford.edu/~mrosenfe
Office Hours TBA
Or email questions
TA: James Greenberg
jegreenb@stanford.edu
Introduction:
In this class we will read and discuss some of the classic work of urban sociology, and ask a series of questions about segregation, opportunity, race, class, and public policy.
Required
* Hirsch, Arnold. 1983. Making the Second Ghetto.
* William Julius Wilson. 1979. The Declining Significance
of Race.
* Massey, Douglas S. and Nancy Denton. 1993. American
Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass.
* Robert Caro. 1974. The Power Broker. Vintage.
* Kotlowitz, Alex. 1991. There Are No Children Here. Doubleday
* Murray, Charles. 1995. Losing Ground. Basic Books.
* Anderson, Elijah. 1990. Streetwise: Race, Class and Change in an Urban Community. University of Chicago Press.
* Oliver, Melvin and Thomas Shapiro. 1995. Black Wealth, White Wealth. Routledge
Plus several additional readings posted or linked on the class website, including:
* Moynihan, Daniel P. 1965. The Negro Family: The Case for National Action. US Dept. of Labor.
* Cherlin, Andrew. 2004. “The Consequences of Welfare Reform for Child Well-Being: What have we Learned So Far and What are the Policy Implications?” Paper presented at 2004 American Sociological Association Meetings.
Requirements:
For Undergraduates (soc 149):
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* Midterm Exam |
30% |
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* Make one 15 minute presentation to discussion section,
and lead (along with the TA) the section discussion for that week. |
20% |
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* Regular section participation |
10% |
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* Final Exam |
40% |
For Graduate Students (soc 249):
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* Midterm Exam |
20% |
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* Make one 15 minute presentation to discussion section,
and lead (along with the TA) the section discussion for that week. |
20% |
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* Regular section participation |
10% |
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* One 10 minute presentation to class, presenting a different book from the one you presented to section |
15% |
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* Final Exam |
35% |
Class Size:
In case of class size limitations, sign-up will require consent of the professor.
Students with Disabilities:
Students with disabilities that may necessitate an academic
accommodation must initiate a request with the Disability Resource Center (
Reading Assignments:
NOTE: Questions are posted on my website for each reading. See www.stanford.edu/~mrosenfe/urb_reading_questions.htm
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Week |
Class |
Reading
Assignments Due |
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Week 1 |
Mar 31 |
Class orientation |
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Apr 2 |
Making the Second Ghetto, Ch 1-3 |
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Week 2 |
April 7 |
Making the Second Ghetto, Ch 4,5 |
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April 9 |
Making the Second Ghetto, finish the book |
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Week 3 |
April 14 |
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April 16 |
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Week 4 |
April 21 |
American Apartheid, preface + Ch 1-2 |
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April 23 |
American Apartheid, Ch 3-5 |
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Week 5 |
April 28 |
American Apartheid, finish the book |
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April 30 |
In Class Midterm Exam |
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Week 6 |
May 5 |
The Power Broker, Chapters 10-15. |
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May 7 |
There Are no Children Here, Preface, and |
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Week 7 |
May 12 |
There Are no Children Here, Finish the Book |
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May 14 |
Black Wealth/ White Wealth, Intro, Ch 1-5 |
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Week 8 |
May 19 |
Streetwise, Intro and Ch 1-2 |
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May 21 |
Streetwise, Finish the book |
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Week 9 |
May 26 |
Losing Ground, Prologue, Chapter 1-4, Ch 16, Ch 17, especially p. 227-236 Plus Cherlin, “The Consequences of Welfare Reform” |
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May 28 |
Moynihan’s The Negro Family |
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Week 10 |
June 2 |
Last Class, Review Session |
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June 9 |
Final Exam, 7P-10P |
Additional, Suggested Readings:
These are readings you may want to consult
to supplement your discussion of the required texts.
1) How does the
structure of work affect the urban underclass? What barriers do the urban
underclass face in finding work or in holding a job? What role does public
policy play? How do race, geography, and language effect an individual's
ability to get a job?
*Bourgois, Philippe. 1996. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio Cambridge.
*MacLeod, Jay. 1995. Ain't No Making It. Westview Press
*Kirschenman, Joleen and Kathryn M. Neckerman. 1991. "We'd love to hire them but..." The Meaning of Race for Employers. p. 203-234 in The Urban Underclass, Jencks and Peterson editors.
*Wilson, William Julius. 1996. When Work Disappears. Knopf
*Waldinger, Roger. 1996. Still the promised city? : African-Americans and new immigrants in postindustrial New York. Harvard University Press.
2) Have American Incomes become more unequal? What kinds of public policies are most responsible for rising inequality? If the rich are getting richer, is that necessarily bad for the urban underclass? That is, is inequality necessarily a bad thing?
*Look at the chapters in the edited volumes The Urban Underclass, State of the Union, Confronting Poverty, and Uneven Tides (all cited below)
3) What factors contributed to the Los Angeles riots of 1992, and the Watts riots of 1964? What is the effect of these riots? What do the riots mean and what effects do they have? What role does police violence play?
*Abelmann, Nancy and John Lie. 1995. Blue Dreams: Korean Americans and the Los Angeles Riots. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press.
*Button, James W. 1978. Black Violence: Political Impact of the 1960's Riots. Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press
*Conot, James. 1967 Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness , Bantam Books.
*Gooding-Williams, Robert, editor. 1993. Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising Routledge
*Gurr, Ted Robert. 1970. Why Men Rebel. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
*Hobsbawm, Eric. 1963. Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movement in the 19th and 20th Centuries. New York, NY. Norton
*Jacobs,
Ronald N. 2000. Race, media, and the crisis of civil society : from Watts to
Rodney King .
*Ogletree, Charles J. et al. Beyond the Rodney King story : an investigation of police conduct in minority communities. NAACP.
*Olzak, Susan. 1992. The Dynamics of Ethnic Competition and Conflict. Stanford, CA. Stanford University Press
4) Who are the homeless and what does their presence imply for the rest of us? Is the homeless population really growing, or is it an illusion? What kinds of public policies are responsible for homelessness? What kinds of public policies might alleviate the problem?
*Snow, David A. 1993. Down on their luck : a study of homeless street people . University of California Press.
*Jencks, Christopher. 1994. The homeless. Harvard University Press.
5) The Massey- Wilson debate. What are the causes for black isolation? Is the flight of the black middle class to blame for the isolation of the poor blacks in the ghetto?
*Wilson, William Julius. 1980. The Declining Significance of Race. University of Chicago Press
*Massey, Douglas S. and Nancy Denton. 1993. American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass. Harvard University Press.
*Wilson, William Julius. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged. University of Chicago Press.
*Jargowsky, Paul A. 1997. Poverty and place : ghettos, barrios, and the American city. Russell Sage Foundation.
If you're casting about for other sources, a good place to start are these edited volumes which contain lots of articles about poverty, economic trends, and public policy. Note that these books also have excellent bibliographies.
*Jencks, Christopher and Paul E. Peterson, Editors. 1991. The Urban Underclass. Brookings Institution
*Danziger, Sheldon J., Gary D. Sandefur and Daniel H. Weinberg, Editors. 1994. Confronting Poverty: Prescriptions for Change. Harvard and Russell Sage Foundation
*Danziger, Sheldon and Peter Gottschalk, Editors. 1993. Uneven Tides: Rising Inequality in America. Russell Sage Foundation.
*Farley, Reynolds, Editor. 1995. State of the Union: America in the 1990s. Volume One: Economic Trends. Russell Sage Foundation.
*Waldinger, Roger and Medhi Bozorgmehr, editors. 1996. Ethnic Los Angeles. Russell Sage Foundation.