Course Details
| Department & Course Number | SOCIOL 233, LEC 201 |
| Class Number | 63377 |
| Course Type | Undergraduate (Milwaukee Campus) |
| Credits | 3 |
| Meets Requirements | |
| Instructor | Vijaya Tamla Rai |
| Course Dates |
Why do we have inequality? Who gets what, how and why?
The COVID-19 pandemic is a common enemy of humanity, but why does it have disproportionate impacts on people of different social categories? When people say that they are lucky to have their jobs intact during the pandemic, is it really luck? Perhaps they deserved having their jobs because they were smarter, more hardworking, and highly skilled. But do these reasons fully explain why inequalities persisted in the past and the present? No, sociology answers. Sociology investigates a range of social factors that lead to inequalities, some of them understandable, others indefensible.
This course is organized on three foundational modules:
- Roots of social inequality: class, race and gender, and sociological and global debates.
- Multiple dimensions of inequality: American class system, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and status and power.
- Solving social inequality: education and social mobility, poverty, health inequality, criminal justice and mass incarceration, and social movements.
Together, we will seek answers to the overarching question that guides sociological inquiry into inequality: Who gets what, how and why?
Course Syllabus (PDF)