SOC 204:E - Intro to Stratification and Inequality in America

Credits: 5
Variable Credit Course: No

Lecture Hours: 55
Lab Hours: 0
Worksite/Clinical Hours: 0
Other Hours (LIA/Internships): 0

Course Description: Examines the causes and consequences of inequality and social stratification in the United States. The course materials will invite you to think critically about how systems of power and privilege operate with respect to race, gender, sexual orientation, class, disability and age, why valuable resources like income, wealth, health, education and wellbeing are unequally distributed in the United States, and how this inequality is produced and reproduced through the structure of opportunities, differential life chances and social mobility.

Prerequisite: ENGL& 101 with a C or higher.
Distribution Requirements:

Social Sciences Distribution Requirement

General Education Requirements:

Fulfills Think General Education Requirement
Fulfills Engage General Education Requirement

Equity Degree Requirement:

Fulfills Equity Foundation Requirement

Meets FQE Requirement: No
Integrative Experience Requirement: No

Student Learning Outcomes

Analyze sociological works which form part of the literature on poverty with the aim of crafting a broad understanding of poverty, its manifestations, and probable causes.
Use basic sociological terminology and concepts.
Identify prevailing systems of power and one’s individual and group status.
Describe the discipline of sociology in its contributions to understanding the historically and socially constructed nature of human differences and in helping to forge and explanatory science for understanding human interactions and social forces with a focus on power and privilege.
Form conclusions about the evolution of poverty, the role of government, public policy on public assistance and responses to specific cases of poverty based on evidence from the readings, sociological understandings and sociological perspectives.
Distinguish between causation and correlation when examining inequality data such as on household income, poverty threshold calculations, percentage of population below the poverty line, and disaggregated by factors such as race, age, family status.
Become actively involved through discussion and dialogue about impact on our community.
Analyze assumptions, values, and dominant narratives about stratification and social mobility and how these are shaped by one’s individual and group status.
SOCIAL SCIENCES: Explain the variables that influence the structure of cultures and societies.

Course Contents

Economic disenfranchisement
Exploitation of labor and its effects on special populations, e.g., women, children, the elderly and minorities
Sociological analysis and the basic building blocks, methods and theories about poverty and wealth and other forms of inequality in sociology
Historical and social contexts in understanding and interpreting poverty, social mobility, and social differentiation
Examination of historical and institutional oppression in relation to stratified populations and the impact of stratification on racial, ethnic, and gender and other marginalized groups
Policy and strategies to reduce inequality

Instructional Units: 5