SOCIAL CLASS COMPREHENSIVE EXAM READING LIST
SOCIOLOGY (PHD)
Kent State University – University of Akron
MAJOR
THEORY
Bourdieu, Pierre. 2001. “Distinction.” Pp. 499-525 in David Grusky (ed.), Social
nd
Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder,
CO: Westview Press.
Chase -Dunn, C., and P. Grimes. 1995. “World Systems Analysis.” Annual Review of
Sociology 21: 387-417.
Dahrendorf, Ralf. 1959. Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society. Stanford U. Press.
Davis, Kingsley and Wilbert Moore. 1945. "Some Principles of Stratification." American
Sociological Review 10:242-249.
Durkheim, Emile. 2001."The Division of Labor in Society." Pp. 178-83 in David Grusky
nd
(ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. 2
Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Erickson, Robert and John H. Goldthorpe. 1992. The Constant Flux. Oxford:Clarendon
Press, pp.35-47.
Giddens, Anthony. 2001."The Class Structure of the Advanced Societies." Pp. 152-82 in
David Grusky (ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological
nd
Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Gramsci, Antonio, 1971. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. New York: International.
Grusky (ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective.
nd
2 Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001.
Kingston, Paul W. 1994. “Are There Classes in the United States?” Research in Social
Stratification and Mobility: 13: 3-41.
Lamont, Michele and Lareau, Annette. 1988. Cultural Capital: Allusions, Gaps and
Glissandos in Recent Theoretical Developments. Sociological Theory 6(2), 153-168.
Lenski, Gerhard. 1984. Power and Privilege. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North
Carolina Press.
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Marx, Karl. Pp. 87-105 in David Grusky (ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and
nd
Gender in Sociological Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001.
“Alienation and Social Classes”; “Classes in Capitalism and Pre-Capitalism”; “Ideology
and Class”; “Value and Surplus Value.”
Parkin, Frank. 2001. "Marxism and Class Theory: A Bourgeois Critique." Pp. 162-77 in
David Grusky (ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological
nd
Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Poulantzas, Nicos. 1982. “ On Social Classes.” Pp. 101-111 in Classes, Power, and
Conflict: Classical and Contemporary Debates, edited by Anthony Giddens and David
Held. Berkeley: U of California. [Abridged from New Left Review, 1973, vol 78.]
Reskin, Barbara F. 2003. "Including Mechanisms in Our Models of Ascriptive
Inequality." American Sociological Review 68:1-21.
Sallaz, Jeffrey J. and Jane Zavisca. 2007. “Bourdieu in American Sociology, 1980-2004.”
Annual Review of Sociology 33: 21-41.
Sorensen, Aage B. 2000. “Toward a Sounder Basis for Class Analysis” American Journal
of Sociology 105:1523-1591 (includes responses by Wright, Goldthorpe, and
Rueschmeyer & Mahoney).
Sorenson, Aage B. 2001. “The Basic Concepts of Stratification Research: A Review,
Update, and Critique.” Pp. 287-300 in David Grusky (ed.), Social Stratification: Class,
nd
Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Swartz, David. 1997. Culture & Power: the Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press. -- Chapter 4: Bourdieu's Political Economy of Symbolic
Power.
Tumin, Melvin M. 2001. “Some Principles of Stratification: A Critical Analysis.” Pp. 6573 in David Grusky (ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological
nd
Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2007. “The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist
System: Concepts for Comparative Analysis.” Pp. 580-595 in Sociological Theory in the
Contemporary Era, edited by Scott Appelrouth and Laura Desfor Edles. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Pine Forge.
Weber, Max. 2001. Pp. 132-52. in David Grusky (ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race,
nd
and Gender in Sociological Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
“Class, Status, Party”; “Status Groups and Classes”; “Open and Closed Relationships”;
“The Rationalization of Education and Training.”
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Wright, Erik O. 1985. “The Biography of a Concept: Contradictory Class Locations.” Pp.
19-6 in E. O. Wright, Classes. London: Verso.
Wright, Erik O. 1997. Class Counts. NY: Cambridge University Press, Chapters 1 and 3.
Wright, Erik.O. (ed.). 2005. Approaches to Class Analysis. NY: Cambridge University
Press.
STATUS ATTAINMENT – MOBILITY
Blau, Peter M. and Otis Dudley Duncan, with Andrea Tyree, “Measuring the Status of
Occupations.” Pp. 255-259 in David Grusky (ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and
nd
Gender in Sociological Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001.
Social Class Comprehensive Examination Reading List 3
Blau, Peter M. and Otis Dudley Duncan, with Andrea Tyree. “The Process of
Stratification.” Pp. 390-403 in David Grusky (ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and
nd
Gender in Sociological Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001.
Elman, Cheryl; O'Rand, Angela M. 2004. “The Race Is to the Swift: Socioeconomic
Origins, Adult Education, and Wage Attainment.” American Journal of Sociology, 110,
1, July, 123-160
Ganzeboom, Harry B. G., et al. 1991. “Comparative Intergenerational Stratification
Research: Three Generations and Beyond.” Annual Review of Sociology 17: 277-302.
Goldman, Robert, and Ann Tickamyer. 1984. "Status Attainment and the Commodity
Form." American Sociological Review 49: 196-209.
Grusky, David, and Robert Hauser. 1984. “Comparative Social Mobility Revisited:
Models of Convergence and Divergence in 16 Countries.” American Sociological Review
49:19-38.
Horan, Patrick. 1978. "Is Status Attainment Research Atheoretical?" American
Sociological Review 43: 534-541.
Mare, Robert D. “Observations on the Study of Social Mobility and Inequality.” Pp. 477488 in David Grusky (ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological
nd
Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001.
Portes, Alejandro. 1998. “Social Capital: Its Origins and Applications in Modern
Sociology.” Annual Review of Sociology, 24:1-24.
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Sewell, William H., et al. “The Educational and Early Occupational Attainment Process.”
Pp.410-421 in David Grusky (ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in
nd
Sociological Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001.
Warren, John Robert and Robert M. Hauser. 1997. “Social Stratification Across Three
Generations: New Evidence From the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study.” American
Sociological Review 62:561-572.
Western, Mark. 1994. “Class Structure and Intergenerational Class Mobility: A
Comparative Analysis of Class and Gender.” Social Forces 73: 101-134. Includes two
comments:
Kingston, Paul. 1996. “The Implications of Intergenerational Class Mobility for
Class Theory: A Comment on Western.” Social Forces 75:323-27.
Western, Mark. 1996. “Intergenerational Mobility and Class Theory: A Reply to
Kingston.” Social Forces 75:329-334.
POWER, POVERTY, AND WEALTH
Aponte, Robert. 1990. "Definitions of the Underclass: A Critical Analysis." Pp. 117-37 in
Sociology in America: American Sociological Association Presidential Series, edited by
Herbert Gans. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Bianchi, Suzanne. 1999. “Feminization and Juvenilization of Poverty.” Annual Review of
Sociology 25: 307-334.
Corcoran, M. 1995. “Rags to Riches: Poverty and Mobility in the U.S.” Annual Review of
Sociology 21:237-267.
Domhoff, G. William, 2010. Who Rules America? Challenged to Corporate and Class
Dominance. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Gans, Herbert. 1972. “The Positive Functions of Poverty.” American Journal of
Sociology 78: 275-289.
Johnson, Allan. 2006. Privilege, Power, and Difference. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Keister, Lisa and Stephanie Moller. 2000. “Wealth Inequality in the United States.”
Annual Review of Sociology. 26, 63-81.
Massey, Douglas S., and Nancy A. Denton. “American Apartheid: Segregation and the
Making of the Underclass.” Pp. 660-670 in David Grusky (ed.), Social Stratification:
nd
Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder, CO:
Westview Press, 2001.
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Mills, C. Wright. “The Power Elite.” Pp. 202-211 in David Grusky (ed.), Social
nd
Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder,
CO: Westview Press, 2001.
Newman, Katherine, and R. P. Massengill. 2006. “The Texture of Hardship: Qualitative
Sociology of Poverty, 1995-2005.” Annual Review of Sociology 33:423-446,
Oliver, Melvin and Thomas Shapiro. 1995. “Wealth and Inequality in America,” and “A
Story of Two Nations: Race and Wealth.” Pp. 67-90 and 91-125 in Black Wealth / White
Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality. New York: Routledge.
Piven, Francis Fox, and Richard Cloward. 1971. Regulating the Poor. NY: Pantheon
Books.
Seccombe, Karen. 2000. “Families in Poverty in the 1990s: Trends, Causes,
Consequences and Lessons Learned.” Journal of Marriage and the Family, 62, 10941113.
Spilerman, Seymour. 2000. "Wealth and Stratification Processes." Annual Review of
Sociology 26:497-524.
Wolff, Edward. 1995. Top Heavy: The Increasing Inequality of Wealth in America and
What Can Be Done About It. NY: The New Press.
Wright, E. O. 1994. “The Class Analysis of Poverty.” Pp. 32-50 in Interrogating
Inequality: Essays on Class Analysis, Socialism, and Marxism. London: Verso.
REPRODUCTION: EDUCATION, CULTURAL CAPITAL, AND
SOCIALIZATION
Aries, Elizabeth and Maynard Seider. 2005. “The Interactive Relationship Between Class
Identity and College Experience: The Case of Lower Income Students.” Qualitative
Sociology 28, 4, 419-43.
Bowles, Samuel, and Herbert Gintis. 1976. Schooling in Capitalist America. NY: Basic
Books, Chapters 4-5.
DiMaggio, Paul. 1982. Cultural Capital and School Success: The Impact of Status
Culture Participation on the Grades of U.S. High School Students. American Sociological
Review 47(2), 189-201.
Erickson, Bonnie H. 1996. "Culture, Class, and Connections." American Journal of
Sociology 102:217-251.
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Kao, Grace and Jennifer S. Thompson. 2003. “Racial and Ethnic Stratification in
Educational Achievement and Attainment.” Annual Review of Sociology 29: 417-442.
Lareau, Annette. 2003. Unequal childhoods : class, race, and family life. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Lareau, Annette and Dalton Conley (Eds.). 2008. SOCIAL CLASS: How Does It
Work? New York: Russell Sage.
McLeod, Jay. 2009. Ain’t No Making It: Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-Income
Neighborhood 3rd Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Persell, Caroline Hodges and Peter Coockson Jr. 1985. “Chartering and Bartering: Elite
Education and Social Reproduction.” Social Problems. 33(2): 114-39.
Stuber, Jenny M. 2005. “Asset and Liability? The Importance of Context in the
Occupational Experiences of Upwardly Mobile White Adults.” Sociological Forum
20(1)” 139-66.
Turner, Ralph. 1960. "Sponsored and Contested Mobility and the School System."
American Sociological Review 25(6): 855-867. (ALSO IN David Grusky (ed.), Social
nd
Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder,
CO: Westview Press, 2001.)
Veblen, Thorstein. “The Theory of the Leisure Class.” Pp. 491-498 in David Grusky
nd
(ed.), Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. 2
Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001.
WORK
Althauser, Robert. 1989. “Internal Labor Markets.” Annual Review of Sociology 15:143161.
Baron, James and William Bielby. 1980. "Bringing the Firms Back In: Stratification,
Segmentation, and the Organization of Work." American Sociological Review 49:737-65.
Beck, E. M., et al. 1978. "Stratification in a Dual Economy." American Sociological
Review 43: 704-720.
Braverman, Harry. 1982. "Capitalism and the Division of Labor." Pp. 148-156 in Classes,
Power, and Conflict: Classical and Contemporary Debates, edited by Anthony Giddens
and David Held. Berkeley, CA: University of California.
Burawoy, Michael. 1979. Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process under
Monopoly Capitalism. Chicago: University of Chicago.
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Edwards, Richard. 1979. Pp. 16-22, 25-7, 30-6, 113-5, 122-9, 130-52 in Contested
Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the Twentieth Century. New York:
Basic Books.
Kohn, Melvin. 1969. Class and Conformity. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press.
Maume, David J. 2004. "Wage Discrimination over the Life Course: A Comparison of
Explanations." Social Problems 51:505-527.
Newman, Katherine S. 1988. “Rejected Managers and the Culture of Meritocracy.” Pp.
42-94 in Falling From Grace: The Experience of Downward Mobility in the American
Middle Class. New York: Free Press.
Newman, Katherine and Catherine Ellis. 1999. “There's No Shame in My Game": Status
and Stigma among Harlem's Working Poor. Pp 151-181 in The Cultural Territories of
Race: Black and White Boundaries, edited by M. Lamont. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Piore, Michael. 1975. "Notes for a Theory of Labor Market Segmentation." Pp. 125-71 in
Labor Market Segmentation, edited by Richard Edwards, Michael Reich, and David
Gordon. Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath.
Reskin, Barbara. 1988. "Bringing the Men Back In: Sex Differentiation and the
Devaluation of Women's Work." Gender & Society 2: 58-81.
Reskin, Barbara, Debra McBrier, and Julie Kmec. 1999. “The Determinants and
Consequences of Workplace Sex and Race Composition.” Annual Review of Sociology
25: 335-361.
Sennet, Richard, and Jonathan Cobb. 1973. The Hidden Injuries of Class. New York:
Vintage Books.
Smith, Michael. 1990. “What’s New in the ‘New Structuralist’ Analysis of Earnings?”
American Sociological Review 55:827-841 (see following comment by Sorenson).
Stark, David. 1980. “Class Struggle and the Transformation of the Labour Process: A
Relational Approach.” Theory and Society 9:89-130.
GENDER, RACE, AND CLASS
Acker, Joan. 1990. “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations.”
Gender & Society 4: 139-158.
Bonacich, Edna. 1972. “A Theory of Ethnic Antagonism: The Split Labor Market.”
American Sociological Review 37: 547-559.
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Elo, Irma T. 2009. “Social Class Differentials in Health and Mortality: Patterns and
Explanations in Comparative Perspective. Annual Review of Sociology 35:553-572.
Feagin, Joe and Clairece Booher Feagin. 1978. "Institutionalized Discrimination." Pp. 1941 in Discrimination American Style: Institutional Racism and Sexism. Malabar, FL:
Robert E. Krieger.
Lamont, Michele. 1999. “Above ‘People Above’? Status and Worth Among White and
Black Workers” pp. 127-150 in The Cultural Territories of Race: Black and White
Boundaries. Michele Lamont (ed). 1999. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Leicht, Kevin T. 2008. “Broken Down by Race and Gender? Sociological Explanations
of New Sources of Earnings Inequality.” Annual Review of Sociology 34:237-255.
McQuillan, Julia and Myra Marx Ferree. 1998. "Gender-Based Pay Gaps: Institutional
Versus Individual Models." Gender & Society 12(1): 7-39.
Pearce, Diana. 1993. “Something Old, Something New: Women’s Poverty in the 1990s.”
Pp. 79-97 in American Women in the Nineties: Today’s Critical Issues, edited by Sherri
Matteo. Boston: Northeastern University.
Reskin, Barbara and Patricia Roos. 1987. "Status Hierarchies and Sex Segregation." Pp.
3-23 in Ingredients for Women's Employment Policy, edited by Christine Bose and
Glenna Spitze. Albany, NY: State University of New York.
Small, Mario Luis; Newman, Katherine. 2001. “Urban Poverty after The Truly
Disadvantaged: The Rediscovery of the Family, the Neighborhood, and Culture.” Annual
Review of Sociology. 2001, 27, 23-45.
Sorenson, Annemette 1994. “Women, Family, and Class.” Annual Review of Sociology.
20:27-47.
Wilson, William Julius. 1980. “The Declining Significance of Race; Blacks and
Changing American Institutions.” Pp. 611-623 in David Grusky (ed.), Social
nd
Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. 2 Edition. Boulder,
CO: Westview Press, 2001.
LEGITIMACY AND CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS
Collom, Ed. 2001. “Social Inequality and the Politics of Production: Identifying
Potential Supporters of Economic Democracy.” Sociological Forum 16(3): 471-501.
Della Fave, Richard. 1980. “The Meek Shall Not Inherit the Earth: Self-Evaluation and
the Legitimacy of Stratification.” American Sociological Review 45:955-971.
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Jackman, Mary R., and Robert W. Jackman. 1983. Class Awareness in the United States.
Berkeley: University of California Press.
Johnson, Cathryn, Timothy J. Dowd, and Cecilia L. Ridgeway. 2006. “Legitimacy as a
Social Process.” Annual Review of Sociology 32: 53-78.
Kerbo, Harold. 2003. “The Process of Legitimation.” Pp. 418-446 in Social Stratification
and Inequality: Class Conflict in Historical, Comparative, and Global Perspective.
Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Klugel, James, and Eliot R. Smith. 1986. Beliefs about Inequality. New York: Aldine de
Gruyter.
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