Why do some live in mansions while others languish in prison? Why do some work fulfilling jobs from home, while others toil in someone else's factories or fields? Why do some eat cake while others nibble on roti? Why, in other words, do some people have a lot but others so little? This course uses the tools of the social sciences to examine the distribution of human well-being, or inequality. Together, we will survey this distribution across three broad eras of human history: the pre-agrarian era (until about 5-10,000 years ago), the agrarian era (ca. 5-10,000 years ago to 1800 AD), and, especially, the modern world (ca. 1800 AD to the present). Our primary goal will be to answer empirical questions–to describe and explain these distributions–but we will also consider the normative challenges that lie behind them. What kinds of inequalities should we care about? And, given what we know about inequality today, what should we demand that people and governments do about them? Topics covered will include: the nature of early human societies, the origins of agriculture, the rise of the state, the birth of capitalism, the causes of racial inequality and patriarchy, and the transformation of capitalism by social and political movements.
Inequality Under Capitalism (Spring 2024, Spring 2025)
All capitalist societies are characterized by significant forms of inequality. Some people and some groups have more of the things that we think make for a good life, while other people and other groups have less. But inequality is not static; not all societies are equally unequal. Social and political movements have transformed the distribution of well-being in numerous ways. This class ponders the empirical and normative questions raised by these facts. First, what explains inequality? Why do some people have more than others? Second, what should be done about these facts? What kinds of inequalities do we care about? What does justice require? And, given that only some of what justice requires is feasible, what should we demand?
Introduction to Social Theory (Summer 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Summer 2025)
All of us have the sense that the world we live in is different from the world of our ancestors. Many of the things that we take for granted (e.g. presidential elections, prisons, professional sports) have existed for only a small fraction of human history. But how, exactly, has the world changed since humans first appeared? And why? And, finally, what lessons should we draw for the present and for the future? Sometimes, these questions are asked in different disciplines. Today, historians will ask the first; sociologists the second; and philosophers the third. But the social sciences were founded by people who thought that it was natural to wonder about them together. And so this course is organized to introduce you to all three. Parts One and Two review the history of the world, with a particular focus on the birth of modern society (the rise and spread of capitalist democracies across the planet). We will spend time thinking about how to make descriptive and causal inferences about this history. What was life like for our ancestors? What is it like for people today? What explains why it has changed, and why some people find themselves on the top and others on the bottom? Part Three asks: in light of the facts and explanations we cover in Part Two, what should people and governments do? We will read a selection of canonical works in moral and political philosophy with the goal of clarifying our views about how human society ought to be organized.
Crime, Punishment and Policing in an Unequal America (Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023)
The United States imprisons more people per capita than any comparable society, past or present. It is alone among developed countries in annually killing hundreds of its citizens in police encounters. And it is also, by some distance, the most violent country in the developed world. These facts raise a range of difficult questions about what should be done about crime, punishment and policing in today's United States. The aim of this course is to introduce students to the empirical premises and normative principles at stake in these debates, and by doing that prepare them to do research on morally-laden empirical topics. The course is taught by a sociologist (Adaner), but it will feature guest appearances by a philosopher (Chris). Throughout, we will be using reasoning and methods from both the empirical social sciences and from analytic moral and political philosophy. Students will be pushed to develop the strongest possible arguments for positions they may not endorse, and to argue against the perspective of the instructors at every opportunity.
What's Wrong With Mass Incarceration (Spring 2021)
Most academics who think and write about Mass Incarceration do so because we believe it to be wrong. But what exactly is wrong with it? This course canvases the range of answers that social scientists, lawyers, philosophers, and activists have given to that question. It is motivated by our view (to be developed in a forthcoming book) that the most common answers make both logical and empirical errors, and that better answers will require more clarity about facts and more explicit normative reasoning. Our view is still developing, and students will be strongly encouraged to argue against us. The ambition of this course is to help us and to help students, whether aspiring social scientists or budding lawyers, to think more carefully about the relationship between facts and values in discussions of race, class, crime, and punishment.
Foundations of Social Science Research (Spring 2020, Spring 2021)
This course has two goals. First, to introduce students to the diversity of methods that social scientists use to answer questions about the social world. Second, to prepare thesis writers to conduct original research. We will survey both qualitative and quantitative approaches, reading a combination of methodological texts and exemplary empirical work. For their final project, students will write a research proposal that will anchor their future thesis work.
This course is designed to introduce you to the foundational problems of modern sociology. As we wrestle with sociology's canon, we will ask some of the big questions that lie behind the concerns of sociologists today. What is modern society? Why did it arise? What makes it tick? Why does it sometimes break down? Why does it mostly not? And what is the role of the sociologist, her science and her values?
Crime and Punishment in the USA (Spring 2017, Fall 2018)
The United States imprisons more people per capita than any comparable society, past or present. It is alone among developed countries in putting its citizens to death, in commonly sentencing prisoners to life without the possibility of parole, in its use of solitary and quasi-solitary confinement, in attaching collateral sanctions to released prisoners, and in annually killing hundreds of its citizens in police encounters. The United States is also, by some distance, the most violent country in the developed world. Americans are anywhere from twice to ten times more likely than citizens of other developed countries to be murdered. Over the last sixty years, other developed countries at their most violent were never as violent as the United States was at its most peaceful. In light of the fact that the US is also the richest society in world history, these are staggering facts. This course considers crime and punishment in the United States, in four parts.