Sociology 12
Ron Lembo
Spring, 2011
Amherst College
Self and Society
Readings
Readings marked with an asterisk will be distributed in class or available via electronic reserve.
Conley, Dalton. 2010. Being Black, Living in the Red: Race, Wealth, and Social Policy in America. Berkeley,
CA: University of California Press.
Davis, Mike. 2006. Planet of Slums. New York: Verso.
Edin, Kathryn and Maria Kefalas. 2005. Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put Motherhood Before
Marriage. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Lemann, Nicholas. 2000. The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy. New York: Farrar,
Strauss, and Giroux.
Sennett, Richard. 2006. The Culture of the New Capitalism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
All books are on reserve at Frost Library and available for purchase at Amherst Books, 8 Main Street,
Amherst.
Course Requirements
There will be three papers (the first five pages, the second five to seven pages, the third seven to ten
pages). Attendance is required and class participation will be a factor in the determination of your
final grade.
Approximate Schedule
Weeks 1-5, January 25 – February 24
Readings:
*Beller, Emily and Michael Hout. 2006. “Intergenerational Social Mobility: The United States in
Comparative Perspective.” Opportunity in America 16(2): 19-36. Princeton, NJ: The Future of
Children (accessed online at
http://futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/journals/journal_details/index.xml?j
ournalid=35 on January 24, 2011).
*Thernstrom, Stephan. 1969. “The Dimensions of Occupational Mobility.” Poverty and Progress: Social
Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City. New York: Atheneum.
Conley, Being Black, Living in the Red, 25-42.
Lemann, The Big Test.
*Astin, Alexander W. and Leticia Oseguera. 2004. "The Declining "Equity" of American Higher
Education." The Review of Higher Education 27(3): 321-341.
*MacLeod, Jay. 1995. “Social Reproduction in Theoretical Perspective.” Ain't No Makin' It:
Aspirations and Attainment in a Low-income Neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
*Karabel, Jerome. 2005. “The Battle over Merit.” The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and
Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. 2004. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Paper #1 due Friday, March 4
Weeks 6-7, March 1-10(Spring break is March 12-20)
Readings:
Edin and Kefalas, Promises I Can Keep.
*Goffman, Alice. 2009. “On the Run: Wanted Men in a Philadelphia Ghetto.” American Sociological
Review 74(3): 339-357.
Weeks 8-9, March 22-31
Reading:
Conley, Being Black, Living in the Red.
Paper #2 due Monday, April 4
Weeks 10-11, April 5-14
Reading:
Sennett, The Culture of the New Capitalism.
Week 12-13, April 19-28
Reading:
Davis, Planet of Slums.
Week 14, May 3-5.
Wrap up.
Paper #3 due Tuesday, May 10
2