11.006
Poverty and Economic Security
Explores the evolution of poverty and economic security in the US within a global context. Examines the impacts of recent economic restructuring and globalization. Reviews current debates about the fate of the middle class, sources of increasing inequality, and approaches to advancing economic opportunity and security. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Fall 2016
Topics
- Introduction Overview: Poverty and Economic Security
- Introduction (continued)
- Data, Metrics, and Analysis: Poverty and Economic Security
- The Demography of Poverty, Race, Class, and Income
- Geography of Poverty, Race, Class, and Income
- Class, Poverty, and Economic Access and the Rise of the Middle Class
- Evolution of Poverty and Economics of the Nation
- Higher Education and the First Generation
- Immigration, Social Exclusion or Integration
- Evolution of Poverty and Economic Status, and the Rise of Inequality
- Evolution of Poverty (continued from week 10)
- Poverty in a Global Perspective
- Final Projects Due
Readings
- Chapter 1 in Hampden-Turner, Charles. From Poverty to Dignity; A Strategy for Poor Americans . 1974. ISBN: 9780385035354.
- Chapter 1 in Stiglitz, Joseph E. The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future . WW Norton & Company, 2012. ISBN: 9780393345063.
- Chapters 3 and 5 in Iceland, John. Poverty in America: A Handbook . University of California Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780520276369.
- Chapter 5 in Wilson, William J. More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City . WW Norton & Company, 2009. ISBN: 9780393337631.
- Chapter 1 in Lareau, Annette, and Dalton Conley, eds. Social Class: How Does It Work? Russell Sage Foundation, 2008. ISBN: 9780871545077.
- Pages 11-43 in Noah, Timothy. The Great Divergence: America’s Growing Inequality Crisis and What We Can Do About It . Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2012. ISBN: 9781608196357.
- Chapter 1 in Duberman, Lucille. Social Inequality: Class and Caste in America . Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. December 1976.
- Chapters 1, and 7 in Alexander, Karl, Doris Entwisle, and Linda Olson. The Long Shadow: Family Background, Disadvantaged Urban Youth, and the Transition to Adulthood . Russell Sage Foundation, 2014. ISBN: 9780871540331.
- Chapter 4 in Stiglitz, Joseph E. The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future . W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. ISBN: 9780393345063.
- Pages 129-149 in Lardner, James, and David Alden Smith, eds. Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide in America and Its Poisonous Consequences . New Press, 2005. ISBN: 9781595581754.
- Chapter 1 and 6 in Bok, Derek. Higher Education in America . Princeton University Press, 2015. ISBN: 9780691165585.
- Chapters 1, 2, and 6 in Kasnitz, Philip, John H. Mollenkopf, Mary C. Waters, and Jennifer Holdaway. Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age . Russell Sage Foundation, 2009. ISBN: 9780871544780.
- Chapter 3 in Saunders, Doug. Arrival City: How the Largest Migration in History is Reshaping Our World . Vintage, 2011. ISBN: 9780307388568.
- Chapter 10 in Stiglitz, Joseph E. The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future . WW Norton & Company, 2012. ISBN: 9780393345063.
- Chapters 5 and 6 in Seefeldt, Kristin S., John David Graham, Gordon Abner, and Tavis Smiley. America’s Poor and the Great Recession . Indiana University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780253009746.
- Pages 91-97 in Hartman, Chester W., ed. Challenges to Equality: Poverty and Race in America . ME Sharpe, 2001. ISBN: 9780765607270.
- Pages 1-30 in Collins, Daryl, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford, and Orlanda Ruthven. Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 A Day . Princeton University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780691141480.
- Preface, Chapter 2 in Saunders, Doug. Arrival City: How the Largest Migration in History is Reshaping Our World . Vintage, 2011. ISBN: 9780307388568.
- Chapters 1, 2 in Banerjee, Abhijit, and Esther Duflo. Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty . Public Affairs, 2012. ISBN: 9781610390934.
- Chapter 6 in Darling-Hammond, Linda. The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future . Teachers College Press, 2015. ISBN: 9780807749623.
Prerequisites & course information
Subject meets with 11.206 Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-S
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2016
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.