SOS8534 - Welfare and Social Inequality
SOS8534 - Welfare and Social Inequality
About the course
Department of Sociology and Political Science (ISS), NTNU – Trondheim and Department of Sociology, University of California-Berkeley invites applications for a PhD/Research Course – “: Educational Institutions in a Comparative Perspective: Explorations in Durable Inequality” to be held in Berkeley December 4-13 2023. This is a “substance course” in the Norwegian Ph.D. System.
Course credits: 10 pts (ECTS) with a paper, 5 pts (ECTS) without a paper (Candidates from NTNU can only take the 10 ECTS version.)
Deadline for registration: October 27 2023
Acceptance to the course: October 30 2023
Deadline for submitting final paper: March 15 2024
Maximum number of students: 15
Application for the course must be done via e-mail to mona.fjellvaer@ntnu.no. Please note that confirmation of admission will be offered based on the e-mail application to Mona Fjellvær and the pre-assignment, including a Ph.D project summary & preliminary plan on how to integrate the course in your Ph.D. training.
Compulsory assignments
- For 10 ECTS: One assignment prior to the course; active participation in the course; paper 20 pages (+/- 10%).
- For 5 ECTS: One assignment prior to the course; active participation in the course; paper 8-10 pages (+/- 10%). This option is only available for students not affiliated with a Norwegian University.
Organizers and lecturers
Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology, UC Berkeley. Harding’s research includes research methods, inequality, sociology of education, and urban sociology. Harding is an active US partner in the Nordic-US comparative project on durable inequalities in childhood and education in a comparative perspective.
E-mail: dharding@berkeley.edu
Professor of sociology at NTNU. Leiulfsrud´s research fields are in comparative sociology, class and inequality, family and childhood, and educational sociology. His most recent project, together with Nordic partners and partners at UC Berkeley, focus on durable inequalities in childhood and education in a comparative perspective.
E-mail: hakon.leiulfsrud@ntnu.no
Professor of sociology at University of Agder (UiA) and adjunct professor at NTNU. Her research focus on childhood, family, education and professional work, welfare and social development. Nilsen is a leading researcher in the Nordic countries in institutional ethnography.
E-mail: ann.c.nilsen@uia.no
Professor, Department of Education, UC Berkeley. Fuller often focuses on how the social organization of schools or families advance the well-being of young children. Fuller´s research in California and New York City asks whether the spread of preschool acts to narrow or reinforce disparities in children's early learning. Professor Fuller teaches in education policy and the sociology of organizations.
Professor, Department of Sociology, UC Berkeley. Riley´s research includes political sociology, comparative historical sociology and social theory.
Professor, Department of Sociology, UC Berkeley. Lucas´ research includes social stratification, sociology of education, research methods and statistics.
Research Fellow at UC Berkeley. Torian studies schools and higher education institutions from an organizational perspective, with a focus on inequalities by race and class. Torian is an active US partner in the Nordic-US comparative project on durable inequalities in childhood and education in a comparative perspective.
Professor of Sociology, University of Bergen. Hjellbrekke’s research includes research methods, elites, class analysis, social mobility and social networks. His research is mostly comparative oriented with a special interest in power relations.
Local contact person in Berkeley
Trinel Torian: ttorian@berkeley.edu
Course objectives
The course departs from an interest in durable inequality in two cases of educational institutions; “early childhood, education and associated welfare systems” and higher education”. Both of these cases are approached with examples how durable inequality in terms of class, gender and race are manifested in the organizational and institutional practices and environments in which the operate and engage. Our focus on similarities and differences between educational institutions is driven by a theoretical interest in the importance of organizational and institutional factors in explaining durable inequality. The course has a strong emphasis on theory and methodology in comparative and cross-national research. This is both illustrated with quantitative and qualitative methodological approaches and theory highlighting institutional theory and methodology. Rather than treating old and new theory and models as fixed we are interested in exploring the possibilities to expand the theoretical vocabulary and methodologies associated with analysis of social class, gender and race in the context of educational institutions. The course should stimulate the course participants to creativity and independence in their own research. The course is set up as a mix of lectures, seminars, and workshops where course participants can problematize and develop questions in their own dissertation projects.
This course includes as major topics:
- Theoretical and methodological challenges in cross national research of educational institutions
- Schools as a theoretical object in explorations of durable inequality in childhood
- Early intervention as a tool and narrative of reducing inequality in childhood and education
- Ideals of social inclusion vs. practice in early education
- Approaches to educational governance in higher education
- Social inequality in in higher education.
The course is based on a mix between lectures, seminar discussion, and active collaboration between Berkeley students and Nordic students working together on questions and topics linked to the course. Students will be asked to collaboratively prepare discussion questions based on the assigned reading for one seminar discussion period. Students will have the opportunity to present their ongoing research projects and receive feedback from faculty and peers.
The final paper/assignment will consist of two parts:
- A discussion on theoretical/methodological themes presented/discussed during the course
- At the end of the term students shall hand in a term paper where he/she demonstrates the ability to discuss a theme where matters of theory and concept-construction are related to their own research.
All papers will be evaluated by the course leaders.
Preparations prior to the course in Berkeley
The students are asked to submit a three pages pre-assignment no later than October 16 2023, including a Ph.D. project summary, preliminary plan on use of theory and research methodology, and questions you would like to be dealt upon in the Berkeley course.
We will ask you to read and comment upon fellow students’ pre-assignments, which require reading the pre-assignments before the course.
We will compile some additional texts linked to the student projects in a compendium that will be sent to the students October 30. We will also provide you with additional information, including hotel, meals, etc. on October 30.
Schedule
Organizers: Welcome and introduction
Prof. Dylan Riley (UC Berkeley): Theoretical challenges in comparative and cross-national research
Prof Sam Lucas (UC Berkeley): Assuring falsifiability: How EMI avoids tautology, contradiction, incoherence, and inapplicability
Prof. Johs Hjellbrekke (UiB): Bourdieu inspired theory and methodology on class and inequality
Prof. Ann Christin Eklund Nilsen (UiA): Approaching inequality in childhood from an institutional ethnography perspective
Seminar Discussion
Organized and led by students, supervised by Research Fellow Trinel Torian (UC Berkeley)
Prof. Bruce Fuller (UC Berkeley): When schools work
Prof. Ann Christin Eklund Nilsen (UiA): The import of early intervention in US into a Nordic and global context
Prof. Håkon Leiulfsrud (NTNU): Unequal Childhood: Revisited
Seminar Discussion
Organized and led by Students, supervised by Research Fellow Trinel Torian (UC Berkeley)
Trinel Torian (UC Berkeley): Organizations as a theoretical object in explorations of durable inequality
Prof. Håkon Leiulfsrud (NTNU): Social inclusion in school and early childhood: contradictions and challenges in Nordic early education
NN: Open
Seminar Discussion
Organized and led by Students, supervised by Research Fellow Trinel Torian (UC Berkeley)
Prof. David Harding (UC Berkeley): Data science education in higher education
Research Fellow Trinel Torian (UC Berkeley): Racial diversity in US higher education: The case of affirmative action at UC Berkeley and UCLA
Seminar Discussion
Organized and led by Students, supervised by Research Fellow Trinel Torian (UC Berkeley)
Reading and literature
- 10 ECTS: 1,200 pages of which 600-700 pages in the core curriculum
- 5 ECTS: 600 pages of which 300-350 pages in the core curriculum
Compendium to be supplemented.
Additional elected literature of relevance for each student.