South Florida Sociocultural Systems
SYD 6625
Fall 2012
Mondays, 5-7:40
Instructor: Guillermo J. Grenier
Office: SIPA 331
Phone: 305-348-3217
Course description: This course provides a graduate-level overview of the major social,
political, economic, environmental and cultural forces at work in creating the Miami/South
Florida area.
From its incorporation on July 28, 1896, Miami lacked what real American cities possessed.
Unlike northern cities like Chicago, Cincinnati or Pittsburgh, Miami was not a cross road city,
growing at the breakpoints of railroads and water routes and attracting industrial capital. Nor did
a seaport rapidly emerge to compete with New Orleans or the port cities on the East Coast. It’s
an area that has never been fully southern or northern. Throughout most of its history, it’s been
characterized by a large transient population and a large proportion of inhabitants who were first
generation migrants. These and other characteristics have shaped what today many regard as a
unique example of urban America.
The metropolitan area of Miami (Miami-Dade County) has been referred to as a social
experiment in progress. Some have called it the “Capital of Latin America.” Others regard it as
a city at the center of some of the most important contemporary social processes reshaping the
nation. Some consider it a harbinger of changes that are fueling passions and national debates.
Others consider it a freak of modern history. In this course, we’ll explore the socioeconomic,
political, cultural dynamics of metropolitan Miami in a socio/historical context. In this course,
we’ll explore the socioeconomic, political, cultural dynamics of metropolitan Miami in a
socio/historical context. We will pay particular attention to the processes involved changing the
characteristics of 1) the people, 2) the culture, 3) the material environment, 4) the social
organization and 5) the social institutions of the region.
What you have to do. The course will focus on 1) the development of a “mini research
project,” 2) the writing of a brief “conclusions” paper highlighting the most pertinent, err,
conclusions from the project, and 3) the presentation of this project in class. Those of you
working on dissertation research are encouraged to formulate projects which contextualize your
research question using the Miami literature and social environment. Even if this does not carry
over to your final dissertation work, it will offer you important insights on your topic. Others
will formulate research questions based on interests and curiosity. In addition, you will complete
an annotated bibliography each week from the assigned readings. This will help you develop
your responses to the readings during our class discussions.
When it’s all said and done, you will be familiar the major social forces at work in the creation
of the modern South Florida region. We will take a trans-disciplinary view of the development
of our region, reading literature with a Miami focus from across the social sciences. You will
read from contemporary scholarship in anthropology, sociology, criminology, psychology and
geography. You will be familiar with the perspectives of a broad, multi-disciplinary group of
scholars studying the area that we think we know so well. We will discuss the methods to the
madness of studying Miami as well critically examine the “state of the literature” in the field.
You will be conversant with the key debates in the literature and evaluate how your research
contributes to this literature.
Responsibilities: You are responsible for completing all assigned readings ahead of the class
period for which they are assigned. You are responsible for purchasing, borrowing, or
downloading all assigned reading in time to read it. You are responsible for attending each and
every scheduled seminar meeting. You are responsible for leading seminar discussion of at least
one week’s readings (depending on enrollment, it could be two). You are responsible for
meeting all deadlines. You are responsible for contributing meaningfully to every seminar
meeting. You are responsible for respecting the views your classmates, your instructor, and the
published scholars whose work you will read. You are responsible for completing all assigned
readings, classroom activities, and projects when they are due. This goes for weekly readings as
well as the “big three” assignments.
By now you should know the drill on plagiarism: plagiarism and other instances of academic
dishonesty simply will not be tolerated. There is “one strike” rule in effect.
What to expect: This seminar will be about you actively participating through group
discussions and investigation, and me actively listening and expanding on the discussion. I will
try mightily to contribute without dominating. I have had a lot of experience doing research in
Miami and thinking about how Miami works so I might kick off our sessions with an update on
the readings, when that’s required or otherwise frame the context of the readings. The bulk of the
class meetings in weeks 2-13 will involve student-led discussion of the week’s readings,
centering on the focus questions. Weeks 15 and 16 will center on presentation and discussion of
your mini research projects.
Grades: An A is yours to lose. To keep it, this is what you do: come to every session; read all of
the readings; contribute significantly to our discussions; write in grammatically comprehensible
and empirically accurate prose; take your role as discussion leader seriously and don’t talk
unprepared crap; meet the deadlines and take every assignment seriously; make connections
between the weekly readings and the main themes of the class. If you do all of the above, you
have an A.
An A- can be earned from minor shortcomings in one of the areas mentioned above. Grades in
the B range (B+, B, B-) arise from several unexplained absences, little class participation, major
deadline failures, or a demonstrated inability to connect work and discussion to the themes of the
course.
Grades in the “C” range are rarely assigned. Receiving such a grade should not come as a
surprise. You will see the sad face in many of my e-mails to you. If you totally blow the mini
project plus have many absences and are frequently mistaken for a corpse during class time you
will surely get a C.
Your grade is composed of the following:
Mini research project: 50
Discussion leading: 10
Annotated bibliography: 20
Participation (includes attendance): 20
Total 100
Mini research project:
Step 1: Develop, or work with your existing, research questions and chose a research a research
site/strategy. What are your research questions? What methodology will you use to address
them? What literature contributes to your understanding of your topic? Select a research setting
on which you can carry out a mini project and go to it.
 Due: 2 copies in-class, September 12
 Worth: 5 points
Step 2: Mini-proposal. A very brief proposal consists of four sections: I: Statement of your
research topic; II: Research question; III: Identify your methodology and outline research steps,
and IV: State the broader relevance of your project.
 Due: 2 copies in-class, Sept. 26
 Worth: 10 points
 Note: If you haven’t done so by now, you will need to put in an IRB application to
conduct this work, and it must be approved by the IRB before you can conduct your
research. I will assist you with this process.
Step 3: Conduct Field research. Use one of the qualitative or quantitative techniques that you’ve
learned to conduct research (interviews, focus group, participant observation, secondary data).
Bring raw materials and typed-up versions of data to class
 Due: 2 copies in-class, October 31
 Worth: 15 points
Step 4: Interpretation in form of Conclusions: Interpret your data and come up with preliminary
conclusions about your research question. Make it brief: about five double-spaced pages. Write
it as you would write a concluding section of an article. Remind us of your research questions,
summarize the results and indicate how this supports, debunks or initiates new avenues for
research.
 Due: 1 copy in-class, November 21
 Worth: 15 points
Step 5: In-class presentation and delivery of materials: Prepare a brief presentation (time limits
TBA and determined by number of students) to be delivered in class. Assemble all of your
materials, along with any supplemental materials you like – photographs or anything else that
might be relevant or useful – into a portfolio.
 Due: In-class presentation dates TBD, mini research project portfolio hard copy due
December 2 in my box by 5:00 PM.
 Worth: 10 points
Discussion leading (10): at our first meeting, I will pass around a sign-up sheet and you will
choose a week to serve as the discussion leader. You develop three or four questions which can
be used in class to explore the importance of the readings. Questions should encourage seminar
participants to identify themes of the reading themes, provoke discussion, and/or connect to
larger or recurring issues in the class overall. In class, you will provide an overview of the
readings, and facilitate the discussion.
Annotated bibliography (20): every week, you will write up a summary of all assigned
readings for that week. Annotated bibliography entries should average one typed page per
journal article or chapter, and three per book. The annotations should include 1) a summary of
research questions that the article/book attempts to answer or clarify, 2) the methodology used to
address the questions, 3) the conclusions and contributions made to the research and 4) your own
brief assessment of the reading. You will turn this in to me in Week 15.
Participation (20): Come to every class, be on time, and contribute meaningfully to the
discussions. Those who do all of these receive full credit; those who do not will experience grade
erosion.
READING LIST
Books
(Most of these books can be purchased used)
Shell-Weiss, Melanie. 2009. Coming to Miami: A Social History. Gainesville, Florida:
University Press of Florida.
Nijman, Jan. 2010. Miami : Mistress of the Americas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press.
Stepick, Alex, Guillermo Grenier, Max Castro, Marvin Dunn. 2003. This Land is Our Land:
Immigrants and Power in Miami. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.
Grenier, Guillermo and Lisandro Perez. 2003. The Legacy of Exile: Cubans in the United States.
New York: Allyn and Bacon.
Dunn, Marvin. 1997. Black Miami in the Twentieth Century. Gainesville, Florida: University
Press of Florida.
Croucher, Sheila. 1997. Imagining Miami: Ethnic Politics in a Postmodern World.
Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia.
Stepick, Alex. 1997. Pride Against Prejudice: Haitians in the United States. New York. Allyn
and Bacon.
Garcia, Maria Cristina. 1996. Havana, U.S.A.: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South
Florida, 1959-1994. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.
Portes, Alejandro and Alex Stepick. 1993. City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami.
Berkeley, California; University of California Press.
Grenier, Guillermo, Alex Stepick (Eds.). 1992. Miami Now! Immigration, Ethnicity and Social
Change. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida.
Porter, Bruce and Marvin Dunn. 1984. The Miami Riot of 1980: Crossing the Bounds.
Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books.
Recommended Readings
Didio, Joan. 1998. Miami. New York. Vintage.
Allman, T.D. 1988. Miami: City of the Future. New York: Grove/Atlantic.
Week 1: Introduction to the Class/Discussion Leaders Assigned/Library Study Guide
Week 2: The Miami School?
Lutters, Wayne G. and Mark S. Ackerman, 1996. An Introduction to the Chicago School of
Sociology. (manuscript)
Deegan, Mary Jo. 2001. The Chicago School of Ethnography. Handbook of Ethnography. Edited
by Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamonte, John Lofland, and Lyn Lofland. Londond:
Sage. 11-25.
Dear, Michael. 2002. Los Angeles and the Chicago School: Invitation to a Debate. City &
Community. 1 (1): 5-32.
Heaney, Michael and John Mark Hansen, 2006. Building the Chicago School. American Political
Science Review. 100 (4): 589-595.
Grenier, Guillermo and Alex Stepick. “Introduction.” Miami Now! Miami Now! Immigration,
Ethnicity and Social Change. Guillermo J. Grenier and Alex Stepick, Editors. Gainesville,
Florida: University Press of Florida. Pp.1-17.
Nature and Society
Week 3: No Class/Labor Day
Week 4: The Rise of Miami
History of Coral Gables on our Study Guide site
Shell-Weiss, Melanie. 2009. Coming to Miami: A Social History. Gainesville, Florida:
University Press of Florida.
Sassen, Saskia and Alejandro Portes. 1993. Miami: A New Global City? Contemporary
Sociology 22 (4):471-477.
Nijman, Jan. 2000. The Paradigmatic City. Annals of the Association of American Geographers
90 (1): 135-145.
Week 5: (Un)Natural Setting
Nijman, Jan. 2010. Miami : Mistress of the Americas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press.
Ogden, Laura. 2008. The Everglades Ecosystem and the Politics of Nature. American
Anthropologist, Vol. 110, Issue 1. Pp. 21-32.
Ogden, Laura. 2008. Searching for Paradise in the Florida Everglades. Cultural Geographies
15:207-229.
Hollander, Gail. 2010. Power is sweet: Sugarcane in the global ethanol assemblage. The Journal
of Peasant Studies 37 (4): 699,699-721.
Week 6: Who Built Miami?
Dunn, Marvin. 1997. Black Miami in the Twentieth Century. Gainesville, Florida: University
Press of Florida.
Porter, Bruce and Marvin Dunn. 1984. The Miami Riot of 1980: Crossing the Bounds.
Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books.
Bowie, Stan L., and Alex Stepick. 1998. Diversity and division: Ethnicity and the history of
miami. Research in Urban Policy 7 : 19,19-32.
Grenier, Guillermo J., and Max J. Castro. 1998. The emergence of an adversarial relation: Blackcuban relations in miami, 1959-1998. Research in Urban Policy 7 : 33,33-55.
Migration and Diasporas
Week 7: Strangers at the Gate
Grenier, Guillermo, Alex Stepick (Eds.). 1992. Miami Now! Immigration, Ethnicity and Social
Change. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida.
Huntington, Samuel P. 2004. The hispanic challenge. Foreign Policy(141): 30,30-45.
Massey, Douglas S. 1979. Effects of socioeconomic factors on the residential segregation of
blacks and spanish americans in U.S. urbanized areas. American Sociological Review 44 (6):
1015,1015-1022.
Portes, Alejandro, and Min Zhou. 1992. Gaining the upper hand: Economic mobility among
immigrant and domestic minorities. Ethnic and Racial Studies 15 (4): 491,491-522.
Week 8: Frontier City Blues
Portes, Alejandro and Alex Stepick. 1993. City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami.
Berkeley, California; University of California Press.
Portes, Alejandro. 1985. Ethnics and exiles: Divergent tales. Contemporary Sociology 14 (6):
670,670-673.
Portes, Alejandro, and Steven Shafer. 2007. Revisiting the enclave hypothesis: Miami twentyfive years later. Research in the Sociology of Organizations 25 (0733-558): 157,157-190.
Week 9: “The Cubans are Taking Over”
Grenier, Guillermo and Lisandro Perez. 2003. The Legacy of Exile: Cubans in the United States.
New York: Allyn and Bacon.
Garcia, Maria Cristina. 1996. Havana, U.S.A.: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South
Florida, 1959-1994. Berkeley, California: University of California Press
Eckstein, Susan, and Lorena Barberia. 2002. Grounding immigrant generations in history: Cuban
americans and their transnational ties. The International Migration Review 36 (3): 799,799-837.
Week 10: Divergent Fates
Stepick, Alex. 1997. Pride Against Prejudice: Haitians in the United States. New York. Allyn
and Bacon.
Little, Cheryl. 1999. Inter Group coalitions and immigration politics: The haitian experience in
florida. University of Miami Law Review 53 (4): 717,717-741.
Mohl, Raymond A. 1985. An ethnic "boiling pot": Cubans and haitians in miami. The Journal of
Ethnic Studies 13 (2): 51,51-74.
Rey, Terry. 2004. Marian devotion at a haitian catholic parish in miami: The feast of our lady of
perpetual help. Journal of Contemporary Religion 19 (3): 353,353-374.
Week 11: Contextualizing Power
Stepick, Alex, Guillermo Grenier, Max Castro, Marvin Dunn. 2003. This Land is Our Land:
Immigrants and Power in Miami. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.
Concha, Pat, Lourdes Garcia, and Ana Perez. 1975. Cooperation 'versus' competition: A
comparison of anglo-american and cuban-american youngsters in miami. Journal of Social
Psychology 95 : 273-.
Grenier, Guillermo, and Bruce Nissen. 2000. Comparative union responses to mass immigration:
Evidence from an immigrant city. Critical Sociology 26 (1-2): 82,82-105.
Week 12: Deviance and Culture
Alpert, Geoffrey P., Roger G. Dunham, and Michael R. Smith. 2007. Investigating Racial
Profiling by the Miami-Dade Police Department: A Multimethod Approach. Criminology &
Public Policy 6 (1): 25,25-55.
Lee, Matthew T., and Ramiro Martinez. 2002. Social disorganization revisited: Mapping the
recent immigration and black homicide relationship in northern miami. Sociological Focus 35
(4): 363,363-380.
Martinez, Ramiro. 1997. Homicide among miami's ethnic groups: Anglos, blacks, and latinos in
the 1990s. Homicide Studies 1 (1): 17,17-34.
Eitle, David, and John Taylor. 2008. Are hispanics the new 'threat'? minority group threat and
fear of crime in miami-dade county. Social Science Research 37 (4): 1102,1102-1115.
Identities and Inequalities
Week 13: On Civil Society
Croucher, Sheila. 1997. Imagining Miami: Ethnic Politics in a Postmodern World.
Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia.
Alba, Richard D., John R. Logan, and Brian J. Stults. 2000. The changing neighborhood contexts
of the immigrant metropolis. Social Forces 79 (2): 587,587-621.
Price, Patricia L. 2007. Cohering culture on calle ocho: The pause and flow of latinidad.
Globalizations 4 (1): 81,81-99.
Price, Patricia L., Christopher Lukinbeal, Richard N. Gioioso, Daniel D. Arreola, Damian J.
Fernandez, Timothy Ready and Maria de los Angeles Torres. 2011. Placing Latino Civic
Engagement. Urban Geography. Volume 32, Number 2: 179-207.
Week 14: Beyond Ethnicity
Berkowitz, Dana, and Linda Liska Belgrave. 2010. "She works hard for the money": Drag
queens and the management of their contradictory status of celebrity and marginality. Journal of
Contemporary Ethnography 39 (2): 159,159-186.
Kurtz, Steven P. 2005. Post-circuit blues: Motivations and consequences of crystal meth use
among gay men in miami. AIDS and Behavior 9 (1): 63,63-72.
———. 1999. Butterflies under cover: Cuban and puerto rican gay masculinities in miami. The
Journal of Men's Studies 7 (3): 371,371-390.
Pena, Susana. 2010. Gender and sexuality in latina-o miami: Documenting latina transsexual
activists. Gender & History 22 (3): 755,755-772.
Week 15: Presentations
Week 16: Presentations