Annette Lareau - Department of Sociology



Sociology of the Family

University of Pennsylvania

Sociology 524-001

Spring 2011

Annette Lareau

288 McNeil, 215 898-3515

alareau@sas.upenn.edu

Office hours: Wednesdays 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. or by appointment

The family is a key institution in American society. Family processes intersect and overlap with many other important dynamics of social life. Hence, people who are interested in many other fields including race and ethnic relations, work, education, gender, social-psychology, and social stratification find the study of the family to be useful to them.

This is a graduate course in sociology of the family. The course is a “survey” course in the sense it seeks to provide an overview of key issues in the field. It also seeks to situate the literature on the family in a broader context. Whenever possible, I have used “classic” readings that are likely to surface on lists for comprehensive examinations in a variety of fields. (There is quite a bit of overlap, for example, with the literature on gender.) The course also covers readings in the field of social stratification as we examine the ramifications of poverty and unemployment for family members. Thus, even if you do not see family as a major area of your future research, it is possible that the course could be useful.

Although this is a graduate course, advanced undergraduate students are also members of the course. The expectation, however, is that the “pace” of the course will adhere to graduate standards.

Our class is a seminar– its purpose is to explore together the ideas and themes we are reading about. Each person is an important member of the seminar. For a seminar to work well, it is important that each person complete the reading before class, share his or her thoughts and ideas with the group, help to keep the discussion on track, and monitors the flow of conversation to help produce a discussion where everyone has a chance to speak and no one person dominates the discussion.

One of the hallmarks of a successful graduate student is her or his ability to synthesize knowledge. This course is designed to give students an opportunity to hone their skills of analysis and synthesis. Students will demonstrate their abilities to think synthetically in class discussions and in the writing assignments for the course.

Seminar discussions of the readings:

I will usually begin class with a ten or fifteen minute overview of the field. Then we will discuss the material for about 90 minutes. In the discussion, we will seek to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the argument, the contribution to the field, the nature of the empirical work, and the relationships of the reading to other course materials. To facilitate discussion, each week you will write some discussion points/ reactions to the reading. During five weeks you will write a memo which is not an essay. You may state three questions in bullet points followed by a few sentences of your thoughts. You might include a quote from the reading. What questions are raised by the reading? For the other five weeks you will write a reaction paper where you first summarize the major findings/results/methods/ of the reading. Then you will offer an analysis or interpretation of themes. What contribution do you think that these readings make to the field? What are the weaknesses? Ideally you should organize your discussion around a broader question raised by the readings. These papers are due 24 hours before class (i.e., 3:30 on Sunday). You will email you memo to me. You will do this 10 times during the semester. You may choose which weeks to skip. On the remaining weeks, of course, you will need to complete the reading.

Twice in the semester each of you will have a role of coming prepared with three to five issues, questions, or items that warrant discussion that week. You will help to facilitate the discussion by posing your questions to the group and helping to keep the discussion on track. You do not need to meet ahead of time with the other discussion facilitator. You can think of your role here as helping to move along the conversation so that it stays focused on the key issues, is not derailed, provides a comprehensive discussion of the main issues, and connects with discussions we have had in previous weeks. You will simply ask questions for discussion. You might summarize what others say and raise a tension or conflict that has surfaced in the discussion.

Graduate seminars do not usually have midterms or quizzes; instead the assessment of students’ performance is based on the final paper. Many professors simply assume that student know how to complete all of the steps involved in writing a graduate-level paper. In this class, by contrast, we have a series of small steps that we will do as a group. All of these steps are routinely taken in the process of writing a graduate-level paper. By working through them as a group, however, I believe that you will gain additional insight about the process. In addition, you will have the benefit of getting feedback from your peers. This effort to provide “scaffolding” or social support is intended to provide a role model for professional development. Senior scholars also benefit from informal peer review of their work at all the stages of development. Hence, it is appropriate and helpful to develop social systems so that you have a forum to discuss your ideas with colleagues who can listen carefully and offer constructive suggestions. It is also helpful to be in a writing group to gain feedback on drafts of your work.

There are various aspects of workshops:

Approximately one-third of your class time will be run as a workshop. In the workshop you will discuss your paper project. You will complete a series of exercises designed to help you think through the key elements in a review of the literature. As I explain below, the review of the literature is not a summary of the material. Instead, you will craft an essay where you highlight the intellectual weaknesses in a field of study. Thus, the class is intended to help you develop the skills that are involved in writing the “front part” of a journal article. Good research projects grow out of a careful analysis of the weaknesses of the literature. It is only through the presentation of a critique that readers can see the need for a new study. Thus, an important part of this class is reading and giving feedback to your peers just as they will read your work and give you constructive criticism. These peer interactions help to prepare you for a crucial aspect of future work in the academy: all studies go through peer review.

All important original studies grow out of the current literature. In other words, almost all significant social science studies seek to correct an existing gap, hole, or weakness in the current literature. Sometimes the contributions are focused. Scholars argue that the conceptualizations currently are too rigid, static, incomplete, distorted, and narrow. Other times scholars reject the ways that questions have been framed. They seek an alternative conceptualization.

Another important skill that students need to develop is the capacity to frame a researchable problem. Sometimes students frame problems that are interesting but lack sufficient focus. Other problems are too broad; some intellectual problems are too narrow. An outstanding sociological research problem will focus on a social issue that can be used as a springboard to understand enduring sociological issues. In other words, the focus of the study should be interesting in its own right, but it should also have the potential to make a conceptual contribution to important sociological questions. We will critically assess all of the readings to analyze the strengths and weaknesses in the ways that the authors framed their research problems. We will also frequently revisit the elements of a strong research question.

Required readings:

Risman, Barbara J. (ed). Families as the Really Are 2010. W. W. Norton & Company: New York.

Blair-Loy, Mary. Competing Devotions 2003. Harvard University Press.

Reich, Jennifer A. Fixing Families: Parents, Power, and the Child Welfare System

2005. Routledge: New York.

Stack, Carol. All Our Kin. 1997 Basic Books.

Furstenberg, Frank. Destinies of the Disadvantaged: The Politics of Teen Childbearing

2007. Russell Sage Foundation: New York.

Lareau, Annette. Unequal Childhoods. 2003. University of California Press.

DeParle, Jason. American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation’s Drive to End Welfare 2004. Penguin Books.

Course requirements:

Write a 15-20 page “review of the literature” paper. You will write the paper twice. The paper is due on March 30th. This version needs to be a real paper. It needs to have an argument, a complete citation list, and a full discussion of the issues. This paper will be read by two students. It also will be graded. Based on detailed reviews, you will then do a thorough revision of the paper. You will collect additional sources, recast your argument, and solve problems that the reviewers identify in the piece. The final revised paper is due on May 4th. You also will complete a class presentation of your review of the literature for about 25 minutes; it will be followed by 25 minutes of discussion.

The final paper is worth 55% of your grade. The first draft is worth 25% of your grade. The memos/reaction papers are worth 10% of your grade. The exercises (which are almost all intended to provide support and assistance as you move towards the paper writing process) and class engagement are worth 10%.

Your paper is due on March 30th. You will get feedback from me and from two of your classmates. You will then seriously revise your paper, adding new readings, changing the argument, and clarifying your thesis. Your revised paper is due on May 4th. With the revised paper you will turn in a letter discussing the changes you made according to the feedback of the reviewers. If you are unable to address one of the reviewer’s concerns, you need to discuss this piece too.

** Please Note: Readings are to be completed for the week they appear in the syllabus, but will not be discussed until the following week**

Ex: Parson’s The Social System should be read during Week 1 (January 24th), but will not be discussed until Week 2 (January 31st)

|Week |Readings |Topic of course (note: we |Discussion |Workshop activity |

| | |will discuss the reading | | |

| | |for the previous week in | | |

| | |class). | | |

|January 24th |1) Parsons, The Social System, Chapter 5,| | |Introductions, |

| |Pattern Variables | | |Exercise 1 |

|Week 1 |2) Marx, “The German Ideology,” | | |Steps in the research |

| |3) Nakano Glen, Chapter 5 | | |paper process |

| |4) Collins, Weber on the Family | | | |

|January 31st |1) Degler, “The Emergence of the Modern |What role does the family | |Exercise 2 |

| |American Family” |play in the larger | |Roundtable discussions|

|Week2 |2) Uhlenberg, Peter, “Death and the |society? | | |

| |Family” | | |Guest speaker: |

| |3) Greven, Philip, “Family Structure in | | |Librarian from Van |

| |17th Century Andover, Mass” | | |Pelt |

| |4) Mintz, Huck’s Raft 33-52; 133-184 | | | |

| |5) Selected statistics | | | |

|February 7th |1) Moynihan Report |Family History | |Exercise 3: |

|Week 3 |2) Guttman, Black Family in Slavery and | | |The search for role |

| |Freedom | | |models |

| |3) Steinberg essay Boston Review | | | |

|February 14th |1) Becker, “Terrorized by the Literature”|Family History: | |Exercise 4: |

|Week 4 |2) Risman, Families as they really are |The Moynihan Report, the | |Roundtable discussions|

| |Pp 1-119 |Black Family, | |What path to take? |

| |3) Swartz and Mare |And the role of culture in| |Preliminary sources |

| | |poverty | | |

|February 21st |1) Edin, et al chapter |Marriage | |Exercise 5: |

|Week 5 |2) Cherlin, Future of Family | | |Terrorized by the |

| |3) LaRossa | | |literature: how to |

| |4) Walzer Thinking about Baby | | |narrow? |

| |5) Living with Abusive Men | | | |

| |6) Risman, Chap 16, 17,18-24 | | | |

|February 28th |1) Blair-Loy, Competing Devotions |The shock of children | |Exercise 6: |

|Week 6 |2) Risman, Chap 33-35;36-38 | | |High quality and low |

| | | | |quality reviews of the|

| | | | |literature (bring in |

| | | | |two sample articles to|

| | | | |be discussed in class)|

|Spring Break! | | | | |

| | | | | |

| | | | | |

|March 14th |1) Reich, Jennifer |Work-family conflict | |Presentations begin |

|Week 7 |Fixing Families | | | |

|March |1) Cooper, Securing Strategies |Families and the State | | |

|21st |2) Newman, Falling From Grace ppix to 41;| | | |

|Week 8 |95-142 | | | |

|March 28th |1) Lareau, Unequal Childhoods |Emotional management of |Paper due March 30th |Paper due Wednesday |

|Week 9 |2) Risman, Chapters 25, 27 |poverty and financial | |March 30tht at 5 p.m. |

| |3) Hart and Risley, Chapter 3 |insecurity | | |

|April 4th |1) Furstenberg, Frank, |Class and child rearing | |Exercise 7: Feedback |

|Week 10 |Destinies of the Disadvantaged | | |to others |

|April 11th |1) Stack, Carol All our Kin |Understanding the | | |

|Week 11 |2) McClanahan, Sarah chapter |long-term impact of life | |Exercise 8: |

| |3) Risman, Chap 19 |events | |Turn in list of the |

| | |Guest: Frank F. | |reading you will |

| | |Furstenberg | |complete on the last |

| | | | |week of class. |

|April l8th |DeParle, American Dream |Poverty and the Family | |Exercise 9: |

|Week 12 | | | |Design a study |

|April 25th |Reading selected by each student: |The Family in Context: | | |

|Week 13 |additional articles for your paper or a |Public Policy and Family | | |

| |book or set of articles that you have |Life | | |

| |always wanted to read | | | |

| |May 4th final revised paper due by 4 p.m; please turn in the first version of the paper, the reviews, and your |

| |letter explaining how you responded to the reviews as well as the final paper. Please turn in a hard copy and an a |

| |electronic copy. Please have a title page with an analytic title that highlights your thesis. The paper should be |

| |between 15 and 20 pages in length. |

Exercise 1:

Come to class prepared to answer these questions verbally

1) I am interested in learning more about …………

2) I am interested in this area because……..

3) A book or article that I admire that touches on the study of the family is……….

4) One of the most important areas of family life to understand is…………….

Exercise 2:

Write a memo where you answer the following questions (which you will share in a roundtable discussion in the class and with the entire class).

1) In this class the topic I’d like to study is……………

2) The research question I am interested in learning more about is………….

3) My (superficial) impression so far is that the literature does a better job of ……………than of ………………………………………

4) Broadly conceived, I think that my topic falls under these areas of the family…………………………………..

5) Potential search words might be ………………………………..

Exercise 3: Finding a role model

The purpose of this week’s exercise is to find an article that might serve as a role model. You will find an article and read it. (It doesn’t have to be a perfect role model. It just needs to be an example of one approach.)

Here is what you will do:

1) Find an article that you would like to read (ideally it will be on the family, but it is not essential that it focus on the family)

2) Read it

3) Post it on blackboard for others to see

4) Write a one-page memo where you state the thesis of the piece and the intellectual positions that the author was challenging.

5) You will share this information with the class.

Here are some possible sources:

Jerome Karabel and A. H. Halsey, Introduction to Power and Ideology in Education

Annual review of Sociology

New York Review of Books

An essay written by Malcolm Gladwell or David Brooks in The New Yorker or other articles in The New Yorker

Other sources where someone writes a review of a series of articles or books while making an argument.

Exercise 4:

1) Submit key words

2) Look up the words in the thesaurus and find other key words

3) Generate a list of ten possible sources you could read for your paper

4) Write a one-page memo where you state your key works, restate the topic you are interested in studying, and restate your understanding of your research question and the competing arguments or answers to your research question

Exercise 5:

Discussion of Howard Becker’s book Writing for the Social Sciences, Terrorized by the Literature

How do you focus?

Draw a diagram where you try to describe the different bodies of literature you are trying to discuss. What is more interesting to you? What is core? What is periphery?

Exercise 6:

Bring to class two sample articles. One should be a high-quality article. One should be a low-quality article. You will present these articles. What are the components of quality in a review of the literature?

Exercise 7:

Read two papers written by members of the class. Write a summary paragraph as well as marginal comments. (I will give you a handout guiding your feedback.) Email me your summary comments and track changes that you provided to each author.

Exercise 8:

Turn in a list of articles or a book you will read in the last week of class that would be helpful for you to read.

Exercise 9:

Design a study that you would like to complete on the family. State a general research question. State a general research design. This should be only 2 pages single-spaced. You should not spend a lot of time on this exercise.

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