South Florida Sociocultural Systems Syllabus Fall 2011-Final 1

8/4/2019 South Florida Sociocultural Systems Syllabus Fall 2011-Final 1

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South Florida Sociocultural Systems

SYD 6625

Fall 2011

Mondays, 5-7:40Instructor: Guillermo J. GrenierOffice: SIPA 331

Phone: 305-348-3217

Course description: This course provides a graduate-level overview of the major social,political, economic, environmental and cultural forces at work in creating the Miami/South

Florida area.

From its incorporation on July 28, 1896, Miami lacked what real American cities possessed.Unlike northern cities like Chicago, Cincinnati or Pittsburgh, Miami was not a cross road city,

growing at the breakpoints of railroads and water routes and attracting industrial capital. Nor dida seaport rapidly emerge to compete with New Orleans or the port cities on the East Coast. Its

an area that has never been fully southern or northern. Throughout most of its history, its beencharacterized by a large transient population and a large proportion of inhabitants who were first

generation migrants. These and other characteristics have shaped what today many regard as aunique example of urban America.

The metropolitan area of Miami (Miami-Dade County) has been referred to as a social

experiment in progress. Some have called it the Capital of Latin America. Others regard it asa city at the center of some of the most important contemporary social processes reshaping the

nation. Some consider it a harbinger of changes that are fueling passions and national debates.Others consider it a freak of modern history. In this course, well explore the socioeconomic,

political, cultural dynamics of metropolitan Miami in a socio/historical context. In this course,well explore the socioeconomic, political, cultural dynamics of metropolitan Miami in a

socio/historical context. We will pay particular attention to the processes involved changing thecharacteristics of 1) the people, 2) the culture, 3) the material environment, 4) the social

organization and 5) the social institutions of the region.

What you have to do. The course will focus on 1) the development of a mini researchproject, 2) the writing of a brief conclusions paper highlighting the most pertinent, err,

conclusions from the project, and 3) the presentation of this project in class. Those of youworking on dissertation research are encouraged to formulate projects which contextualize your

research question using the Miami literature and social environment. Even if this does not carryover to your final dissertation work, it will offer you important insights on your topic. Others

will formulate research questions based on interests and curiosity. In addition, you will completean annotated bibliography each week from the assigned readings. This will help youdevelop

your responses to the readings during our class discussions.


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When its all said and done, you will be familiar the major social forces at work in the creationof the modern South Florida region. We will take a trans-disciplinary view of the development

of our region, reading literature with a Miami focus from across the social sciences. You willread from contemporary scholarship in anthropology, sociology, criminology, psychology and

geography. You will be familiar with the perspectives of a broad, multi-disciplinary group of

scholars studying the area that we think we know so well. We will discuss the methods to themadness of studying Miami as well critically examine the state of the literature in the field.You will be conversant with the key debates in the literature and evaluate how your research

contributes to this literature.

Responsibilities:You are responsible for completing all assigned readings ahead of the classperiod for which they are assigned. You are responsible for purchasing, borrowing, or

downloading all assigned reading in time to read it.You are responsible for attending each andevery scheduled seminar meeting. You are responsible for leading seminar discussion of at least

one weeks readings (depending on enrollment, it could be two). You are responsible formeeting all deadlines. You are responsible for contributing meaningfully to every seminar

meeting. You are responsible for respecting the views your classmates, your instructor, and thepublished scholars whose work you will read. You are responsible for completing all assigned

readings, classroom activities, and projectswhen they are due. This goes for weekly readings aswell as the big three assignments.

By now you should know the drill on plagiarism: plagiarism and other instances of academic

dishonesty simply will not be tolerated. There is one strike rule in effect.

What to expect: This seminar will be about you actively participating through groupdiscussions and investigation, and me actively listening and expanding on the discussion. I will

try mightily to contribute without dominating. I have had a lot of experience doing research inMiami and thinking about how Miami works so I might kick off our sessions with an update on

the readings, when thats required or otherwise frame the context of the readings. The bulk of theclass meetings in weeks 2-13 will involve student-led discussion of the weeks readings,

centering on the focus questions. Weeks 15 and 16 will center on presentation and discussion ofyour mini research projects.

Grades:An A is yours to lose. To keep it, this is what you do: come to every session; read all of

the readings; contribute significantly to our discussions; write in grammatically comprehensibleand empirically accurate prose; take your role as discussion leader seriously and dont talk

unprepared crap; meet the deadlines and take every assignment seriously; make connectionsbetween the weekly readings and the main themes of the class.If you do all of the above, you

have an A.

An A- can be earned from minor shortcomings in one of the areas mentioned above. Grades inthe B range (B+, B, B-) arise from several unexplained absences, little class participation, major

deadline failures, or a demonstrated inability to connect work and discussion to the themes of thecourse.


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Grades in the C range are rarely assigned. Receiving such a grade should not come as asurprise. You will see the sad face in many of my e-mails to you. If you totally blow the mini

project plus have many absences and are frequently mistaken for a corpse during class time youwill surely get a C.

Your grade is composed of the following:Mini research project: 50Discussion leading: 10

Annotated bibliography: 20Participation (includes attendance): 20

Total 100

Mini research project:Step 1: Develop, or work with your existing, research questions and chose a research a research

site/strategy. What are your research questions? What methodology will you use to addressthem? What literature contributes to your understanding of your topic? Select a research setting

on which you can carry out a mini project and go to it.y Due: 2 copies in-class, September 12y Worth: 5 points

Step 2: Mini-proposal. A very brief proposal consists of four sections: I: Statement of your

research topic; II: Research question; III: Identify your methodology and outline research steps,and IV: State the broader relevance of your project.

y Due: 2 copies in-class, Sept. 26y Worth: 10 pointsy Note: If you havent done so by now, you will need to put in an IRB application to

conduct this work, and it must be approved by the IRB before you can conduct your

research. I will assist you with this process.

Step 3: Conduct Field research. Use one of the qualitative or quantitative techniques that youve

learned to conduct research (interviews, focus group, participant observation, secondary data).Bring raw materials and typed-up versions of data to class

y Due: 2 copies in-class, October 31y Worth: 15 points

Step 4: Interpretation in form of Conclusions: Interpret your data and come up with preliminary

conclusions about your research question. Make it brief: about five double-spaced pages. Writeit as you would write a concluding section of an article. Remind us of your research questions,

summarize the results and indicate how this supports, debunks or initiates new avenues forresearch.

y Due: 1 copy in-class, November 21y Worth: 15 points

Step 5: In-class presentation and delivery of materials: Prepare a brief presentation (time limitsTBA and determined by number of students) to be delivered in class. Assemble all of your


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Croucher, Sheila. 1997. Imagining Miami: Ethnic Politics in a Postmodern World.Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia.

Stepick, Alex. 1997. Pride Against Prejudice: Haitians in the United States. New York. Allyn

and Bacon.

Garcia, Maria Cristina. 1996. Havana, U.S.A.: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in SouthFlorida, 1959-1994. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.

Portes, Alejandro and Alex Stepick. 1993. City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami.

Berkeley, California; University of California Press.

Grenier, Guillermo, Alex Stepick (Eds.). 1992. Miami Now! Immigration, Ethnicity and SocialChange. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida.

Porter, Bruce and Marvin Dunn. 1984. The Miami Riot of 1980: Crossing the Bounds.

Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books.

Recommended Readings

Didio, Joan. 1998. Miami. New York. Vintage.

Allman, T.D. 1988. Miami: City of the Future. New York: Grove/Atlantic.

Week 1:Introduction to the Class/Discussion Leaders Assigned/Library Study Guide

Week 2: The Miami School?

Lutters, Wayne G. and Mark S. Ackerman, 1996. An Introduction to the Chicago School of

Sociology. (manuscript)

Deegan, Mary Jo. 2001. The Chicago School of Ethnography. Handbook of Ethnography. Editedby Paul Atkinson, Amanda Coffey, Sara Delamonte, John Lofland, and Lyn Lofland. Londond:

Sage. 11-25.

Dear, Michael. 2002.Los Angeles and the Chicago School: Invitation to a Debate. City &Community. 1 (1): 5-32.

Heaney, Michael and John Mark Hansen, 2006. Building the Chicago School. American Political

Science Review. 100 (4): 589-595.

Grenier, Guillermo and Alex Stepick. Introduction. Miami Now! Miami Now! Immigration,Ethnicity and Social Change.Guillermo J. Grenier and Alex Stepick, Editors. Gainesville,

Florida: University Press of Florida. Pp.1-17.


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Nature and Society

Week 3: No Class/Labor Day

Week 4: The Rise of Miami

Miami, the Magic City: The History of Miami (CDROM)

History of Coral Gables on our Study Guide site

Shell-Weiss, Melanie. 2009. Coming to Miami: A Social History. Gainesville, Florida:University Press of Florida.

Sassen, Saskia and Alejandro Portes. 1993. Miami: A New Global City? ContemporarySociology 22 (4):471-477.

Nijman, Jan. 2000. The Paradigmatic City. Annals of the Association of American Geographers90 (1): 135-145.

Week 5: (Un)Natural Setting

Nijman, Jan. 2010. Miami : Mistress of the Americas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania

Press.

Ogden, Laura. 20088. The Everglades Ecosystem and the Politics of Nature. AmericanAnthropologist, Vol. 110, Issue 1. Pp. 21-32.

Ogden, Laura. 2008. Searching for Paradise in the Florida Everglades. Cultural Geographies15:207-229.

Hollander, Gail. 2010. Power is sweet: Sugarcane in the global ethanol assemblage. The Journalof Peasant Studies 37 (4): 699,699-721.

Week 6: Who Built Miami?

Dunn, Marvin. 1997. Black Miami in the Twentieth Century. Gainesville, Florida: University

Press of Florida.

Porter, Bruce and Marvin Dunn. 1984. The Miami Riot of 1980: Crossing the Bounds.Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books.

Bowie, Stan L., and Alex Stepick. 1998. Diversity and division: Ethnicity and the history of

miami. Research in Urban Policy 7 : 19,19-32.

Grenier, Guillermo J., and Max J. Castro. 1998. The emergence of an adversarial relation: Black-

cuban relations in miami, 1959-1998. Research in Urban Policy 7 : 33,33-55.


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Migration and Diasporas

Week 7: Strangers at the Gate

Grenier, Guillermo, Alex Stepick (Eds.). 1992. Miami Now! Immigration, Ethnicity and SocialChange. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida.

Huntington, Samuel P. 2004. The hispanic challenge.Foreign Policy(141): 30,30-45.

Massey, Douglas S. 1979. Effects of socioeconomic factors on the residential segregation ofblacks and spanishamericans in U.S. urbanized areas. American SociologicalReview 44 (6):

1015,1015-1022.

Portes, Alejandro, and Min Zhou. 1992. Gaining the upper hand: Economic mobility amongimmigrant and domestic minorities.Ethnic andRacial Studies 15 (4): 491,491-522.

Week 8: Frontier City Blues

Portes, Alejandro and Alex Stepick. 1993. City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami.

Berkeley, California; University of California Press.

Portes, Alejandro. 1985. Ethnics and exiles: Divergent tales. Contemporary Sociology 14 (6):

670,670-673.

Portes, Alejandro, and Steven Shafer. 2007. Revisiting the enclave hypothesis: Miami twenty-five years later. Research in the Sociology of Organizations 25 (0733-558): 157,157-190.

Week 9: The Cubans are Taking Over

Grenier, Guillermo and Lisandro Perez. 2003. The Legacy of Exile: Cubans in the United States.

New York: Allyn and Bacon.

Garcia, Maria Cristina. 1996. Havana, U.S.A.: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in SouthFlorida, 1959-1994. Berkeley, California: University of California Press

Eckstein, Susan, and Lorena Barberia. 2002. Grounding immigrant generations in history: Cubanamericans and their transnational ties. The International Migration Review 36 (3): 799,799-837.

Week 10: Divergent Fates

Stepick, Alex. 1997. Pride Against Prejudice: Haitians in the United States. New York. Allyn

and Bacon.

Little, Cheryl. 1999. InterGroup coalitions and immigration politics: The haitian experience in

florida. University of Miami Law Review 53 (4): 717,717-741.


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Mohl, Raymond A. 1985. An ethnic "boiling pot": Cubans and haitians in miami. The Journal ofEthnic Studies 13 (2): 51,51-74.

Rey, Terry. 2004. Marian devotion at a haitian catholic parish in miami: The feast of our lady of

perpetual help.Journal of Contemporary Religion 19 (3): 353,353-374.

Week 11: Contextualizing Power

Stepick, Alex, Guillermo Grenier, Max Castro, Marvin Dunn. 2003. This Land is Our Land:

Immigrants and Power in Miami. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.

Concha, Pat, Lourdes Garcia, and Ana Perez. 1975. Cooperation 'versus' competition: A

comparison of anglo-american and cuban-american youngsters in miami.Journal of Social

Psychology95 : 273-.

Grenier, Guillermo, and Bruce Nissen. 2000. Comparative union responses to mass immigration:Evidence from an immigrant city. Critical Sociology 26 (1-2): 82,82-105.

Week 12: Deviance and Culture

Alpert, Geoffrey P., Roger G. Dunham, and Michael R. Smith. 2007. Investigating RacialProfiling by the Miami-Dade Police Department: A Multimethod Approach. Criminology &Public Policy 6 (1): 25,25-55.

Lee, Matthew T., and Ramiro Martinez. 2002. Social disorganization revisited: Mapping the

recent immigration and black homicide relationship in northern miami. Sociological Focus 35(4): 363,363-380.

Martinez, Ramiro. 1997. Homicide among miami's ethnic groups: Anglos, blacks, and latinos inthe 1990s.Homicide Studies 1 (1): 17,17-34.

Eitle, David, and John Taylor. 2008. Are hispanics the new 'threat'? minority group threat and

fear of crime in miami-dade county. Social Science Research 37 (4): 1102,1102-1115.

Identities and Inequalities

Week 13: On Civil Society

Croucher, Sheila. 1997. Imagining Miami: Ethnic Politics in a Postmodern World.Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia.

Alba, Richard D., John R. Logan, and Brian J. Stults. 2000. The changing neighborhood contexts

of the immigrant metropolis. Social Forces 79 (2): 587,587-621.

Price, Patricia L. 2007. Cohering culture on calleocho: The pause and flow of latinidad.Globalizations 4 (1): 81,81-99.


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Price, Patricia L., Christopher Lukinbeal, Richard N. Gioioso, Daniel D. Arreola, Damian J.Fernandez, Timothy Ready and Maria de los Angeles Torres. 2011. Placing Latino Civic

Engagement.Urban Geography. Volume 32, Number 2: 179-207.

Week 14: Beyond Ethnicity

Berkowitz, Dana, and Linda LiskaBelgrave. 2010. "She works hard for the money": Drag queensand the management of their contradictory status of celebrity and marginality.Journal of

Contemporary Ethnography 39 (2): 159,159-186.

Kurtz, Steven P. 2005. Post-circuit blues: Motivations and consequences of crystal meth use

among gay men in miami. AIDS and Behavior9 (1): 63,63-72.

. 1999. Butterflies under cover: Cuban and puertorican gay masculinities in miami. TheJournal of Men's Studies 7 (3): 371,371-390.

Pena, Susana. 2010. Gender and sexuality in latina-o miami: Documenting latina transsexualactivists. Gender & History 22 (3): 755,755-772.

Week 15: Presentations

Week 16: Presentations

Documents

South Florida Sociocultural Systems Syllabus Fall 2011-Final 1