Course Syllabi

The following are sample syllabi personally constructed reflecting material covered in my doctoral studies, that is, youth and risk in the urban setting. The syllabi have been conceived as to present the reality of escalating risk within its urban and theoretical contexts. Students are familiarized with various schools of thought and interpretations of the crisis. In particular, the two syllabi introduce students to the urban context and the social context, the latter looking at heightened levels of vulnerability in relation to central social domains and their attendant institutions. Particular attention is given to the family, school, peers, the carceral state, welfare retrenchment and the dismantling of the public sphere.

Sample Syllabus

Sociology of Youth: Navigating Urban Peripheries

Rising levels of inequality, domestically and globally, has meant rising levels of individual and social risk. This course explores the meaning of risk in its various manifestations while focusing on youth as an increasingly vulnerable population. The subject of vulnerable youth is explored in relation to the shifting social topography of America’s cities. How do socio-economic changes, including the polarization of different classes, have a ripple effect in the reorganization of communal, social and political institutions? Themes to be explored in the class include how socially disadvantaged youth experience e and navigate urban risk in its various institutional, cultural, social, political and economic manifestations. The course combines key contributions in the study of urban sociology in considering theoretical frameworks through which to consider youth risk, including: Chicago School, human ecology, the LA school, and network theory. By assessing the relative merits of various theories, we will work towards providing a comprehensive account of youth risk in the contemporary neoliberal city.

Readings in this course will present various approaches to answering questions about the nature of risk, whether it is should be considered individual-based or socially anchored in what is late modern society. Readings in this course reflect various approaches to answering this central question including those of: Douglas Massey, Loic Wacquant, Pauline Lipman, Mike Dear and Steven Flusty, Mike Davis and Henry Giroux. Students are expected to engage in a critical reading of the author’s arguments.

Measurable Student Learning Outcomes:

At the completion of the course, students will be able to

§ Define key trends in youth risk.

§ Evaluate key sociological theories addressing urban relations and change.

§ Position youth within the city in relation to these theoretical frames.

§ Distinguish between the role of economic, political, social and cultural factors streaming through the lives of youth, while considering their ‘intersectionality’.

Description of Major Assignments and Papers:

1. LITERATURE REVIEW: students will write a literature review on their topic as relates to urban risk and youth. (20 points)

2. PEER REVIEW: students will engage with their peers to review each others’ drafts of the literature review (a good literature review is important in writing a solid policy or scholarly proposal.) Students will respond to the peer review having considered the model literature review provided. (20 points)

3. POSTER BOARD: creative use of poster board will be used to facilitate class presentations on a key concern related to youth risk as outlined in the syllabus. (20 points)

4. FINAL PAPER: 5-8 page essays answering a specific question or concern as relates to youth risk as outlined in the syllabus. (20 points)

ASSIGNMENT #1 : POSTER BOARD

Overview of a particular issue related to youth risk. Identify the issue using either programmatic/policy and sociological frames.

Sociological inquiry involves considering both the social context and the policy implications of any particular issue or problem. This being the case, it is often necessary to move between economies of scale, to consider the relation between micro, mezzo and macro material and ideological forces. Think of an issue or problem in the field of youth risk that you are interested in, and prepare a poster board class presentation.

ASSIGNMENT #2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Overview of a particular issue related to youth risk. Identify the issue using some combination of programmatic/policy and sociological frames.

In order to appreciate the challenges in correcting for any one issue or problem facing today’s youth requires knowing something about its origins and its evolution. For instance, was it the result of market forces, resource scarcity, community disengagement or bad policy? Provide a broad overview through a 5-8 page literature review presenting the current debates, from different perspectives of the causes of the problem or issue. Provide at least five new literature sources that help you make your argument.

ASSIGNMENT #3: PEER REVIEW and REVISION

Everybody sees the strengths and weaknesses of a piece of writing differently (which is part of the reason that we should not lose sleep over not being able to reach everyone on level ground though still doing the best we can). An extra pair of eyes on your work is an invaluable tool. Literature reviews will be peer reviewed based on a format that I will provide. An excellent literature review of urban sociology will be used as a model.

ASSIGNMENT #4: FINAL PAPER

With your literature review and peer review behind you, you are ready to embark on a final paper addressing the issue of your choice.

Your final paper should not be more than 8 pages in length, providing a brief literature review, while exploring the issues, debate, positions, likely future trends and interventions in greater detail.

Some things that you might want to consider in your presentations and papers:

Causes: What are some factors that have contributed to the problem? Is there more than one? Is it a confluence of factors and forces or some kind of intersectionality of forces? (You may want to do some digging on the internet - make sure you cite your sources and databases.)

Frequency: Which youth are experiencing this particular problem or contending with this particular issue the most? Is this phenomenon randomly distributed across class, race and gender lines? If not, why not?

Repercussions: Is society as a whole impacted and if so, how is it impacted? When thinking about social repercussions, where do you draw the line at the ‘edge’ of the social, or society?

Comparison: How does this compare with conditions in the past? In other countries? What do these other examples tell us about the potential repercussions of such a problem or issue in our neighborhoods, communities or nation?

Intervention: What are some viable forms of intervention? What forms of intervention have been tried in the past? Is this a problem that has largely been passed over due to more pressing issues or it is one receiving a great deal of attention in programmatic circles?

Course Requirements:

Attendance: To attend the entire class session every week. In class activities and discussion are an integral part of our learning together.
Participation: To participate in class discussion and all activities. The expectation is that you will engage intellectually and conscientiously with the course readings, share your views of key concerns and issues brought into class discussion.
Assignments: Be prepared, know the material. Add to class’s understanding of the issues, submit all assignments on the due date (late assignments are docked one letter grade for every day after the due date.)
Academic Integrity: Don’t plagiarize! It isn’t worth it. Think the material over. Formulate your own words and your own thoughts on the issue. We need critical thinkers – not copy editors! (Plagiarism is checked through use of on-line programs.)
Electronic Submission Requirement: Remember to turn in an electronic copy by the due date for all assignments.

Course Materials:

Required

Giroux, Henry. 2003. The Abandoned Generation: Democracy Beyond the Culture of Fear. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Macleod, Jay. 1987. Ain’t No Makin’ It. Boulder: Westview Press.
Lipman, Pauline. 2004. High Stakes Education. New York: Routledge.
Wacquant, Loic. 2008. Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality. Cambridge: Polity Press.

CLASS Reader includes:

Articles and Reports

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1986. ‘The Forms of Capital.’ In Lauder, Brown and Wells (Eds.), Education: Culture, Economy and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bursik, Robert. 1988. ‘Social Disorganization and Theories of Crime and Delinquency: Problems and Prospects.’ Criminology. 26(4): 519-550.

Crane, Jonathan. 1991. ‘The Epidemic Theory of Ghettos and Neighborhood Effects on Dropping Out and Teenage Childbearing.’ The American Journal of Sociology. 96 (5): 1226-1259.

Coleman, James. 1966. Equality of Educational Opportunity. U.S. Government Printing Office. Summary Report, (3-23).

Coleman, James S. 1988. ‘Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital.’ American Journal of Sociology, Supplement: Organizations and Institutions: Sociological and Economic Approaches to the Analysis of Social Structure. 94: 95–120.

Dear, Michael and Steven Flusty. 1998. Postmodern Urbanism. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 88(1): 50-72.

Dear, Michael. 1998. ‘The Premature Demise of Postmodern Urbanism.’ Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 88(1): 50-72.

Elliott, Delbert et al., 1996. ‘The Effects of Neighborhood Disadvantage on Adolescent Development.’ Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. 33(4) 389-426.

Giroux, Henry. ‘Disposable Youth in a Suspect Society.’ Truthout www.truthout.org/112508A.

Hagan, John. 1991. ‘Destiny and Drift: Subcultural Preferences, Status Attainment, and the Risks and Rewards of Youth.’ American Sociological Review. 56(5): 567–82.

Hull, Glynda and Katherine Schultz. 2001. Literacy and Learning Out of School: A Review of Theory and Research. Review of Educational Research. 71:575-605.

Hull, Glynda and Jessica Zacher. 2009. Youth, Risk and Equity in a Global World: Review of Research in Education. 33:117-159.

Coleman, James. 1966. The Equality of Educational Opportunity Study (EEOS), aka The Coleman Report. Commissioned by the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Coleman, Roy. 2003. Images from a Neoliberal City: The State, Surveillance and Social Control. Critical Criminology. 12: 21-42.

Kemshall, Hazel. 2008. ‘Risks, rights and Justice: Understanding and Responding to Youth Risk.’ The National Association for Youth Justice. 8(1) 21-37.

Low, Seth. 1996. The Anthropology of Cities: Imagining and Theorizing the City. Annual Review of Anthropology. 25: 383-409.

Orfield, Gary. 2004a. “Minority Youth Left Out.” In Gary Orfield (Ed.) Dropouts in America: Confronting the Graduation Rate Crisis. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.

Orfield, Gary et al. 2004b. Losing Our Future: How Minority Youth Are Being Left Behind by the Graduation Rate Crisis. A joint release paper by The Civil Rights Project at Harvard, The Urban Institute, Advocates for Children of New York and The Civil Society Institute.

Rumberger, Russell W. 2008. Why Students Drop Out of School: A Review of 25 Years of Research. A paper prepared for the California Dropout Research Project.

Small, Mario. Reconsidering Culture of Poverty. NPR Broadcast. October 20, 2010.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130701401

Smith, Neil. 1999. ‘Which New Urbanism? The Revanchist 1990s.’ Perspecta. (30) 98-105.

Vanketesh, Sudhir. 1997. The Social Organization of Street Gang Activity in an Urban Ghetto. American Journal of Sociology. 103(1) 82-111.

Wacquant, Loic and Wilson, W. J. 1989. ‘The Cost of Racial and Class Exclusion in the Inner City.’ Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 501: 8-25.

Wacquant, Loic. 1996. ‘The rise of Advanced Marginality: Notes on its Nature and Implications.’ Acta Sociologica. 39(2) 121-139.

Wacquant, Loic. 1997. ‘Three Pernicious Premises.’ International Journal of Urban and Regional Planning. 21(2) 341-353.

Wilson, James and George Kelling. ‘Broken Windows: The Policy and Neighborhood Safety.’ The Atlantic Monthly. March 1982.

Book Excerpts:

Bowles, Samuel and Herbert Gintis. 1976. Schooling in Capitalist America. London: Routledge and Kegan.

Cloward, Richard and Ohlin, Lloyd. 1964. Delinquency and Opportunity: A Theory of

Delinquent Gangs. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe.

Davis, Mike. 1992. “Fortress Los Angeles.” In Sorkin, Mike. Variations on a Theme Park. Canada: Harper Collins Press.

Davis. Nanette. 1999. Youth Crisis. Connecticut: Praeger Press.

Fine, Michelle. 1991. Framing Dropouts. New York: State University Press.

Katz, Cindy. 2004. Growing Up Global. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.

Katz, Michael. 1993. The Underclass Debate. Chicago: Princeton University Press.

Males, Mike. 1996. Scapegoat Generation. Maine: Common Courage Press.

Massey, Douglas and Nancy Denton. 1994. American Apartheid. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Murray, Charles. 1984. Losing Ground. New York: Basic Books.

Portes, Alejandro and Ruben Rumbaut. 2001. Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Sassen, Saskia. 2006. Cities in a World Economy. London: Pine Forge Press.

Wilson,W. J. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Videos

Kerner Commission 40 Years Later. Bill Moyer’s Journal, March 28, 2008. PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03282008/profile.html

Bastards of the Party. Documentary of LA’s notorious Bloods and Crips.

Recommended Readings

Urban Sociology

Smith, David A. 2005. ‘The New Urban Sociology Meets the Old: Rereading Some classical Human Ecology.’ Urban Affairs Review. 30(3): 432-457.

Suttles, Gerald. 1968. The Social Order of the Slum. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gotham, Kevin. 2003. ‘Toward an Understanding of the Spatiality of Urban Poverty: The Urban Poor as Spatial Actors.’ International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 27(3) 723-737.

Youth risk

Anyon, Jean. 1997. Ghetto Schooling. New York: Teachers College.

Oakes, Jeannie. 2005. Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality, Second Edition. Yale University Press. (See Chap 1-2).

Orfield, Gary and Nancy McArdle. 2006. The Vicious Cycle: Segregated Housing, Schools and Intergenerational Inequality. A paper prepared by the Civil Rights Project of Harvard University.

Willis, Paul. 1977. Learning to Labor. New York: Columbia Press.

Matza, David. 1965. Delinquency and Drift. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.

Unit 1: 'Who' or 'What' is at Risk in the New Urbanism?

Risk has become a popular refrain in the social sciences, for instance, “risky” behavior, youth “risk” or social “risk”. What is risk and how do we recognize it in society? Is the individual at greater risk than at other periods in history or is the society itself at risk? For that matter, what is “society”? If the individual is at risk, why let such risk and risky behavior continue? Why not intervene through successful programs? If society is at risk, how did it get to such a state of instability and uncertainty? Can anything be done to stop it?

OBJECTIVES: From Section 1 students should be able to identify key indicators of social risk, explain the historical context of these trends, define key terms such as “underclass”, “risk”, “social marginality”, “social exclusion”, compare different perspectives as to the nature of risk, classify explanations of youth risk in terms of culture, political economy and globalization.

Week 1 – Trends: The Normalization of the Underbelly

Kemshall, Hazel. Risks, rights and Justice: Understanding and Responding to Youth Risk. ®

Males, Mike. Scapegoat Generation, selections. ®

Davis, Nanette. Youth Crisis, selections. ®

Youth risk trends: homelessness, uninsured, unemployed, dropouts, inarceration, prostitution, drug consumption, health risk, and deep poverty ®

Week 2 – Historical developments: Splintered Accounts of Downward Mobility

Coleman, James. Equality of Educational Opportunity. ®

Murray, Charles. Losing Ground, selections. ®

Katz, Michael. The Underclass Debate, selections. ®

Giroux, Henry. The Abandoned Generation: Democracy Beyond the Culture of Fear. Entire.

* Kerner Commission, Video 40 year anniversary, Bill Moyers Journal.

Week 3 – Risk : The Limits of the Individual/behavioral—to—Local/Environment Explanatory Field

Crane, Jonathan, The Epidemic Theory of Ghettos and Neighborhood Effects on Dropping Out and Teenage Childbearing.’ ®

Coleman, James. The Coleman Report. ®

Rumberger, Russell, Why Students Drop Out of School: A Review of 25 Years of Research. ®

Bowles and Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, selections ®

Fine, Michelle. Framing Dropouts, selections ®

Week 4 POSTER BOARD presentations on Risk (health care, drugs, crime, gangs, pregnancy, single mothers, family environments, schooling)

Unit 2: Urban Theory’s Playing Field for the Study of Risk

Which theories are urban theories and which theories can and should be applied in the study o f urban risk regardless of their status as ‘urban theory’? How can it inform our understanding of youth, youth risk and/or social risk? Who are some of the key thinkers in the field? How has urban theory evolved against the press of globalization? What are some of the key concepts in the field? What are their strengths and weaknesses in terms of understanding youth action?

OBJECTIVES: From Section 2 students should be able to compare the strengths and weaknesses of different schools of urban theory, analyze these theories in relation to the contemporary neoliberal city, define key concepts such as urban ecology and the Chicago School, the LA School and post-modern urbanism and the neoliberal city. Students should also be able to apply these theories in their own analyses of conditions and events occurring within the urban context.

Week 5 – Urban ecology

Bursik, Robert. Social Disorganization and Theories of Crime and Delinquency: Problems and Prospects. ®

Elliott et al., The Effects of Neighborhood Disadvantage on Adolescent Development, selections. ®

Wilson, James and George Kelling. Broken Windows: The Policy and Neighborhood Safety. ®

Wilson, William, J. The Truly Disadvantaged, selections. ®

Small, Mario. Reconsidering Culture of Poverty. ®

Literature Review Study Options:

Low, Seth. The Anthropology of Cities: Imagining and Theorizing the City. ®

Hull, Glynda and Katerine Schultz. Literacy and Learning Out of School: A Review of Theory and Research. ®

Week 6 – Spatial Economy and the Claims of Apartheid Schooling

Massey, Douglas. American Apartheid, selections. ®

Kozol, Jonathan. Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America, selections. ®

Smith, Neil. Which New Urbanism? The Revanchist 90’s, selections. ®

Dear, Mike and Flusty, Postmodern Urbanism. ®

Week 7 – Political Economy

Wacquant, Loic. Three Pernicious Premises. ®

Wacquant, Loic. The Rise of Advanced Marginality: Notes on its Nature and Implications. ®

Wacquant, Loic and Wilson, William J. The Cost of Racial and Class Exclusion in the Inner City. ®

Week 8 -- Neoliberal Political Economy

Wacquant, Loic. Urban Outcast. Entire.

Herbert, Steve and Elizabeth Brown. Conceptions of Space and Crime in the Punitive Neoliberal city. ®

Week 9: Film: Bastards of the Party

Week 10: Literature Review Due / In-class PEER REVIEW

Unit 3 – Beyond local: Global Cities and the Reproduction of At-Risk Youth?

What is the global/local nexus? How does it intersect with youth in their day-to-day lives? What does the global city want from its citizens that the old “social” city did not, if anything? What does it mean to grow up global? In what ways do urban niche environments still influence youth, youth culture and identity?

OBJECTIVES: From Section 3 students should be able to critically examine the role of globalization in relation to other factors influencing youth risk. Students should be able to defend or criticize notions of intersectionality as contrasted with notions of enclave growth. Students should also be able to discuss potential trends for urban youth and risk in the future and conceive of potential forms of intervention.

Week 11 – ‘Glocal’ Intersectionality

Katz, Cindi. Growing Up Global, selections. ®

Hull, Glynda. Youth, Risk and Equity in a Global World. ®

Sassen, Saskia. Cities in a World Economy, selections. ®

Week 12 – Network Cities the New Youth Culture

Bourdieu, Pierre. The Forms of Capital. ®

Coleman, James. Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital. ®

Portes, Alejandro and Rumbaut. Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation, selections. ®

Week 13 – Enclave fortification and the New Social Control

Davis, Mike. Fortress Los Angeles. ®

Dear, Mike. The Premature Demise of Postmodern Urbanism. ®

Vanketesh, Sudhir. The Social Organization of the Street Gang Activity in an Urban Ghetto. ®

Coleman, Roy. Images from a Neoliberal City: The State, Surveillance and Social Control, selections. ®

Week 14: FILM: PRECIOUS

Final paper due