Year 2011-12

Social Stratification (21688)

Qualification: Degree in Social Science and Administration
Year: 3rd
Term: 1st
Number of ECTS credits: 4
Hours of student dedication: 100 hours
Teaching language: Spanish
Teacher: Sebastià Sarasa Urdiola

 

1. Introduction to the course

The course is designed for students to gain advanced knowledge on stratification and social mobility theories. 

2. Competences to be achieved

Generic competences:

Ability to analyse and synthesise.

Basic computer skills.

Ethical compromise.

Specific competences:

      Ability to recognise the historical dimension of political and social processes. This competence consists in knowing and interpreting the socioeconomic and political-historical frameworks, as well as the explainable actual unfair background, so as to obtain a better comprehension of the actual reality and a future prospective.

Disciplinary knowledge (to know):

• The theories on social classes in post-industrial societies.
• The sociological texts in order to be able to integrate them in the global interpretative frameworks.
• Their specifications in Spain.

 

Professional knowledge (to know how to):

• Manage documentary sources.
• Interpret political and social phenomenon.
• Establish comparative analysis to compare continuous and discontinuous factors at points of historical change.
• Critically relate current events and processes related to inequalities with those from the past.

 

Capacity to plan, implement, assess and analyse public policies. The course provides useful knowledge to evaluate how the effects of public policies are distributed across inequalities.

Disciplinary knowledge (to know):

• The theories on the analysis of social stratification.

 

Professional knowledge (to know how to):

• Design strategies and action programmes to implement public policies aiming at egalitarian distribution.
• Carry out an evaluation of an public intervention.

3. Contents

Social stratification and the services economy.

Women in the social structure and post industrial stratification.

New tendencies and concepts on social inequality.

Social inter generational mobility.

Inequalities, rent distribution and poverty.

Theories and dynamic research: the concept of life cycles and research on life chances.

4. Assessment

Continuous evaluation based on: working in groups and oral presentations (50%).

Final exam (50%).

5. Bibliography and other resources

5.1. Basic bibliography

David B. Grusky (ed.) Social Stratification Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. Oxford: Westview Press.

Robert Erikson and John H. Goldthorpe (eds.) The Constant flux: a study of class mobility in industrial societies. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Yossi Shavit and Hans-Peter Blossfeld (eds.) Persistent inequality : changing educational attainment in thirteen countries. Bulder: Westview Press.

Breen, Richard (2010) "Educational Expansion and Social Mobility in the Twentieth Century" Social Forces Vol. 89, No. 2: 365-88.

Breen, Richard (with Ruud Luijkx, Walter Müller and Reinhard Pollak) (2009) "Non-Persistent Inequality in Educational Attainment: Evidence from Eight European Countries." American Journal of Sociology, 114 (5), pp. 1475-1521.

Olga Salido (2001) La movilidad ocupacional de las mujeres en España. Por una sociología de la movilidad femenina. Madrid: CIS.

Xavier Martínez Celorrio y Antoni Marin Saldo (2010) Educació i ascens social a Catalunya. Barcelona: Fundació Jaume Bofill. http://www.fbofill.cat/intra/fbofill/documents/publicacions/520.pdf

5.2. Other resources

Basic and specific readings for each seminar.

Data about socioeconomic conditions.

6. Methodology

Lectures and seminars based on readings for each unit.

Applied exercices using the computer and databases.

 

7. Programme of activities

week		Ses	Type	Session contents	Students work during the week
					Learning activity		Hrs in class	Hrs out of class
					In class	Autonomous work
Iª		1	T	Programme presentation and introduction to contents	Pay attention to the explanation and clarify doubts		1
		2	T	Debate about the relevance of social classes	Pay attention to lecture explanations, interpret data and graphs and clarify doubts		2
IIª		3	T	The logic of social stratification: dimensions, causes and effects (I)	Pay attention to lecture explanations, interpret data and graphs and clarify doubts	Preparation seminar 1	1	7
		4	T	The logic of social stratification: dimensions, causes and effects (II)	Pay attention to lecture explanations, interpret data and graphs and clarify doubts		2
IIIª		5	S	Seminar1	Presentation and discussion of reading	Preparation seminar 2	1	7
		6	T	Social Stratification and service economy	Pay attention to lecture explanations, interpret data and graphs and clarify doubts		2
IVª		7	S	Seminar 2	Presentation and discussion of reading	Preparation seminar 3	1	7
		8	T	Women in social stratification and post industrial stratification	Pay attention to lecture explanations, interpret data and graphs and clarify doubts		2
Vª		9	S	Seminar 3	Presentation and discussion of reading	Preparation seminar 4	1	7
		10	T	Inequalities, rent and poverty distribution	Pay attention to lecture explanations, interpret data and graphs and clarify doubts		2
VIª		11	S	Seminar 4	Practice with data used in poverty and inequality indicators	Preparation seminar 5	1	7
		12	T	New tendencies and new concepts in social inequalities	Pay attention to lecture explanations, interpret data and graphs and clarify doubts		2
VIIª		13	S	Seminar 5	Presentation and discussion of reading	Preparation seminar 6	1	7
		14	T	Social inter generational mobility	Pay attention to lecture explanations, interpret data and graphs and clarify doubts		2
VIIIª		15	S	Seminar 6	Presentation and discussion of reading	Preparation seminar 7	1	7
		16	T	Dynamic Theories and investigations: the concept of life cycles and research on life chances	Pay attention to lecture explanations, interpret data and graphs and clarify doubts		2
IXª		17	S	Seminar 7	Presentation and discussion of reading	Preparation seminar 8	1	7
		18	T		Pay attention to lecture explanations, interpret data and graphs and clarify doubts		2
Xª		19	S	Seminar 8	Presentation and discussion of reading		1	7
		20	T		Pay attention to lecture explanations, interpret data and graphs and clarify doubts		2
Hours dedicated: Subtotal							30	56
XIª  XIIª	Hours dedicated to preparing the final evaluation							7 7
TOTAL HOURS								100

Ses: nº of session; Type: type of session, T (theory), S (seminar).