3 credits
Prerequisites: At least junior or instructor consent; credit will not be granted if credit received for: 3103)

The course examines families as important economic units in society. The content focuses on family activities of management, production, consumption, allocation, distribution, investment, and exchange. These economic activities assist families in reaching levels of living that bring varying degrees of life quality for family members. Emphasis is placed on the managerial activities of low-income families and selected public policies that directly influence their economic well being. Management involves facing and solving the practical problems of everyday life, coordinating activities of family members, and making and implementing decisions. Some challenges include how to allocate time in ways that will: produce capable people; distribute income to meet the safety and growth needs of family members; consume material resources for health of members and the environment; and use community resources in ways that will assist family members in reaching valued ends. 

1. Think about the challenges of leadership in the family setting and the importance of self-management as a prerequisite for group leadership.
   

2. Reflect upon the important values and human resources that you will need in order to assume the leadership of a family, as well as the diversity of these perspectives across/within cultural groups.
   

3. Make the processes of problem solving, decision-making, decision implementing, valuing, goal setting, and resourcefulness more conscious and intentional in your everyday life. 
   

4. Take more initiative for defining problems and seizing opportunities; clarifying your value-goal priorities; becoming more alternative minded; trying to be more resourceful; and making your important decisions more consciously and intentionally.
   

5. Practice your analytical thinking abilities by analyzing the economic decisions and activities of families using family resource management and family economics conceptual frameworks.
   

6. Think about families as economic units in society, particularly the results of their production and investment activities in regard to human resources.
   

7. Consider the importance of managerial decision making for: the family as an economic institution, the stability and solidarity of the family group, the reduction of chaos in times of rapid changes, and the approaches to interpersonal conflicts of family members.
   

8. Consider the practical problem of: How can we maximize our satisfying lifestyles and also preserve the natural environment that sustains us?

9 hours per week, including class time

Edin, Kathryn, Lein, Laura (1997). Making ends meet: How single mothers survive welfare and low-wage work. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Thornton, Y.S. (1995.)  Ditch Digger's Daughters: A Black family's astonishing success story.  New York: Plume.