SYLLABUS-Spring 2012 Honors
HONR269W Urban Poverty and Culture
Instructor: Asst. Professor Odis Johnson, Jr.
Office: 2169 Le Frak Hall
Email: ojohnson@umd.edu
Phone: 301.405.1169
Office Hours: TBA
Course Meeting Date & Time: Wednesday, 4 – 6:30 pm
Course Meeting Place:
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The foundation of this course is the major sociological research that 1) concerns the urban
demographic experience, and 2) was published between 1899—when DuBois published the
Philadelphia Negro—and the start of the new millennium. In each of the studies we will
attend to the following points of interests:
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The definitions of, and concepts related to, urban areas and environmental
organization (i.e., What is a “city”? What is “urban”? What is ecology? How do they
function?).
The theories of culture and social organization that characterize the work and
subsequently the field (i.e., How did the culture of poverty theories and theories of
social disorganization evolve during the 1960s? How was the culture of poverty
understood in relation to the structural conditions of the central city in the 1980s
and 1990s?).
The varied research designs and methods (e.g., quantitative, qualitative and mixed
method; the community study; the streetcorner/public space study; the
institutionally-centered study, etc.) and research tools (e.g., survey methods,
participant-observation, interviewing, etc.) employed in each study/approach. (i.e.,
How did these approaches change our understanding of culture and social
organization?)
The narrative styles employed by the researchers, which is coupled with their
epistemological standpoint (e.g. appeals to objectivity and positivism, how
researchers situate their voices in their scholarship, how they advance their claims
or determine “truth” about social phenomena).
This course will be conducted in a seminar format relying heavily on the readings and your
participation. Course objectives are assessed in class participation, three short papers and a
longer final paper.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
Course Participation
I expect every member of the class to come with well-prepared answers to the questions,
and prepared to identify and respond to likely challenges to their answers. We will begin
each class by listening to at least several of these answers and responses, and then will
discuss the objections and ensuing points. My criteria for judging the quality of these
contributions to class discussion are like those I use to judge written work: clear arguments
and plain speech that is well organized and draws on the readings. I place the same
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premium on thoughtful and imaginative analysis in class as in the written work. One reason
for this is evidence that such active work, focused on specific issues, offers students more
opportunities to learn than listening to lectures, and another is that it offers me more
opportunities to learn about your ideas, and to adjust assignments, materials, and other
elements of instruction accordingly. Still another reason I emphasize discussion is that
since there are few of us who can see all sides of an issue we can profit from others’
arguments and readings of the evidence. One important element of good analytic work is
the capacity to explore opinions and perspectives that differ from our initial view. Active
discussion, careful listening, and thoughtful disagreement are useful tools in such work.
Three Short Papers & Final Paper Proposal
Three short papers 3 pages in length (excluding title page and references) require you to
select and respond to one topic (among a few that I will identify) from the reading. These
assignments allow you to critically engage the readings, present a coherent and hopefully
imaginative argument with concise language, and master correct citing procedures within 3
pages. These assignments allow me to view your writing abilities and offer suggestions for
(and my expectations of) your written work. More specific instruction will be provided as
the due date for each assignment approaches. I have offered an addendum to this syllabus
that may help you in completing your written assignments.
The final paper proposal is a one-page description of your final paper. This paper should
briefly identify the subject, thesis, major references, data and methods you expect to use in
the final paper. APA formatting of the proposal is not required. More direction will be
provided as the due date approaches.
Final Paper
The final paper should be a comparative analysis of two works among the readings that
addresses one of the three topics below. This paper is 10-12 pages in length for
undergraduates and 15 pages in length for graduate students excluding title pages,
references and appendices of tables/figures.
 What does each work offer as a cultural analysis of the African American, Puerto Rican or
white urban community? The implicit issues that should be considered in answering this
question are; a) how is culture defined or explained in each work, b) how do the authors
document and assess it, c) what significance does culture have in each work for the social
organizational structure or capacities for individuals in each community?
 Compare and contrast the research techniques employed in two texts. The implicit issues
that should be considered here include; a) what tools or methods are used for data
gathering and analysis, b) what is the research design and objective of each study c) to
what extent each achieves its research objective?
 Compare and contrast the voices of the authors in two qualitative studies. Consider here
the following issues; a) what is the narrative style of each work, b) what is the audience
for each work, c) how do the authors claim authority in their work (or do they)?
 Compare and contrast the analysis of one social problem within one city in our required
readings with the CURRENT state of that social problem within that city using census
data. Your analysis should; a) focus on one context or “contextual issue” within Chicago,
Philadelphia or New York, b) detail changes in the racial and economic demographics of
the city and/or community, b) use other studies of, and census data from your context to
identify the determinants or contributors to the social problem, and c) describe the
limitations of the method and any data you use.
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NOTE: All written assignments should be double-spaced in 12-point Times, Garamond, or
Palatino font, with 1.25 inch side and 1 inch top/bottom margins, and submitted
electronically to the Professor at ojohnson@umd.edu. Formatting guidelines will be
available on the course website and from the section instructors.
GRADING
Of written work
 Since being able to communicate your thoughts in concise language is important in
academic writing I adhere to page limit restrictions. I will stop reading a text when I
reach the end of the last page of the assignment. If the last page of the assignment
precedes the last page of your text, your grade may suffer.
 No late assignments will be accepted without appropriate justification. Appropriate
justification includes a verifiable note from a physician or health care professional,
bereavement, and other verifiable unforeseen circumstances.
Participation
Your participation grade will be assigned each class period according to the following:
0
Did not attend class
1
Was in attendance but said little
2
Made some comments
3
Made a significant contribution to class discussion
Factors for Final Grade:
Course Participation
3 Short Papers (@ 15%/paper)
Final Paper Proposal
Final Paper
CHRONOLOGY OF ASSIGNMENTS
February xx
March xx
April xx
April xx
May xx (MONDAY)
15%
45%
10%
30%
Paper #1 DUE AT BEGINNING OF CLASS
Paper #2 DUE AT BEGINNING OF CLASS
Paper #3 DUE AT BEGINNING OF CLASS
Proposal DUE AT BEGINNING OF CLASS
Final Paper DUE AT NOON
STUDENT CONDUCT
 Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception and
is an educational objective of this institution. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not
limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, the fabricating of information or citations, or
facilitating acts of dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of
examinations, submitting work of another person or work previously used without
informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students.
Violations of academic integrity will be reported to judicial affairs.
 Entering class late and leaving early disrupts instruction and the quality of everyone’s
educational experience. Assignments may not be accepted from individuals that arrive
late or from those who leave early.
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Laptops are permitted in class however no other electronic devices are necessary. Cell
phones, palm pilots and two-way pagers are to be silenced and remain unanswered
during meetings.
Please remain courteous as you offer your opinions in class. Disagreement is important
and vital to the educational process so don’t let your temperament deflect the substance
of your thought.
COURSE TEXTS
Essential Texts
*Drake, St.Clair and Horace Cayton. 1945. Black metropolis: A study of Negro life in a
northern city. University of Chicago Press.
*DuBois, W.E.Burghardt. 1899. The Philadelphia Negro: A social study. University of
Pennsylvania Press.
*Liebow, Elliot. 1967. Tally’s Corner: A study of Negro streetcorner men. Little, Brown and
Company.
*Conley, Dalton. 2000. Honky. University of California Press.
*Venkatesh, Sudhir. 2000. American Project: The rise and fall of a modern ghetto.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
*Bourgois, Philippe. 1995. In search of respect: Selling crack in el barrio. University of
Chicago Press.
Recommended Texts:
Massey, Douglas and Denton, N. 1993. American Apartheid: Segregation and the
making of the underclass. Cambridge, M.A.: Cambridge University Press.
Hannerz, Ulf. 1969. Soulside. New York: Columbia University Press.
Myrdal, Gunnar. 1944. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and modern
democracy. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Wilson, W.J. 1997. When work disappears: The world of the new urban poor. New
York, N.Y.: Vintage Books.
Glazer, Nathan and Daniel Moynihan. 1963. Beyond the melting pot: the Negroes, Puerto
Ricans, Jew, Italians, and Irish of New York City. MIT Press.
Park, Robert, Ernest Burgess and Roderick McKenzie 1925. The city: Suggestions for
investigation of human behavior in the urban environment. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
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OTHER COURSE MATERIALS
The remainder of the course materials will be available in a course pack or made available
in class. All of the course texts are available at the library at the reserve desk.
CHRONOLOGY OF READING
The required readings will be noted with an asterisk (*) on the final draft of this
syllabus. Other listed readings are recommended.
SECTION I.
DUBOIS, THE CHICAGO SCHOOL AND URBAN SOCIOLOGY 1899-1945
We start our exploration of the city in Philadelphia with the works of W.E.B. DuBois at the
dawn of the 20th century. Though the vast majority of African Americans were at this time
living in the South, they began migrating to Northern cities seeking relief from the black
codes, poverty and limited educational opportunity in the South immediately after the civil
war. As DuBois observed however, segregation and poverty were also enduring features of
the northern Black urban experience. Many regard DuBois as the father of American
sociology due in part to his classic study, The Philadelphia Negro. The “Chicago School of
Sociology” followed in the 1920s and dominated the field of sociology for decades. Park,
Burgess, McKenzie and their students laid the ground work for the field of human ecology
and, in the DuBoisian tradition, advanced the community study. Other notables in this
tradition are H.G. Duncan (1928), W. Whyte (1943), Drake & Cayton (1945), Warner et al.,
(1947), and A. Hollingshead (1948). The “City” was starting to be explored in other
disciplines. Kirkegaard (1935), a psychologist, followed African Americans from rural areas
of the South to a Northern city and found relocation was associated with increases in
cognition relative to those African Americans residing in the South. Foreign scholars such as
Gunnar Myrdal and Alexis de Tocqueville provide seemingly “objective views,” and highly
influential assessments, of the “Negro Problem” in America during the 1940s.
Week 1, January xx:
Course Introduction: The City, Social Science and the African American Experience
Week 2, January xx:
DuBois and the Start of the U.S. Sociological Research Tradition
*DuBois, W.E.Burghardt. 1899. The Philadelphia Negro: A social study. University of
Pennsylvania Press. Chaps 1, 2, 6-9, [83]
Katz, Michael and Thomas Sugrue. 1998. The context of the Philadelphia Negro: The
city, the settlement house movement and the rise of the social sciences. Pp. 1-32 in
W.E.B. DuBois, race and the city: The Philadelphia Negro and its legacy. University of
Pennsylvania Press.
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Lane, Roger. 1992. Black Philadelphia then and now. Pp. 27-44 in Drugs Crime, and
social isolation edited by Adele Harrell and George Peterson. Washington, DC: Urban
Institute Press.
Elijah Anderson (2000). The emerging Philadelphia African American class
structure. Annals of the American Academy 568, 54-77.
Kevin Gaines 1996. Urban pathology and the limits of social research: W.E.B. Du
Bois’s The Philadelphia Negro. In K. Gaines Uplifting the Race. Chapel Hill: University
of North Carolina Press. p. 152-178.
Week 3, February xx:
DuBois Continued.
*DuBois, W.E.Burghardt. 1899. The Philadelphia Negro: A social study. University of
Pennsylvania Press. 11, 15, 18 [78]
Week 4, February xx:
The Formalization of the Sociological Tradition: The Chicago School
*Park, Robert E. (1925). The city: Suggestions for investigation of human behavior in
the urban environment. Pp. 1–46 in The city: Suggestions for investigation of human
behavior in the urban environment edited by Robert Park, Ernest Burgess and
Roderick McKenzie. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Poston, Dudley L., W. Parker Frisbie & Michael Micklin. 1984. Sociological Human
Ecology: theoretical and conceptual perspectives. Pp. 91-125 in Sociological Human
Ecology edited by Michael Micklin and Harvey Choldin. Westview.
Week 5, February xx:
The Chicago School Community Study
*Drake, St.Clair and Horace Cayton. 1945. Black metropolis: A study of Negro life in a
northern city. University of Chicago Press. Chaps 2-4, 6 & “A methodological note”
Lemann, Nicholas 1992. The Promised Land: The great black migration and how it
changed America. Chap 2 “Chicago” p. 59-108.
Paper #1 DUE AT BEGINNING OF CLASS
Week 6, February xx:
Drake and Cayton Continued
*Drake, St.Clair and Horace Cayton. 1945. Black metropolis: A study of Negro
life in a northern city. University of Chicago Press.
Chaps 8, 10, & 14
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Myrdal, Gunnar. 1944. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and modern
democracy. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. (Brief reading of Myrdal for a
look at the community organization from where urban migrants departed
Ralph Ellison 1998. An American Dilemma: A review p. 81-96 in Ladner, Joyce. The
Death of White Sociology: Essays on Race and Culture. Black Classic Press
SECTION II.
CULTURE & SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 1954 – 1969
There were a number of social changes occurring during the mid-twentieth century that
profoundly affected our understanding and study of urban phenomena. The Brown v. Board
decision signaled a concern with the life chances of African Americans that, until then, had
been systematically marginalized. The Great Migration was afoot and African Americans
were crowding highly segregated parts of the larger cities of the Rustbelt. Researchers and
policy makers began questioning what would become of the “Northern urban Negro”; would
she/he assimilate or develop culturally in ways that may be (in)consistent with social
mobility? Urban rioting erupted in cities across the United States as the assassinations of
Medgar Evers, John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Martin L. King Jr. between
1963 and 1968 threatened the progress of the civil rights movement. Meanwhile policy
makers put in place ambitious social welfare and civil rights policies. The Civil Rights Act of
1965 and Johnson’s Great Society Programs/War on Poverty provided the link between
institutions and the urban condition—that link consisting of presumably supportive social
policies as opposed to the forced subjugation of the past. Some scholars however suggested
these policies supported welfare dependency and a culture of poverty from which
minorities and urban populations could not escape. Others including Lee Rainwater (1970),
Suttles (1969) and social psychologists, Kenneth Clark (1965) critically engaged the notion.
Week 7, March xx:
Cultural Expectations & Social Change in the 1960s
*Glazer, Nathan and Daniel Moynihan. 1963. Beyond the melting pot: the Negroes,
Puerto Ricans, Jew, Italians, and Irish of New York City. MIT Press. Sections:
“Introduction” and “The Puerto Ricans”
Week 8, March xx:
Culture: The Culture of Poverty and African American Family Life
*Oscar Lewis, “The culture of poverty” (chap 7), pages 187-199 in On understanding
poverty edited by Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
*Liebow, Elliot. 1967. Tally’s Corner: A study of Negro streetcorner men. Little,
Brown and Company. Chaps 1, 2, & 7
Hannerz, Ulf 1974. “Research in the Black Ghetto: A review of the sixties.” Journal of
Asian and African Studies, IX. 107-27
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Week 9, March xx:
SPRING BREAK
Week 10, March xx:
Reconsidering the Culture of Poverty Continued.
*Hannerz, Ulf. 1969. Soulside. New York: Columbia University Press. Selected chaps
1, 2 & 9
*Daniel P. Moynihan 1965. The Negro family: a case for national action. In Rainwater
and Yancey 1967.
Michael Harrington 1962. The other America: Poverty in the United States. Simon and
Schuster
Gans, Herbert 1969. “Class and Culture in the study of poverty: An approach to Antipoverty Research.” Pages 129-142 in On understanding poverty edited by Daniel
Patrick Moynihan
Paper #2 DUE AT BEGINNING OF CLASS
SECTION III.
URBAN LIFE IN THE POST CIVIL RIGHTS ERA: STRUCTURALISM & CULTURE 1987 – 2000
After the waning of the civil rights movement and the rise of urban ghettos, the culture of
poverty theory persisted with knew advocates found in the academy (Murray 1984; Mead
1981) and public political figures (Robert Rector, Robert Samuelson) and policy makers
within the Regan and Bush administrations. During this time life in postindustrial urban
America took a turn for the worse. African Americans remained racially segregated and
were becoming concentrated in areas of poverty. In those areas, joblessness, single parent
homes and crime were becoming a way of life. The “underclass” became a common
designation of those who lived in concentrated poverty and were chronically unemployed.
Wilson (1987; 1996) Massey and Denton (1993) and others engaged these social problems
and in doing so, challenged the link between welfare dependency and the onset of
subcultures and persistent poverty among the urban poor.
Week 11, April xx:
Dwellings, Social Structure and Housing Policy
*Venkatesh, Sudhir. 2000. American Project: The rise and fall of a modern ghetto.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Chap 1 & “author’s note”
Cutler, David, Edward Glaeser, and Jacob Vigdor. “The Rise and Decline of the
American Ghetto.” Journal of Political Economy, 1999.
VIDEO: Eyes on the Prize: Two Societies, 1965-1968 or Back to the Movement,
1979-1985 Blackside
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Week 12, April xx:
Dwellings, Social Structure and Housing Policy Continued
*Venkatesh, Sudhir. 2000. American Project: The rise and fall of a modern ghetto.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Chaps 3 & 6
Goetz, E.G. (2003). Clearing the way: Deconcentrating the poor in urban America.
Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press.
VIDEO: American Project, Venkatesh.
Week 13, April xx:
The White Poor & Public Housing
*Conley, Dalton. Honky. University of California Press. Chapters 1-4, 17.
Week 14, April xx:
The Urban “Underclass”: Race vs Class
*Wilson, William J. 1987. The truly disadvantaged: The inner-city, the underclass and
public policy. University of Chicago Press. Chaps 1& 2
*Wacquant, Loic 1997. Three pernicious premises in the study of the American
ghetto. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 2: 341-355
*Massey, D. & Denton, N. (1993). American Apartheid: Segregation and the making of
the underclass. Cambridge University Press. Chap 5
Wilson, W.J. (1997). When work disappears: The world of the new urban poor. New
York, N.Y.: Vintage Books. Chap 1, pages 15-24, and Chap 3
Paper #3 DUE AT BEGINNING OF CLASS
Week 15, May xx:
Structure, Culture and Social Disorganization in the barrio
Bourgois, Philippe. 1995. In search of respect. Selling crack in el barrio. Chaps 1 & 4
Final Paper Proposal DUE AT BEGINNING OF CLASS
Week 16 May xx
Social Disorganization in the barrio continued
Bourgois, Philippe. 1995. In search of respect. Selling crack in el barrio. Chaps 5 & 6.
Course Conclusion & Evaluation
MAY xx, FINAL PAPER DUE
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SYLLABUS ADDENDUM
Approaching a Text Critically: Some Issues to Consider
The comments below are intended to help you cultivate the “habits of the mind” or a
process whereby you approach and critically engage academic text. Some of the most
common challenges in this process as demonstrated in student work involve:
1. The reporting of perspectives within the reading without engaging those
perspectives either by relating them to systems of thought, other writings, or
research.
2. Interpreting the text as a final statement or ultimate authority on a topic rather than
one perspective on or addition to a continuing debate or dialogue.
3. Not attending to the methods or procedures used by the authors to support their
contentions
4. Failing to offer a framework to organize your thoughts (including a thesis,
supporting points etc.) in your analysis.
5. Merely “criticizing” the text(s) rather than “critically engaging” the text(s).
Working through levels of engagement
I.
Establishing the Basis for the Critique: Internal considerations (i.e. internal to the
text)
A. What theories, bodies of research, schools of thought etc. is the author speaking
to? Is she challenging or extending the works or findings to which she speaks?
B. What is the process of investigation? Upon what sources or methods does the
author rely?
C. What is the central argument? What are the important findings?
D. What are the key concepts embedded in the argument?
E. What are the explicit and implicit assumptions of the text?
F. What is the context (e.g. historical, geographical)?
G. What is the level/unit of analysis? (e.g. individual, group, community, state etc.)
H. What are critical characteristics of the unit of study (e.g. a democratic versus a
socialist state; black individuals versus white individuals; heterogeneity vs.
homogeneity; peer group vs. a familial network; social class group vs. racial vs.
gender group etc.)?
II.
Moving to the first level of abstraction: Still working within the text
A. Are there contradictions or inconsistencies in the logic of the argument? If any,
to what might we attribute these contradictions or inconsistencies?
B. Is the argument adequately supported by the evidence?
C. Was the method well suited to the question(s) or problems raised by the
author? If not what is the flaw? Would another method have been more
appropriate? If so, what method and why?
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III.
Moving to the second level of abstraction: Going beyond the text
A. What would be the limitations or the applicability of the argument if we were
considering:
a. A different context?
b. A different unit of analysis and its commensurate characteristics?
B. Do other bodies of literature contradict the argument? What is it about the
quality of the contradicting text that may make its competing thesis compelling
or unpersuasive?
C. Do other bodies of literature support the argument?
D. Do other bodies of literature promise to extend or complicate the argument?
E. What are the policy or political implications of the work?
F. Does the work suggest future directions for research and for the academic field
in which it is situated?
CAUTIONS:
1. While anecdotal evidence is valuable, it should not form the basis from which
you draw conclusions nor should it serve as your primary source of evidence.
2. The use of proper citing procedures marks the intellectual course of your
thought(s). It represents your engagement with the field or body of research.
Your procedures for citing work should be consistent with the Publications
Manual of the American Psychological Association or the American Sociological
Association.
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