Poor America 4219-SH0021
From mid-60s of XX century until today, poverty rates in the US have constantly fluctuated between 10 and 15%. In 2022 38 million people lived below the poverty threshold (11.5% of the entire population). Poverty affects mostly Native Americans and African and Latino minorities but at the same time 44% of all people living in poverty are white, more than any other racial or ethnic group.
At this course we will collect and analyze data and research results about poverty in America. We will look for
patterns in: education, housing (urban vs. rural, home ownership, trailer parks), jobs, economic situation (income, wealth, poverty, food stamps), family patterns, health (illnesses, opioid epidemics, life expectancy, mortality), crime, values, attitudes, political views and voting behaviors.
We will also try to answer the questions:
- how the notion of the poor (and class more generally) is woven into American society’s fabric
- how the existence of deep class divisions is (not/under) represented in American discourse
- what is the cultural significance and what are the consequences of the stereotypes of the poor
- how social policies seek to ameliorate poverty and how their ‘success’ is influenced by the conceptions of poverty adopted by policymakers
- how the issues of class, race, gender, sexuality, religion, politics, and geography complicate and inform a critical understanding of the poor
- what it means to be poor and how privileges/discrimination collide/enhance with class inferiority
- what are the deeper structural forces at play in the labor, housing and financial markets that allow for the exploitation of the poor
Type of course
Mode
Course coordinators
Learning outcomes
Upon completing the course, students will have:
Knowledge about:
- US class divisions
- the role and importance of the poor in the US history
- the cultural importance of stereotypes about the poor
- the patterns of: education, housing, family structure, labor market situation, economic situation, health,
crime, values, attitudes and political views of poor people.
Skills:
- conducting an analysis of class relations in the US
- developing and presenting presentations on a selected topic
- search and analysis of statistical data on a selected social group
- working in a group and discussing the texts read
Competences that will allow them to:
- understand the complexity of the poor phenomenon in the US
- understand the complexity of class relations in the US
- critically analyse selected cultural texts (literature, television, film)
Assessment criteria
• 30% active class participation
• 40% group project: presentation and in-class discussion on a chosen topic related to the phenomenon of poverty
• 30% in-class discussion of a chosen book and a written review of this book (750-1000 words). A list of books will be provided but students can suggest their own based on consultation with the instructor.
Bibliography
1. Brady, David, „Theories of the Causes of Poverty”, Annual Review of Sociology, 2019, 45:4.1–4.21
2. Bruder, Jessica (2017) Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century, W. W. Norton & Company
3. Case A. and Deaton A. (2020) Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, Princeton University Press
4. Cramer, Kathrine (2016) The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of
Scott Walker, University of Chicago Press
5. Creamer, J and Shrider, E. A. (September 2023) “Poverty in the United States: 2022”, US Census
Bureau.
6. Desmond, Matthew (April 3, 2023) “Why the Poverty Persists in America”, The New York Times
7. Desmond, Matthew (2024) Poverty, by America, Crown
8. Desmond, Matthew (2017) Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, Crown
9. Dougherty, Conor (2020) Golden Gates. The Housing Crisis and a Reckoning for the American Dream, Penguin Books
10. Ehrenreich, Barbara (2020) Had I Known, Hachette Book Group
11. Ehrenreich, Barbara (2002) Nickel and Dime. On (Not) Getting by in America, New York: A Metropolitan/Owl Book
12. Goldin K. and Katz L (2009) The Race Between Education and Technology, Cambridge MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
13. Grusky B. D. and Hill J. (Eds.) (2017) Inequality in the 21 st Century. New York: Routledge
14. Harrington, Michael (1962) The Other America. Poverty in The United States, Scribner
15. Isenberg, Nancy (2016) White Trash. The 400-year Untold History of Class in America, New York: Penguin Random House
16. Kristoff D.K. and WuDunn S. (2020) Tightrope. Americans Reaching for Hope, New York: Knopf
17. MacGillis, Alec (September 2016) “The Original Underclass”, The Atlantic
18. Quinones, Sam (2015) Dreamland. The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic, Bloomsbury Press
19. Smarsh, Sara (2018) Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, Scribner
20. Stiglitz, Joseph (2013) The Prize of Inequality. The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society
Endangers Our Future. New York: W. W. Norton & Company
21. Vance, J.D. (2017) Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, William Collins
22. Wilkinson, R. and Pickett, K. (2010) The Spirit Level. Why the Equality is Better for Everyone, London: Pinguin
23. Wray, Matt (2006) Not Quite White: White Trash and the Boundaries of Whiteness, Duke University Press Books
Plus main data sources:
US Census
https://www.census.gov/en.html
Pew Research Center
https://www.pewresearch.org
Gallup
https://www.gallup.com
Brookings Institution
https://www.brookings.edu
Stanford Center for Poverty and Inequality
https://inequality.stanford.edu
Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison
https://www.irp.wisc.edu
Center for Poverty and Inequality Research, University of California, Davis
https://poverty.ucdavis.edu
The Center on Poverty and Social Policy at the Columbia University
https://www.povertycenter.columbia.edu
Benefits
https://www.benefits.gov
Economic Policy Institute
https://www.epi.org
Robin Hood – Poverty Trackjer in NYC
https://www.robinhood.org
and a selection of recommended academic and press articles on specific topics related to students’ projects.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: