Social Analysis 28. Culture, Illness, and Healing: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Medicine in Society
Catalog Number: 4247
Arthur Kleinman
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 12
An inquiry into the role of health and medicine in society that demonstrates how anthropological analysis can be applied to the study of illness and care. Compares medical systems across societies to understand what is shared and what is culturally distinctive in the experience and treatment of sickness. Analyzes how practitioners (biomedical and folk) and patients construe sickness and suffering as distinctive social realities, and how those realities are organized in local cultural systems. Assesses varieties of suffering as social phenomena in order to appreciate the social sources of global social problems, the cross-cultural variety of illness experiences, the reform of services, and the global moral and political-economic crisis in health care.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2002–03.
Social Analysis 34. Knowledge of Language
Catalog Number: 2069
Bert Vaux
Half course (fall term). M., W., F., at 1, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6
What does our ability to acquire and use a language tell us about our essential human nature? This course examines the view of modern linguistics that knowledge of language is best characterized as an unconsciously internalized set of abstract rules and principles. Evidence is drawn from a variety of signed and spoken languages, language universals, child language acquisition, and language change.
[Social Analysis 36. Religion and Modernization: Cultural Revolutions and Secularism]
Catalog Number: 2027
Nur Yalman
Half course (fall term). M., W., F., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
Theoretical studies on major social and ideological changes concerning religion in modern society with special reference to France, Russia, repercussions in Asia (Hinduism, Buddhism) and the Middle East (Islam). Changes in intellectual attitudes in France and the French Revolution. The Enlightenment, the Russian and Turkish Revolutions, and religious revivalism in Iran are considered. Comparative studies from India and Sri Lanka. Marxist and structuralist theories concerning religion are examined in historical contexts. Students can specialize in regions and topics.
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
[Social Analysis 46. Thinking about Politics: A Rational Choice Approach]
Catalog Number: 3544
Kenneth A. Shepsle
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 12
A commonsensical survey of rational theories of politics, comprised of four segments: (1) individual choice, (2) group choice, (3) collective action, and (4) institutions. The underlying theme is that politics may be described and understood in terms of rational, goal-seeking behavior by citizens, politicians, bureaucrats, and interest groups in various institutional settings. Students are encouraged to think deeply and with sophistication about current events, history, and public life generally, as well as to analyze the politics of private life—in families, clubs, firms, churches, universities, even Harvard Houses—since private politics, like public politics, may be understood in terms of rational behavior.
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03.
[Social Analysis 50. Urban Revolutions: Archaeology and the Investigation of Early States]
Catalog Number: 4409
C. C. Lamberg-Karlovsky
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Examines the development and structure of the earliest state-level societies in the ancient world. Archaeological approaches are used to analyze the major factors behind the processes of urbanization and state formation in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Central Asia, the Indus Valley, and Mesoamerica. The environmental background as well as the social, political, and economic characteristics of each civilization are compared to understand the varied forces that were involved in the transitions from village to urbanized life. Discussion sections utilize archaeological materials from the Peabody Museum and Semitic Museum collections to study the archaeological methods used in the class.
Note: Expected to be given in 2002–03. No previous knowledge of archaeology is necessary.
Social Analysis 52. Growth and Development in Historical Perspective
Catalog Number: 1879
Robert H. Bates
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 1, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 6
Societies now industrial and rich were once agricultural and poor. Growth and development imply a transformation in the politics and economics of nations. How does this transformation take place? What economic forces and political struggles propel it? Drawing on anthropology, political science, and economics, the course explores the process of urbanization, state formation, and war-making, as well as economic development.
Social Analysis 54. American Society and Public Policy
Catalog Number: 6661
Theda Skocpol and Mary C. Waters
Half course (spring term). M., W., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
How do social problems get redefined over time; why do they appear differently to various groups; and how are public policies about problematic social conditions debated, devised, and changed? Looking over modern U.S. history, this course combines demographic data on societal trends, ethnographic data on people’s everyday lives and outlooks, and evidence about changing institutional structures. This combination of approaches often pursued separately in the social sciences is used to explore recurrent yet shifting controversies about the well-being of families and children, about immigration and citizenship, and about access to health care in the United States.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2002–03.
Social Analysis 58. Representation, Equality, and Democracy
Catalog Number: 1341
Sidney Verba
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 10, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 3
Democracy is a system of rule in which the citizenry is the ultimate sovereign. Government policies ought to be responsive to the preferences of that citizenry, with each citizen weighed equally. If this is to happen, there must be procedures whereby the preferences of citizens are expressed, aggregated, and communicated to governing decision-makers, and there must be some set of incentives that lead the decision-makers to be responsive to these preferences. This course examines the ways in which the complex and “unreadable” preferences in the public are communicated to governing officials. The course will connect theories of representation and democracy to systematic studies of citizen behavior.
Social Analysis 60. Wealth and Poverty in the World Economy
Catalog Number: 1402
Jeffrey D. Sachs
Half course (fall term). M., W., (F.), at 9, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 2
Why are some countries rich and others poor? Why do some countries achieve economic growth while others languish in poverty? This course will study the theory, history, and modern practice of economic development. We will examine how economic and political institutions, culture, physical geography, and international relations affect the development process. Historical experience will be used as a springboard to current policy debates, with a special focus on the problems of globalization.
Social Analysis 66. Race, Ethnicity, and Politics in the United States
Catalog Number: 0916
Jennifer L. Hochschild
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., at 11, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13
How are racial divisions and American political structures related? Is racial/ethnic hierarchy built into American politics so deeply that the nation must change dramatically to eradicate it? Or is racial/ethnic hierarchy a flaw in an essentially fair society that we can eradicate without major dislocation? Half of the course addresses this question. How do African Americans, Anglos, Latinos, and Asian Americans relate to one another? Four plausible answers occupy the second half of the course: pluralism (groups interact and partially merge), racial and ethnic separation, rainbow coalition (nonwhite groups come together), and black exceptionalism (nonblack groups come together).
Social Analysis 68. Race, Class, and Poverty in Urban America
Catalog Number: 7451
William Julius Wilson (Kennedy School)
Half course (spring term). M., W., (F.), at 9, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 2
The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with some of the major empirical, theoretical, and social policy issues concerning race, class, and urban poverty in America. The focus is on contemporary society, but the course provides an historical context for understanding how current patterns of urban inequality have evolved.
Note: Expected to be omitted in 2002–03.