CSHS 511
Social Stratification
Spring 2009
Bruce Rankin
Department of Sociology
Office: Social Sciences 255
Tel: 338-1517
Email: brankin@ku.edu.tr
Class Hours: Monday 14:00-16:45 CAS Z26
Office Hours: Monday/Wednesday 10:00-11:00 or by appointment
“Hardly an aspect of human experience – the clothes one wears, the number of siblings one
has, the diseases one is likely to contract, the music to which one listens, the chances that one
will serve in the armed forces or fall prey to a violent crime – is uncorrelated with some
dimension of social rank” (DiMaggio 2001).
Course Description
Stratification and inequality are basic features of all human societies that condition nearly all
social processes and outcomes. Explaining inequality, its causes and consequences, occupies
the foreground of sociology and was a central concern of classical sociological thinkers. As
such, the study of social stratification is often considered to be at the heart of sociology. This
course is designed to introduce students to various topics related to the origin, structure, and
dynamics of stratification systems in contemporary societies and in the global system,
beginning with an exploration of the major classical and contemporary approaches to
understanding social inequality. A key focus will be on the critical aspects of class, gender,
and race and their interplay.
Course Requirements
Students are required to attend class, participate in class discussions, complete three response
papers, and take a midterm exam. Students should come to class having completed the
assigned reading for that week and prepared to discuss the material. You are also required to
write three short papers based on your responses to the assigned readings (see details below).
More on Response Papers
A response paper is a two-page double-spaced typewritten response to that week’s assigned
readings. A good response paper will include: 1) a very brief discussion of the main points or
arguments, 2) your critical evaluation of the readings, and 3) at least two relevant questions
that you would like to see discussed in class. You are required to submit three response papers
during the semester. Response papers are to be turned in by 10am on the Monday of the week
that those readings are discussed, so that we will have time to read over them before class.
Response paper authors for that week will present their ideas to the class and will lead the
discussion for that day.
Grading
Students will be evaluated on their class participation, response papers, a take-home midterm
and a final paper. The final grade for the course will be calculated based on following
distribution:
20% class participation
20% response papers
20% midterm exam
40% final paper
TENTATIVE Course Outline and Readings
Week 1 (Feb. 9): Course Overview
Introduction and syllabus
No readings
Week 2 (Feb. 16): Introduction and History of Stratification
Grusky, David. 1994. “The Contours of Social Stratification”, pp. 3-35 in David Grusky
(ed.) (1994) Social Stratification.
Week 3 (Feb. 23): Forms and Sources of Stratification
Davis, Kingsley and Wilbur E. Moore, “Some Principles of Stratification”; Melvin Tumin,
“The Dysfunctions of Stratification”; Gerhard Lenski, “New Light on Old Issues: The
Relevance of “Really Existing Socialist Societies” for Stratification Theory”, pp. 39-61 in
David Grusky (ed.) (1994) Social Stratification.
Fischer, Claude et al. “Inequality by Design”, pp. 18-22, in David Grusky and Szonja
Szelenyi (eds.) (2007) Inequality Reader.
Week 4 (Mar. 2): Class/Status Theory I: Marx and Post-Marxists
Marx, Karl, “Alienation and Social Classes”, “Classes in Capitalism and Pre-Capitalism”,
“Ideology and Class”, “Value and Surplus Value”; Ralf Dahrendorf, “Class and Class
Conflict in Industrial Society”; Erik Olin Wright, “Varieties of Marxist Conceptions of
Class Structure”, pp. 65-98 in David Grusky (ed.) (1994) Social Stratification.
Braverman, Harry. 1998 (1974). “Scientific Management”, pp. 59-85, Labor and
Monopoly Capitalism.
Week 5 (Mar. 9): Class/Status Theory II: Weber and Post-Weberians
Weber, Max, “Class, Status, Party”, “Status Groups and Classes”, “Open and Closed
Relationships”, “The Rationalization of Education and Training”; Anthony Giddens, “The
Class Structure of the Advanced Societies”, pp. 113-140 in David Grusky (ed.) (1994)
Social Stratification.
Pakulski, Jan and Malcolm Waters, “The Death of Class”, pp. 64-73, in David Grusky and
Szonja Szelenyi (eds.) (2007) Inequality Reader.
Week 6 (Mar. 16): Recent Theories of Inequality
Hurst, Charles E. 1998. “Modern Explanations of Inequality”, pp. 94-112 in Social
Inequality.
Week 7 (Mar. 23): Ruling Class/Elite Theory
Mills, C. Wright, “The Power Elite”; Anthony Giddens, “Elites and Power”; Michael
Useem, “The Inner Circle”, pp. 161-183 in David Grusky (ed.) (1994) Social
Stratification.
Brooks, David. 2000. “The Rise of the Educated Elite”, pp. 13-53 in Bobos in Paradise:
The New Upper-Class and How They Got There."
Week 8 (Mar. 30): Poverty and the Poor
Mingione, Enzo. 1996. “Urban Poverty in the Advanced Industrial World”, pp. 4-40 in
Enzo Mangione (ed.) Urban Poverty and the Underclass: A Reader.
Adaman, Fikret and Oya Pinar Ardic. 2008. “Social Exclusion in the Slum Areas of Large
Cities in Turkey.” New Perspectives in Turkey 38:29-60.
TAKE-HOME MIDTERM (Due Mar. 27)
Week 9: Spring Break
Week 10 (Apr. 13): Social Mobility/Status Attainment
Buchmann, Claudia and Emily Hannum. 2001. “Education and Stratification in
Developing Countries: A Review of Theories and Research”, Annual Review of Sociology
27: 77-102.
Others TBA
Week 11 (Apr. 20): Consequences of Stratification
Veblen, Thorstein, “The Theory of the Leisure Class”, Pierre Bourdieu, “Distinction: A
Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste”, Melvin Kohn, “Job Complexity and Adult
Personality”, pp. 397-439 in David Grusky (ed.) (1994) Social Stratification.
Ayata, Sencer. 2002. “The New Middle Class and the Joys of Suburbia”, pp. 25-42 in
Deniz Kandiyoti and Ayse Saktanber (eds.) Fragments of Culture: The Everyday of
Modern Turkey.
Larreau, Annette. 2003. “Unequal Childhoods”, pp. 537-548, in David Grusky and Szonja
Szelenyi (eds.) (2007) Inequality Reader.
Week 12 (Apr. 27): Gender
Judith Lorber. 2007. “The Social Construction of Gender”, pp. 276-283 in Grusky and
Szelenyi (eds.) (2007) The Inequality Reader.
Ecevit, F. Yildiz. 1995. “The Status and Changing Forms of Women’s Labour in the
Urban Economy” in Sirin Tekeli (ed.) Women in Modern Turkish Society: A Reader.
Ozyegin, Gul. 2002. “The Doorkeeper, the Maid, and the Tenant: Troubling Encounters in
the Turkish Urban Landscape”, pp. 43-72 in Deniz Kandiyoti and Ayse Saktanber (eds.)
Fragments of Culture: The Everyday of Modern Turkey.
Rankin, Bruce and Işık Aytaç. 2006. “Gender Inequality in Schooling: The Case of
Turkey.” Sociology of Education 79(1):25-43.
Week 13 (May 4): Race and Ethnicity
Others TBA
Ahmet Icduygu, David Romano, and Ibrahim Sirkeci. 1999. “The Ethnic Question in an
Environment of Insecurity: The Kurds in Turkey”, Ethnic and Racial Studies 22(6): 9911010.
Saracoglu, C. 2008. “’Exclusive Recognition’: The New Dimensions of the Question of
Ethnicity and Nationalism in Turkey.” Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol?:1-19.
Week 14 (May 11): Inequality, Social Policy and the Welfare State
Esping-Andersen, G. 1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Selected chapters.
Arts, W. and Gelissen, J. “Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism or More?” Journal of
European Social Policy 12(2):137-158.
Ayse Bugra and Caglar Keyder. 2003. “The Turkish Welfare Regime in Transformation”,
Journal of European Social Policy 16(3):211-228.
Week 15 (May 18): Global Inequalities
TBA
PAPERS DUE May 22