Topic:  Children and Youth in Comparative Perspective: United States
and Europe

This course will examine children and youth and social policies
related to children, youth and families from a comparative
perspective with a focus on the United States and Western Europe.  In
the course we will review and discuss recent theoretical writings and
empirical research on children and youth from both a micro and macro
perspective.  We will also examine how cultural values and social
policies in the areas of education, family, and work affect the lives
of children and youth and their peer cultures.  Finally, we will
undertake comparative case studies of various Western European
countries and the U.S. regarding both various social problems of
children and youth (family and maternity leave, daycare and early
education programs, poverty, crime, family disruption, child abuse
and violence, teenage pregnancy, etc.) and the policies which have
been enacted to address these problems.

Requirements for the course will include: (1) each student writing a
short position paper (letter to the editor) addressing a particular
social problem of children and youth in contemporary society from a
comparative perspective; (2) each student gathering information
regarding the quality of the lives of children and youth in a
specific Western European country and relating this information to
existing policy and the need for policy change in a class
presentation; and (3) a final paper in which each student develops
their case study in the more general frame of social welfare policies
related to the lives of children and youth in a comparative
perspective.  Students will also be required to write a number of
commentaries on class readings.

Required Books

Barbara R. Bergmann. Saving Our Children from Poverty: What the
United States Can Learn from France. New York: Russell Sage
Foundation, 1996.

William A. Corsaro, The Sociology of Childhood.  Thousand Oaks, CA:
Pine Forge Press, 1997.

There will also be a number of class readings available in the
sociology graduate office.