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Study Guide for Part I
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Be able to define and discuss stratification/inequalityStratification
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The unequal distribution of the goods of society
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Social inequality
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A system in which people are denied access to the goods of society based on their group membership
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Define, discuss, and give examples of master statusReview master statusRace or ethnicity, sex or gender, age, religion, disability, and SESSES
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S
ocio
e
conomic
S
tatus= income+education+occupation
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Define and discuss SES
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What is SES and how does it impact peoples’ lives?
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The stratification hierarchy
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Where someone is placed in terms of access to wealth, power, and status
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Based on various aspects of their master status
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How does the stratification hierarchy affect
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Racial and ethnic minorities?
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Women?
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Sexual orientation minorities?
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Religious minorities?
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The disabled?
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Define Thomas’s Theorem and explain how it relates to issues of stratification/inequality
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How do our concepts of reality affect the way we judge others?
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Discuss the ways in which the human mind creates social categories
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Define and discuss stereotypes
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How many stereotypes about groups other than your own can you list?
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Are any of these stereotypes true?
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Why or why not?
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How many stereotypes about your own group can you list?
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Are any of these stereotypes true?
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Why or why not?
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Define and describe social differentiation
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Explain and give examples of social positions
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Rankings of roles and statuses
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Explain and give examples of social mobility
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What is the social mobility in your family?
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Define and discuss the various dimensions of and theories of stratification/inequality
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Marx
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Bourgeoisie and Proletariat
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Based on the economic system
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Weber
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The bureaucracy
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Wealth
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A person’s total economic access
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Give an example
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Power
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The ability to influence over resistance
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Give an example
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Status
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The esteem that society gives to social statuses and social roles
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Give an example
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Models of power
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C. Wright Mills:
The Power Elite
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Power is held at the top of society by a handful of people
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Give an example
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Robert Dahl: Pluralistic model
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Power is relatively evenly distributed
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Give an example
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Which model is correct?
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The Davis-Moore Debate
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What are the main points of Davis-Moore’s argument?
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Why do they say that stratification is functional for society?
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Do you agree?
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Melvin Tumin’s response to Davis-Moore
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What are the main points of Tumin’s argument?
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Why does he disagree with Davis-Moore?
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Do you agree with Tumin?
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Be able to discuss the following dimensions of and theories of stratification/inequality
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E. Digby Baltzell: WASP
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Who are the WASPs?
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Are they still “in charge”
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Thorstein Veblen
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Conspicuous Leisure
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Give three modern examples
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Look on
Forbes
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Conspicuous Consumption
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Give three modern examples
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Look on
Forbes
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Oscar LewisCulture of poverty
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What are the main characteristics of the culture of poverty?
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Is the culture of poverty real?
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Charles Murray
Losing Ground
and
The Bell Curve
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What are Murray’s primary arguments?
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Do you agree or disagree?
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William Julius Wilson
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The Truly Disadvantaged
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When Work Disappears
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Hyperghettoization
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What are WJ Wilson’s major arguments?
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What data sources does he use?
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Do you agree with his conclusions?
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Herbert Gans
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The functionality of poverty
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The War against the Poor
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What are Gans’s primary points of argument?
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What are his data sources?
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Do you agree with his conclusions?
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Wealth
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The billionaire’s club
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Who are the richest people in the world and how rich are they?
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What are the most expensive consumer items in the world and who buys them?
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Use the Internet to look at
Forbes Magazine’s
lists
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Use the Internet to find
census data
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What are the richest countries in the world and how does the US compare?Use the Internet to find data
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The CIA World Factbook
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The G8
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What are the richest companies in the world and how do they compare to the economies of countries?
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Forbes Magazine’s
lists
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Use the Internet to find data
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Find and explain data about the demographics of poverty in the US
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Find and explain data about the feminization of poverty
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The Statistical Abstract of the United States
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Use the Internet to find data about women and poverty
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Find information about and explain public policies and poverty programs
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Find and explain data about poverty legislation
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Georgetown Law Library
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The Congressional Record
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Use these sites (
The Statistical Abstract of the United States
;
ACORN Housing
) to find and explain data about inequality in:
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Housing
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Health care
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Home ownership
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Business ownership
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Educational attainment
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Labor force participation
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Find data about the minimum wage vs. the living wage
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What is the minimum wage?
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What are the criteria used to determine what the minimum wage will be?
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Find information about the history of the minimum wage and explain how it relates to the cost of living
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Minimum wage historical chart
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Minimum wages by state
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US Department of Labor Minimum Wage Page
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Find information about the living wage; explain what it is and its ramifications for society
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The Living Wage Resource Center
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The Economic Policy Institute
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Living Wage Calculator
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What is a living wage?
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How would a living wage impact the US economy?
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Look at the
World Demographic “Clock”
and explain what it shows
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What did you learn from this that you did not know before?
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Explain the
US and World Population “Clocks”
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Find data that break down world demographics into percentages.“If the World Were a Village of 100 People.”
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If the World Were a Village of 100 People
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If the World Were a Village of 100 People (2)
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If the World Were a Village of 100 People (YouTube video)
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Define, discuss, and give examples of Infant Mortality Rates, Literacy Rates, Life Expectancy, and GDP/GNP in the richest and poorest nations in the world
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The World Health Organization
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The United Nations
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How do most people perceive World Inequality?
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Why?
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What information is available about world inequality to most people?
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Identify the levels into which the world is stratified and what those levels mean in terms of life chances
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United Nations Summit on World Poverty
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First, Second, Third, and Fourth Worlds
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Define and give examples of:
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First World countries
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Second World countries
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Third World countries
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Fourth World countries
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Find data about and discuss carrying capacity and world hunger
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Define carrying capacity
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In the late spring of 2008, there have been food riots in some parts of the world and food prices in some parts of the world have reached an all-time high
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Find data that explain this
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United Nations Summit on World Hunger
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Discuss the health concerns of First, Second, and Third World countries
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What are their health concerns?
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Who does and does not have access to health care?
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Where does the US rank in terms of access to and quality of health care in the world?
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United Nations: Economic and Social Development
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The World Health Organization
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Find and explain data about the HIV/AIDS epidemic and how it impacts world poverty
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UNAIDS: Joint United Programme on HIV/AIDS
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Human Rights Watch: AIDS
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World Health Organization: AIDS Day Message
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The World Bank: HIV/AIDS in Africa
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Identify and differentiate among the various theories of inequality in the world
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Conquest
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Migration
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Colonialism and Empire
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Neo-Colonialism
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World Systems Theory
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Modernization Theory
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Globalization and Glocalization
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George Ritzer’s McDonaldization theory.
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Thomas Friedman’s “Flat World” theory.
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Find and explain statistical information concerning world stratification/inequality including such statistical referents as Infant Mortality Rates, Literacy Rates, Life Expectancy, and GDP or GNP.
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Find and explain data about the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the ways in which their policies impact global inequality.
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The World Bank
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The International Monetary Fund