This course is intended as an introduction on basic issues on social class, social stratification, and social mobility. In the first section, the main emphasis will be on clarification of concepts and four major classical perspectives. The course enables students to discover discussions on mobility, class, and inequality in the last thirty years which focus on consumption, lifestyle, and the concept of ‘taste’ in defining class and status groups, the concept of underclass, and the problem of poverty with urban-rural differences. The course also questions how class analysis is affected when factors like gender, race and ethnicity, age, and citizenship are taken into consideration, hence intersectionality approach will be discussed.
Upon successfully completing this course, students are expected to be able to:
1. Identify arguments and concepts on mobility, social class, and stratification,
2. Analyze the transition from past and present debates on inequality and compare different theories of social stratification.
3. Develop critical thinking on multi-dimensional aspects of inequalities and how its underlying factors are intersectional,
4. Apply these theories and empirical knowledge on social inequality and mobility on everyday examples in global society.