About this Course

This course will be a mixture of lecture presentation and classroom activities. We will discuss a variety of topics relating to power in contemporary societies. In general, we will consider four broad themes: (i) the nature of inequality (what are its forms? what causes it?); (ii) the tension between pluralism and identity (is difference a good thing? how do we create a common purpose?); (iii) the tension between public and private (how much freedom should the individual possess? when is private good at odds with public good?); and, (iv) the persistence of racism in the United States (do institutions manifest racism? how has immigration changed Americans' sense of identity?).

By the end of the semester, you will be able to:
(a) describe the logic of hypothesis testing in the social sciences
(b) apply the sociological imagination to a novel empirical example
(c) critically review social scientific sources of information, including web sites
(d) identify the main arguments in assigned readings
(e) compare and contrast social scientific arguments about power and inequality
(f) apply concepts from the literature on power to your own neighborhood.