SOCI 330 - Social Inequality

CR: 3
Prerequisite: Open to SOCI majors and others by permission. The study of social inequality focuses on intersections of unequal individual statuses with unequal institutions. This empirical analysis of structural social and economic inequalities pursues answers to these questions: How are distribution of income and wealth changing in the U.S. and the world? What are the causes and results of inequality? To what extent is an individual’s education, occupation, or income independent of one’s socioeconomic origins, gender, race, ethnicity, or age? How do cultural, social, and economic capital account for social mobility during one’s own lifetime or across generations? Are increases in inequality inevitable? How do people understand social classes and trends in social inequality? In what ways are social classes related to how people spend their time and money? How are class-specific life styles changing in relation to consumption of goods and services? V.5, V.7