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GOVERNMENT 94QA COMMUNITY in AMERICA Fall 2016 Professor Robert D GOVERNMENT 94QA COMMUNITY IN AMERICA Fall 2016 Professor Robert D. Putnam Thursdays, 2:00-4:00 pm CGIS Knafel, K401 on September 1st All subsequent meetings at 997 Memorial Drive Faculty Assistant: Lisa MacPhee, office: HKS Littauer 207A 617-495-5994; [email protected] Summary of Requirements (1) All students are expected to complete all assigned readings and to contribute constructively to seminar discussions. The seminar has no final examination, but the weekly reading and writing load is heavy. (2) You may choose to either: a. Prepare ten (10) short response papers (750-1000 words) OR b. Prepare five (5) short response papers (750-1000 words) and a final research paper (c. 5000 words) Short response papers critically review the required readings for a given week. Suggested themes are given for each week, but other themes are acceptable. You may choose which of the 13 weeks to write the papers (but at least two (2) short response papers must be completed within the first six weeks of the course). You may also write papers for more than the required number of weeks and drop the least successful from your record. Timely completion of the reading and full class participation is expected even during the weeks in which you do not submit a paper. All papers must be uploaded under assignments on Canvas no later than 9 am on Thursdays preceding the seminar. Be sure that the file name includes your name and the week’s topic (e.g., smith_internet.doc). To allow anonymous grading, please put your name on a separate page at the back of the file, not on the front page. The purpose of the final research paper is to enable each student to apply the social capital approach to some theoretical or practical problem of special concern to him or her. Topics for the longer paper will be discussed in class, but they might focus on some aspect of the history of a specific group or social practice that has embodied or affected community or inequality in America—e.g., veterans' organizations in your hometown, Portuguese clubs in Cambridge, playgrounds and play dates, the NAACP, fundamentalist churches, coffee bars, Harvard houses, political parties, or meetup.org. Good papers will combine library and field research and will explore the causes and/or consequences of the ups and downs of particular institutions or practices. For those exercising Option B, an initial 1-2 page prospectus for this paper is due via Canvas no later than 2pm on October 6th. Every participant exercising this option should meet with the instructor to discuss his or her research prospectus during the following two weeks. The final research paper should be submitted by email to [email protected]. Date TBA. Please confirm with the instructor which paper option you have chosen by email ([email protected]) no later than the start of class on September 8th. (3) Evaluation: . For those exercising Option A, the 10 short papers will constitute 90 percent of the final evaluation, and class participation 10 percent. For those exercising Option B, the short papers will count for 50 percent of the final evaluation, the final research paper will count for 40 percent, and class participation 10 percent. (4) Readings: Everyone has a different preference regarding readings. To accommodate as many of you as possible while keeping costs to a minimum, we have sought to locate as many of the readings as possible through Harvard’s e-resources. These readings are noted below where a URL has been included (many of these links require that you be logged into the Harvard library system). Required books are available for purchase at the Coop or on reserve at Lamont. All remaining readings will either be handed out in class or available to view on Canvas. (5) Office Hours: Professor Putnam is available to meet with participants outside of class by appointment. His office is at HKS in Taubman 370; his office telephone is 617-495-1148; his home telephone is 617-876-9653. His office hours (by appointment only) are Fridays, 9am-12pm. Please email [email protected] for information and for all appointments. (6) Research Aides: The library has officially assigned Kathleen Sheehan as the liaison to the Government department. She works out of both Widener and Lamont, and is available to meet with students for research consultations and general reference services. Her email is [email protected]; office number is 617-384-8089. Academic Integrity Policy Discussion and the exchange of ideas are essential to academic work. For assignments in this course, you are encouraged to consult with your classmates on the choice of paper topics and to share sources. You may find it useful to discuss your chosen topic with your peers, particularly if you are working on the same topic as a classmate. However, you should ensure that any written work you submit for evaluation is the result of your own research and writing and that it reflects your own approach to the topic. You must also adhere to standard citation practices in this discipline and properly cite any books, articles, websites, lectures, etc. that have helped you with your work. If you received any help with your writing (feedback on drafts, etc), you must also acknowledge this assistance. Please check the course page for updates and announcements at https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/16554 CLASS SCHEDULE AND SYLLABUS September 1st: INTRODUCTION: SOCIAL CAPITAL AND EQUALITY (WEEK 1) September 8th: INEQUALITY: TWO AMERICAS? (WEEK 2) Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, Chapter 1. Chad Stone, Danilo Trisi, Arloc Sherman, and Brandon DeBot, A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Washington, D.C., 2015). pp. 1, 7-19. http://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/11-28-11pov_0.pdf Just for fun: http://flowingdata.com/2016/06/28/distributions-of-annual-income/ Leslie McCall and Christine Percheski, “Income Inequality: New Trends and Research Directions,” Annual Review of Sociology 36 (2010): 329-347. http://www.annualreviews.org.ezp- prod1.hul.harvard.edu/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.soc.012809.102541 Jacob Hacker, “The Privatization of Risk and the Growing Economic Insecurity of Americans,” The Privatization of Risk Web Forum, Social Science Research Council (2006). http://privatizationofrisk.ssrc.org/Hacker/ Kendra Bischoff and Sean F. Reardon, “Residential Segregation by Income, 1970- 2009,” Diversity and Disparities: America Enters a New Century, John Logan (ed.) (Russell Sage, 2014) http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010/Data/Report/report10162013.pdf Possible paper topic: What’s happened to American class structure in the last half century? September 15th: INEQUALITY AND FAMILIES (WEEK 3) Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, chapters 2 + 3. W. Bradford Wilcox, The State of Our Unions: The Social Health of Marriage in America (National Marriage Project, University of Virginia, 2010), http://stateofourunions.org/2010/SOOU2010.pdf, pp. 27-53. Andrew Cherlin, The Marriage-Go-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today (2009), pp. 159-180. Kathryn Edin and Timothy J. Nelson, Doing the Best I Can: Fatherhood in the Inner City (2013), pp. 202-228. Annette Lareau, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, 2nd ed. (2011), pp. 1-8 & 263-303. National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (working papers) 1. National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (2004). “Young Children Develop in an Environment of Relationships,” Working Paper No. 1. 2. National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2005/2014). “Excessive Stress Disrupts the Architecture of the Developing Brain,” Working Paper No. 3, updated edition.http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/resources/reports_and_wo rking_papers/ Possible paper topic: Which do you find a more persuasive account of the changing American family—culture and values or structure and economics, red or blue? Why? September 22nd: INEQUALITY AND SCHOOLS (WEEK 4) Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, chapter 4. Sean F. Reardon, “The Widening Academic Achievement Gap Between the Rich and the Poor: New Evidence and Possible Explanations,” in Whither Opportunity? Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane, eds. (2011), pp.91-115. Christopher Ruhm and Jane Waldfogel, “Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Care and Education,” IZA Discussion Paper No. 6149 (November 2011). http://ftp.iza.org/dp6149.pdf A.S. Bryk, P.B. Sebring, E. Allensworth, S. Luppescu and J.Q. Easton, Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago (2010), pp. 1-11; 168-187. Mark R. Warren, “Communities and Schools: A New View of Urban Education Reform,” Harvard Educational Review 75 (2) (2005). http://www.presidentsleadershipclass.org/images/uploads/ca_files/Communit ies_and_Schools.pdf Greg J. Duncan and Richard J. Murnane, “How Public Schools Can Fight Back Against Inequality,” Atlantic, February 11, 2014. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/02/how-public-schools- can- fight-back-against-inequality/283669/ Scott Jaschik, “Study says many highly talented low-income students never apply to top colleges,” Inside Higher Ed, December 11, 2012. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/12/11/study-says-many-highly- talented-low-income-students-never-apply-top-colleges Possible Paper topic: Can educational institutions do much to narrow the opportunity gap? How, or why not? September 29th: INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL CAPITAL (WEEK 5) Robert D. Putnam, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, chapters 5 + 6. Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone (2000), pp. 1-166. Mark R. Warren, J. Phillip Thompson, and Susan Saegert, “The Role of Social Capital in Combating Poverty,” in Social Capital and Poor Communities, Susan Saegert, J. Phillip Thompson, and Mark R. Warren, eds. (2002), pp.
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