Opinion | ‘I Am the Portrait of Downward Mobility’ – The New York Times10/18/21, 11:39 AM
Every time I’ve gotten a little bit of momentum, everything just grinds to a
halt.”
Lauren Bruce, Madison, Wis. Higher education administrator
My financial situation is vastly worse than that of my parents, who were
40 when I was born.
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They always owned houses and had new cars, never worried about
seeing a doctor, benefited from solid pensions and preached that
college was the secret to their success. (Their tuition in 1960s
Arkansas was about $250 a semester.) There were opportunities for
them that they were able to take advantage of. There was a ladder. I’m
not sure that ladder exists any more.
I put myself through college, graduating with a reasonable $40,000 in
debt and an education degree right into the beginning of the recession.
The debt has ballooned, after I’ve gotten halfway through a master’s
degree, to about $70,000, despite my paying it back for almost 15
years.
It’s hard with student loans because there’s so much animus and kind
of shame wrapped up in it. So much of culture tells you, “This was your
decision, you took out the money, you should have known that you were
going to pay it back.” These are predatory loans. I went to a state
school and took out a reasonable amount of loans and then graduated
into a recession where I just couldn’t pay them.
There was no recognition at all in 2008 of people like me who came out
of school and immediately had to go into forbearance and deferment
and were just racking up interest for the duration while we were trying
to get jobs. I ended up working in a call center for the next seven or
eight years. I could not get a job that had anything to do with my degree
at all.
I have always worked, sometimes two, three, four jobs and side gigs at
a time, and did so with a can-do attitude because we needed it and it
had to be done. But with student loans, it was like throwing money into
a black hole.
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At this point my payments don’t even cover the interest. It’s so, so far
gone. And there’s no getting out of it. It’s like a black cloud over your
head.
When my oldest child was little, I scratched our way into a great school
system that was fed by a rich neighborhood, and he frequently found
himself the kid with a bad haircut in secondhand clothes sitting next to
fine-boned doctors’ children with BMWs in the school parking lot.
Now he is college age, and I can’t help him. So then we’re talking about
two generations of student loans compounded for a college degree that
everyone agrees my son needs to succeed in life.
This is the second big recession for us. It’s not like I can just pull out
money from my 401(k). I emptied my 401(k) to pay for what I needed
during the last recession.
Every time I’ve gotten a little bit of momentum, everything just grinds to
a halt.
My opinion is that because of the infrastructural changes, the policy
decisions that were made between 1963, when my parents were in
college, and when it was time for me to start making big decisions
around 2000, the deck was fully stacked against individuals and loaded
for big corporate entities to consolidate money and power at the
expense of us.
I don’t think it was that way for my parents when they were young.
The life I envisioned having when I decided to follow in my father’s footsteps
has not materialized.”
Erick Axcell, Lawrence, Kan. Pharmacist
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I’m a pharmacist like my dad. I ended up taking over his store, which he
started a few months before I was born. I grew up in it. There’s pictures
of me on the pharmacy counter when I was 7 weeks old.
The life I envisioned having when I decided to follow in my father’s
footsteps has not materialized. My worries about job security, and if the
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store will be able to stay open in the future, are constant stressors.
It’s nothing like when my dad started. George W. Bush and the
Medicare Part D program really changed things. Now insurance
companies are just squeezing you so hard. The big guys obviously write
all the rules so it’s just constantly a challenge.
Our pharmacy is allowed to stay open during this crisis. We’re
considered an essential business. Originally the sales went sky high
because everybody was stocking up, which is good because they don’t
have to come back in. But we won’t see these people for 30 to 90 days.
It’s all changing so fast — who knows what will happen 30 days from
now?
It has opened my eyes about government systems. My wife and sister
have both filed for unemployment. I think people are realizing that, you
know, there is a reason for government interaction and help at times.
Hopefully after this administration, especially after the pandemic and
everything, maybe people will see that there’s a reason for safety nets.
Health care just has to be universal. It’s not just freeloading. You need it
because you have to have it to survive.
We’re thinking about having kids. I grew up with three kids in our
family.I can’t imagine having three kids now and living the same
lifestyle that my dad lived with my mom. Just financially, I don’t see any
way that we would be at the level that they were back then, with the
costs of education, health care, mortgage and everything else. You
worry about bringing somebody into a world that’s a much worse world
than you even imagined was possible.
I didn’t want to put myself in a situation where I would have to struggle… I
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wanted to break the cycle.”
Christopher Thomas, Alexandria, Va. Poet and teaching artist
I grew up in a two-bedroom home in the ’80s. My mother was a single
parent with five children. I am the youngest of the five. We were never
without anything, but we were also very mindful of what we had. There
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was struggle there.
But there wasn’t any sign of doubt or worry. We learned at a really early
age to appreciate all that we got. It actually made me appreciate
everything I have now. I worked for it all, yes, but I’m also content with
what I have.
I lost my mother when I turned 10 years old. My brother and I moved in
with my older sister and her husband. He and I were abused. I began
writing poetry at age 13 because I couldn’t bear the emotional pain
anymore. I began writing to escape all that.
I am very fortunate to have the opportunity of being a teaching artist
and a public speaker with no college education. Most of my work is
centered on child abuse prevention awareness, Black Lives Matter and
the L.G.B.T.Q. community. I teach workshops on being who you are. The
power of poetry is so ignored. I want to keep going because art does
save lives.
My mother worked literally until the day she died. She had no health
insurance, no pension plan, no 401(k). Looking back on it, it breaks my
heart, knowing that she didn’t have an opportunity to have those
benefits available for her.
I am very fortunate to have those things. That’s something that I’ve
wanted for myself. I didn’t want to put myself in a situation where I
would have to struggle, not have anything to fall back, not have a plan in
place. I wanted to break the cycle.
A lot of Americans do not have those things. That is something I have
never understood, especially in this day and age. I think things like
health care and retirement plans should be automatically put into place
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for people.
If you want a world full of future doctors, lawyers, senators, presidents,
then education should be free. You want American children to go to
college, to go to school, but they have to pay for it. Why? You should
not charge for education. And student loan debt? Abolish it. If we had
debt forgiveness in America, I honestly think financially we’d be better
off. I really do.
My parents very much believe that you can pull yourself up by your
bootstraps.”
Melissa Haddock, Florence, Ala. Administrator
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I really, really hope that this pandemic changes things in our country
and stresses the need for health care for all and more equality in
general.
My parents, a mechanic and a waitress in rural Alabama, were able to
purchase a home and land and save money for the future. When I was a
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child we lived in a trailer, but they transformed it room by room into a
three-bedroom house with multiple levels and chicken coops and
greenhouses and all kinds of stuff. I live week to week and rent.
I am an admin, which you think would be a decent living. You should be
able to afford a car payment and a house payment. I mean, that’s what
my parents could have done. It was more affordable; their fair wages
went further. But that is not something that’s a reality for me.
I don’t have health insurance. I’ve been opting out of my company’s
coverage because it costs so much. Our wages have not gone up that
much and I’m single. It’s really hard to afford a place just on my own
and there’s no way I could afford the upkeep of owning a home.
My parents very much believe that you can pull yourself up by your
bootstraps. And that’s great when you have the resources to do that.
But what about when we don’t? What about when you don’t have a big
family or a church that is that safety net for you? There is no resource
beyond my job. If I don’t hustle and make the money, then we’re
homeless. We need universal basic income and Medicare for all.
I quit school about two months before I graduated. Then I got my G.E.D.
and started university after I already had two kids and started going
through a divorce. Things happened, and I had to withdraw from
school. And that left me owing money to a university. I haven’t been
able to pay that money back.
My 19-year-old son has special needs, and he has been in long-term
care with the state. He is secure, thank God. Definitely a factor in
returning custody to the state for his care was that I needed to
guarantee that it wasn’t all on me. He needed more than what one
single person could provide.
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When the coronavirus hit, the state was either going to cut off visits or
send him home to quarantine. And so they sent him home. I’ve been
able to spend a lot of time with him and so that’s been really nice.
I already worked from home before this. The biggest change is
impressing upon my 18-year-old daughter the importance of social
distancing. That has been the toughest part. I live in northwestern
Alabama. We’re a red state. Being careful is for Democrats and
snowflakes. So I’ve seen a lot of misinformation, a lot of people posting
memes about how this is no worse than the flu.
My daughter’s prom was two weeks into quarantine. She dressed up.
The cat was her date, and we took pictures.
My daughter is talking about maybe going into the military so that she
has some stability and free college so she doesn’t take on that loan for
school. She’s talking about waiting a little bit to go to college. I just
want her to have meaningful work and when she gets sick she can go
get health care.
I would just really love for her to have a better country than what we
have right now.
I have done better than my parents. I had the luxury of starting here.”
Ingrid Thompson, Bronx Advertising copywriter
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My parents instilled the importance of an excellent education. Although
my parents were educated and did well for themselves, as Jamaican
immigrants they had to reinvent themselves when they came here. I
have done better than my parents. I had the luxury of starting here.
I feel that in my family in particular the mind-set has always been that
each generation held the responsibility to set the next generation up for
even more success than the last. That is something I hope to instill in
our children: You work hard, and you don’t forget your roots and where
your family has come from. You never take an education or
opportunities for granted. That in itself is building generational wealth
because you’re setting a mind-set for gratitude.
Having a level playing field for education is important. I love the idea of
free preschool for all. Things like state colleges offering free tuition is
also an excellent idea. A lot of people just can’t afford college.
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I’m still working now. We have what you call a mother-in-law type of
house. My mother is with us and she’s able to help with our son, who is
2. At the beginning of the lockdown it was really, really hard because I
felt like I was doing more work than I would normally in a regular week
at the office. I shared that sentiment on Facebook and Instagram, and a
lot of people were like, “We are totally vibing with you. Everyone feels
the same way.” Fortunately we have a yard so we can go outside and
run around with our son.
But there are other things, too. My father-in-law died this month from
cardiac arrest. Because of Covid, funeral planning is so much more
difficult. He has many daughters and sons and nieces and nephews,
grandkids and a great-grandson. And they can’t come and say their
final goodbyes. It’s mentally stressful. I’m doing my best to be positive.
I think my kids don’t have even the opportunities I did.”
Laura Rekuc, Allen Park, Mich. Nurse
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I still live in the same city I grew up in. We live in a smaller home. I pay
more than my parents did for my mortgage. Taxes have increased,
medical expenses have increased, groceries have increased. The cost
of living has definitely tripled, at least.
My dad was a general manager for a trucking services company. He had
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his high school certificate. My mom was an accountant. She went into
the field at 19. She was successful and very monetarily secure by the
time she was 40, and my dad, too. My parents became successful and
were able to climb the ladder without having a college background.
I am a single mom raising five children. My health insurance costs, even
though I’m a nurse, are substantial. When I got divorced, my cost for
health coverage went to $600 a month. That’s just to have insurance —
that doesn’t mean deductible, co-pays. I still depend on my parents to
assist me financially.
I’m a home-care nurse. It’s extremely stressful. We don’t know what
we’re walking into. I am currently living away from my children because
of not knowing if I’m going to be bringing home the virus.
It’s very difficult. I have a 2-year-old who wants to see Mama every day.
We live in a 1,000-square-foot home. It’s very crowded. So there’s not a
way to actually isolate myself there. I would say everybody who works
in the health care arena — doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists,
janitorial staff, environmental services — we’re all risking our lives.
As a nurse, I have my associate’s degree, and in order to climb the
corporate ladder or become more financially secure I would need to go
back to school, which means more student debt.
I think my kids don’t have even the opportunities I did. My oldest son
and daughter both chose the college avenue. They’re not really given
an opportunity to be financially secure when they start a job, because
they start negative. My son will be starting out, by the time he
graduates, almost $60,000 in debt.
The government could hammer down on these schools that are
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charging an excessive amount of money for a college education. There
could be a set limit on how much they could charge.
There is no sense of security. It’s just not the same.
I’m probably making quite a bit more money now than I would be if I was
living where my parents live.”
Brent Blood, Renton, Wash. Software architect
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I grew up in a very small town in Pennsylvania, lots of farming and
factory jobs, that sort of thing. My parents both had fairly blue-collar
jobs. My mom worked for the Post Office, and my father worked at a
factory that makes trailers, the things pulled behind 18-wheelers.
Because I’m an employee in a tech field that has a lot more opportunity
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and there’s quite a bit of money in it, I’m doing better than I expected to
be. We’re saving pretty rapidly. We own our home outright. I’ve had
pretty little trouble moving up in the ranks of the company considering
I’m only 40 years old. I’m probably making quite a bit more money now
than I would be if I was living where my parents live.
My brother works at the same factory that my dad did and that’s
absolutely fine for him. He seems to enjoy himself. I just wanted to get
into technology. After college, I moved out to Seattle because that was
where there was a lot of tech opportunity, and I’ve been out here ever
since.
The Seattle tech scene is really booming. I’ve been fairly fortunate with
the company that I worked for. I was already working from home plenty.
As far as my own take on this crisis, I really haven’t been negatively
impacted by it, other than my social life is kind of suffering at this point.
We’re not going out to eat. But that seems like a pretty slight thing to
worry about right now.
I had been hoping to retire in about five years. We’ll have to see how the
market turns around with this right now. Hopefully, in the time frame I
had in mind things will come around again.
My parents migrated from Mexico so their future children could have a better
life — and we have.”
Sonya Poe, Carrollton, Texas Executive asssistant
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My parents migrated from Mexico so their future children could have a
better life — and we have.
I was born in Texas, in a suburb of Dallas. My dad worked for a hotel. He
would work overnight, and he worked a lot of hours. My mom was a
part-time real-estate agent.
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Their goal for us was always: Go to school, go to college, so that you
can get a job that doesn’t require you to work late at night, so that you
can choose what you get to do and take care of your family. We’re
fortunate to be able to do that.
I was the first one to go to college in my family. College was really eyeopening and just kind of a shock to my system. I did struggle a little bit.
I had to have a job. I worked retail for a lot of hours and that kind of got
in the way of studying and taking the classes I wanted. It was a
completely different experience from other people’s.
My life now is definitely a lot calmer, a lot more centered on what I want
to do.
We are very thankful and blessed to not worry about money kind of at
all. I always feel guilty saying that because my parents are always so
stressed about money. My husband has a good job. I have a good job.
We’re kind of in a better position and we only have one child.
We always imagine that each generation gets better than the last one.
I’m not sure. I think a lot depends on what we do with the cost of
college so you don’t have $100,000 in debt when you’re finished with it.
I do see some things to be hopeful about. Young people are really
getting involved more in politics and voting. Hopefully, our government
and our society can be run by people who are younger and have ideas
about how to help everyone and move forward — for everyone to be
better, not just corporations or rich people.
It’s impossible to get unemployment benefits. I’ve been trying every day all
day.”
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Gabriel Rivera, Bronx Commercial driver
I’ve lived in the Bronx all my life. We grew up in the projects. My parents
moved from a small town in Puerto Rico to New York in the late ’60s,
early ’70s. My father was a handyman. He is retired now. He put in 30
years as a handyman and now he’s collecting retirement benefits along
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with my mother.
My parents bought a house in the Bronx about 25 years ago. I rent a
room in an apartment.
I drive a school bus, which pays OK. But since Covid-19 took hold, I
haven’t been working. And it’s impossible to get unemployment
benefits. I’ve been trying every day all day.
So now I’m looking for work, and I’m taking whatever comes my way.
Nobody’s taking buses now — the touring bus, the school buses. The
city bus ridership is so low. I’m sure they’re not hiring. For now, it’s a
struggle.
I have some college. I would like to go back eventually. Teachers would
always compliment my writing. I remember my professor telling me that
he was looking forward to reading more of my writing. I thought that
was nice.
If college was free, or at least if was much more affordable, I would
have finished.
I just can’t imagine how free college wouldn’t really improve the
country. Can you imagine? Everybody has a chance to get a collegelevel education?
I knew that it was going to be an uphill battle. It got worse and worse and
worse.”
Daniel Okamura, Las Vegas Graduate student
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I am the portrait of downward mobility.
I grew up in a pretty solidly middle- to upper-middle-class family. I was
the youngest of three kids. I know that my father was making
somewhere around $100,000 a year, and my mom worked on and off.
By the time my parents were 40, I was 3 years old. They already owned
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a significant portion of their house. My parents wanted me and my
siblings to follow our interests, because my dad got to follow his
interest. He was actually interested in engineering.
I began as a newspaper reporter. I knew that it was going to be an uphill
battle. It got worse and worse and worse. Finally, in 2007-2008, friends
who I knew through journalism said: “You have to leave California,
because there’s no jobs there. There are still jobs in New York.”
I packed up my little Corolla, and I drove across the country in 2008. I
stopped in Cleveland and turned on the TV. The first thing that’s on TV
is a talking head saying economists now agree that we have been in
recession since December of last year. And I was like, “Oh, great. Don’t
tell me I’m moving right during a recession.” I get into New York, and
almost immediately there’s hiring freezes everywhere.
With my master’s, I became an adjunct professor and barista, receiving
Medicaid and SNAP benefits. Now I am in a Ph.D. program, deferring
loan payments, and watching yet another job market shrink before my
eyes.
No joke, I have supplemented my graduate school income by going on
game shows. On “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” I walked away with
$20,000. That has really, really helped me during things like summer,
because we’re not paid over the summer.
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Professor Michel Estefan
SOCI 100: Classical Sociological Theory
Fall 2021
Was Marx Right?
Instructions for Midterm Project
Most social theories worth studying are neither completely correct nor completely
mistaken. They are a mix of ideas that are useful for understanding our world and ideas
that need to be revised or thrown out entirely. This midterm project is designed to help
you develop the skill and value of thoughtful ambivalence, that is, the ability to assess
theories with more nuance, by pointing out what is useful and what is unhelpful about
them. You will develop this skill by deciding what Marx got right about capitalism and
what he got wrong.
Your midterm project is due on Sunday, October 31 by 8pm. Please upload your
project in the corresponding module in Canvas. If you have any issues uploading your
project, you may send it directly through email to both me and your TA. The midterm is
worth 20% of your final grade.
The instructions below take you through each step you should take to develop your
project.
Step 1: Read the Ten Economic Portraits Published in The New York Times
In April 2020, The New York Times asked some of its readers in their 40s how they
were doing financially compared to how their parents were doing in their 40s. The
newspaper then published an article with ten of these “economic portraits “ (they
received nearly 500 in total). The first step in developing your midterm project is to
read these ten portraits, which you will find on Canvas.
Step 2: Decide Whether Marx Was Right (on a Scale from 1-3)?
Think carefully about the economic lives of the people that you just read. Based on
these portraits, the readings you’ve done on Marx, and your own experience and
viewpoints, do you believe Marx presented an accurate description of capitalism? I
don’t want you to answer this question in terms of ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ I want you to score
Marx’s theory on a scale from 1 to 3, with 1 meaning that Marx was mostly wrong and
3 meaning that he was mostly right. For every point you give Marx’s theory, you must
point out a specific argument or idea you believe he got right, explain that argument or
idea, and support it with information from the portraits. Similarly, for every point you
don’t give him, you must point out an argument or idea you think he got wrong, explain
it, and support it with information from the portraits. You may choose to discuss any
argument or idea from Marx’s work, including his views on ideology, class struggle,
class polarization, primitive accumulation, the relation between political equality and
economic inequality, or any other argument or idea found in any of the readings by
Marx that you did for this class.
The key is that for each point you give his theory (or don’t) you must select a specific
argument or idea from Marx’s work, explain it, state whether you believe he’s right or
wrong about that argument or idea, and support your analysis with information from the
portraits.
1/4
Professor Michel Estefan
SOCI 100: Classical Sociological Theory
Fall 2021
You might say something like this:
“Marx argued that capitalism increases inequality. For example, on p.X of the
Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels state that… What the authors are saying
in this passage is that… I believe Marx was right about this because… In fact,
one of the portraits illustrates this since [name of person] is…”
In the example above, the first three sentences explain the argument in Marx’s theory
you’re referring to. The fourth sentence states your position about that argument (was
Marx right or wrong?). The last sentence draws on the portraits to support your view.
If you give Marx’s theory a score of three, you must mention three things you believe
he got right about capitalism. If you give it a score of two, you must point out two
things he got right about capitalism and one he got wrong. If you give it a score of one,
you must point out one thing he got right and two he got wrong.
Step 3: Present Your Analysis as a Theory Map or a Mini-Ted Talk
The final step is to present your analysis integrating Marx’s theory of capitalism with
the information provided in the economic portraits. You can present your analysis as a
theory map or a mini-Ted Talk. Regardless of the format, the central goal is to explain
the things you believe Marx got right and the ones you believe he got wrong and to
draw on the economic portraits to illustrate your views.
Your work should contain at least three specific page citations from Marx’s work and
three citations from any of the economic portraits. Ideally, you will support your view
about each point in your score with one citation from Marx and one citation from the
economic portraits.
You can include more citations if you like, but the latter numbers are the minimum. You
will also have to include a reference list regardless of the format you choose. In-text
citations and reference list entries should follow the style guide produced by the
American Sociological Association (ASA). You will find a description of this style in
the document titled “Quick Tips for ASA Style,” which has been uploaded to Canvas.
This is how The New York Times article should be listed in your references list:
Kelley, Lora. 2020. “‘I Am the Portrait of Downward Mobility.’” The New York Times, April
17.
Below, you’ll find further instructions for each format.
Theory Map
At its most basic level, a theory map is a visualization that presents the main ideas of a
theory and how they are connected to each other using images, text boxes, lines, arrows,
and other visual cues. Your map should represent what you believe Marx got right and
what he got wrong about capitalism. In other words, it should represent the score on a 1-
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Professor Michel Estefan
SOCI 100: Classical Sociological Theory
Fall 2021
3 scale you gave the theory and draw on the information found in the economic
portraits.
You can hand-draw your map and submit it as a photograph or you can produce it on a
digital device using any software you like. If you chose to use a digital device and
decide to use images instead of or in addition to text boxes, you can create the images
yourself or use existing images you find online.
You may create a single map that illustrates all the points in your score or create a
separate map for each point.
In addition to the map itself, you must submit a 500-word summary of your map that
includes a total of three specific citations from any of the works we read by Marx (or
Marx and Engels) to support your analysis and three citations from the economic
portraits. As I mentioned above, ideally, you will support your view about each point in
your score with one citation from Marx and one citation from the economic portraits for
a total of six citations in your 500-word summary (three from Marx and three from the
portraits). Even if you create more than one map to illustrate your score, you only need
to write one 500-word summary.
You should also include a reference list that does not count toward the 500-word limit
following the ASA style guide.
Your summary should have the following general structure:
1. In one or two sentences, present your score and a brief, general evaluation of
Marx’s Theory. Here’s an example of what this might look like: “I gave Marx’s
theory of capitalism a score of 2 because Marx was largely correct about X and
Y, though he did get Z wrong.”
2. Explain each of the points in your score, laying out the specific arguments and
ideas from Marx’s work, whether he got them right or wrong, and describing
how you decided to illustrate them in your map. You might say something like
this: “Marx claims that under capitalism, people are ideologically manipulated.
On p.XX of [Title of Reading] he argues that… I don’t believe he got this right.
In my map, I illustrate Marx’s idea of ideology with the image of XX in the topleft corner of the map. But I place a “≠” symbol between this image and the text
box to the left of the symbol to indicate that ideology does not necessarily
produce the effect Marx thought it would. The text box to the right of the
symbol includes the name of [name of one of the people from the portraits]
because her views do not support the argument that she’s ideologically
manipulated in any way. In fact, she clearly states that…”
3. Throughout your summary, remember to describe the text boxes and/or images
in your map and how they are connected to each other, define any key concepts
you refer to in your map, and follow ASA style guidelines when citing Marx’s
work in the summary.
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Professor Michel Estefan
SOCI 100: Classical Sociological Theory
Fall 2021
The 500-word summary should be written using 12pt font, Times New Roman, doublespaced, and 1-inch margins.
Mini-Ted Talk
Your mini-Ted Talk should be 5-8 minutes long. You may record yourself in video or
record a series of images that play as you present your analysis. I strongly suggest you
write a script before recording yourself. Make sure your script follows good
presentation conventions: have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Practice your
presentation a few times before turning in the final draft of the recording. This format
DOES NOT require an additional written summary of any kind because you will be
referencing Marx’s work and the portraits verbally during your talk. For example, you
might say something like this: “In his piece on primitive accumulation, Marx argues
that… I believe he got this largely right. Several of the economic portraits published in
The New York Times show that… Laura Rekuc’s portrait is a strong illustration of this.
She tells us that…”
Your talk should present the rating you gave Marx’s theory, explaining each point you
believe he got wrong and each one you believe he got right while integrating some of
the information found in the economic portraits. The three references to Marx’s work
and the three references from the economic portraits should be stated as part of your
talk. See the example above for how you might do this.
You must hand in a reference list that presents the sources you cited following ASA
formatting suggestions. You can hand this in as a separate word or PDF file.
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Quick Tips
for ASA Style
This style sheet has been provided to assist students
studying sociology in properly citing and referencing their
papers and essays. The information in this document is
taken from the American Sociological Association Style
Guide (4th ed., 2010). We highly encourage students who
plan to major in sociology or pursue their masters degree
in sociology to purchase the complete Style Guide, which
features sections on editorial styles, mechanics of style,
guidelines for organizing and presenting content, and more
detailed information on referencing your scholarly sources.
Information about the ASA Style Guide can be found at
www.asanet.org/journals/guides.cfm.
Plagiarism
The ASA has a firm commitment to full and proper attribution and authorship credit, as set forth in the ASA Code
of Ethics.
(a) In publications, presentations, teaching practice, and
service, sociologists explicitly identify credit, and reference the author when they take data or material verbatim
from another person’s written work, whether it is published, unpublished, or electronically available.
(b) In their publications, presentations, teaching, practice, and service, sociologists provide acknowledgment of
and reference to the use of others’ work, even if the work
is not quoted verbatim or paraphrased, and they do not
present others’ work as their own whether it is published,
unpublished, or electronically available.
Text Citations
Citations in the text include the last name of the author(s)
and year of publication. Include page numbers when quoting
directly from a work or referring to specific passages. Identify
subsequent citations of the same source in the same way as
the first. Examples follow:
If the author’s name is in the text, follow it with the publication year in parentheses:
…in another study by Duncan (1959).
If the author’s name is not in the text, enclose the last
name and publication year in parentheses:
…whenever it occurred (Gouldner 1963).
Pagination follows the year of publication after a colon,
with no space between the colon and the page number:
…Kuhn (1970:71).
Note: This is the preferred ASA style. Older forms of text
citations are not acceptable: (Kuhn 1970, p. 71).
Give both last names for joint authors:
… (Martin and Bailey 1988).
If a work has three authors, cite all three last names in the
first citation in the text; thereafter, use et al. in the citation.
If a work has more than three authors, use et al. in the first
citation and in all subsequent citations.
First citation for a work with three authors:
…had been lost (Carr, Smith, and Jones 1962).
Later: …(Carr et al. 1962)
If a work cited was reprinted from a version published
earlier, list the earliest publication date in
brackets, followed by the publication date of the recent
version used.
…Veblen ([1899] 1979) stated that…
Separate a series of references with semicolons. List
the series in alphabetical or date order, but be consistent
throughout the manuscript.
… (Green 1995; Mundi 1987; Smith and Wallop 1989).
Reference Lists
A reference list follows the text and footnotes in a separate section headed References. All references cited in the
text must be listed in the reference section, and vice versa.
It is the author’s responsibility to ensure that publication
information for each entry is complete and correct.
◆ References should be double-spaced.
◆ List all references in alphabetical order by first author’s
last name
◆ Include first names and surnames for all authors. Use
first-name initials only if an author used initials in the
original publication. In these cases, add a space between
the initials, as in R. B. Brown and M. L. B. Smith.
(See additional guidelines in the full text of the American
Sociological Association Style Guide.)
Books
Author1 (last name inverted), Author2 (including full
surname, last name is not inverted), and Author3. Year of
publication. Name of Publication (italicized). Publisher’s
city and state, or province postal code (or name of
country if a foreign publisher): Publisher’s Name.
Examples:
Bursik, Robert J., Jr. and Harold G. Grasmick. 1993. Neighborhoods and Crime: The Dimensions of Effective Community Control. New York: Lexington Books.
Hagen, John and Ruth D. Peterson, eds. 1995. Crime and
Inequality. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Jaynes, Gerald D. and Robin M. Williams, Jr. 1989. A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society. Washington,
DC: National Academy Press.
Journal Articles
Author1 (Last name inverted), Author2 (including full
surname, last name is not inverted), and Author3.Year
of publication. “Title of Article.” Name of Publication
(italicized) Volume Number (Issue Number):Page numbers of article.
Examples:
Examples:
Schafer, Daniel W. and Fred L. Ramsey. 2003. “Teaching
the Craft of Data Analysis.” Journal of Statistics Education
11(1). Retrieved December 12, 2006 (http://www.amstat.
org/publications/jse/v11n1/schafer.html).
Thomas, Jan E., ed. 2005. Incorporating the Woman Founders into Classical Theory Courses. Washington DC: American Sociological Association. Retrieved December 12,
2006 (http://www.enoah.net/ASA/ASAshopOnlineService/ProductDetails.aspx?.productID=ASAOE378T05E).
Web sites
A general rule may be applied to citing of Web sites: If the
Web site contains data or evidence essential to a point being
addressed in the manuscript, it should be formally cited
with the URL and date of access.
In the text of the paper cite as: (ASA 2006)
In the reference list:
American Sociological Association 2006. “Status Committees.” Washington, DC: American Sociological Association. Retrieved December 12, 2006 (http://www.asanet.
org/cs/root/leftnav/committees/committees).
For information or to purchase a copy of the ASA Style
Guide, please contact:
Publications Department
American Sociological Association
1430 K Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 383-9005
(publications@asanet.org)
Aseltine, Robert H., Jr. and Ronald C. Kessler. 1993. “Marital Disruption and Depression in a Community Sample.”
Journal of Health and Social Behavior 34(3):237-51.
Kalleberg, Arne L., Barbara F. Reskin, and Ken Hudson.
2000. “Bad Jobs in America: Standard and Nonstandard
Employment Relations and Job Quality in the United
States.” American Sociological Review 65(2):256-78.
E-Resources
Articles and books obtained from the Internet follow the
same pattern as those cited above, with the exception that
page numbers are omitted and the URL and date of access
are included.
Click here to purchase a copy
of the ASA Style Guide!