121 - 130 of 264 results for: SOC

Strategies of environmental movements to contain domestic and foreign corporations that are viewed as major perpetrators of rainforest devastation and the socio-economic degradation of this vast region. Topics: Origins, roles and inter-relations among corporations (zero deforestation agreements in soybean agriculture and cattle ranching), the development of environmental law and the efficacy of government and NGO movements¿ strategies, and whether this emerging economy shapes social classes, groups, tribes, family life to further embed inequality and immobility. This course must be taken for a minimum of 3 units and a letter grade to be eligible for Ways credit.

This seminar considers ongoing work in organization studies through a speaker series featuring Stanford faculty, visiting scholars, and guests from academic institutions throughout North America and elsewhere.

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

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.

The sociological approach to production, distribution, consumption, and markets. The impact of norms, power, social structure, and institutions on the economy. Comparison of classic and contemporary approaches to the economy among social science disciplines. Topics: consumption, labor markets, organization of professions such as law and medicine, the economic role of informal networks, industrial organization -- including the structure and history of the computer and popular music industries, business alliances, the platform economy and capitalism in non-Western societies.

The course examines how the international community has fared in promoting and protecting human rights in the world, with an emphasis on the role of the United Nations. The course will begin with an overview of debates about the state of the international human rights system in the contemporary world, and then examine how international society has addressed the challenges of implementing universal human rights principles in different local contexts across different issues. The specific rights issues examined include genocide, children's rights, labor rights, transitional justice, women's rights, indigenous rights, NGOs, and the complicated relationship between the US and global human rights. The course will feature video conference/guest lecture sessions with leading human rights scholars and practitioners, providing students with unique opportunities to hear their expert opinions based on research and experience.

This course examines a series of topics on the logic of governance in contemporary China. The main theme is on the role of the party state in China and its bureaucracies in organizing China, focusing on a set of institutions and mechanisms, such as variable coupling between the central and local governments, different modes of governance in the government bureaucracy, collusion among local governments, and campaign-style mobilization. Historical and comparative perspectives and empirical studies are used to illustrate the actual practice of governance in China.

(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.

(Doctoral students register for 317B.) This seminar examines scholarship on major political developments in the People's Republic of China during its first four decades. The topics to be explored in depth this year include the incorporation of Tibet and Xinjiang into the new Chinese nation-state during the 1950s, political violence during the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s, and the nationwide political upheavals of 1989.