Brooklyn College Library LibGuides Home: SOCY 3303/ WGST 3122 Sociology of the Welfare State and Current Issues: Readings and Schedule

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Spring 2020 course schedule and readings

Week 1 – Jan 31

Introduction to the course
What is the Welfare state?

The welfare state: A fundamental dimension of modern government.
Garland, David. "The welfare state: A fundamental dimension of modern government." European Journal of Sociology/Archives Européennes de Sociologie 55, no. 3 (2014): 327-364. doi:10.1017/S0003975614000162.

Week 2 - February 7

Market and society

Democracy against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism.Cambridge
Wood, Ellen Meiksins. 1995. Democracy against Capitalism: Renewing Historical Materialism.Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1. (pp. 19-48)
The Great Transformation. Chapters 6, 7, 11.
Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation. Beacon Press, 2001. Chapters 6, 7, 11.

Week 3 - February 14

Movie debate: Germinal (watch at home)

Origins of welfare states
Emergence of Welfare States. Presentation and discussion.

The great exception. Chapter 3.
Cowie, Jefferson. The great exception. Princeton University Press, 2016. Chapter 3.

Week 4 - February 21

The New Deal

Regulating the Poor, The Functions of Public Welfare.
Fox Piven, Frances & Cloward, Richard. Regulating the Poor, The Functions of Public Welfare. Vintage 2012. Chapter 2 (pp. 61-79)

Optional reading:
Michael Goldfield, Worker Insurgency, Radical Organization, and New Deal Labor Legislation. The American Political Science Review
Vol. 83, No. 4 (Dec., 1989), pp. 1257-1282 (26 pages)

The state under capitalism

Block, Fred. 1987. “The Ruling Class Does Not Rule.” In Revising State Theory. Essays in Politics and Postindustrialism, 51–68. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Politics and Markets: The World's Political-Economics Systems
Lindblom, Charles E. "Politics and Markets: The World's Political-Economics Systems." (1983). Chapter 13 (p. 170-188)

Week 5 - February 28

Theories of welfare state

The three worlds of welfare capitalism.
Esping-Andersen, Gøsta. The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Polity Press, 1990. Chapter 1 (pp. 9-31)

Welfare regimes framework
Decommodification & Stratification

The three worlds of welfare capitalism.
Esping-Andersen, Gøsta. The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Polity Press, 1990. Chapters 2 & 5. (pp. 35-54, 105-138)

Week 6 - March 6

The Neoliberal assault on welfare

Presentation. Neoliberalism: welfare under attack.

Clinton’s welfare reform

No money no love; Poverty in America.
"No money no love; Poverty in America." The Economist 20 Aug. 2016: 21(US). Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 19 Jan. 2020.
The Welfare Reform Disaster
Fording, Richard & Schram, Sanford. "The Welfare Reform Disaster". Jacobin (n.d) Retrieved from: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/08/welfare-reform-clinton-twentieth-anniversary-poverty/
The End of Welfare as We Know It
Semuels, Alana. "The End of Welfare as We Know It" The Atlantic (2016, Apr. 1)
Justin Haskins and Logan Pike
Haskins, Justin and Pike, Logan. Twenty Years Later, Welfare Reform Remains Wildly Successful And Oddly Controversial (2016, Aug. 22)

Movie: I, Daniel Blake

Week 7 – March 13

Field Trip: Museum of the City of New York. Exhibition 'Activist of New York.'

https://www.mcny.org/exhibition/activist-new-york

Week 8 - March 20

Welfare state and gender. Feminist perspectives.
Housework and Second wave feminism

Pamphlet: Federici, Silvia “Wages Against Housework.”

Intersections of welfare and feminism

Fortunes of Feminism: From State-managed Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis, Verso Books. Chapter 10.
Fraser, Nancy, 2013. Fortunes of Feminism: From State-managed Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis, Verso Books. Chapter 10. Between marketization and social protection.

Week 9 – March 27

Midterm exam
Movie Roma. Stream in class and complete assignment.

Week 10 – April 3

Welfare State in the US
U.S. Health care system. The current mess.

The Ongoing U.S. Health Care Crisis: A Data Update
Himmelstein, David U., et al. “The Ongoing U.S. Health Care Crisis: A Data Update.” International Journal of Health Services, vol. 48, no. 2, Apr. 2018, pp. 209–222, doi:10.1177/0020731418764073.
Health Care Spending in the United States and Other High-Income Countries.
Papanicolas I, Woskie LR, Jha AK. Health Care Spending in the United States and Other High-Income Countries. JAMA. 2018;319(10):1024–1039. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.1150

Week 11 – April 10 - SPRING BREAK

Week 12 – April 17

Welfare in the US: Current Debates
U.S. Health care system. Looking ahead.

Medicare-for-all. Presentation and discussion with Dr. Michael Pappas.

Beyond the Affordable Care Act: A Physicians’ Proposal for Single‐Payer Health Care Reform [pdf]
Working Group on Single‐Payer Program Design (n.d.) Beyond the Affordable Care Act:
A Physicians’ Proposal for Single‐Payer Health Care Reform

Followed by: Medicare-for-all. In-class debate.

Week 13 – April 24

Education
Schooling and segregation

School closings: The nexus of white supremacy, state abandonment, and accumulation by dispossession.
Lipman, P. (2015). School closings: The nexus of white supremacy, state abandonment, and accumulation by dispossession. In B. Picower, & E. Mayorga (Eds.), What's race got to do with it? How current school reform policy maintains racial and economic inequality (pp. 59-79). New York: Peter Lang.

Higher Education: Student debt and CUNY

The impact of austerity on students:

Daily News, The truth crime in higher education: how we've abandoned public universities like CUNY

Daily News, Thousands of CUNY students experience homelessness and food insecurity

The impact of austerity on professors:

The Atlantic, The Death of an adjunct

Left Voice, Rank and File revolt at CUNY

Week 14 – May 1

Welfare in peripheral countries
Welfare policies in Latin America

Latin America
Huber, Evelyne, and Juan Bogliaccini. 2010. “Latin America.” In The Oxford Handbook of
the Welfare State, edited by Francis Castles et al. Oxford; New York. Oxford University Press.

Imperialism and welfare in oppressed nations
Presentation and discussion

Week 15 – May 8

Green New Deal / Federal jobs guarantee
Readings: Articles by Kate Aronoff, Robert Pollin (NLR), Robert Belano, Data for Progress, PoliticoMag.
Final class reflections

A Green New Deal
Carlock, Greg. "A Green New Deal". Data for Progress. (2018, Sept.)
De-Growth vs a Green New Deal
Pollin, Robert. "De-Growth vs a Green New Deal". New Left Review (NLR) vol. 112, July/Aug 2018.
A Green New Deal Can’t Save Us. A Planned Economy Can
by Robert Belano, Left Voice, March 15, 2019.
The Trouble with the 'Green New Deal'
By Michael Grunwald, Politico, January 15, 2019