Professor David Warner
| Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University, 2004 Department of Sociology Case Western Reserve University 10900 Euclid Ave. Cleveland, OH 44106-7124 david.warner@case.edu Mather Memorial 223C Phone: (216) 368-2697 Fax: (216) 368-2676 Office Hours: T 9:30-11:00 am & by appointment |
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Research
My research aims to understand how social structures and practices create and reinforce inequality across the life course. As a sociologist and demographer, my approach is to look at individual transitions (and the trajectories in which they are embedded) and their cumulative (both additive and interactive) effect at the population level to illuminate the structural influences on these transitions. This orientation does not discount the role of agency in individual lives, but asserts that social structures and influences are paramount because they define the set of alternatives among which individuals may choose. Thus, my research examines:
(1) how individuals’ lives unfold over time within the opportunities and constraints afforded them by their position in the social structure, as defined by gender, race/ethnicity, class and marital status; and
(2) how population-level normalized patterns of behavior, reflecting cumulated individual experiences, demonstrate the (largely) invisible social structures and practices that organize the life course.
In my efforts to understand how social structure and practices create and reinforce inequality across the life course, I have been concerned with two broad areas of substantive inquiry—Work & Retirement and Health & Disability.
Teaching
Since joining the Department of Sociology, I have prepared six different courses— SOCI 113: “Social Problems in Modern Societies,” SOCI 208: “Dating, Marriage, & Family,” SOCI 269: “The Sociology of Aging in a Global Context,” SOCI 377/477: “Population Dynamics and Changing Societies;” SOCI 407: “Research Methods: The Modes and Logic of Social Inquiry,” and SOCI 469: “The Sociology of Age, Aging, and the Life Course.” These courses cut across a number of topics and appeal to a number of different types of students. This variety of courses has afforded the opportunity to develop and refine a teaching philosophy that attends to not only the demands of sociological training, but also the larger educational and training goals of the University.
My philosophy is that effective teaching in sociology does three interrelated things: helps students identify their taken-for-granted assumptions about the social world; pushes the boundaries of students’ preconceptions about social issues; and provides students with the means to be independent and critical thinkers. My full teaching philosophy, with brief illustrations of each tenet, can be found here.
Recent Publications
Warner, David F., Mark D. Hayward and Melissa Hardy. 2010 “The Retirement Life Course in America at the Dawn of the 21st Century.” Forthcoming, Population Research & Policy Review. (DOI 10.1007/s11113-009-9173-2)
Gu, Danan, Matthew E, Dupre, David F. Warner, and Zeng Yi. 2009 “Gender Differences in Health Status and Health Expectancies among Older
Dupre, Matthew E. Danan Gu, David F. Warner, and Zeng Yi. 2009. “Frailty and Type of Death Among Older Adults in China: Prospective Cohort Study.” British Medical Journal. 338:1175-1186.
Warner, David F. 2009. “Social Selection-Causation Debate.” Pp. 388-391 in Encyclopedia of the Life Course and Human Development, Vol. III: Later Life, edited by D. Carr. Detroit, MI: MacMillan Reference USA.
Brown, Tyson H. and David F. Warner. 2008.“Divergent Pathways? Racial/Ethnic Differences in Women’s Labor Force Withdrawal.” Journal of Gerontology: Social Science, 63B(3):S122-S134 [Authors listed alphabetically]
Hayward, Mark D., David F. Warner and Eileen M. Crimmins. 2007. “Does Longer Life Mean Better Health? Not for Native-Born Mexican Americans in the Health and Retirement Study.” Pp. 85-95 in The Health of Aging Hispanics: The Mexican-Origin Population. Angel, Jacqueline L. and Keith E. Whitfield (Eds.). Springer: New York.
Warner, David F. and Mark D. Hayward. 2006. “Early Life Origins of the Race Gap in Men’s Mortality.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 47(3): 209-226.
Warner, David and Heather Hofmeister. 2006. “Late Career Transitions among Men and Women in the United States. Pp. 141-181 in Globalization, Uncertainty and Late Careers in Society, H.P. Blossfeld, S. Buchholz and D. Hofäcker (Editors). Routledge Advances in Sociology Series. Routledge: London.
Hayward, Mark D. and David F. Warner. 2005 “Demography of Population Health” Chapter 27 (Pp. 809- 825) in The Handbook of Demography, Dudley L. Poston, Jr. and Michael Micklin (Editors). Springer: New York.