SOCL 398-01
The Life Course: An International Comparison
Course date and time
Course location
Instructor: Dr. Anna Muraco
Office: University Hall 4329
Phone Number: (310) 338-1754
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours:
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course will explore theories and experiences of the Life Course, a perspective that focuses on
developmental trajectories and transitions throughout one’s life, using international comparisons.
The concepts of social contexts and linked lives are particularly important to the life course: we will
examine how social location affects our lives within particular social contexts and in relation to one
another, both individually, in groups, and more broadly. We will examine different aspects of the
life course theories and then will apply the theories to life stages: childhood, adolescence, adulthood,
midlife, and aging. In each stage, we will examine U.S., Uruguayan, and Chinese contexts to best
understand similarities and differences between the life course in each national context.
The course objectives are as follows:
 By the end of the course, students will understand life course theory and its central concepts
 Students will be able to identify how social location and social context affects life course
experiences
 Students will be able to explain how early life transitions affect later life transitions
 Students will be able to articulate how geographical, national, and international contexts
affect the unfolding of one’s life course.
 Students will engage with local organizations that serve older adult populations for at least 15
hours over the course of the semester; five hours will be introductory or general service, 10
hours will be spent collecting oral history data.
 Students will be able to apply course concepts to their original oral history data that they
collect from older adults.
PREREQUISITES/RECOMMENDED BACKGROUND
I expect that all students in the course will have a clear understanding of sociological concepts and social
science research methods
REQUIRED COURSE TEXTS
Laureau, Anette. (2003) Unequal Childhoods (Currently available as a free ebook, using the library website)
ERes articles (password: lifecourse)
ONE UNIT COURSE ADDITION
This course includes an option of earning one additional unit of credit for those students who are willing
and able to travel to Montevideo, Uruguay for ten days following the termination of the semester, to study
at the Universidad Catolica de Uruguay (UCU) and conduct an additional oral history interview with the
assistance of a UCU undergraduate sociology major. This one unit option is available to the first ten
1
students who register. If you are interested in participating in the post-semester trip, please notify me
immediately. The additional unit option is not a requirement and students will not be adversely affected if
they choose not to enroll in this option. Cost and requirements for the additional course credit will be
discussed once students have registered for this option.
OTHER COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
For this course, you are required to complete a 15-hour service commitment with one of several agreedupon agencies that serves older adults, which will be presented to you during the first and second weeks
of class. Five hours of this commitment will be spent with an orientation and a one-time assistance
project. The remaining 10 hours will be spent interviewing two different older adults from the chosen
agency for your oral history project. Ten percent of your course grade will be based on the completion of
this service requirement, which will be verified by the placement agency.
GRADE BREAKDOWN:
Quizzes
Midterm Paper
Ethnography assignment
Analytic Memos
Final Oral History Paper
Service Placement
Class participation
GRADING SCALE
A+: 100
A : 99.99-93
A- : 92.99-90
B+ : 89.99-88
B : 87.99-83
B- : 82.99-80
10%
15%
15%
20%
25%
10%
5%
C+: 79.99-78
C : 77.99-73
C- : 72.99-70
D : 69.99-60
F : 59.99 and below
GRADING
For each assignment or exam that I return, I employ a 24-hour waiting period. This means that you
must hold onto your assignment and review my comments before you contact me about your grade.
If you have a question about the grade that you earned on a particular assignment, you must provide
me with a written explanation of your concern within 36 hours of the date that the assignment was
returned.
PARTICIPATION
Course participation will include contributing to class discussions, participating in group activities,
being a respectful member of the class, and attending office hours.
QUIZZES
Throughout the semester, we will have seven, unannounced, in-class quizzes about the reading
material. I will count the grades from the five highest scores you earn, for a total of 10% of your
total course grade. The quizzes will be given in the first ten minutes of class—those students who
come in after the quiz has been collected will not be able to take the quiz for that day. Students will
not be able to make up missed quizzes for any reason.
2
ATTENDANCE
I do not require course attendance for regular course sessions. This means I will not be taking roll
(except to get an accurate accounting of who is enrolled in the course), until the last three weeks of
the semester as explained above. Because I will not be taking roll, you do not need to explain
absences to me—I recognize that students are often are juggling multiple responsibilities. That said,
there will be in-class assignments and activities that will count toward your overall participation
grade—there will be no opportunity to make up in-class material. Also, you are responsible for
knowing the material and announcements made in class every day.
ACADEMIC HONESTY
Academic dishonesty will be treated as an extremely serious matter, with serious consequences that
can range from receiving no credit for assignments/tests to expulsion. It is never permissible to
turn in any work that has been copied from another student or copied from a source (including
Internet) without properly acknowledging the source. It is your responsibility to make sure that your
work meets the standard of academic honesty set forth in the “LMU Honor Code and Process”
which appears in the LMU Bulletin 2010-2011
(see http://www.lmu.edu/about/services/registrar/Bulletin/Bulletins_in_PDF_Format.htm.)
Suggestions for preventing plagiarism are found at
http://library.lmu.edu/Services_for_Faculty/Preventing_Plagiarism__links_for_faculty.htm
MYLMU
I use MYLMU as a means of communicating with students enrolled in my classes. I will post
announcements, assignments, review sheets for the midterm and final exams, and PowerPoint slides
from my lectures on our course site on MYLMU. I will also provide hard copy handouts of these
documents. At times I will communicate with the entire class using campus email systems, so it is
essential that you regularly check your lion.lmu.edu email address or forward your lion account email
to your preferred email address.
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION DEVICES
Please turn off and put out of sight all electronic devices other than a computer during class-time.
The interruptions and/or distractions they cause disrupt class and interfere with the learning
process. Also, remember that if you use your computer to surf the Internet or IM during class time,
the students behind you can see your screens, which is distracting to them. If I suspect that you are
using your computers for reasons other than taking notes or contributing to class discussions, I may
make a “no computer” rule for our classroom.
AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT
Students with special needs as addressed by the Americans with Disabilities Act who need
reasonable modifications, special assistance, or accommodations in this course should promptly
direct their request to the Disability Support Services Office. Any student who currently has a
documented disability (physical, learning, or psychological) needing academic accommodations
should contact the Disability Services Office (Daum Hall Room 224, 310-338-4535) as early in the
semester as possible. All discussions will remain confidential. Please visit http://www.lmu.edu/dss
for additional information.
EXPECTATIONS FOR CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR
One of the primary goals of the course is to think critically about social structures and norms that
most of us take for granted. As such, I expect that some of you may not always agree with
3
perspectives expressed by the authors or your classmates (or me). In order to build the best possible
learning environment, our class will be governed by principles of mutual respect for opinions and
experiences for all individuals. The LMU Student Affairs brochure Disruptive and Threatening Student
Behavior (Fall 2010), states “Disruptive behavior which is persistent or significantly interferes with
classroom activities may be subject to disciplinary action. A student may be referred to the Office
of Student Judicial Affairs if their behavior constitutes a violation of the conduct code.” Also refer
to LMU’s Community Standards
(http://www.lmu.edu/studentlife/Judicial_Affairs/Standards_Publication.htm
for the Student Conduct Code, Section IV. D.).
As an LMU Lion, by the Lion’s Code, you are pledged to join the discourse of the academy with
honesty of voice and integrity of scholarship and to show respect for staff, professors, and other
students. Please see the Lion’s Code (http://www.lmu.edu/AssetFactory.aspx?vid=30313) for details.
If necessary, this syllabus and its contents are subject to revision; students are responsible
for any changes or modifications distributed in class or posted on LMU's course
management system MYLMU Connect.
Topics/Reading Assignments (Readings should be completed by the date indicated):
Week 1: Introduction to the Life Course
Wednesday
ERes: Elder, Glen Jr. “Time, Human Agency, and Social Change: Perspectives on the Life Course.”
Friday
ERes: Tourino, “Uruguay: The Right to the Truth”
Zhou and Lou, “Children of the Cultural Revolution: The State and the Life Course in the People’s
Republic of China.”
Week 2: Childhood
Monday
ERes: Zhou & Moen, “Explaining Life Chances in China’s Economic Transformation: A Life
Course Approach”
Wednesday
ERes: Elder, G.; Modell, J.; Parke R. “Studying children in a changing world.”
Friday
ERes: Duncan, Brooks-Gunn, Klebanov, “Economic Deprivation and Early Childhood
Development
Week 3: Childhood
Monday
Lareau: 1-65
Wednesday
Lareau: 66-103
Friday
ERes: Cid “Educational Gap and Family Structure in Urugay”
4
Week 4: Childhood/Adolescence
Monday
ERes: Lee, “The One Child Policy and Gender Equality in Education in China: Evidence from
Household Data.”
Placement Contracts Due
Wednesday
ERes: Staab & Gerhard, “Putting Two and Two Together? Early Childhood Education, Mother’s
Employment, and Care Service Expansion in Chile and Mexico”
Friday
Johnson, M. and Mollborn, S. “Growing up Faster, Feeling Older: Hardship in Childhood and
Adolescence”
Week 5: Adolescence
Monday
ERes: ERes: Meier, A., & Allen, G. “Intimate relationship development during the transition to
adulthood.”
Wednesday
ERes: McCarthy, B. and Casey, T. “Love, Sex, and Crime: Adolescent Romantic Relationships and
Offending.”
Friday
ERes: Furstenburg, Frank “Destinies of the Disadvantaged.”
Week 6: Adolescence/Young Adulthood
Monday
ERes: Smith, “The Only Thing I Hate in the World is the Police”
Analytic Memo 1 Due
Wednesday
ERes: Sanchez, B., Esparza, P., Colon, Y., Davis, K.E., “Tryin’ to Make it During the Transition
from High School: The Role of Family Obligation Attitudes and Economic Context for LatinoEmerging Adults.”
Friday
ERes: Gee, “The Sent Down Youth of China: The Role of Family Origin in the Risk of Departure
to and Return From the Countryside.”
Week 7: Life Course Methodologies
Monday
Lareau: Appendix
Wednesday
ERes: Morissey, “On Oral History Interviewing”
5
Friday
ERes: Gubrium and Holstein, excerpt from “Handbook of Interview Research”
Week 8: Life Course
Monday
Midterm Paper Due
Wednesday
ERes: Pettit, B. and Western, B. “Mass Imprisonment and the Life Course.”
Friday
ERes: MacLean, A. and Elder, G. “Military Service in the Life Course.”
Week 9: Adulthood
Monday
ERes: Dozier, “Young, Jobless, and Black: Young Black Women and Economic Downturns.”
Wednesday
ERes: Coffey, Anderson, Zhao, Liu, Zhang, “Perspectives on Work-Family Issues in China: The
Voices of Young Urban Professionals.”
Friday
ERes: Borraz & Pozo, “Remittances in Uruguay”
Ethnography assignment due
Week 10: Midlife
Monday
ERes: Gonzalez Vaillant, “’Mirror, Mirror’: A Qualitative Analysis of Intergenerational Images of
Masculinity in Uruguay.”
Wednesday
ERes: Carpenter, “Gendered Sexuality over the Life Course: A Conceptual Framework.”
Friday
ERes: Friese, C. “Rethinking the biological clock: Eleventh-hour moms, miracle moms and
meanings of age-related infertility.”
Week 11: Health and Mid Life
Monday
ERes: Geronimus, A. Hicken, M. Keene, D, and Bound, J. ““Weathering” and Age Patterns of
Allostatic Load Scores Among Blacks and Whites in the United States.”
Wednesday
ERes: Chen, Yang, & Liu, “Social Change and Socioeconomic Disparities in Health over the Life
Course in China: A Cohort Analysis”
Friday
ERes: Mendenhall, R. “Job Loss at Midlife.”
6
Week 12: Mid Life
Monday
ERes: Warren, Houser and Sheridan, “Occupational Stratification Across the Life Course”
Analytic Memo #2 Due
Wednesday
ERes Alvarez-Rivadulla, “Golden Ghettos: Gated Communities and Class Residential Segregation in
Montevideo, Uruguay.”
Friday
O’Rand, Angela. “The Precious and the Precocious: Understanding Cumulative Disadvantage and
Cumulative Advantage over the Life Course.”
Week 13: Aging
Monday
ERes: Lewis, Denise. “Aging out of Place: Cambodian Refugee Elders in the United States.”
Wednesday
ERes: Sheehan & Donorfio, “Efforts to Create Meaning in the Relationship Between Aging
Mothers and Their Caregiving Daughters: A Qualitative Study of Caregiving.”
Friday
ERes: Cong & Silverstein, “Caring for Grandchildren and Intergenerational Support in Rural China:
A Gendered Extended Family Perspective.”
Week 14: Aging
Monday
ERes: Hayward & Wang, “Retirement in Shanghai”
Wednesday
ERes: Fredriksen-Goldsen et al., Aging and Health Report
Friday
ERes: Ferreira-Coimbra & Forteza, “Can Latin America Protect the Elderly with Non-Contributory
Programmes? The Case of Uruguay”
Week 15:
Monday
ERes: Dethier, Pestiau & Ali, “The Minimum Pension on Old Age Poverty and its Budgetary Cost:
Evidence from Latin America.”
Wednesday
ERes: Cheek, “Passing Over: Identity Transition in Widows”
Friday
Oral History Projects Due
7