Frank Dobbin: Sociology 510b
Princeton University
Department of Sociology
Spring '95
Sociology 510b: Social Stratification
Professor: Frank Dobbin
This course surveys classical and contemporary approaches to
inequality, with the goal of exploring the causes and consequences
of stratification by class, race, gender, and other
characteristics. We will trace the history of theories of
inequality with an eye to comprehending them as historical products
that reflect contemporaneous thinking about inequality. The course
is designed as a graduate level introduction, and as such covers
approaches ranging from historical materialism to status attainment
theory to structural theories to recent constructivist approaches.
COURSE ORGANIZATION AND REQUIREMENTS
We will meet weekly for three hours. Please come prepared to
discuss the readings. Please submit a short precis of the readings
-- no more than a paragraph for each reading, a page total -- by 9
a.m. each Tuesday before class.
READING ASSIGNMENTS
A reading packet containing all of the readings is available from
Pequod Copy at 6 Nassau St., phone: 921-7888.
Week 1: CLASSICAL APPROACHES
- Marx, Karl. 1974. The German Ideology. New York: International. Pp. 39-94.
- Max Weber. 1980 [1946]. "Class Status and Party." Pp. 89-97 in
Social Stratification. Edited by Vincent Jeffries and H. Edward
Ransford. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
- Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore. 1945. "Some Principles of
Stratification." American Sociological Review 10: 242-249.
Week 2: MOBILITY
- Peter Blau and Otis Dudley
Duncan. 1967. The American Occupational Structure. New York: John
Wiley and Sons. Chapter 12.
- Featherman, David L. and Robert M. Hauser. 1978. Opportunity and
Change. New York: Academic. Chapter 6
- Bielby, William T. 1981. "Models of Status Attainment." Research
in Social Stratification and Mobility 1:3-26.
Week 3: POVERTY
- Eliot Liebow. 1967. Tally's Corner. Boston: Little,
Brown. Chapters 1 and 2.
- Oscar Lewis. 1975 [1966]. "The Culture of Poverty." Pp. 167- 176
in Life Styles: Diversity in American Society. Second Edition. Edited
by Saul Feldman and Gerald Thielbar. Boston: Little, Brown.
- William Julius Wilson. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago:
University of Chicago. Chapter 2.
- McLanahan, Sara. 1985. "Family Structure and the Reproduction of
Poverty." American Journal of Sociology 90:873-901.
Week 4: THE CONSTRUCTION OF STATUS
- Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the
Judgement of Taste. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Part I.
- DiMaggio, Paul and John Mohr. 1985. "Cultural Capital, Educational
Attainment, and Marital Selection." American Journal of Sociology
90:1231-1261.
- Lamont, Michele. 1992. Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of
the French and the American Upper-Middle Class. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press. Chapter 2.
Week 5: STRUCTURAL THEORIES OF STRATIFICATION
Labor Markets
- Robert Lynd and Helen Lynd. 1929. Middletown. New York:q Harcourt, Brace and Company. Chapters 6, 7, and 8.
- Gordon, David M., Richard Edwards, and Michael
Reich. 1982. Segmented Work, Divided Workers. London: Cambridge
University Press. Chapters 1 and 6.
Organizational Factors
- Baron, James N., and William T. Bielby. 1985. "Organizational
Barriers to Gender Equality: Sex Segregation of Jobs and
Opportunities." Pp. 233-251 in Gender and the Life Course. Edited by
Alice S. Rossi. New York: Aldine.
- Rosabeth Kanter. 1980. Men and Women of the Corporation. New York:
Basic. Chapter 6.
Week 6: INTERNATIONAL INEQUALITY
- Lenin, V.I. 1976 (1916). "Imperialism, The Highest Stage of
Capitalism." Pp. 212-263 in Lenin: Selected Writings. New York:
International.
- Bornschier, Volker, Christopher Chase-Dunn and Richard
Rubinson. 1978. "Cross-national Evidence on the Effects of Foreign
Investment and Aid on Economic Growth and Inequality: A Survey of
Findings and a Reanalysis." American Journal of Sociology 84:651-83.
- Western, Bruce. 1994. "Unionization and Labor Market Institutions
in Advanced Capitalism, 1950-1985." American Journal of Sociology 99:
1314-41.
- Casper, Lynne M., Sara S. McLanahan and Irwin
Garfinkel. 1994. "The Gender-Poverty Gap: What We Can Learn from Other
Countries." American Sociological Review 59:594-605.
dobbin@pucc.princeton.edu Mar '95