21 - 30 of 228 results for: SOC

Join us for an immersive speaker series that delves into the core of American democracy. Prominent figures from a range of politic, business, foreign policy, academia, and media will analyze the implications of the 2024 elections and the challenges our nation faces. Led by James Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, explore topics such as harnessing the power of AI responsibly, addressing climate change at various levels, strengthening commitments to democracy and voting rights, safeguarding youth from the impacts of social media and technology on mental health, and ensuring accountability for wealth disparities. This series will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the elections and the broader American political landscape.

Today, for the first time in history, a majority of people live in cities. By 2050, cities will hold two-thirds of the world's population. This transformation touches everyone, and raises critical questions. What draws people to live in cities? How will urban growth affect the world's environment? Why are cities so divided by race and by class, and what can be done about it? How do cities change who we are, and how can we change cities? In this class, you will learn to see cities in new ways, from the smallest everyday interactions on a city sidewalk to the largest patterns of global migration and trade. We will use specific examples from cities around the world to illustrate the concepts that we learn in class. The course is intended primarily for freshmen and sophomores.

For too long, societies have treated nature as an inexhaustible resource. As a result, humanity faces a health crisis of planetary dimensions. Unsustainable food systems, global warming, biodiversity loss, pollution, and changing disease ecology are impacting both human lives and the natural systems that support them. Those least responsible for these crises are hit worst and first. The field of human and planetary health seeks solutions that sustain nature while supporting human health. This course highlights the complex interconnections between environment and health and demonstrates how an interdisciplinary, multisectoral approach and systems thinking can help us to find a path forward. Through lectures, discussions, and interactive exercises, students will learn and write about large-scale problems, priority areas of action, and levers for impact. The course may be taken for 3 or 4 units. First- and second-year undergraduates must enroll for 4 units, including a weekly discussion section. More advanced students may choose to take the course for 3 units without a section or 4 units with one. In addition to readings, reflections and other short assignments, all students work through a multi-part assignment to produce a policy brief addressing a human and planetary health challenge. The course is appropriate for students at all levels and from all disciplines.

In this course, we will explore relationships between the environment and society. We will begin with the formation of modern cities, including the forces that shape urban growth and inequality. We follow the "Great Acceleration" period of industrialization into the Anthropocene, or the current period in which humans are the primary drivers of changes to earth systems. Then we turn to research on disasters: what they mean for communities and individuals, what they reveal about pre-existing social conditions, and their implications for a climate-changed era. Lastly, we focus on current climate policies, especially as they relate to environmental management, militarism, water rights, and neighborhood change. This is a reading-based course. Students should expect to complete lengthy readings and be ready to respond to these readings in class each week. The class will culminate with a final paper, in which students apply course materials to a novel case of their choosing.

In this course, students will use data from the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA) to study the patterns, causes, consequences, and remedies of educational inequality in the US. SEDA is based on 200 million test score records, administrative data, and census data from every public school, school district, and community in the US. The course will include lectures, discussion, and small group research projects using SEDA and other data.

In an era of extreme inequality, more Americans are reckoning with and pushing back on systems that have perpetuated the extreme concentration of wealth and power that is held by this nation's white male elite. Such reckoning has led to mass confusion among the privileged about what their role is in advancing social justice. Is it about speaking up, supporting quietly in the background, or getting out of the way? How much income and wealth is enough, for themselves and their children? How do their responsibilities vary based on how many zeros are in theirs bank accounts? In what ways does big philanthropy reproduce inequality, and what alternatives exist? What additional responsibilities do those who have multiple types of privilege ? such as white men ? have in society? What can we learn from historical approaches to these questions (e.g., noblesse oblige), and from historical figures like Stanley Levinson (who was Dr. King's closest white friend and confidant during the civil rights movement) and Hermann Kallenbach (who donated 4,000 acres of land to create a refuge where he lived with Gandhi and other leaders of the nonviolent resistance movement)? When we discuss these questions, we will not seek absolute answers. Instead, we will bring our lived experience and analysis to uncover insights together. Both those who identify as privileged and those who do not are welcome in this course.

20th-century Korea from a comparative historical perspective. Colonialism, nationalism, development, state-society relations, democratization, and globalization with reference to the Korean experience.

Social, cultural, political, economic, and international factors affecting the development and consolidation of democracy in historical and comparative perspective. Individual country experiences with democracy, democratization, and regime performance. Emphasis is on global third wave of democratization beginning in the mid-1970s, the recent global recession of democracy (including the rise of illiberal populist parties and movements), and the contemporary challenges and prospects for democratic change.

In this hybrid course students will examine activism through the lens of community. This course is part of the Community Engaged Learning Course curriculum in the Department of African & African American Studies and will introduce students to community-based organizing, volunteering, and activism. This course will focus on community-ties and how applied African American Studies can be harnessed as a liberatory practice in movements today. Class Organization: This course includes an in-person seminar held once a week and on-site community engagement with a community organization once a week. This is a Cardinal Course designated by the Haas Center for Public Service.