Mon - Tu Oct 29-30

Week 1  (9/24-28)  Background

Readings:

Online lecture pages:

• Key concepts
• Welfare basics
• Some statistics, concepts dealing with poverty
• More on inequality
• Structural and individual explanations
• Discussion outline
• Discussion outline 2
• Lareau's book, comparing the two schools, child-rearing
• More recent stats

Citations:

Week 2  (10/1-5)  Background, history

Readings:

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

• Kevin Glass. 2012. 47% of voters will vote for Obama no matter what. Sept 17, Townhall.com.
• Tasneem Raja, Jaeah Lee, Dave Gilson, and Dana Liebelson. 2012. You might be the 47% if ... . Sept 18, Mother Jones Magazine.
• Chuck Marr and Chye Ching Huang. 2012. Misconceptions about who pays taxes. Sept 17, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
• 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
• David Brooks. 2012. Thurston Howell Romney. Sept 18, New York Times.
• Video footage:
  • Romney's 47% comments
  • Romney's defense
  • Romney on Fox News
• National Priorities Project (use the budget pie charts to anser the last question on the make-up)

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 (10 out of 30 points). I want to see that you've read them, that you got something meaningful out of them. and were qble to communicate that coherently.

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. 2012. Already more than a lost decade. Sept 12, Economic Policy Institute.

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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 (10/8-12)  The persistence of poverty

Citations

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.
• Associated Press. 2012. Growing support for drug testing of welfare recipients. Feb 25, NY Times.
• Charles 'Cully' Stimson.2008. San Diego prosecutors devise welfare fraud strategy. Feb 4, Heritage Foundation.
• CNN. 2011. Florida law mandates welfare drug tests. June 5, CNN. (video)
• Jason Turner. 2003. States and Advocates for Children Should Hail Sixth Circuit Court Decision Allowing Drug Testing of Welfare Recipients. Feb 19, Heritage Foundation.
• Rachel Sheffield. 2012. Virginia drug tests for welfare recipients and personal responsibility. Feb 17, Heritage Foundation.
• Alex M. Parker. 2011. GOP: Drug tests for unemployment applicants. Dec 9, US News and World Report.
• Brittany Alana Davis. 2012. Florida didn't save money by drug testing welfare recipients, data show. April 19, Tampa Bay Times.
• John Wellington Ennis. 2009. Drug testing for welfare recipients NOW. Mar 27, Huffington Post.
• Aasif Mandvi . 2012. Poor Pee-Ple. Feb 2, The Daily Show. (video)

Citations:

• Ruby Payne.2005 (4th ed). A Framework for Understanding Poverty ('Test your knowledge of the hidden rules of class')
• Sharon Hays. 2003. Flat broke with children. New York: Oxford (Chapter 2, 'Enforcing the work ethic,' pp 32-61) In Blackboard.
• Community Connection of Northeast Oregon. 2012. Community Resource Guide.
• List of practicum contacts (just to give you a sense of the different organizations)

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Week 5  (10/22-26)  Work and family

Citations

Week 6  (10/29-11/2)  Work

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
• Gerald Prante. 2007. Options for funding SCHIP expansion: Cigarette Taxes least defensible alternative. July 13, Tax Foundation.
• American Lung Association. 2010. State of lung disease in diverse communities. Washington, DC: American Lung Association (read pp 91-100)
• Thomas Firey and Jacob Grier. 2007. Children, say 'thank you for smoking.' Nov 8, Tech Central Station. Online at www.cato.org/publications/commentary/children-say-thank-you-smoking
• 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).
• Tobacco Products (check out this page and some of he supporting 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  (11/5-9)  Stigma and invisibility

Readings:

Citations:

Week 8 (11/12 -16) Work

Readings:

Citations:

Week 9 (11/19-20) Expanding the welfare concept

Readings:

Citations:

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Week 10 (11/26 - 30) Welfare reform

Readings:

Citations