46 Ngo Yet Kieu
Instructor: David Lempert Spring 1985
Course Meetings as Noted in Syllabus
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Undergraduate Specials 38
© David Lempert, 1985
Course Title:
The Unseen America: Qualitative Analysis in Social Science Research and Policy Formation
Short Description:
This course is designed to supplement the traditional quantitative and theoretical social science approach to American public policy problems with an introduction to both qualitative research methods and data. Interdisciplinary readings will be coordinated with field trips to prisons, courts, a mental hospital, an Indian reservation, etc. Preference given to freshmen.
Course Objectives:
The course has three distinct objectives:
1) To introduce students to the methodology, ethical considerations and usefulness of ethnographic analysis.
2) To contrast on-site observations and analysis with written source materials in order to better appreciate the strengths and weakenesses of quantitative and qualitative approaches and means of combining the two in policy analysis.
3) To enrich students' understanding of and appreciation for the diversity of and richness of American society and culture.
Requirements:
Students will be required to:
• Complete assigned readings (approximately 100 pages/week.)
• Attend and participate in weekly discussions.
• Attend weekly field trips. On some weeks, due to scheduling and space limitations on excursions to certain sites, two field trips will be offered and students will have a choice of trips.
• Prepare one ethnographic analysis of a particular site or type of individual in American society. Possibly topics of study include -- fortune tellers, "punks," the homeless, executives. Students will present their work at the end of the term to the Instructor and to three or four other students. Students may choose any medium for presentation of their work -- movie, slide show, written report, taped interviews, etc.
Grading:
This course will be offered on the regular grading options. However, in order to promote the free exchange of ideas in discussion and to encourage intellectual experimentation, grading will be on a contractual rather than on a competitive basis. Grades will be assigned by means of "certification," reflecting attendance at discussions and field trips and completion of the final project.
Course Plan By Week
(Quarter System)
Week Topics
1 A) Introduction: Re-Thinking Traditional Social Science Methodologies
and Assumptions; Re-Thinking Traditional Teaching Methods
B) Introduction to Qualitative Analysis
2 A) Further Considerations on Ethnographic Fieldwork - incl. Ethics
B) Perceptions of America (Course's Antecedents)
3 Native Americans
4 The Workplace (Industrial)
5 The Justice System
6 War and Its Domestic Repercussions
7 Wealth and Poverty
8 The Institutionalized
9 Agriculture
10 Alternative Futures
11 Conclusion
Field Trips and Readings
Week 1: A) Introduction: Rethinking Traditional Social Science
Methodologies and Assumptions; Re-Thinking Traditional Teaching
Methods.
B) Introduction to Qualitative Analysis.
Class Meetings:
Two class sessions. No field trips this week. Optional supplemental session: a detailed look at Tolstoy's discussion of history in context of past and current attempts to model historical processes, including the Instructor's current work.
Readings:
A) Traditional Social Science:
Mark Twain, "Corn Pone Options," "Political Economy"
Lewis Carrol, "The New Method of Evaluation"
Holistic Approaches:
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace -- final two chapters
Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics -- first 50 pages
(Recommended: Douglas Hofstader, Godel, Escher, Bach
Ken Wilbur, The Holographic Paradigm
Thomas Kuhn, The Nature of Scientific Revolutions)
Educational Approaches:
Ted Roszak, People/Planet -- excerpts
Herbert Hoover, Autobiography of Herbert Hoover -- excerpts
(Recommended: Paul Goodman, Growing Up Absurd
Ivan Illich, De-Schooling Society)
B) Qualitative Analysis:
Horace Milner, "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema"
Neil B. Thompson, "The Mysterious Fall of the Nacirema"
James Finley Scott, "Sororities and the Husband Game"
James Spradley, The Ethnographic Interview (skim)
Week 2: A) Further Considerations on Ethnographic Work
B) Perceptions of America - the course's antecedents
Class Meetings: Three class sessions:
1) Topic A, discussion; Also, short visit from County Sheriff's office describing how students can participate in the Civilian Ride Along Program to spend four hours in a county patrol car on-duty.
2) Introduction to Field Work - An Ethnography of the Stanford Graduate School of Business; Class Project - the class will conduct one hour of on-site observation and will then meet to write a 5 page popular article on life observed in the Stanford G.S.B.
3) Topic B, Films - exploring America: Preston Sturge's "Sullivan's Travels," "Easy-Rider")
Readings:
A) Ethics of Field Work:
Michael Rynkiewich and James Spradley, Ethics and Anthopology.
J.A. Barnes, Ethics of Inquiry in Social Science
B) Perspectives of America through the Past Century:
Class Handout
(Recommended: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Franz Kafka, America
Louis Ferdinand Celine, Journey to the End of the Night
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Bill Moyers, Listening to America
John Cheever, "Just One More Time," "The Swimmer")
Week 3: Native Americans
Field Trip: Overnight Visit to Round Valley Indian Reservation, Northern California -- stay with a Wailacki and Yuki family.
Readings: Policy Issues:
Stephen L. Pevar, The Rights of Indians and Tribes - chapter 1
"America's Indians: Beggars in Our Own Land," U.S. News &
World Report.
The Indian Perspective:
Carlos Castanada, Journey to Ixtlan - first 50 pages
(Recommended: John Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks
Richard Luxton, The Mystery of Mayan
Hieroglyphs)
Cross Cultural Issues:
"The Governor of all the Tribes"
"Thinking in Two Tongues"
"The Guilt is in Our Blood"
"Where are We Going?"
"Navajos Resist Forced Relocation"
Field Trip Briefing:
Handbook of North American Indians - excerpts
Handout
Week 4: The American Workplace
Field Trips: Frito Lay Factory, San Jose - meetings with management and
workers.
International Longshoreman Workers Union - loading docks,
northern piers, San Francisco.
Readings: Workplace Issues:
John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society - excerpts
David Riesman, Abundance for What? - excerpt
Ted Roszak, People Planet - excerpt
Studs Terkel, Working - excerpts
Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave - excerpt
Karl Marx - excerpt on "alienation"
Ways of Thinking About Industrial Societies:
Andrei Sakharov, Peaceful Competition - excerpts
John Kenneth Galbraith, The New Industrial State - excerpts
G.D.H. Cole, Guild Socialism - excerpts
History of the Industrial Workplace:
(Recommended: Upton Sinclair, The Jungle
Emile Zola, Germinal)
Week 5 - Justice System in America
Field Trips: Federal Correctional Institute in Pleasanton
Duell Vocational Institute (State Prison)
State Medical Facility in Vacaville
Santa Clara County Municipal Courts
Coroner's Office - City of San Francisco
Readings: Various Handouts on the Legal System and Briefings on Field
Sites
Jessica Mitford, Kind and Unusual Punishment
Erving Goffman, Asylums
Week 6- War and Its Domestic Repercussions
Field Trips: Swords to Plowshares Veterans Organization, San Francisco
Southeast Asian Refugee Resettlement Center, San Francisco
Moffett Field, U.S. Air-Naval Military Installation
Films (In-class): "Toys,"
"The Nisei" (CBS Documentary with Daniel Inouye)
(Recommended: "From Here to Eternity," "Coming Home")
Readings: Theories of Aggression:
(Recommended: Konrad Lorenz, On Aggression
Ashley Montague, Man and Aggression
Desmond Morris, The Human Zoo)
Effects at Home:
U.S. Supreme Court, Korematsu v. United States
I.F. Stone, Kent State
Report on Blacklisting in Radio/Television, Motion Pictures
Gene Oishi article on Japanese Americans, New York Times Mag.
War Stories:
"Why Men Love War," Esquire
William Calley, My Lai: My Story
Week 7 - Wealth and Poverty in America
Field Trips: St. Anthony's Soup Kitchen, San Francisco (lunch)
Canon Kip Homeless shelter, San Francisco
Mansion, Los Altos Hills
Mission High School, San Francisco
Readings: Theory:
John B. Calhoun, "Population Density and Social Pathology,"
Scientific American
John Kenneth Galbraith, "The Heartless Society," The New York
Times Magazine
"Elites":
Ron Rosenbaum, "The Secrets of Skull and Bones"
"Public School or Private" , Yale Alumni Magazine
Marriage Announcements, Sunday New York Times
(Recommended: Peter Meyer, The Yale Murder)
"The Poor"
Claude Brown, "Manchild in Harlem," New York Times Magazine.
Susan Sheehan, A Welfare Mother
"Night's Journey with New York's Homeless," The Village Voice
"Armed Schoolchildren," San Francisco Chronicle
(Recommended: Michael Harrington, The Other America)
Week 8 - The Institutionalized
Field Trips: Napa State Mental Hospital
Readings: (See also, readings on justice system dealing with prisons)
The "Insane"
David Rosenhan, "On Being Sane in Insane Places"
"Shared Illusions in Modern America"
Charles Manson - excerpts from interviews
Sue Estroff, "Making it Crazy: An Ethnography of Psychotic
Clients"
General Policy Issues:
"Human Warehouse," Time (institutions for the retarded)
"Exploiting the Aged," Time
"Wheels of Misfortune," Harpers
(Recommended: William Nolen, The Making of a Surgeon)
Week 9: Agriculture
Field Trips: Family Farm, Hayward
Green Gulch Communal Farm, Marin County
Migrant Labor Camps, Gilroy
Readings: Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina - excerpt
Ted Roszak, Person/Planet - excerpt
Paul Goodman, Like a Conquered Province - excerpt
People or Personnel - excerpt
Packet of Articles - "Real Trouble on the Farm," Time
"Pot Called Nation's Biggest Cash Crop"
Tobacco Industry, etc.
Week 10: Alternative Futures
Field Trips: Overnight in Bolinas
Readings: Briefing:
Charles Reich, The Sorceror of Bolinas Reef - excerpts
"On the Edge," Esquire
"Santa Cruz Struggling with Vestige of its '60's," The New
York Times
Utopias:
(Recommended: Henry Thoreau, Walden
Eugene Zamiatin, We
B.F. Skinner, Walden Two )
Predictions:
Al Toffler, The Third Wave - excerpts
Week 11 - Conclusion
Class Meetings:
Final projects, Party
Final assignment: Place in two sealed envelopes predictions for America, for yourself, and for the futures of the members of the class and the Instructor for 10 years from the current date and 25 years from the current date. Envelopes will be opened at a class reunion at that time.
Readings: Plato, "Parable of the Cave," The Republic
Honore de Balzac, The Wild Ass' Skin - excerpts
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