INTRODUCTION
This book is a compilation of work completed by students in the course Classical Sociological Theory I (SOC 154.1) at Pomona College taught by Professor Esther Hernandez-Medina. Over the course of this semester, our class read and discussed the works of the classical founders of sociology and their legacies. At the end of the semester, we wrote final papers that use the classical founders of sociology to analyze current issues and topics. This project presents our final papers from this course in the form of a digital book. This digital book includes half of our class and the authors include Darrell Sanders, Dariush Sayson, Vaish Siddapureddy, Allie Umemoto, Elease Willis, and Larissa Velazquez Pazaran.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
The author of chapter 1, titled “Public Education Divided by Class and The Failed Nationwide Response to COVID-19” is Darrell Sanders. Darrell is a current super senior at Pomona, finishing up his last semester. Darrell is currently majoring in sociology and plans to complete a post-bacc premed program after college. The author of chapter 2, titled “Socioeconomic Inequality Created by Income and Racial Disparities and its Effect on Education” is Dariush Sayson. Dariush is a current junior at Pomona College majoring in Sociology. The author of chapter 4, titled “The Clash Between Progressive and Resistant Movements in Racialized Social Movements” is Vaish Siddapureddy. Vaish is a current junior at Pomona College majoring in Public Policy Analysis with a focus in politics with a minor in sociology. The author of chapter 4, titled “School-based Policing, Shoot Shootings, and the Color Line” is Allie Umemoto. Allie is a current senior at Scripps College majoring in Sociology and Politics with a concentration in Comparative Politics and International Relations. The author of chapter 5, “The Influence of Neighborhoods, Race, Class, and Education on Life Outcomes”, is Larissa Velazquez Pazaran. Larissa is a junior at Pomona College majoring in Public Policy Analysis with a concentration in Sociology. The author of chapter 6, “The Co-optation of Wellness” is Simone Elease Willis. Elease is a junior at Pomona College majoring in Sociology.
OVERVIEW
Chapter 1 of the digital workbook analyzes the U.S. failed response to the novel coronavirus. As of November 21st, 2020, the U.S. accounted for 4.25% of the global population, yet account for 19% of total COVID-19 related deaths. Of 18 of the richest countries, the U.S. leads in COVID-19 death rates by as much as 50%, after adjusting for total population difference. When crunching the numbers, it’s apparent that the U.S.’s response to the pandemic has been a global failure. Despite this failure, the top 25 most profitable businesses have earned 84 billion dollars in profits, with 99% of those profits going directly to the pockets of those companies shareholders. When looking at the winners and losers of the COVID-19 pandemic, the average american has been overwhelmingly affected, while the rich have been left relatively untouched or better off. I use Durkheim’s theory of organic solidarity, Marx theory of class conflict, and Bourdieu’s concept of institutionalized cultural capital, to argue that inequalities of education divided by class are to blame for this divide. Ultimately, the bourgeoisie take a large portion of the blame in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as a majority of their actions have been to protect their profits or aid in the profits of other rich individuals.
Chapter 2 analyzes income and racial inequality in America and its effect on education, with a focus in California. Using multiple founders of sociology, Chapter 2 argues that the socioeconomic and racial inequality of today’s society are a result of capitalism. Chapter 2 argues that the socioeconomic inequality created by income and racial inequality ultimately hinders educational opportunities for low-income minorities. As a result, low-income minorities have a lesser chance of acquiring cultural capital, social capital, and thus economic capital. Using the contributions of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Chapter 2 breaks down and explains the origin of capitalism and why socioeconomic inequality is a byproduct of capitalism. The findings of W.E.B. Du Bois as well as Max Weber are used in this paper to understand the racial inequality faced by African Americans, and the disadvantages placed upon African Americans by whites in American society. Analyzing the different forms of capital, Pierre Bourdieu’s theories on cultural, social, and economic capital are used in this paper in order to understand the advantages of the affluent and the disadvantages of the poor. Ultimately, Bourdieu’s theories on the different forms of capital demonstrate a direct correlation to the capitalist society we live in, as the acquisition, or lack thereof, of capital perpetuates socioeconomic inequality.
In chapter 3, Vaish uses Castel’s The Power of Identity to identify and describe the three common identities in social movements: legitimizing identity, project identity, and resistance identity. The main focus will be the struggle between the project and resistant identities. Within the framework of the project and resistance identities, the founders of sociology, including W.E.B DuBois, Max Weber, Ida B. Wells, and Flora Tristan, explain how and why certain people fall into these categories and how the identities manifest themselves in the issue of race and today’s Black Lives Matter movement. The motivation for this research was the recent Black Lives Matter movement and the polarization that occurred during the 2020 election. The goal of this analysis is to understand why social movements related to American racial issues haven’t made significant strides forward over the course of hundreds of years.
In chapter four, the classical sociologists including W. E. B. Du Bois, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber are used to analyze the current issue of school-based policing and school shootings in American public schools. The motivation for this research was the recent Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement protests that resulted in school districts across the United States cutting ties with local police departments. Thus, the protests brought questions, such as how effective are police officers in creating a safe learning environment for schools and how does the presence of police officers on school campuses impact minority students of color? In this chapter, you will find a brief history of school-based policing and how it closely aligns with the history of mass incarceration and the policies that continue to discriminate, oppress, and deny freedom to people of color, which connects to both the work of Michelle Alexander and Du Bois’ concept of the color line. It will also include an analysis of school shootings in America using Durkheim’s theory of social integration and cohesion along with Max Weber’s concept of bureaucracy.
In chapter five, the ideas of W.E.B. Du Bois, Karl Marx, and Pierre Bourdieu are used to explore how the life trajectories of young adults are influenced by the environments they grow up in. This chapter seeks to answer: What is the relationship between resources available to cities and the socioeconomic status of individuals living in them? How is the quality of education individuals can access linked to their socioeconomic status? How does racism influence access to resources and education opportunities for minority groups? What factors influence individuals’ abilities to accumulate cultural capital and to participate in social mobility? Using a sociological perspective, this chapter analyzes the connection between poverty and a lack of resources and discusses how it ultimately results in lower educational opportunities. Using Bourdieu’s works, the chapter discusses what environments facilitate individuals’ accumulation of capital. The author also makes note of the high rates of poverty in racial minority groups, discussing how they relate to racism and mass incarceration.
Chapter six explores the implications of the marketization of wellness in the age of modern capitalism. This essay seeks to analyze three realities of wellness under modern capitalism: (1) the consumerist character of wellness that has emerged in the wake of marketplace solutions allowing people to seek wellness beyond the traditional healthcare system (2) wellness as a symbol of status that operates as a guiding and stratifying principle of consumer behavior and (3) the utilization of wellness by employers for the purpose of increased worker productivity. This essay takes up a Weberian analysis of the nature of wellness consumerism as necessitated by the Protestant work ethic and the profit demands of capitalism, as well as the formal rationality of corporations used to promote employee wellness as a means to increase productivity. A Bourdieuan analysis will illuminate the ways in which the pursuit of wellness, as associated with consumerist behavior, has also become the opportunity to pursue cultural capital.