01 / Reading Guide
Reading Guide
Citation
Manza, J., & Sauder, M. (Eds.). (2009). Inequality and Society: Social Science Perspectives on Social Stratification. W. W. Norton & Company.
Chapter Summary
This is an edited reader, not a continuous textbook: the editors, Jeff Manza and Michael Sauder, assemble writings by other authors into a single volume of about 1,000 pages (catalogues give 1,025 and 1,040). The publisher's description names the main areas the volume covers, and the summary below follows those areas and not a chapter list.
What kind of book it is
The publisher describes the volume as designed for undergraduate courses on inequality. Its stated aim is "the ideal balance of classic essays and more contemporary studies", so a reader meets older, foundational writing and newer work in the same volume. Because it is a reader, the voices, methods and dates vary from selection to selection, and the editors' contribution is the choice and arrangement of material.
The standard themes: poverty and inequality
The publisher says the book "covers the standard themes of poverty and inequality". These are the topics a course on social stratification is expected to cover: how resources and life chances are unequally distributed in society, and what poverty means within that distribution. The description does not break these themes into numbered units, and a reader should check the printed contents of the copy used before planning around any particular topic.
Bringing political institutions into the analysis
The distinctive claim made for the volume is that it brings political institutions into the analysis. The publisher presents it as the first reader to incorporate political inequality into the discussion of social stratification. In principle a course using it can treat political power and participation alongside the more familiar economic and social dimensions of inequality. This emphasis fits the editors' backgrounds: Manza is a sociologist at New York University who has written on felon disenfranchisement, welfare states, political polls and policies, and party coalitions, and Sauder, at the University of Iowa, studies status relationships and legitimacy in individuals and organizations.
The disciplinary framing
The subtitle, Social Science Perspectives on Social Stratification, signals a framing wider than a single discipline. Beyond that, the publisher's description does not name the disciplines or authors represented, so treat the subtitle as a statement of intent and confirm the actual selections in the printed table of contents.
Key Concepts
Themes named by the publisher
- Social stratification: the organised pattern of inequality among groups in a society, the subject in the subtitle.
- Inequality and poverty: the standard themes the publisher says the book covers.
- Political inequality: the dimension the publisher presents as new to readers on stratification.
- Political institutions: brought into the analysis of stratification.
- Classic and contemporary writing: the two kinds of source the editors balance.
Critical Analysis
Strengths
- Range of sources in one volume. The mix of classic essays and contemporary studies lets a course work from primary writing, in the authors' own words, without assembling a separate course pack.
- A distinctive angle. Attention to political inequality and institutions, which the publisher presents as new for readers on stratification, gives a course a way to connect inequality to politics.
- Editors with relevant expertise. Manza's published work on political topics and Sauder's on status and legitimacy match the volume's themes.
- Pitched at undergraduates. The publisher says it was designed for undergraduate courses on inequality, so it can be used as the main reader for such a course.
Limitations
- Size. At about 1,000 pages it holds far more than one semester can use; instructors and students have to select.
- Date. The volume dates from 2009, so it does not reflect later research and data on inequality; use more recent sources for current figures.
- No continuous argument. A reader does not develop one argument from start to finish, so it works best when an instructor or companion text supplies the thread.
- Selections not itemised. The publisher's description names themes but not individual selections; check the printed contents before assuming a topic is covered.
Where It Fits in the Course
Within the class and inequality list, this is the large general reader. Dennis Gilbert's The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality is a single-author textbook that builds one model of the American class structure from current data and is a more continuous companion. The Routledge Social Stratification reader is another edited collection, presented as a distilled set of short selections, so it suits a student who wants less volume. Mike Savage and colleagues' Social Class in the 21st Century is an accessible account of class in contemporary Britain, and Annette Lareau's Unequal Childhoods is an ethnography of class and family life that gives a detailed case. Erik Olin Wright's Understanding Class is a more advanced theoretical work on analysing class.
How to Use This Book
The book suits undergraduates taking a course on social inequality or stratification; an introductory sociology course helps but is not required.
A practical plan:
- Before reading: find the printed table of contents and mark the selections assigned in the course, since few readers will use the whole volume.
- Core: read the classic selections first, then the contemporary studies on poverty and inequality.
- Political dimension: give separate attention to the selections on political inequality and institutions, which are the volume's distinctive contribution.
- Alongside: pair it with a continuous textbook such as Gilbert's for the overall picture, and with a single-theme book such as Lareau's or Wright's for depth, and look for newer data than 2009 when the topic is current.