Instructor: Rachel Garshick Kleit kleit@u.washington.edu P: 206.221.3063 Office: Parrington 209C Office Hrs: Mondays 12:30-2pm and by appointment
Class Information: Class Meeting Times:
W 6-8:50 pm
Location:
BLM 211
PBAF 599— Autumn 2007
Description:
When a user arrives at the Evans
School 's website,
the first thing he or she sees is our tag line: "Preparing leaders
and pursuing ideas to change the world." Embedded in this is
an emphasis on working to change the world to make it better.
How? What is wrong with it that it needs changing?
With these questions in mind, this class delves into the values
of social justice that motivate action (or reaction or protest)
in the public arena. Together, we will think through what we
mean by social justice and how values around social justice motivate
concerns about problems and solutions in the public arena. Specifically
we are concerned about issues of equity and liberty, of balancing
the rights of the individual, the common good, and redistribution.
By the end of this class you will be able to:
Discuss the major values at stake in varied policy areas,
especially when there are conflicts about courses of action;
Assess how the major theories of social justice lend insight
into contemporary policy problems;
Trace the commonalities and conflicts between political philosophy
and social movement perspectives on social justice;
Analyze diverse policy domains to unearth the varied social
justice problems and values that arise;
Evaluate our own perspectives and values with regard to social
justice, with the goal of integrating moral issues into our
own policy and management decision making.
We will begin with reading foundational thinkers about social
justice and action, and move to considering cases where ideas
about social justices are fundamental bases for action. Each
class session focuses on a specific historic or current policy
situation, using both domestic and international examples across
a breadth of policy areas.
Class format: This class will be run a seminar
or case discussion class, depending on the material at hand.
Participation is
25% of your grade. The quality of each class session will depend
upon your preparation; read the material and come to class
willing to discuss it with your colleagues, either as a whole
or in small groups. You may be asked to do role plays in class
as part of the discussion.
I expect each student will also participate by:
prepare fully and engaging actively in each class,
present an overview of your final paper in class toward the
end of the quarter, and
comment regularly about key issues in the readings via e-mail
list-serve.
In addition, once or twice during the quarter a team of 3 or
4 students will help to prepare class discussions:
First, these students will act resources for the rest of
the class. They will make sure to pay especially close attention
to the readings, develop cross-cutting questions to help guide
discussion, think about points of confusion and will have responsibility
for making sure our conversation covers the aspects of the
readings they found especially salient.
Second, the team of students will meet with the instructor
the Monday before class to aid in preparing the class discussion.
Third, these students will send three their succinct cross-cutting
discussion questions to me by noon each Tuesday, prior to the
class session.
Fourth, these students will be ready to present the material
to their colleagues.
An additional note about class participation: Our
personal perspectives on social justice are shaped in part by
our varied experiences, our personal identities, and the cultures
from which we come. In order to understand the social justice
values that underlie policy issues or motivate action, we will
sometimes need to draw on our own personal experiences. It is
my expectation that you come to class ready to talk about difficult
issues and ready to try to understand perspectives that may not
be your own. This means that a fundamental guideline for interaction
in this class is that you will respect the perspectives of others,
regardless of whether you agree with them or not. It also means
that either (a) you will occasionally be asked to portray a person
with a perspective with which you violently disagree and (b)
you each are responsible for making sure that unpopular or minority
perspectives are present in our class conversations.
This class is meant to engage us in thinking about the values
of social justice that permeate public policy and in many cases
motivate our own interests in the public or non-profit arenas. These
motivations are often quite personal, and our perspectives on
social justice issues often reflect our personal experiences. While
I will never require you to speak from personal experience in
the class, often students do because they want others to understand
their perspectives. Therefore, I ask that you come to class
ready to respect others' viewpoints and be prepared to be challenged
as to your own.
If you have questions or concerns about class participation,
please let me know.
Assignments
A typical reading for a class will consist of a reading that
is philosophical in nature and one that focuses on a particular
policy or management issue, save for the first class session.
Cases and other readings will generally be available either on
the web (with a link in the syllabus or through the course home-page,
indicated by a [W] in the schedule) or on-line through electronic
reserves (indicated by an [E] in the schedule).
There are several books on which we will rely in the class-you
may want to purchase them on your own, although selected chapters
are available on e-reserves:
Xavier de Souza Briggs. 2006. The Geography of Opportunity:
Race and Housing Choice in Metropolitan America . (Brookings)
Judith Lynn Failer. 2002. Who Qualifies for Rights: Homelessness,
Mental Illness, and Civil Commitment ( Cornell University
Press)
Chester Hartman and Gregory D. Squires. 2006. There Is No
Such Thing As A Natural Disaster.
One book I ask you to order and purchase
as soon as possible
Lawrence Goodwyn. 1978. The Populist Moment. ( Oxford
University Press)
In terms of written work, you will be responsible
for two papers.
Short Paper (30%): The first is a short
analytical (5-page) paper that will analyze a problem that
is the topic for one class session. A description of this paper
will be handed out and discussed in the first class.
Final Paper (45%): A final paper of no more
than ten pages on any topic which carefully analyzes the value
issues in a specific policy, tool, activity, or program, and
considers solutions from a perspective of the principles and
values at stake. Students may choose a topic related to their
class preparation day or a different topic. Topics need to
be approved in advance.
All late papers will receive a grade penalty unless you
and I agree on an extension in advance in writing.
Grading:
In calculating your final grade for the class, I have given
the following weights to the course components:
Class Participation (including
group work and presentations)
