31 - 40 of 235 results for: SOC

How does a corporation¿s practice of religion affect your employment? How do your personal data become a corporation's private property? How does corporate behavior reinforce the marginalization of certain populations? The answers to these questions have varied as society's conceptualization of corporations evolved from simple, legal fiction to rights and responsibilities similar to those of humans. In this seminar, we critically examine relationships between corporations and citizens, and analyze the idea of corporation as citizen. Through careful reading, discussion, reflection, and writing, you will understand how corporations are socially constructed and in turn regulate social behavior. We will empower each other to thoughtfully question and possibly change our relationships with these major actors in economic sociology.

In this Age of Obama, why are we still talking about legal remedies to racial inequality? This course will explore this question from an interdisciplinary perspective, focusing on perspectives from law and social science. Students will read both actual Supreme Court opinions as well as foundational works in the sociology of race and law. Through readings and discussion, students will leave this course with 1) a background in the historical role of the law in relation to race; 2) an understanding in how law¿s role in the maintenance of racial inequality has evolved; and 3) an ability to articulate their own views on why we are and whether we should be still talking about race, using both theory and empirical evidence to support their views. Specifically, students will be able to answer this question: ¿Is it appropriate for law to attempt to remedy racial inequality?¿

Seminar for advanced undergraduates and all graduate students.

Human trafficking is more than a crime and a human rights violation; it reveals the complex interactions of social norms, policies, and actions. In this course, we will consider norms of sexuality and morality in relation to sex trafficking and consenting sex workers, politics and labor policy in relation to labor trafficking and day workers, and political consumerism as a form of collective action in relation to fair trade. Specific topics include the impact of legalized prostitution on human trafficking, the effects of the annual US-released Trafficking In Persons report on international migrant labor laws, and the question of whether or not fair trade is fair. This seminar will provide students opportunities to think critically about society and to collaborate as researchers and activists on the issue of human trafficking.

(Graduate students register for 217A.) The transformation of Chinese society from the 1949 revolution to the eve of China's reforms in 1978: creation of a socialist economy, reorganization of rural society and urban workplaces, emergence of new inequalities of power and opportunity, and new forms of social conflict during Mao's Cultural Revolution of 1966-69 and its aftermath.

Over the last few years social and economic inequality has become a major topic in the media and public policy. Gaps and inequalities between groups exist across a range of arenas including education, wages and promotions, housing and cultural consumption. In this course we'll bring these big ideas down to the individual level--investigating and analyzing manifestations of inequality in our everyday lives, considering why these inequalities exist and developing strategies to alleviate them. This seminar will call upon students' imagination and analytical savvy to tackle pressing societal problems by considering the dynamics of their own lives. In the process, students will develop skills that can be applied in fields as diverse as public policy, health care, non-profit work and entrepreneurship.

Why social movements arise, who participates in them, the obstacles they face, the tactics they choose, and how to gauge movement success or failure. Theory and empirical research. Application of concepts and methods to social movements such as civil rights, environmental justice, antiglobalization, and anti-war.

The demographic, economic, political, and cultural roots of social change in the 60s; its legacy in the present U.S.

(Graduate students register for 220.) Forming ties, developing norms, status, conformity, deviance, social exchange, power, and coalition formation; important traditions of research have developed from the basic theories of these processes. Emphasis is on understanding basic theories and drawing out their implications for change in a broad range of situations, families, work groups, and friendship groups.