Lecture: 2 hours/week
and
Seminar: 2 hours/week
In this course students will engage in a variety of learning activities including attending lectures, participation in class discussions, group discussions, debates, individual and group presentations, reflections, in class reading assignments, group assignments and take-home assignments.
- Introduction to social stratification and inequality
- Critical views on social stratification and inequality
- Social stratification and inequality in local and global contexts
- Social stratification, inequality, and poverty
- Caste, estate, and slavery
- Solutions to social stratification and inequality: Debates on welfare and global aid
- Gender stratification and inequality in a global and local context
- Stratification by race and anti-racism
- Global governance, bilateral agencies, and global stratification
- The World Bank, IMF, and global stratification
- WTO and global stratification
- BRICS and global stratification
- Neo-liberalism, protectionism, and global stratification
- Free trade, fair-trade and global stratification
- Migration, migrants, and social stratification
Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:
- Understand the causes and consequences of social stratification and inequality from a critical sociological perspective.
- Apply sociological theories of social stratification to case studies.
- Understand types and functions of social stratification and inequality at local and global levels.
- Outline key concepts in the study of global and local stratification and inequality including poverty, social mobility, racism, anti-racism, antisemitism, gender, caste and slavery, capitalism, neo-liberalism, and free trade.
- Analyse how resources such as income and wealth are distributed including causes and consequences.
- Outline the roles that powerful states, multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and transnational institutions play in global and local stratification processes.
- Compare forms and types of opposition and resistance to social divisions at local and global contexts.
- Discuss a range of mechanisms and approaches utilized to reduce inequalities at local and global levels.
- Locate, evaluate, and use relevant literature including proper citation and acknowledgement of sources.
Assessment will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. An evaluation schedule is presented at the beginning of the course. This is a graded course.
Example evaluation scheme:
Attendance and class participation (10%)
In-class assignments (20%)
Midterm (20%)
Take-home assignment (20%)
Final exam (30%)
Textbooks and materials are to be purchased by students. A list of required readings, textbooks and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester. Example text:
Platt, Lucinda. 2019. Understanding Inequalities: Stratification and Difference. Latest Edition. Wiley Publishing.
Grusky, David. 2019. Social Stratification: Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. Routledge.