SOCIAL STRATIFICATION
UC3M
Note lecture slides, teaching materials and communication with students will be through Aula Global
Programme
Objectives:
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to give students a good knowledge of the academic literature and debates about social stratification in advanced contemporary societies;
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to give empirically-based knowledge of the ways in which social structures vary across contemporary advanced societies;
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to enable students to understand how contemporary stratification theories can be tested against the empirical evidence;
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to introduce students to theories of social change by looking at changes in the social structures of advanced industrial societies;
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to enable students to understand how social scientists make sense of the complexity of social phenomena by combining theory and empirical research;
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to understand the role played by labour-markets, households and welfare states in the production/reproduction of inequality;
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to introduce students to the complexities of measuring (class, income, gender and ethnic) inequality
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to introduce students to some key concepts and debates in the study of social behaviour, including the role of preferences vs. constraints, biological vs. environmental influences, socialization vs. agency;
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to understand the differences between micro, meso and macro levels of analysis;
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to understand the difference between demand and supply-side theories of gender and ethnic stratification;
Competences to be achieved in the subject:
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Ability to analyse and synthesize different approaches to the study of inequality
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Familiarity with the basic conceptual framework of social stratification research
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Ability to identify the main arguments of a scientific text
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Critical thinking
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Ability to present orally in English
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Cooperation and communication with fellow students