The relationship between social inequalities (in economic resources and educational opportunities, in status and respect, and in legal rights and political power) and social structures of ethno-racial assignment and class have long been a central interest of sociologists. This course introduces students to sociology as a mode of inquiry by exploring how sociologists and others analyze the evolution of race and class structures, and associated social inequalities in the metro Detroit area and in the United States more broadly. We ask what causes social inequalities of the sort we find, why they evolve as they do, how they affect individuals, communities, and the nation, and what can be done to reduce social inequalities that are harmful and unjust.

This course provides students with a basic understanding of the sociological theories relevant to community service learning, and the best practices developed by those who have pioneered this approach. Particular attention is devoted to the challenges and opportunities faced by student peer-facilitators in undergraduate service-learning classes, particularly Sociology 389 (Project Community). I am the Faculty Sponsor and Instructor for Project Community, which (among other things) means offering Soc 325 each semester.

In the last 20 years, Mexico has moved from what novelist Mario Vargas Llosa once called Latin America's "perfect dictatorship" -- a political system dominated by a single party, the Party of the Institutionalized Revolution (PRI), from 1928 to 2000 -- to a system in which an opposition party candidate won the Presidency in 2000, no single political party controls Congress, different parties control different state governments, and the judiciary is beginning to manifest some independence. The southern border state of Chiapas -- and the Zapatista rebellion launched there on January 1, 1994 -- played an important part in these changes. But Chiapas -- Mexico's most indigenous, most agrarian, poorest and (since 1994) most militarized state -- also demonstrates the limits of this transformation. Politics in Chiapas remains polarized and volatile, and the lives of its primarily rural population are extremely precarious. The Zapatistas and their international NGO allies are fostering important experiments in autonomous local government and rural economic development based on small farmer cooperatives connected to a global fair trade movement, eco-tourism, and more. But the depopulation of the state -- much of it taking the form of migration to the United States -- has never been more precipitous. In January 2006, migrants from Chiapas made up almost one quarter of those who passed through the CCAMYN shelter in Altar, Sonora, the town that is the staging point for the largest number of border crossings anywhere along the 2,000 mile US-Mexico border. The limits of Mexico's democratization are also evident in the violence unleashed by the Governor of Oaxaca against the teachers' union there, and in the still-disputed outcome of the presidential election of 2006. This new course will explore these developments during the Winter term. Then, in the first two weeks of May, 15 members of the class will participate in a two-week field trip to Chiapas, Oaxaca and Mexico City. Most of our time will be spent in Chiapas. There we will meet with Mexican and international NGOs working on a wide variety of issues: rural development, militarization, migration, fair trade coffee, eco-tourism, and indigenous rights. We will also spend several days in the countryside, visiting Zapatista communities to discuss their efforts to create autonomous democratic municipal governments in the areas where they have strength, and farmer coops that produce coffee for fair trade organizations. From Chiapas we will travel to the capital of Oaxaca to meet with representatives of the teachers' union and allied organizations, as well as legislators critical of these organizations. Finally, before flying home, we will visit the Mexican Congress and meet with representatives of the three major political parties. We will also talk with supporters of the "parallel government" formed by PRD Presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador after the electoral court determined that his PANista opponent would become Mexico's President without a full ballot recount. The development of this course was made possible by a grant from the University of Michigan's Office of International Programs (OIP). The same grant will also partially defray the costs of student participation in the field trip.