Schedule
AUGUST 31
Quality of life: Is it getting better?
SEPTEMBER 2
Gregg Easterbrook, "The Great Story of our Era: Average People Better Off." In The Progress Paradox (Random House, 2003), 3-34.
Nevarez, chap. 1.
Thomas Piketty, Income inequality in the United States, 1910-2010 (chart).
SEPTEMBER 7: No class meeting (Labor Day)
'Quality of life' vs. economic growth
SEPTEMBER 9
Indur Goklany, "Economic Growth, Techological Change, and Human Well-Being," in Terry L. Anderson, ed., It's Getting Better (Palo Alto, CA: Hoover Institute, 2003), 53-81.
Clifford W. Cobb, "Measurement Tools and the Quality of Life" (2000).
Nevarez, pp. 26-39, 45-50.
The Economist, "The End of Poverty" (June 1, 2013).
A history of the phrase "quality of life."
The affluent society critique.
Robert F. Kennedy challenges the idea of Gross National Product: VIDEO
United Nations Development Programme: Human Development Index.
Intellectual precedents: Aristotle
SEPTEMBER 14
1st essay deadline.
Darrin M. McMahon, "The Highest Good." In Happiness: A History (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006), 19-65.
Aristotle, selections from Nicomachean Ethics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 9-17, 74-81, 95-110, 241-258.
Intellectual precedents: Maslow & Sen
SEPTEMBER 16
Abraham H. Maslow, "A Theory of Human Motivation." Psychological Review 50 (1943), 370-396.
Amartya Sen, "Capability and Well-Being." In The Quality of Life, edited by Martha C. Nussbaum & Amartya Sen (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 30-53.
Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Quality of life and health
SEPTEMBER 21
Mark Rapley, Quality of Life Research (London: Sage, 2003), 63-82.
A typical HRQOL questionnaire.
Human development
SEPTEMBER 23
Paul Hopper, Understanding Development (Polity, 2012), 1-24.
Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel, Modernization, Cultural Change and Democracy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 15-47.
Food security
SEPTEMBER 28
Michael Carolan, Reclaiming Food Security (New York: Routledge, 2013), 99-140.
Megan Carney, The Unending Hunger (Oakland: Univ. of California Press, 2015), 39-66.
SEPTEMBER 30
2nd essay deadline.
Definitions of Food Security (U.S. Department of Agriculture).
Alternatives to conventional understandings of food security: Michael Carolan.
Food justice, social justice
OCTOBER 5
Julie Guthman, Weighing In (Oakland: Univ. of California Press, 2011), 66-90.
"Cost for diabetes in NY soars" (Poughkeepsie Journal, October 4, 2015).
OCTOBER 7
Alkon, Black White, and Green, chaps. 1-3.
Exploring the Stratification of "Healthy Food Consciousness" in a Food-Insecure City.
OCTOBER 12-16: FALL BREAK
Quality of life and intersectionality
OCTOBER 19
Alkon, Black White, and Green, chaps. 4-5, 7.
Subjective well-being
OCTOBER 21
3rd essay deadline.
C.R. Snyder & Shane J. Lopez, Positive Psychology (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2007), 127-148.
"Gross National Happiness in Bhutan" (The Guardian, December 1, 2012).
What determines your level of happiness?
Choice
OCTOBER 26
Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice, chaps. 1-5.
Processed meats rank alongside smoking as cancer causes.
OCTOBER 28
Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice, chaps. 6, 8, 9, 11.
Voluntary simplicity
NOVEMBER 2
Juliet Schor, "The Problem of Over-Consumption." In Voluntary Simplicity, edited by Daniel Doherty and Amitai Etzioni (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), 65-82.
Mary E. Huneke, "The Face of the Un-Consumer: An Empirical Examination of the Practice of Voluntary Simplicity in the United States." Psychology & Marketing 22 (2005), 527-550.
Voluntary simplicity: A brief history (Powerpoint).
Three variations of voluntary simplicity: Amitai Etzioni.
10 Steps to Conquering Information Overload (Forbes).
The Life-Changing Magic of Having Marie Kondo Organize Your Office (Forbes).
NOVEMBER 4
Deirdre Shaw and Caroline Moraes, "Voluntary Simplicity: An Exploration of Market Interactions." International Journal of Consumer Studies 33 (2009), 215-223.
Mary Grigsby, Buying Time and Getting By (Albany: SUNY Press, 2004), 119-163.
Why be happy?
NOVEMBER 9
Davies, The Happiness Industry, Preface, pp. 13-27, chaps. 2-3
NOVEMBER 11
Davies, The Happiness Industry, chaps. 4-6.
The quality and quantity of work
NOVEMBER 16
Marshall Sahlins, "The Original Affluent Society." In Stone Age Economics (Aldine Atherton, 1972), 1-40.
Barbara Brandt, "An Issue for Everybody." In Take Back Your Time, edited by John De Graaf (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2002), 12-19.
NOVEMBER 18
Nevarez, pp. 92-105, chap. 4.
Welfare regimes in developed countries.
"Stretched to Limit, Women Stall March to Work" (New York Times, March 2, 2006).
Quality of place
NOVEMBER 23
James Howard Kunstler, "Home From Nowhere." Atlantic Monthly, September 1996.
The productivity dividend? A view from the affluent society era.
NOVEMBER 25
4th essay deadline.
Steven Conn, Americans Against the City (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 277-296.
Nevarez, chap. 5.
Robert Crumb, "A Short History of America" (1979).
New Urbanism segment on CBS Sunday Morning (May 20, 2007).
Planning for community well-being?
NOVEMBER 30
"L.A. maps out sweeping transportation overhaul" (Los Angeles Times, August 9, 2015).
Randal O'Toole, The Best-Laid Plans (Washington, DC: Cato Institute, 2007), 57-68, 93-125.
DECEMBER 2
No new readings. Finish previous readings and work on one of the papers for this class.
Quality of life: Is it getting worse?
DECEMBER 7: Last day of class
5th essay deadline.
John De Graaf et al, "An Ache for Meaning," "Social Scars" and "Resource Exhaustion." In Affluenza, 2nd ed. (Berrett Koehler, 2005), 68-94.
DECEMBER 9: No class meeting (counts as Friday in academic calendar)
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13
Final paper due.