Comparative Sociology: Modern Families in America, France, and Japan.

Scott NORTH (Graduate School of Human Sciences)

Course Objective
   The reproduction of human society generally requires men and women to form couples and live as families. However, in modern societies, the ideals of married life are often a poor fit with the realities of industrial and post-industrial regimes of work and production. The resulting stress is reflected in spousal relations and declining birthrates. This course investigates this realm of reproduction. It compares the interpersonal lives of couples in three societies (the United States of America, France, and Japan) and the social and cultural contexts of their interaction.

Requirement / Prerequisite
   Lectures are in English so students should have some command of the languge.

Course Content
   COURSE CONTENT

• Week 1: Overview of the course. What will we study? How will we study it? Why does it matter?
• Weeks 2 and 3): Modernity and Families. Reading selections from William Goode's World Revolution and Family Patterns. Understanding the macro context that has transformed intimate life over the last century or so.
• Weeks 4, 5, and 6: Dual-income Couples in America. Reading selections from Hochschild's The Second Shift. What are emotional economies? What gender strategies do people deploy to navigate the contemporary landscape? How are time use, stress, and love related in an era of high divorce?
• Week 7: Midterm Exam
• Weeks 8, 9, and 10: Kaufmann's Micro-sociology of French Couples. What do habits regarding cleanliness mean for relations between couples? How are intimate divisions of labor produced and reproduced?
• Weeks 11, 13, and 14: Japanese Salarymen and Their Wives: Intimate Strangers? What does being a "salaryman" mean? Why is Japan's gender division of labor so sharp? What do professional housewives do all day?
• Week 14): The Mechanics of Separation: Diane Vaughn's Study of Uncoupling.
• Week 15: Final Exam.

Textbooks

• Goldstein-Gidoni, Ofra. 2012. Housewives of Japan: An Ethnography of Real Lives and Consumerized Domesticity. New York: Palgrave.
• Goode, William. 1963. World Revolution and Family Patterns. New York: The Free Press.
• Hochschild, Arlie R. with Anne Machung. 1989. The Second Shift. New York: Avon Books.
• Itoh, Masako. 2008. I'm Married to Your Company! Everyday Voices of Japanese Women. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Kaufmann, Jean-Claude. 1998. Dirty Linen: Couples and Their Laundry. London: Middlesex University Press.
• Spinks, Wendy. 2011. In the Midst of Transition: Salaryman Senryuu Poems and the Perception of Workplace Change. Contemporary Japan, 23: 2. 187-212.
• Vaughn, Diane. 1986. Uncoupling: Turning Points in Intimate Relations. New York: Vantage Press.

• Bourdieu, Pierre. Masculine Domination. Stanford, Ca: Stanford University Press.
• LeBlanc, Robin M. 2012. Lessons from the Ghost of Salaryman Past: The Global Costs of Breadwinner Imaginary. The Journal of Asian Studies. Sept. 2012, 1-15.
• Rubin, Lillian. 1983. Intimate Strangers: Men and Women Together. New York: Harper and Row.
• Schor, Juliet. 1993. The Overworked American: the Unexpected Deline of Leisure. New York, Basic Books.

Grading Policy
   Assessment consists of two exams, one at mid-term, the other at the end of the term. The mid-term is also worth 40 per cent of the total. A comprehensive final examination constitutes the remaining 60 per cent.