SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
SOCIOLOGY DEPARTMENT
2002/2003
Instructor: Dr. Andreas Hess
Time: Thursdays 16.00-17.00 (daytime undergraduates)
Wednesdays 19.30-20.30 (modulars)
Location: Main Arts, Lecture Theatre M (daytime undergraduates)
Main Arts, D106 (modulars)
This course aims at introducing students to key theorists and some basic facts of social
stratification. We will first look at concepts that originated in the classic tradition of Marx
Weber and Durkheim. In a second step we will investigate how these concepts and their
consecutive interpretation and advancement have been applied to the empirical
environment in America (US) and Europe (UK and the Republic of Ireland). The course
will end with a discussion of the relationship between an assumed political equality
(citizenship) and actually existing social inequality.
Students who successfully complete this course should be able



to understand that useful knowledge in the field of social stratification stems neither from
‘deducing down’ from ‘grand theory’ nor from ‘building up’ from pure empirical
research but that it is rather concepts which mediate between the tensions of the two
levels of theoretical abstraction and empirical environment;
to understand the history of concepts that help to explain social stratification;
to understand that social inequality and social stratification are usually linked and related
to other aspects of society.
Assessment: Students will have to write one essay (max. 2500 words).
Basic texts
GRUSKY, D. B (ed.) (2001) Social Stratification: Race, Class and Gender, Boulder,
Colorado: Westview
HESS, A (2001) Concepts of Social Stratification: European and American Models,
Houndmills/New York: Palgrave
* Essential Readings
# Optional Readings
Lecture 1 and 2
Karl Marx: classes and class struggle

GRUSKY, D.B (ed.) (2001) Social Stratification, pp 87-105;

* HESS, A (2001) Concepts of Social Stratification, Houndmills/New York:
Palgrave, pp10-24;

# MARX, K (ed. E. Kamenka) (1983) The Portable Karl Marx, New York:
Penguin; pp 115-124, 158-161, 203-241, 432-477.
Max Weber: class, status, prestige

GRUSKY, D. B (ed.) (2001) Social Stratification, pp 132-145;

* HESS, A (2001) Concepts of Social Stratification, pp 25-36;

# WEBER, M (ed. C.W. Mills and H. Gerth) (1946) From Max Weber, New York:
Oxford University Press; pp 180-252.
Emile Durkheim: the division of labour
*GRUSKY, D. B (ed.) (2001) Social Stratification, pp 178-183;

HESS, A (2001) Concepts of Social Stratification, pp 36-41;

# DURKHEIM, E (1984) The Division of Labour in Society, Houndmills:
Macmillan; pp 31-52, 60-64, 68-87, 149-174, 186-195, 291-293, 304.
Lecture 3 and 4
From Gilded Age to New Deal: Thorstein Veblen’s critique of the Leisure Class, the
urban sociology of the Chicago School, Robert and Helen Lynd’s anatomy of
Middletown
*HESS, A (2001) Concepts of Social Stratification, pp 58-91;
*GRUSKY, D. B (ed) (2001) Social Stratification, pp 491-498;
# VEBLEN, T (1953) The Theory of the Leisure Class, New York: Mentor Edition of the
American Library; pp 21-79;
# PARK, R and BURGESS E.W (1967); The City, Chicago: Chicago University Press;
pp 1-79;
# LYND, R and LYND, H (1957) Middletown, San Diego, New York: Harvest/HBJ; pp
22-27; 39, 47-58, 76-87, 94-104, 220-221, 260, 265, 275-278, 329-332, 478-484, 490495;
# LYND, R and LYND, H (1965) Middletown in Transition, San Diego/New York:
Harvest/HBJ; pp 74-101, 402-514.
Lecture 5 and 6
From New Deal to Great Society: C. Wright Mills’ analysis of the power elite and
Talcott Parsons resuscitation of functionalism and consensus theory

GRUSKY, D. B (ed.) (2001) Social Stratification, pp 202-211, 55-63;

* HESS, A (2001) Concepts of Social Stratification, pp 92-103, 112-123;

# MILLS, C.W "The Structure of Power in American Society" and "The Sociology
of Stratification", in: MILLS, C.W (1963) Power, Politics and People, New York:
Oxford University Press, pp 23-38 and 305-323;

# MILLS, C.W.(1951) White Collar, New York: Oxford University Press, pp 3-12,
63-76, 215-300, 324-354;

# MILLS, C.W (1956) The Power Elite, New York: Oxford University Press, pp
269-324;

# PARSONS, T "The Distribution of Power in American Society", in: TURNER, B.
S (ed.) (1999) The Talcott Parsons Reader, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, pp
220-236,

# PARSONS, T "Social Classes and Class Conflict in the Light of Recent
Sociological Theory" in: PARSONS, T (1954) Essays in Sociological Theory New
York: The Free Press, pp 323-335.
Lecture 7 and 8
Fin de Siècle stratification: Mike Davis and Erik Olin Wright neo-Marxist interpretations
of class struggle; William J. Wilson’s discovery of the underclass

HESS, A (2001) Concepts of Social Stratification, pp 124-160;

* GRUSKY, D. B (ed.) (2001) Social Stratification, pp 112-128, 611-623, 651660;

# DAVIS, M (1990) City of Quartz, London/New York: Verso, pp 151-220;

# DAVIS, M (1992) Beyond Blade Runner: Urban Control. The Ecology of Fear,
Westfield, NJ: Open Magazine Pamphlet Series;

# WRIGHT, E.O (1997) Class Counts, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
pp 9-36, 519-546;

# WILSON, J. W (1980) The Declining Significance of Race, Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, pp 1-23;

# WILSON, J.W (1987) The Truly Disadvantaged, Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, pp 3-62;

# CROMPTON, R (1998) Class and Stratification, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, pp 69-76
Lecture 9 and 10
Overview: Social stratification in the US today / Social Stratification in the United
Kingdom and Ireland
* KERBO, H. (2000) Social Stratification and Inequality: New York: McGraw-Hill, tables
pp 20-21, 27, 126, 190-193, 204, 248, 253-255, 260, 282, 296, 298, 304, 428;
# US CENSUS WEBSITE: http://www.census.gov

GOLDTHORPE, J.H and MARSHALL, G: "The promising future of Class
analysis"; SCOTT, J: "Class Analysis: Back to the future?";

WESTERGARD, J: " Class in Britain since 1979: facts, theories and ideologies";
SCOTT, J " Patterns of capitalist development";

GOLDTHORPE, J.H "Class and politics in advanced industrial societies"; all in:
LEE, D.J and TURNER, B.S eds (1996) Conflicts about Class, London:
Longman, pp. 98-109, 127-138, 141-158, 159-170, 196-208;

* TOVEY, H and SHARE, P (2000) A Sociology of Ireland, Dublin: Gill &
Macmillan, pp 122-150;

# THOMPSON, E.P (1980) The making of the English Working Class,
Harmondsworth: Penguin: Introduction;

# THOMPSON, E.P (1991) Customs in Common, London: Merlin Press, pp 1696, 185-258;

# HOBSBAWM, E Industry and Empire, Harmondsworth: Penguin 1969, pp 294321;

# HOBSBAWM, E "Farewell to the Labour Movement?, in: HOBSBAWM (1989)
Politics for a Rational Left, London: Verso 159-165;

# KAYE, H (1984) The British Marxist Historians, Cambridge: Polity, pp131-220;
# MILIBAND, R (1991) Divided Societies, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp 1955;

# CANNADINE, D (2000) Class in Britain, London: Penguin, pp 163-189,

# ADONIS, A and POLLARD, S (1898) A Class Act, London, Penguin, pp3-102;

# SCOTT, J. (1996) Stratification and Power, Cambridge: Polity, pp187-245

# CROMPTON, R (1998) Class and Stratification, Cambridge: Polity, pp 54-78;

# DEVINE, F (1997): Social Class in America and Britain, Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, pp 18-74
Lecture 11 and 12
From rural society to Celtic tiger: Ireland – A classless society? / Citizenship and Class
BREEN R, and WHEELAN, C.T (1996) Social Mobility and Social Class in Ireland,
Dublin: Gill&Macmillan;
# DRUDY, S: "Class Society, Inequality and the ‘Declassed’", in: CLANCY, P et al
(1995) Irish Society – Sociological Perspectives, Dublin: IPA; pp 295-323;
# WHEELAN, C.T: "Class Transformation and Social Mobility in the Republic of Ireland",
in: CLANCY, P et al (1995) Irish Society – Sociological Perspectives, pp 324-357;
# GOLDTHORPE, J.H and WHELAN, C.T eds (1992) The development of industrial
society in Ireland Oxford: Oxford University Press;
MARSHALL, T.H (1981) Citizenship and Social Class, London: Pluto Press, pp 3-54;
# CROMPTON, R (1998) Class and Stratification, Cambridge: Polity, pp 169-202