Ellen Reese
Department of Sociology
University of California, Riverside
Office: Watkins Hall 1217
Mail room: Watkins Hall 1211
Phone: 951-827-2930
E-mail: ellen.reese@ucr.edu
Office Hours: Tu/Th 2:10-3:40pm.
HASS 102: The McSweeny-McCauley Seminar:
Community and Labor Issues in the Inland Empire
Course Description: This seminar will address current issues affecting working class
people and the local community in the context of the global economic crisis, including
problems of poverty, unemployment, labor exploitation, nativism, and environmental
racism. Through hands-on service learning assignments, we will also explore how local
unions and community organizations are seeking to address these issues and the
challenges and opportunities they face for empowering workers and residents and for
achieving social justice.
Assignments and Grading Basis:
Attendance and participation: 15%
Weekly journals on readings: 25%
Oral presentation on reading: 10%
Research Project: 50%
a.
Rough draft of research paper: 10%
b.
Fieldnotes/Observation report: 10%
c.
Oral Presentation on Research Project: 5%
d.
Final research paper: 25%
Grading Scale:
100-98: A+
93-97: A
90-92: A-
87-89: B+
83-86: B
80-82: B-
77-79: C+
73-76: C
70-72: C-
67-69: D+
63-66: D
60-62: D-
>60: F
Assignments:
Note: No late assignments will be accepted unless you receive permission from the
professor before the deadline. Unless excused by the professor, late assignments will be
penalized. Only medical or personal emergencies, verified with a doctor’s note or other
documentation, will be considered grounds for granting an extension on a deadline for an
assignment. All requests for extended deadlines must be made by or before the original
deadline.
Class Attendance & Participation: Your attendance and participation is a vital part of
the course. Attendance is mandatory and will be taken during lecture. You are expected
to do the reading assignments before class and to contribute to class discussion. If you
must miss a class because of an illness or family emergency, you must provide
documentation to your professor as soon as possible to excuse it.
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Weekly journals on readings: You are required to turn in a reflection paper (1.5-2
pages, typed, double-spaced) on the readings assigned each week. These reflection papers
should briefly summarize the main points in the reading and provide your evaluation of
the author’s arguments and/or research.
For students with last names beginning with A-M, weekly journal assignments are due
every Tuesday. For students with last names beginning with N-Z, these assignments are
due every Thursday.
Oral presentation on reading: You are required to make a brief, 10-minute oral
presentation on your assigned reading. Your presentation should do the following (1)
briefly review the main points of reading; (2) discuss the evidence presented by the
author for their argument(s); (3) present at least two questions or comments about the
reading for discussion.
Research Project: A description of this assignment (including the instructions for the
rough draft, fieldnotes/observation report, oral presentation, and final paper) will be
passed out during class.
Students with disabilities:
If you need accommodations because of a disability, if you have emergency medical
information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building
must be evacuated, please inform me immediately. Please see me privately after class or
in my office. To request academic accommodations (for example, a note taker), students
must register with the campus office called “Services for Students with Disabilities” (125
Castro Hall, 951-827-4538). This office is responsible for reviewing documentation
provided by students requesting academic accommodations, and for accommodations
planning in cooperation with students and instructors, as needed and consistent with
course requirements.
Films: You are responsible for viewing all film or film clips shown during the lecture
and there will be exam questions on these. If you have to miss a lecture, you can view
the film at the Media Library (HMNSS 1001; 951-827-5606).
Course Web Site (http://ilearn.ucr.edu): I will post reminders of upcoming deadlines,
overheads for lectures, handouts, grades, and other materials on this web site. The
overheads will simply provide a summary of the topics covered in lecture and definitions
of key terms, but do not provide a full set of notes for this class. To use this website, you
must use your student account. Unless you changed them, your password usually is your
student identification number and your login is usually your campus e-mail name (before
@student.ucr.edu) or the first five letters of your last name plus your first initial. If you
need help with using this website, you can contact the help desk
(helpdesk@student.ucr.edu or 951-827-6495).
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Required readings:
(1) All readings marked with an asterisk (**) are available through the library’s
electronics reserve service. The password for this course is: “organize”;
(2) Other readings are available through the World Wide Web; when applicable, the
website for viewing them is included below.
Part 1: The Context: Regional Development & Politics
Week 0-1: Course Introduction; The Development of a Region
Thursday, 9/22: Introduction to Course: **Davis, Mike. 1990. “Chapter 7: Junkyard
of Dreams,” City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage
Books. (focus on pages 375-403)
Tuesday, 9/27: **Davis, Mike. 1990. “Chapter 7: Junkyard of Dreams,” City of Quartz:
Excavating the Future in Los Angeles. New York: Vintage Books. (focus on pages 403435).
Thursday, 9/29: **DeLara, Juan. 2009. “Chapters 1 and 4” Pp. 1-6 and 95-113 in
Remapping Inland Southern California: Global Commodity Distribution, Land
Speculation, and Politics in the Inland Empire. Ph.D. Dissertation. Department of
Geography, UC Berkeley.
Week 2: The U.S. Labor Movement & the Goods Movement Industry: Challenges &
Opportunities
Tuesday, 10/4: **Fantasia, Rick and Kim Voss. 2004. “Chapter 1: Why Labor Matters:
The Underside of the ‘American Model,’” Pp. 1-33 in Hard Work: Remaking the
American Labor Movement. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
P.J. Huffstutter. 2011. “Grocery Workers Give Notice to End Contract Extension.” Los
Angeles Times, September 16. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-grocery-labor-strike-20110916,0,7063079.story
Thursday, 10/6: Bonacich, Edna and Juan David De Lara. 2009. “Economic Crisis and
the Logistics Industry: Financial Insecurity for Warehouse Workers in the Inland
Empire.” UC Los Angeles: Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. Available
on the World Wide Web. http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8rn2h9ch
**Warehouse Workers United and Deogracia Cornelio. 2011. “Shattered Dreams and
Broken Bodies: A Brief Review of the Inland Empire Warehouse Industry.” Pages 1-13.
Optional reading: LIUNA. N.d. “The Human Price of Building a Home: Why
Homeowners, Investors, and the Public Should Care About the Safety Record of Building
Materials Holding Company.” Washington DC: LIUNA. Available on the World Wide
Web: http://www.liuna.org/portals/0/docs/safetyreport.pdf
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Week 3: The U.S. Labor Movement & the Goods Movement Industry: Challenges &
Opportunities
Tuesday, 10/11: **Fantasia, Rick and Kim Voss. 2004. “Chapter 4: Practices and
Possibilities of a Social Movement Unionism,” Pp. 120-159 in Hard Work: Remaking the
American Labor Movement. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Thursday, 10/13: Meyerson, Harold. 2009. “The Shipping Point.” The American
Prospect, July 16. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_shipping_point
**Allen, Nicholas. 2010. “Exploring the Inland Empire: Life, Work, and Injustice in
Southern California’s Retail Fortress.” New Labor Forum 19(2): 36-43.
Meyerson, Harold. 2010. “Holding Wal-Mart Accountable.” The American Prospect,
September 10. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=holding_wal_mart_accountable
Optional reading: Warehouse Workers United. 2009. “Media Kit: New Worker
Movement Battles Retail Giants and Depression-like Conditions in California’s Inland
Empire” (and other materials and press releases). Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.warehouseworkersunited.org/fileadmin/userfiles/WWU_Media_Kit.pdf
Week 4: Struggles for Environmental Justice in the Inland Empire
Tuesday, 10/18: **Newman, Penny. 2009. Environmental Justice and Intervention
Program. Riverside, CA: Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice
(pages i-iii; 1-26).
Thursday, 10/20: Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. 2010.
“Environmental Issues: Protecting the Real World and You,” Available on
http://www.ccaej.org/environmental-issues.html. Please read all of the articles under “Air
Quality,” and the “Goods Movement.”
Patel, Sejal. 2010. “From Clean to Clunker: The Economics of Emissions
Control.”Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.laane.org/downloads/FromCleantoClunkerReport.pdf
**Nguyen, Daisy. 2010. “Truckers to Fight Clean Air Ruling.’ San Bernardino Sun,
August 28, pp. 1-2.
Week 5: The Economic/Financial Crisis and the Foreclosure Crisis
Tuesday, 10/25: Cioffi, John W. 2010. “The Global Financial Crisis: Conflicts of
Interest, Regulatory Failures, and Politics.” Policy Matters. 4(1): 1-11.
http://policymatters.ucr.edu/pmatters-vol4-1-fincrisis.pdf
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Pages 1-7 & 31 in California Budget Project. 2011. “On the Edge: California’s Workers
Still Face the Toughest Job Market in Decades.” Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.cbp.org/pdfs/2011/110903_On_The_Edge.pdf
Lee, Don, Noam Levey, and Alejandro Lazo. 2011. “U.S. Poverty Totals Hit a 50-Year
High.” Los Angeles Times, September 14.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/14/business/la-fi-poverty-census-20110914
Thursday, 10/27: Estrada, Vanesa. 2009. “The Housing Downturn and Racial
Inequality.” Policy Matters, 3(2): 1-11. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://policymatters.ucr.edu/pmatters-vol3-2-housing.pdf
Public Accountability Initiative and Alliance of Californians for Community
Empowerment. 2011. “All the Foreclosures Money Can Buy: How Wall Street is
Spending Millions to Buy Influence in California.” Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.calorganize.org/sites/default/files/All%20the%20Foreclosures%20Money%2
0Can%20Buy.pdf
Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, PICO California, California
Reinvestment Coalition, and SEIU California. 2011. “Home Wreckers: How Wall Street
Foreclosures Are Devastating Communities.” Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.calorganize.org/sites/default/files/Home-Wreckers-Report-March-162011.pdf
Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and the California Reinvestment
Coalition. 2011. “The Wall Street Wrecking Ball: What Foreclosures are Costing Our
Neighborhoods.” Snapshot with Key Findings in All 5 Cities. Available on the World
Wide Web:
http://www.calorganize.org/sites/default/files/Wrecking%20Ball%20Snapshot.pdf
Optional reading:
LIUNA and Alliance for Home Buyer Justice. 2009. “Cruel Hope: The Abusive Practices
of Homebuilders and their Mortgage Subsidiaries in California.” Washington DC:
LIUNA. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.liuna.org/portals/0/docs/armsreport.pdf
Week 6: The Economic Crisis, Unemployment & Public Sector Cutbacks
Tuesday, 11/1: The New Bottom Line. 2011. “The Win/Win Solution: How Fixing the
Housing Crisis Will Create 1 Million New Jobs.” Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.calorganize.org/sites/default/files/One%20Million%20Jobs_0.pdf
LIUNA. N.d. “A Multi-Billion Dollar Bailout for Those at Fault: Corporate
Homebuilders, the Housing Crash, and the Mortgage Crisis.” Washington DC: LIUNA.
Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.liuna.org/portals/0/docs/reportupdatehousingcrisis.pdf
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Thursday, 11/3: Pages 1-6 only in: Williams, Erica, Michael Leachman, and Nicholas
Johnson. 2011. “State Budget Cuts in the New Fiscal Year are Unnecessarily Harmful.”
Washington DC: Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3550
Pages 1-3 only in California Budget Project. 2011. “Governor Signs 2011-12 Spending
Plan.” Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.cbp.org/documents/110630_201112_Spending_Plan.pdf
California Budget Project. 2011. “Policy Basics: Where Do California’s Tax Dollars
Go?” Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.cbp.org/pdfs/2011/110728_Where_Do_State_Tax_Dollars_Go_pb.pdf
Yamamura, Kevin. 2011. “California Lowers Taxes, Raises Fees.” The Sacramento Bee,
July 24. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/24/3790500/california-lowers-taxes-raises.html
Amaro, Yesenia. 2011. “UC students face steep fee hikes.” Merced Sun Star, September
15. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2011/09/15/2044662/uc-students-could-see-moretuition.html
Klein, Ezra. 2011. “Is California’s Past America’s Future?” The Washington Post with
Bloomberg, July 4. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/is-californias-past-americasfuture/2011/07/04/gHQAfbo4xH_story.html?hpid=z10
Week 7: Immigration, Day Laborers, & Immigrant Rights
Tuesday, 11/8: National Immigration Forum. 2003. “Top 10 Immigration Myths and
Facts.” Available on the World Wide Web:
http://daylaborinfo.org/Documents/MythsandFacts.pdf
Gonzalez, Arturo. 2007. “Day Labor in the Golden State.” California Economic Policy
3(3): 1-21. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://daylaborinfo.org/Documents/Public%20Policy%20Institute%20of%20CaliforniaDa
y%20Labor%20in%20the%20Golden%20State.pdf
Optional Reading: Valenzuela, Abel, Nik Theodore, Edwin Melendez, Ana Luz
Gonzalez. 2006. “On the Corner: Day Labor in the United States.” Available on the
World Wide Web.
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/issr/csup/uploaded_files/Natl_DayLabor-On_the_Corner1.pdf
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Thursday, 11/10: National Day Labor Organizing Network. N.d. “Building Community:
The Components of a Day Labor Worker Center Model.” Available on the World Wide
Web (http://www.ndlon.org/resources/buildingcommunity.pdf)
Cooper, Jonathan J. 2009. “Budget Woes, Recession Challenge Day Labor Centers.”
Associated Press, April 2. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99QTKM81&show_article=1
Jacinita Gonzalez. 2009. “Voices from the Frontlines of the Economic Crisis.” May 13.
Written Congressional Testimony, Reproduced by the Institute for Policy Studies.
Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.ipsdc.org/articles/voices_from_the_frontlines_of_the_economic_crisis_jacinta_gonzalez
Semple, Kirk. 2008. “With Economy, Day Laborer Jobs Dwindle.” The New York Times,
October 19. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/nyregion/20laborers.html?_r=1&ref=day_laborers
Week 8: Immigrant Rights & Civic Engagement
Tuesday, 11/15: Immigrant Justice Network. 2010. “Dangerous Merger: Corrupting the
Criminal Justice System for Immigration Enforcement.” Available on the World Wide
Web: http://uncoverthetruth.org/wp-content/uploads/IJN-Dangerous-Merger-Primer.pdf
Carroll, Susan. 2010. “ICE Expands its Jail Print Program All Along the Border.” The
Houston Chronicle, August 13. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://raidreport.blogspot.com/2010/08/ice-expands-its-jail-print-program-all.html
Ajay Chaudry, Randy Capps, Juan Manuel Peroza, Rosa Maria Caseneda, Robert Santos,
and Molly M. Scott. 2010. “Executive Summary,” pp. vii-xii in Facing our Future:
Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement. Washingtodn DC: The Urban
Institutee. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412020_FacingOurFuture_final.pdf
May 1st Coalition of the Inland Empire. 2010. April 28 Media Advisory. Available on the
World Wide Web:
http://uncoverthetruth.org/media/press-releases/coalition-challenges-localimplementation-of-controversial-secure-communities-program/
Thursday, 11/17: Ramakrishnan, Karthick, Dino Bozonelos, Louise Hendrickson, and
Tom Wong. 2008. “Inland Gaps: Civic Inequalities in a High Growth Region.” Policy
Matters 2(1): 1-19. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://policymatters.ucr.edu/pmatters-vol2-1-civicinland.pdf
Optional Reading: **Chapter 1 (pages 1-19), Chapter 2 (pages 23-44), Chapter 9 (pages
184-204) and Chaper 12 (pages 261-272) in Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward.
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2000. Why Americans Still Don’t Vote and Why Politicians Want It That Way. Boston:
Beacon Press.
Optional reading: Silverman, Carol, Arleda Martinez, and Jarnie Rogers. 2009. “The
Inland Empire Non-profit Sector: A Growing Region Faces Challenges of Capacity.” San
Francisco: University of California, San Francisco, Institute for Nonprofit Management.
Available on the World Wide Web:
https://folio.iupui.edu/bitstream/handle/10244/371/inlandempire_report.pdf
Week 9: Voting Trends & the Political Context
Tuesday, 11/22: **Pp. 1-7, 13-15, 17, 45 in America’s Voice. 2010. “The Power of the
Latino Vote in America.” March Update. Also available on the World Wide Web:
http://amvoice.3cdn.net/4ba66e6c2fc10e2815_oqm6ivx8z.pdf
Olson, David. 2008. “Voting Trends Among Inland Empire’s Asian-Americans Bucks
State Trends Small Survey Finds.” The Press Enterprise, October 15. Available on the
Word Wide Web:
http://naasurvey.com/news_assets/pressenterprise.pdf
Bezis, Jason A.. 2008. “Obama’s Historic Win in California.” The California Majority
Report, November 8. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://www.camajorityreport.com/index.php?module=articles&func=display&ptid=9&aid
=3854
Decker, Cathleen. 2010. “California Went Its Own Way.” Los Angeles Times, November
4. Available on the World Wide Web: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/nov/04/local/lame-california-20101104
For 2010 Election Results for California Districts, see:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/2010_Elections/California
Langer, Gary. 2010. “Exit Polls: Economy, Voter Anger Drive Republican Victory.”
ABC World News, November 2. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/vote-2010-elections-results-midterm-exit-pollanalysis/story?id=12003775
ABC News. 2010. The Frustration Index: What’s Bugging America. Press Release, June
8. Available on the World Wide Web
(http://abcnews.go.com/images/PollingUnit/Frustration_Index.pdf)
Optional reading:
State of California Citizens Redistricting Commission. 2011. Final Report on 2011
Redistricting. August 15. Available on the World Wide Web:
http://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/downloads/meeting_handouts_082011/crc_20110815_2fina
l_report.pdf
Thursday, 11/24: Thanksgiving Holiday
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Week 10:
Tuesday, 11/29: Catch up and review; discuss class presentations & final research papers
Thursday, 12/1: Class presentations on research projects
Finals Week:
Friday, 12/9 at 12pm: Final research paper due
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