As you know, on Monday (10/1) we will be taking our second midterm. Your take-home portion of the exam will be due then. The scantron portion of the exam will cover Mooney et al. chapter 6 and lecture notes only.

Midterm 2
Soc 2
Fall 07

Take-home essay questions. In all your answers, make sure you refer to lecture notes when appropriate. Please double-space.


Part 1. Answer any four. Each question is worth 3 points. The suggested length for each answer is two paragraphs.

A. Discuss rankism. How prevalent is rankism? How does this perspective help us to understand social problems such as the various forms of bigotry and school violence? How does it impact those that are perceived as of lower rank?

B. According to Jennifer Hochschild, what are the four tenets of the American dream? What is her assessment of these four tenets? How much social mobility is there in the United States?

C. How stratified is the United States? How much poverty is there in the United States? Compare with other nations. (refer to Iceland and Mooney et al.)

D. Discuss the importance of wealth in transmitting social class. (refer to Shapiro)

E. Discuss the role of the state in explaining poverty in the United States. (refer to Iceland)

F. According to Arlie Hochschild, why did many working class men vote for George W. Bush?


Part 2. Answer any three. Each question is worth 7 points. The suggested length for each answer is one page.

A. How can ghetto poverty be explained? (refer to Iceland)

B. Referring to “A Public Sociology for Human Rights” by Michael Burawoy, discuss the three wave of marketization and the related counter movements.

C. What does Charles Reich mean when he refers to the corporation as invisible government?

D. Referring to “Resurrecting a Civil Society” by Charles Derber, what suggestions does Derber make for resurrecting a civil society? What does Derber mean by the term social market? In your answer, discuss individualism, communism, the free market, and compare the United States with other countries.

E. Referring to “The Global Economy, the Privileged Class, and the Working Class” by Perrucci and Wysong, “The Vanishing Middle Class” by Witte, “Globalization and The Race to the Bottom” by Brecher and Costello, Chapter 6 in Mooney et al., discuss the relationship between globalization, the state, corporations, and inequality in the U.S. and the world.

Read "A Public Sociology For Human Rights" by Michael Burawoy

Be prepared to discuss these questions next week.

What is public sociology?

Discuss Burawoy's analysis of why the U.S. is not more involved in stopping the genocide in Darfur.

What does Burawoy mean when he writes that human rights are an ideology of domination deployed by the U.S. Give examples.

Discuss Burawoy's comparison of the battered wife and suicide bombers. What do you think?

Discuss the three waves of marketization and counter movements.

Read "Let Them Eat War" by Arlie Hochschild.

How does Hochschild explain the popularity of George Bush among blue-collar workers?

Let's discuss this article next week.

Discussion/study guide question for “The vanishing middle-class” by Griff Witte. Be prepared to discuss this article next week.

What is happening to the middle class in America?

Discussion/study guide question for “The global economy, the privileged class, and the working class” by Robert Perrucci and Earl Wysong (2003). Be prepared to discuss this article next week.

How do Perrucci and Wysong understand the moving of factories and jobs from the U.S. by corporations to other countries?

Study guide/discussion questions. Be prepared to discuss these questions next week.

19. Reich: The Corporation as Invisible Government (8)

What is the managerial system? Describe it.

22. Derber: Resurrecting Civil Society (8) Possible

What does Derber mean by the term social market?

Study guide/discussion questions for Brecher and Costello: "Globalization and The Race to the Bottom." Be prepared to discuss these questions next week.

How does Brecher and Costello describe global capitalism?

What are some negative consequences of this economic system?

Read "Poverty in the United States" for Monday.

What are the four common theories that explain the transfer of poverty? Which model makes the most sense to you?

How might the geographical concentration of poverty be explained?

How might global poverty be explained?

Compare poverty in the US to other developed countries. Why do you think that the poverty rate in the US is so high?

Read "Inheritance and Privilege" for Monday.

What is the relationship between parental support, including inheritance, and socioeconomic status?

Think about your life and the lives of people that you know. How has financial support from others, or the lack of it, affected your life?

Be prepared to discuss "What's wrong with the American Dream?" on Monday.

What are the four tenets of the American dream? Discuss the flaws.

How is the ideology of the American dream related to stratification and poverty in the United States?

Do you believe in the American dream? Do you agree or disagree with Hochschild's assessment of the American dream?

Be prepared to discuss "Somebodies and Nobodies" on Monday.

What is rankism?

How can Fuller's discussion of rankism help us to understand social problems?

How have you experienced rankism in your life, both as victim and perpretator?

Soc 2
Fall 07
midterm 1, take-home essay questions

Take-home essay questions for midterm 1. Must be typed and double-spaced. Must be turned in on the day of the midterm before the start of the exam. Answer all four parts.

Part 1. Referring to our discussions in class, chapter 1 in Mooney et al., “An Introduction to the Study of Social Problems” by Charon, and “How do we Decide what are Social Problems?” by Gusfield, answer the following questions: What is a social problem? Discuss functionalism, the conflict theories (Marxism, the varieties of feminism, the anti-racist perspective) and symbolic interactionism in understanding social problems. (This part is worth 15 points.)

Part 2. Referring to our discussion in class and “Comparative Perspectives and Competing Explanations: Taking on the Newly Configured Reductionist Challenge to Sociology" by Troy Duster, compare the sociological perspective to biological ways of knowing in studying social problems. (This part is worth 8 points.)

Part 3. Referring to our discussion in class and from your reading of “Seeing the Population Issue Whole” by Meadows, answer the following questions: Discuss the sociological imagination and its application in understanding social problems. Discuss how each perspective mentioned in the article demonstrates the sociological imagination and/or lacks the sociological imagination. (This part is worth 8 points.)

Part 4. How is the sociological imagination demonstrated in “A Climate Culprit In Darfur” by Ban Ki Moon? (This part is worth 4 points.)