HECU3571W: Inequality in America: A Political Economy Approach

This seminar provides the theoretical foundations necessary for understanding the roots, dynamics, and reproduction of urban and regional economic, political, and social inequality and poverty. It will also equip students with the key theoretical tools for evaluating alternative policies and strategies for addressing various forms of poverty and inequality. Theory will be treated in an integrated fashion with students' field and internship work and will draw from numerous disciplines but with a particular focus on the field of political economy. Students examine a series of interrelated social systems relevant to the study of poverty and inequality such as the economy, the politics of economic policy, labor markets, geographic systems and housing, education and welfare systems. Theories of oppression help students understand how institutionalized racism, classism and gender discrimination factor in and among all of these systems.This course is one of three courses taken concurrently that make up the Inequality in America: Policy, Community, and the Politics of Empowerment program taught through our institutional partnership with HECUA. Students are also enrolled in HECU 3572 Political Sociology of Building Power, Change, and Equity and HECU 3573 Internship and Integration Seminar. prereq: departmental consent required

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