Sociology 441: Stratification

Objectives

The last two decades (i.e., the lifetime of most undergraduates) have witnessed an unexpected increase in all types of inequality in the United States (with the important exception of gender). This course will review the facts about these changes in inequality, explore their consequences, and evaluate some of the possible causal explanations .

We emphasize three themes:

• Causal explanations: Why are some people more disadvantaged than others?
• Finding evidence to evaluate explanations: What is the stratification system actually like?
• Micro/macro distinctions: What is the difference between explaining levels of inequality in the whole system and why some people are at at low (or high) level?