111 - 120 of 204 results for: SOC

(Graduate students register for 247.) How have the definitions, categories, and consequences of race and ethnicity differed across time and place? This course offers a historical and sociological survey of racialized divisions around the globe. Case studies include: affirmative action policies, policies of segregation and ghettoization, countries with genocidal pasts, invisible minorities, and countries that refuse to count their citizens by race at all.

(Course is available only to students participating in Stanford's SCPKU study abroad program in Beijing, which is operated by the Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI).) This course is a broad survey of the transformations that have reshaped China since the end of the 1970s, and the prospects for China¿s continued prosperity. The course places China¿s trajectory in comparative perspective¿especially with the other socialist planned economies and East Asian ¿miracle¿ economies. We will examine the political institutions and fiscal and financial systems that have powered a four decade economic drive, and a series of related topics: urbanization, housing privatization, migratory labor, rising inequality, and the emergence of a large urban ¿middle class¿. We will then consider current and prospective challenges to China¿s continued economic rise: an aging population, shrinking labor force, China¿s response to the world financial crisis of 2008 and its lingering consequences. We will end the course by evaluating a range of different views about the challenges facing China¿s continued rise.

Causes and consequences of racial and ethnic conflict, including nationalist movements, ethnic genocide, civil war, ethnic separatism, politics, indigenous peoples' movements, and minority rights movements around the world.

(Graduate students register for 249.) Recent research and theory on the urban underclass, including evidence on the concentration of African Americans in urban ghettos, and the debate surrounding the causes of poverty in urban settings. Ethnic/racial conflict, residential segregation, and changes in the family structure of the urban poor.

(Graduate students register for 251 and 5 units. Undergraduates register for 151 and 4 units.) Comparative analysis of historical, contemporary, and anticipated demographic change. Draws on case studies from around the world to explore the relationship between social structure and population dynamics. Introduces demographic measures, concepts and theory. Course combines lecture and seminar-style discussion.

Our social and physical environments are widely recognized as playing a central role in shaping patterns of health and disease within and across populations. Across disciplines, a key question has been: How does the social environment ¿gets under the skin to influence health? In this course, we will explore how social scientists, epidemiologists, public health experts, and physicians tackle this question. Reflecting both qualitative and quantitative approaches, we will draw on literatures in social science, public health, and medicine to understand the processes through which our environments shape health outcomes. We will examine a number of key social determinants of health, wellness and illness. These determinants include socioeconomic status, gender. race/ethnicity, religious affiliation, neighborhoods, environments, social relationships, and health care. We will also discuss a host of mechanisms through which these factors are hypothesized to influence health, such as stress, lifestyle, and access to health resources. An overall theme will be how contextual factors that adversely affect health are inequitably distributed and thereby fuel health disparities. Through all of this, we will assess the promise of public policy, planning and research for generating more equitable health outcomes across society.

This seminar introduces students to the key literature, questions, and debates about the modern welfare state. Emergence, growth, and purported demise of the welfare state. American welfare state in comparative perspective. Social and political factors affecting state development including political parties, labor markets, gender, demographic change, and immigration.

Family change from historical, social, demographic, and legal perspectives. Extramarital cohabitation, divorce, later marriage, interracial marriage, and same-sex cohabitation. The emergence of same-sex marriage as a political issue. Are recent changes in the American family really as dramatic as they seem? Theories about what causes family systems to change.

After decades of decline, U.S. cities today are undergoing major transformations. Young professionals, Millenials, and members of the creative class are flocking to cities. Massive waves of immigration have transformed the racial and ethnic compositions of cities and their neighborhoods. Public housing projects that once defined the inner city are disappearing, and the recent housing boom and bust shook up the urban landscape. This class will include readings and discussion on contemporary developments in U.S. cities and how they relate to race, ethnicity, and class. Topics include immigration, gentrification, crime, public housing, and the housing crisis.