Sociology 443
Generations of Youth: Relationship, Work, Culture
and Communication
T: 1:00-2:50
Spring 2000
e-mail: Daphne.John@oberlin.edu
Instructor: Daphne John
Office: King 305c
Office Hours: M: Noon-1:30
Th: 10:30-11:30
Phone: 775-8377/8370
Course Description:
This seminar will focus on several birth cohorts in the U.S. We will examine issues concerning
relationships and sexuality, employment , underemployment and unemployment, cultural
contributions, communication and social concerns of youth. Emphasis will be placed
understanding how youth experience differs from others and what implications this has for
quality of life and social policy.
Required Texts:
Austin, Joe and Willard, Michael Nevin. 1998. Generations of Youth. New York. New York
University Press.
Liu, Eric. 1994. Next: Young American Writers on the New Generation. New York. W.W.
Norton & Co.
Skelton, Tracey and Gil Valentine. 1998. Cool Places: Geographies of Youth Culture.
Routledge.
Course Requirements:
Mid-Semester Essay
Seminar Discussion
Project Presentation
Final Project
25% (due March 24)
25% (TBS)
20% (May 16)
30% (due May 14)
Mid -Semester Essay: This will be a take home paper that is due on March 24, by
4:30pm.You will receive a set of essay questions one week before the due date. These
questions will be based on readings in the course as well as lectures and discussions.
The answers to these questions should provide a synthesis of information and ideas. All
course material can be used to prepare your answers as well as outside information.
Seminar Discussion: All students are responsible for leading discussion during a
seminar. Two to three students will work together on each presentation in
consultation with the instructor. The presentation should focus on issues from the
readings for the week.
Approximately one week before the scheduled presentation,
students should provide several discussion questions to the instructor and class members.
Also, if supplementary readings are necessary, they should be provided to the instructor
who will be made available for seminar members. The seminar presenter should both
provide information on the substantive issue being discussed as well as solicit discussion
on the issue. Students are encouraged to use Internet and other media resources in their
presentations.
Final Project: Final projects can take many different forms. The final project can be a)
a traditional research paper that reviews literature on a particular subject; b) a research
paper that presents an analysis of quantitative or qualitative data; c) a hyper-text
document that provides discussion on a particular issue and links to related information
on the Internet; d) any combination of the above or alternative agreed upon by student
and instructor. This project is due on May 14. Remember: Start Early!
Final Exam--Project Presentation: Each students will give a 10-15 minute presentation
of their final project during the scheduled final exam time. This will be evaluated based
upon content and the ability to communicate information effectively.
Note: All assignments must be handed in on the day they are due. A one day grace period
automatically will be extended to all students (i.e. you may hand assignment in one day late
without penalty; weekends count as one day) Late assignments will be penalized one letter
grade each day that they are late. No work will be accepted one week past the due date (unless
prior arrangements are made with the instructor).
The instructor reserves the right to modify the syllabus during the semester.
Course Outline: (R) Indicates Reserve Reading
February 8:
Introduction
February 13- 20
Imagining Generations: Sociologically Analyzing U.S. Cohorts
In Cool Places: Ch 1- Cool Places: An Introduction to Youth and Youth Cultures;
Ch. 7- The Spatial Construction of Youth Cultures; Ch 8 - Disintegrating
Developments: Global Economic Restructuring at the Eroding Ecologies of Youth
In Generations of Youth: Introduction: Angels of History, Demons of Culture
In Next: Trash That Baby Boom. In the Shadow of the Sixities
(R) McCrobbie: Ch 10-- "Different, Youthful and Subjective: Toward a Cultural
Sociology of Youth"
(R) Epstein: Introduction: Generation X, Youth Culture and Identity
(R) Locher: The Industrial Identity Crisis: The Failure of a Newly Forming
Subculture to Identify Itself
(R) Bennett: The Sociology of Youth Culture
Some Historical Perspective
February 27-March 6
In Generations of Youth:
Part I- Early Twentieth Century
Getis: Experts and Juvenile Delinquency, 1900-1935
Mechling: Heroism and the Problem of Impulsiveness for Early
Twentieth-Century American Youth
Odem: Teenage Girls, Sexuality, and Working-Class Parents in Early
Twentieth-Century California
Bloom: Rolling with the Punches: Boxing, Youth Culture, and Ethnic
Identity at Federal Indian Boarding Schools During the 1930's
Scheiner: The Deanna Durbin Devotees: Fan Clubs and Spectatorship
Fass: Creating New Identities: Youth and Ethnicity in New York City
High Schools in the 1930's and 1940's
Espana-Maram: Brown Hordes in McIntosh Suits: Filipinos, Taxi
Dance Halls and Performing the Immigrant Body in Los Angeles,
1930s-1940s
Part II- War and Postwar
Kelley: The Riddle of the Zoot: Malcolm Little and Black Cultural Politics
during World War II
garcia: Memories of El Monte: Intercultural Dance Halls in Post-World
War II Greater Los Angeles
Sears: Growing Up as a Jewish Lesbian in South Florida: Queer Teen Life
in the Fifties
Bailey: From Panty Raids to Revolution: Youth and Authority, 1950-1970
Chavez: Birth of a New Symbol: The Brown Berets Gendered
Chicano National Imaginary
Rangel: Art and Activism in the Chicano Movement: Judith F. Baca,
Youth and the Politics of Cultural Work
(R) Dotter: Rock and Roll is Here to Stray: Youth Subculture, Deviance and
Social Typing in Rocks Early Years
(R) Douglas: The ERA as Catfight
Demographics and Social Structure (Family, Education and
Work/Economy)
March 13:
In Next: Bader- Larger than Life
In Cool Places: Ch 13- The School: Poxy Cupid! An Ethnographic and
Feminist Account of a Resistant Female Youth Culture: The New Wave Girls,
Ch 14- The Workplace: Becoming a Paid Worker: Images and Identities
(R) Nixon-Ponder: Teens and Schools: Whose Falling Through the Cracks and
Why
(R) Cohen: The House, The Car, The Kids...and a Whole Lot More
The Vanishing Dream
The Impossible Dream
(R) Bagby: The Education Economy: Our Standards of Wealth
(R) Amato and Booth: Relationships With Parents
(R) Gilbert: Youre Not the Type
(R) Richards: The Immaculate Conception
March 20:
of
In Next: Kleine- Living the Lansing Dream
In Generations of Youth:
Austin: Knowing their Place: Local Knowledge, Social Prestige, and the
Writing Formation in New York City
Moore: ...And Tomorrow is Just Another Crazy Scam: Postmodernity,
Youth and Downward Mobility of the Middle Class
Willis: Teens at Work: Negotiating the Jobless Future
(R) Gaines: The Local Economy of Suburban Scenes
(R) Macdonald and Siriani: The Service Society and the Changing Experience
Work.
(R) Leidner: Rethinking Questions of Control: Lessons from McDonalds
(R) Lopez: The Politics of Service Production: Route Sales Work in the PotatoChip Industry
(R) Wharton: Service with a Smile: Understanding the Consequences of
Emotional Labor.
(R) Bagby: Keeping on Our Hats: Reshaping the Workforce
Doing it Our Way: The Most Entrepreneurial Generation in
American History
(R) Bowlby, Evans and Mohammad: The Workplace: Becoming a Paid Worker:
Images and Identity
Health, Relationships and Social Response
April 3:
(R) Amato and Booth: Intimate Relationships; Psychological Well-Being
(R) Green: One Resilient Baby
(R) Tiger: Woman Who Clears the Way
(R) Stacey: Ch 3-Inside the Hype Machine, Ch 6-Fear of Fats, Ch 7-Food Control,
Ch 8-Public Eating
(R) Douglas: Narcissism as Liberation
(R) Luker: Ch. 6 Why Do They Do It?
In Next: Wurtzel- Parental Guidance Suggested
Palac- How Dirty Pictures Changed My Life
Lehrman- Flirting with Courtship
Beachy- AIDS and the Apocalyptic Imagination
(R) Giroux: Teenage Sexuality, Body Politics and the Pedagogy of Display
(R) Hutchinson: The Hip Hop Generation: African American Male-Female
Relationships in a Nightclub Setting
(R) Edwards: Does Love Really Stink? The Mean World of Love and Sex in
Popular Music of the 1980's
Identity, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality
April 10-17:
In Next:Lopez- Generation Mex
Pogrebin- Daughters of the Revolution
Liu- A Chinamans Chance: Reflections on the American Dream
Bernstein- Mixed Like Me
Beatty- What Set You From, Fool?
Kamen- My Bourgeois Brand of Feminism
Young- Keeping Women Weak
(R) Whiteley: Challenging the Feminine: Annie Lennox, Androgyneity and
Illusions of identity, Madonna, Eroticism, Autoeroticism and Desire, k.d.
lang, a certain kind of woman, Talkin bout a Revolution: Tracy Chapman,
Political Uprisings, Domestic Violence and Love, Authenticity, Truthfulness
and Community
In Generations of Youth:
Wei: Hmong American Youth: American Dream, American Nightmare
Roediger: What to Make of Wiggers; A Work in Progress
Buff: Gender and Generation Down the Red Road
(R) Tuggle: Vanilla Means having Sex with a White Person
(R) Majors and Billson- Ch 1 Cool Pose: Expression and Survival
Ch 2 Social Stress and Social Symptoms
Ch 4 In Search of Pride and Manhood
In Cool Places: Ch 3- Contested Identities: Challenging Dominant
Representations of Young British Muslim Women, Ch 4- Rethinking British
Chinese Identities, Ch 5- Rehabilitating the Images of Disabled Youth, Ch 6Paper Planes: Travelling the New Grrrl Geographies, Ch 9- Youth Gangs and
Moral Panics in Santa Cruz, CA; Ch 11- Checking Out the Planet: Global
Representations/ Local Identities and Youth Travel, Ch 15-The Street: Its a
Bit Dodgy Around There: Safety, Danger, Ethnicity and Young Peoples Use of
Public Space,
(R) Excerpts from Uprising: Forward, Big Phil, Red, Angelo, Playmate, Leon
(R) Scrafano: Breaking More Than Silence
(R) Mennonno: Life After Howard
(R) Neubourne: Imagine My Surprise
(R) Lee: Beyond Bean Counting
(R) Neidorf: Two Jews, Three Opinions
Culture and Cultural Contributions
April 24-May 1
In Generations of Youth:
Gaunt: Dancin in the Street to a Black Girls Beat
Walser: Clamor and Community in the Music of Public Enemy
Willard: Seance, Tricknowlogy, Skateboarding and the Space of Youth
Addison and Comstock: Virtually Out: The Emergence of Lesbian,
Bisexual and Gay Youth Cyberculture
Lipsitz: The Hip Hop Hearings: Censorship, Social Memory, and
Intergenerational Tensions among African Americans
Bright: Nightmares in the New Metropolis: The Cinematic Poetics of low
Riders
Duncombe: Lets All be Alienated Together: Zines and the Making of
Underground Community
(R) Best and Kellner: Beavis and Butt-Head: No Future for Postmodern Youth
(R) McCrobbie: Ch 8--Second-Hand Dreams and the Role of the
Ragmarket", Ch 9--"Shut Up and Dance: Youth Culture and
Changing Modes of Femininity"
(R) McCracken: Ch 4--"Clothing as Language
(R) McCrobbie: Ch 11--" The Moral Panic in the Age of the Postmodern Mass
Media"
(R) McCracken: Ch 6--"Consumer Goods, Gender Construction, and a
Rehabilitated Trickle-Down Theory", 9--"Consumption, Change
and Continuity"
(R) Lacourse, Claes, and Villeneuve: Heavy Metal Music and Adolescent
Suicide
(R) Tomlinson: This Aint No Disco...Or Is It?: Youth Culture and the Rave
Phenomenon
(R) Hutson: The Rave: Spiritual Healing in Modern Western Subcultures
(R) Bennett: Youth Culture and Popular Music, The Significance of
Locality
(R) Kotarba: The Postmodernization of Rock and Roll music: The Case of
Metallica
(R) Berry: Redeeming Rap Music Experience
(R) Strong: Rocky Horror Schoolgirl
(R) Ford: The Village People, Tiger Beat and Me
In Cool Places: Ch 2-A Question of Belonging: Television, Youth and the
Domestic, Ch 12- The Home: Youth, Gender and Video Games: Power and
Control in the Home, Ch 10- Ravers Paradise?: German Youth Cultures in
the 1990's, Ch 16- The Club: Clubbing: Consumption, Identity, and the Spatial
Practices of Everyday Life
(R) Turkle: Ch 1: A Tale of Two Aesthetics, Ch 7: Aspects of the Self,
Ch 8: TinySex and Gender Trouble, Ch 10: Identity Crisis
(R) Locke: Ch 5: De-Voicing, Ch. 6: The Big Chill
Politics, Policy, Action and Social Change
May 8:
In Cool Places: Ch 17- Between East and West: Sites of Resistance in East
German Youth Cultures, Ch 18- Danas Mystical Tunnel: Young Peoples
Designs for Survival and Change in the City, Ch 19- Vanloads of Uproarious
Humanity: New Age Travellers and the Utopics of the Countryside, Ch 20Modernism and Resistance: How Homeless Youth Sub-Cultures Make a
Difference
(R) Kearney: Dont Need You: Rethinking Identity Politics and Separatism
from a GRRRL Perspective
(R) Corneo: Guerrilla Music: Avant-Garde Voice as Oppositional Discourse
(R) Dennis and Owen: The Partisanship Puzzle: Identification and Attitudes of
Generation X
(R) Craig and Halfacre: Political Issues and Political Choice: Belief Systems,
Generations, and the Potential for Realignment in American Politics
(R) Owen: Mixed Signals: Generation Xs Attitudes toward the Political
System
(R) Douglas: Im Not a Feminist, But...
(R) Smith: When It All Changed
(R) Mattson: Talking About My Generation (and the Left)
(R) Grossman: Identity Crisis: The Dialectics of Rock, Punk and Grunge
(R) Giroux: Talking Heads and Radio Pedagogy: Microphone Politics and the
New Public Intellectuals
(R) Calcutt: Ch. 9 Limits, Ch. 10 The End of Adulthood
Final Exam--Project Presentations: Thursday, May 16 2-4pm