Schedule
Introduction.
"Census Reports Slight Increase in '05 Incomes" (New York Times, August 30, 2006).
De Graaf et al., Affluenza, part one.
Quality of life: one definition
Conceptual tensions within QOL
Questions
1. Which groups are most affected by the problems of QOL identified by De Graaf?
2. How do these problems affect society as a whole?
De Graaf et al., Affluenza, part two.
Robert K. Morton. 1957. “The Sociology of Knowledge.” Chapter X, pp. 456-88, in Social Theory and Social Structure. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
Must increasing consumption mean less leisure? Jonathan Gershuny
A sociology of QOL knowledge: David Brooks
Questions
1. Why should individuals care about America's collective QOL crisis?
2. How can ideas and beliefs about QOL be studied sociologically?
Aristotle. 2002 [circa 335-323 B.C.]. Pp. 9-17, 74-81, 95-110, 241-258 of Nicomachean Ethics, with Philosophical Introduction by Sarah Broadie. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Peterson, Christopher and Edward C. Chang. 2003. "Optimism and Flourishing." Pp. 55-79 in Flourishing: Positive Psychology and the Life Well-Lived, edited by C.L.M. Keyes and J. Haidt. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Eudaimonia in early Greek life: Darrin M. McMahon
Questions
1. For Aristotle, how are leisure and reflection part of eudaimonia?
2. What kind of objective conditions of life are needed to attain eudaimonia?
3. How might optimism be related to eudaimonia?
Maslow, Abraham H. 2003 [1950]. "A Theory of Human Motivation." Pp. 29-40 in Voluntary Simplicity: Responding to Consumer Culture, edited by D. Doherty and A. Etzioni. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield.
Inglehart, Ronald. 1997. "Value Systems: The Subjective Aspect of Politics and Economics." Chapter 1, pp. 7-50, in Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in 43 Societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Self-actualization and individuality
Maslow: how Aristotle was wrong
Questions
1. How do QOL aspirations change as one progresses through the hierarchy of needs?
2. According to Inglehart, how must societies evolve for postmaterial values to become widespread?
3. How does Inglehart's theory provide a societal analogue to Maslow's hierarchy of needs?
Rapley, Mark. 2003. "Whose Quality of Life is it Anyway?" Chap. 3, pp. 63-82, in Quality of Life Research. London: Sage.
Utilitarianism and individual preferences: Clifford W. Cobb
Dimensions of objective and subjective well-being
Questions
1. How does utilitarianism understand the public good?
2. How does the analysis of Quality-Adjusted Life Years presume a utilitarian perspective?
Miles, Ian. 1985. "The Social Indicators Movement and the Development Debate." Chap. 2, pp. 25-59, in Social Indicators for Human Development. New York: St. Martin's.
Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (Wikipedia)
Physical Quality-Of-Life Index (Wikipedia)
Browse the journal Social Indicators Research.
Questions
1. What are the tensions between utilitarianism and justice?
2. How does Sen's capabilities approach avoid utilitarianism's individualism and the Aristotle's restrictive conditions for flourishing?
3. How did postwar development theory understand the relationship of economic growth to QOL?
4. How did the social indicators movement challenge that understanding?
Easterbrook, Progress Paradox, especially chaps. 1-7.
Questions
1. Why can't people enjoy the progress that modern society has achieved?
2. For Easterbrook, what is QOL: material development, individual frame of mind, or both?
Easterbrook, Progress Paradox (cont.).
Ciulla, The Working Life, especially Introduction, chaps. 1, 3-4, 7-8, 10-11, Epilogue.
Questions
1. What are the relationships of leisure to work?
2. How do our motivations to work change over our lives?
3. How does industrialization frustrate our aspirations for "quality of work"?
Ciulla, The Working Life (cont.).
In-class debates using shared readings on overwork:
1. Schor, Juliet. 2003. "The (Even More) Overworked American." Pp. 6-11 in Take Back Your Time, edited by J. De Graaf. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
2. Brandt, Barbara. 2003. "An Issue for Everybody." Pp. 12-19 in Take Back Your Time, edited by J. De Graaf. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
3. Robinson, John P. and Geoffrey Godbey. 1997. "The Overestimated Workweek and Trends in Hours at Work." Chap. 5, pp. 81-96, in Time for Life. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press.
4. Gershuny, Jonathan. 2000. "Are We Running Out of Time?" Chap. 3, pp. 46-75, in Changing Times. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. Sahlins, Marshall. 1972. "The Original Affluent Society." Chap. 1, pp. 1-40, in Stone Age Economics. Chicago: Aldine Atherton.
6. Blanchard, Ian. 1994. "Introduction." Pp. 9-38 in Labour and Leisure in Historical Perspective, Thirteenth to Twentieth Centuries. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
Taylor, Betsy. 2003. "Recapturing Childhood." Pp. 46-51 in Take Back Your Time, edited by J. De Graaf. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
Mintz, Huck's Raft, especially Prologue and chapters 2, 4-5, 7-14, 16-17 (294 pp.).
Questions
1. Over the course of American history, how typical has the "innocent" childhood been?
2. How has child development expertise evolved? How did we think about children before such expertise?
Mintz, Huck's Raft (cont.) .
October 31
Warner, Perfect Madness, especially chaps. 1-6, 9, 11-12.
Stretched to Limit, Women Stall March to Work (New York Times, March 2, 2006).
Extended breastfeeding: Are there still health benefits? (iVillage.com)
Questions
1. How does the "Mommy Mystique" understand family QOL?
2. How has parenting expertise evolved?
3. According to Warner, how does the emphasis on mothers' "choices" ignore the social context of mothering today?
Warner, Perfect Madness (cont.).
"On the Job, Nursing Mothers Find a 2-Class System" (New York Times, September 1, 2006).
RECOMMENDED on Friday, November 3
SIMPLICITY & SUSTAINABILITY
Elgin, Duane. 1981. "Voluntary Simplicity and Civilizational Revitalization." Chap. 3, pp. 179-213, in Voluntary Simplicity. New York: William Morrow & Co.
Grigsby, Mary. 2004. "Getting a Life: Constructing a Moral Identity in the Voluntary Simplicity Movement." Chap. 3, pp. 53-88, in Buying Time and Getting By: The Voluntary Simplicity Movement. Albany: SUNY Press.
Cantine's Island (Saugerties, NY)
Questions to guide reading
1. How can voluntary simplicity provide the means for a sustainable society?
2. How does Elgin's notion of "civilizational revitalization" understand QOL: individual/collective, objective/subjective, etc.?
3. How does the moral identity that "simple livers" construct for themselves challenge and/or draw from the social bases of mainstream identity?
Etzioni, Amitai. 2004. "The Post Affluent Society." Review of Social Economy 62: 407-420.
Brooks, David. 1996. "The Liberal Gentry." Weekly Standard, December 30. [Read on Blackboard: Readings.]
Cecile Andrews, "Voluntary Simplicity and the Poor."
Questions to guide reading
1. How does voluntary simplicity accommodate the dynamics of status competition?
2. As a mass movement, how far can voluntary simplicity challenge the framework of consumer capitalism?
November 14
In-class debates using shared readings on sprawl:
1. O'Toole, Randal. 2001. Selection from The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths. Bandon, OR: Thoreau Institute.
2. Nelson, Arthur C. 2002. "How Do We Know Smart Growth When We See It?" Pp. 82-101 in Smart Growth: Form and Consequences, edited by T.S. Szoll and A. Carbonell. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
3. Weiskel, Timothy C. 2002. "Ethical Principles for Smart Growth." Pp. 180-191 in Smart Growth: Form and Consequences, edited by T.S. Szoll and A. Carbonell. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
4. Morris, Douglas E. 2005. "A Society of Strangers." Chap. 2, pp. 47-60, in It's a Sprawl World After All. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers
5. O'Flaherty, Brendan. 2005. "Too Many Cars? Too Much Lawn? Too Much Blight?" Chap. 7, pp. 145-158, in City Economics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
6. Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Jeff Speck. 2000. "The House that Sprawl Built." Chap. 3, pp. 39-57, in Suburban Nation. New York: North Point Press.
SustainLane 2006 Rankings of Sustainability in Largest 50 US Cities. [Click on several regions and cities to read their report.]
Richard Florida, "Where the Brains Are" (The Atlantic Monthly, October 2006). [Download from Blackboard: Readings.]
Questions to guide reading
1. What qualities and amenities make cities sustainable?
2. How might the "creative class" be drawn to sustainable places?
Leonard Nevarez, "Quality of Life as 'Contexts for Place'" (presented at the Eastern Sociological Society meetings, February 2005). [Download from Blackboard: Readings.]
Save Cedar Mill! (Beaverton, OR)
Questions to guide reading
1. What is "quality of place"? Is it limited to the creative city that Richard Florida describes?
2. What are the social contexts in which people search for quality of place?
Bellah et al, Habits of the Heart, especially chaps. 1-3, 5-7, 11.
Cities Compete in Hipness Battle to Attract Young (New York Times, November 24, 2006).
Gift Guide: Williamsburg (Time Out New York, November 23-29, 2006).
Questions
1. How do our QOL aspirations reflect America's cultural traditions?
2. How do "lifestyle enclaves" frame our QOL pursuits in isolation from our fellow citizens? (Think about why this topic is discussed in a chapter entitled "Finding Oneself".)
3. How might the civic engagement and "commitment" that Bellah et al. advocate enhance our QOL?
Bellah et al, Habits of the Heart (cont.).
"Winning the Battle Against Burnout" (New York Times, August 27, 2006).
Bellah et al, Habits of the Heart (cont.).