soc315

SOC 315: Foundations of Social Welfare

Fall 2011

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Schedule

note: dates on calendar are closer than they appear . . .

required texts | academic calendar 2011-12

Week/date	Topic(s)	Readings authors
Week 1 (9/26-30)	Background: welfare, inequality and poverty	Seccombe, Lareau
Week 2 (10/3-7)	Background, history	Fox Piven and Cloward, Gould and Schierholz
Week 3 (10/10-14)	The persistence of poverty	MacLeod; Lareau, Gans
Week 4 (10/17-21)	Welfare programs	Dolgoff and Feldstein; Hays (chp 2)
Week 5 (10/24-28)	Work and family	Hays (chp, 3), Lareau, (chps 4-5)
Mon - Tu Oct 31-Nov 1	Mid-term Exam
Week 6 (11/3-5)	Work	Friday discussion, reflection paper
Week 7 (11/8-11/12)	Stigma and invisibility	Lareau; Hays
Week 8 (11/15-11/19)	Work	Ehrenreich; Mead, Shipler
Week 9 (11/22-11/23)	Expanding the welfare concept	Putnam, Nader
11/24-11/28	Thanksgiving break
Week 10 (11/29-12/3)	Welfare reform	Shipler, Gladwell, Lareau
Finals wk (12/6-10)	Final Exam

Week 1 (9/26-30) Background

Readings:

Karen Seccombe, Families in Poverty. Pearson Education (chapter 1)
Annette Lareau. 2003. Unequal Childhoods. NY: Bloomsbury (pp 14-32)

Citations:

Karen Seccombe. 2007. Families in Poverty. Pearson Education.
Annette Lareau. 2003. Unequal Childhoods. NY: Bloomsbury (pp 14-32)

Optional:

Harold Kerbo. 2003. Social Stratification and Inequality. NY: McGraw-Hill (pp 20-47). Available from Blackboard.

Week 2 (10/3-7) Background, history

Readings:

Fox Piven and Cloward, 'Relief, labor, and civil disorder: An overview. In Blackboard .
Elise Gould and Heidi Shierholtz. 2010. A lost decade. Sept 16, Economic Policy Institute. Online at http://www.epi.org/publication/a_lost_decade_poverty_and_income_trends/

Friday discussion: Your tax dollars. (make-up questions)
Read the following (these are all one or two pages at most):

Wall Street Journal. 2003. The non-taxpaying class. Jan 10, OpinionJournal.com. Online discussion (best I could find!) at http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/958334
Radley Balko. 2003. Tax the poor. Fox News, Apr 9. Online at www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,83696,00.html
Ann Richardson. 2010. Repealing Bush-era tax cuts will have dire consequences. Shore News Today, Sept 19.
National Priorities Project. (You need to check out this site well enough to understand how federal income tax revenue is spent). Income Tax Chart. Also check out Comparison of Presidential budgets (try one from Obama (2010 or 2011), one from pre-Obama).
Andrew Fieldhouse and John S. Irons. 2010. Let the tax cuts for the rich expire. Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal, Aug 17. Online at www.epi.org/analysis_and_opinion/entry/let_the_tax_cuts_for_the_rich_expire/
Program on International Policy Attitudes. 2008. Obama, McCain Supporters Agree Government Responsible For Ensuring Basic Healthcare, Food, and Education Needs. Oct 13, WorldPublicOpinion.org. Online at www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brunitedstatescanadara/553.php?lb=brusc&pnt=553&nid=&id=

Your assignment for Friday: Write a 200-word abstract to turn in. It should be 1/3 summary and 2/3 critical analysis of the articles (all pretty short). The abstract is worth 1/3 of your grade for small group discussions (5 out of 15 points each week). I want to see that you've read them, and that you got something out of them.

Citations

Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward. 1993. Regulating the Poor. New York: Vintage Books. Chapter 1, 'Relief, labor, and civil disorder: An overview.' (pp 3-41) in Blackboard
Elise Gould and Heidi Shierholtz. 2010. A lost decade. Sept 16, Economic Policy Institute. Online at http://www.epi.org/publication/a_lost_decade_poverty_and_income_trends/

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This is our week to discuss theory, in this case a theory posited by Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward about what sorts of forces lead to the development, expansion and contraction of a welfare system/state. If you want a very general idea of how social scientists approach theory, ths page might help put the week in context.

Week 3 (10/10-14) The persistence of poverty

Mon:	Annette Lareau, Unequal Childhoods (pp 38-65) Jay MacLeod. 1995. Social immobility in the land of opportunity. In Blackboard.
Wed:	Gans, Herbert. 1971. The uses of poverty: The poor pay all.
Th/Fr	video: People like Us (here's the opening scene . . . )

Citations

Jay MacLeod. 1995. Ain't no makin' it. Boulder: Westview Press (chapter 1, 'social immobility in the land of opportunity,' pp. 3-10). In Blackboard.
Peggy McIntosh. 1988. 'White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack.' Excerpted from "White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondences through Work in Women's
Studies." Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College Center for Research on Women. Working paper no. 189.
Gans, Herbert. 1971. The uses of poverty: The poor pay all. Social Policy 2:21-23. Available online at www.sociology.org.uk/as4p3.pdf.
Karen Seccombe. 2007. Families in Poverty. Pearson Education (chapter 2, pp 25-49)

Week 4 (10/17-21) Welfare programs

Mon:	Read Hays
Wed:	Hays, chapter 2 (in Blackboard)
Fri	Discussion: To test or not to test?

Friday discussion: To test or not to test? (make-up questions)

Alan Greenblat. 2010. Should welfare recipients get drug testing? Mar 31, National Public Radio. Online at www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125387528
WCHS TV (Elizabeth Noreika reporting). 2010. Former addicts back drug testing bill. Mar 29. Online at www.wchstv.com/newsroom/eyewitness/0903/090325_2cb4b615.shtml (read the short piece and watch the video clip)
Charles Stimson.2008. San Diego prosecutors devise welfare fraud strategy. Feb 4, Heritage Foundation. Online at www.heritage.org/Research/Commentary/2008/01/San-Diego-Prosecutors-Devise-Welfare-Fraud-Strategy
Jason Turner. 2003. States and Advocates for Children Should Hail Sixth Circuit CourtDecision Allowing Drug Testing of Welfare Recipients. Feb 19, Heritage Foundation. www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2003/02/States-and-Advocates-for-Children-Should-Hail-Sixth-Circuit-Court-Decision
John Wellington Ennis. 2009. Drug testing for welfare recipients NOW. Mar 27, Huffington Post. Online at www.huffingtonpost.com/john-wellington-ennis/drug-testing-for-welfare_b_180188.html

Citations:

Ralph Dolgoff and Donald Feldstein. 2003. Understanding social welfare (6th edition). (chp 9). In Blackboard.
Sharon Hays. 2003. Flat broke with children. New York: Oxford (Chapter 2, 'Enforcing the work ethic,' pp 32-61) In Blackboard.

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Week 5 (10/24-28) Work and family

Mon:	Sharon Hays, Flat broke with children (chapter 3)
Wed:	Have read Lareau
Fri	Review/prep for midterm (on Monday and Tuesday)

Citations

Sharon Hays. 2003. Flat broke with children. New York: Oxford (Chapter 3, 'Promoting family values,' pp 62-93).

Midterm, Oct 31-Nov 1

Week 6 (11/2-4) Work

Wed	Discuss welfare philosophy paper
Thur	Living wage in-class activity
Fri	Discussion: Taxing tobacco

On Friday: Taxing tobacco (make up questions)

Readings:

Wendy Koch. 2009. Biggest US tax hike on tobacco takes effect. Apr 3, USA Today. Online at www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2009-03-31-cigarettetax_N.htm
Thomas Firey and Jacob Grier. 2007. Children, say 'thank you for smoking.' Nov 8, Tech Central Station. Online at www.tcsdaily.com/Article.aspx?id=110807A
Michael Pollan. 2009. Big Food vs Big Insurance. Sept 10, NY Times. Online at www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/opinion/10pollan.html?pagewanted=print
Wikipedia. 2009. List of smoking bans in the United States.
Tax Foundation. 2009. State sales, gasoline, cigarette, and alcohol tax rates by state, 2000-2009 (two pages).

Your assignment for Friday: Write a 150-word abstract. It should be 1/3 summary and 2/3 critical analysis of the articles.

Week 7 (11/7-11) Stigma and invisibility

Readings:

Hays, Flat broke with children (chp 7); in Blackboard.
Lareau, Unequal Childhoods (chapters 7 & 11)

Citations:

Sharon Hays. 2003. Flat broke with children. New York: Oxford (Chapter 7, Cultures of poverty)
Annette Lareau. 2003. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press

Week 8 (11/14 -18) Work

Readings:

Ehrenreich, 'Evaluation,' in Blackboard
Lawrence Mead. 'Low wages and hard times.' in Blackboard
David Shipler, 'Money and its opposite' in Blackboard
Friday discussion: Food stamp control

Citations:

Barbara Ehrenreich. 2001. Nickel and Dimed: On (not) getting by in America. New York: Owl Books. pp 193-221. in Blackboard
Lawrence Mead. 1992. The new politics of poverty. New York: Basic Books (chapter 4, 'low wages and hard times,' pp 66-84).in Blackboard

On Friday: Social Security (make up questions)

Social Security Administration fact sheet, basic facts
Vermont Senator Bernard Sanders' bill addressing Social Security
NCPA. 2011. NCPA Study: Social Security reforms that cut benefits may not be all that bad for young workers. Nov 9, PRNewswire.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 2010. Top Ten facts about Social Security. Aug 13, CBPP.
Heritage Foundation. 2011. Saving the American Dream (read pp 11-15).
Harry C. Ballantyne, Lawrence Mishel and Monique Morrissey. 2010. Social security and the deficit: Not cause and effect. Aug 6, Economic Policy Institute.
(optional) Jason Furman. 2005. An analysis of using 'progressive price indexing' to set Social Security benefits. May 2, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Your assignment for Friday: Write a 200-word abstract. It should be 1/3 summary and 2/3 critical analysis of the articles.

Week 9 (11/21-25) Expanding the welfare concept

Readings:

Ralph Nader,'Cutting Corporate Welfare '
Robert Putnam, from Bowling Alone (in Blackboard)

Citations:

Robert Putnam. 2000. Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon and Schuster (chapter 1, 'thinking about social change in America'). in Blackboard
Ralph Nader. 2000. Cutting corporate welfare. NY: Seven Stories Press. Online at www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Nader/CutCorpWelfare_Nader.html

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Week 10 (11/28 -12/2) Welfare reform

Readings:

Shipler (chp 10-11, 285-300) in Blackboard
Malcolm Gladwell (chp 9, 'Marita's Bargain') in Blackboard
Lareau, Unequal Childhoods (pp 233-57)

Friday Discussion: Making connections between concepts, problem solving (questions)

Citations

David Shipler. 2005. The working poor: Invisible in America. NY: Vintage (pp 285-300).
Malcolm Gladwell. 2008. Outliers. NY: Little, Brown & Co.
Annette Lareau. 2003. Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.