Culture, Identity, and The Global Economy

Spring 2015 Culture, Identity, and The Global Economy HONR278N | SQH 2120 | TR 2:00-­‐3:15pm Professor Jan M. Padios [email protected] th
4121 Susquehanna (4 Floor) 301-­‐405-­‐0976 (Office) 301-­‐405-­‐1354 (Dept.) Open Office Hours: Tue, 3:30-­‐5pm By appointment: Tue-­‐Thu Pre-­‐requisite: There are no pre-­‐requisites for this course. Course Description: “The economy”: It’s something we think of as a system for buying, selling, and distributing goods, services, and labor. Economies are local, regional, and global, and they can be anchored by manufacturing, services, and finance. What if we thought of the economy as a cultural system, organized around people’s social identities, cultural practices, and histories? What if we understood markets not only as a coming together of actors interested in money and profit, but as having knowledge, power, and passions? How might this change our ideas about what kind of system global capitalism is, our roles within it, and how we might change it? To develop answers to such questions, this course explores the roles that culture (including lifeways, systems of meaning, and sites of struggle) and aspects of identity (such as race, gender, sexuality, and citizenship) play in the production of various goods and services around the world, from junk food to junk bonds. Through an interdisciplinary set of readings, as well as films and other media, we will consider topics such as: the religious and populist origins of Wal-­‐Mart; masculinity, Ivy League culture, and Wall Street; American colonialism and its relation to outsourced customer service; and anti-­‐Chinese racism and massively multiplayer online role-­‐playing video games, or MMORPGs. By developing a common language and working together to ask analytic questions, we will grapple with the complex ways that global capitalism works through culture and identity. Although we will focus on people, places, and institutions in the United States, most of our course material will look at social actors in other parts of the world, especially Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Course Goals: This course has been designed to enable students to: 1 !
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identify the ways that economic life in diverse settings is linked to cultural practice, social identities, and history critically analyze topics of global significance through a political economic and cultural perspective that is also rooted in the politics of identity develop an interdisciplinary grasp of some the major economic, social, and cultural trends related to globalization and the global economy in the late-­‐20th and early 21st centuries cultivate a basic understanding of race, gender, and other forms of social and cultural difference as constitutive component rather than mere features of capitalism develop a vocabulary and language for articulating the above •
Course Material: All readings for the course can be found on the Canvas course website. Course Policies 1. The University has approved a Code of Academic Integrity which prohibits students from cheating on exams, plagiarizing papers, submitting the same paper for credit in two courses without authorization, buying papers, facilitating academic dishonesty, submitting fraudulent documents, and forging signatures. Plagiarism policy: all quotations taken from other authors, including from the internet, must be indicated by quotation marks and referenced. Paraphrasing must be referenced as well. The CAI can be found here: http://www.shc.umd.edu/code.html 2. Students needing additional assistance or attention due to disabilities or other difficulties should contact Professor Padios as soon as possible to discuss any accommodation needed for this course. 3. Religious observance: Please inform Professor Padios of any intended absences for religious observance in advance. 4. Please go to the following link to read about the University’s attendance policy: http://www.umd.edu/catalog/index.cfm/show/content.section/c/27/ss/1584/s/1540 5. This syllabus may be subject to change. Students will be notified in advance of important changes that could affect grading, assignments, etc. 6. Communicating with me, Professor Padios, via e-­‐mail will be permitted in this course. However, replies to e-­‐mails are not guaranteed, should the e-­‐mail 1) Not contain a mode of address appropriate to a respectful, professional setting, i.e. “Dear Professor Padios” or “Dr. Padios”; 2) Inquire about something clearly addressed on the syllabus; and 3) Request a meeting with me less than 48 hours in advance of the desired meeting time Assignments and Due Dates Our class meetings will generally consist of discussions of the readings and the weekly assignments. All readings must be completed by Tuesday of each week, unless marked with an “(R)” indicating a due date of Thursday. In addition to completing the reading on time, this course carries two types of assignments: Weekly analytic exercises (“The Conversation Piece”): Write a 500-­‐word essay (no more or less!) in which you imagine that the readings we did for the week are part of one scholarly “conversation.” In your essay, clearly and succinctly identify what the conversation is about and then discuss what 2 each scholar contributes to the conversation. Ask yourself: What are the unique points that each scholar offers to the topic at hand? How do the different scholars’ approaches to the topic differ and where do they overlap? You must cite portions of the reading to make your claims. Be as specific as you can about the topic of the conversation. For example, saying that two authors are talking about “the need to address climate change” is not specific enough, whereas saying that “both scholars are arguing that climate change must be addressed by thinking critically about knowledge production” is much more precise. Close your essay with a question about the topic that you pose to authors and say why your question is relevant and important to the conversation. Keep in mind that this assignment: • Starts the second week of class • Must be e-­‐mailed to me, every Tuesday, before the start of class • Comes with three free passes over the course of the semester, no questions asked Seminar paper Write an 8-­‐10 page paper narrating the cultural and social “biography” of something of economic significance. It can be a type of work, a commodity, a service, a company, an innovative method of production, or a piece of technology. The paper must engage in the analytic frameworks and use the terminology we study in the course. Grading ! Participation: 20% !
Weekly assignments: 45% !
Seminar paper: 35% Schedule Unit One: Foundational Questions and Concepts 1/27 and 1/29: Why culture and economy? (R) Amin, Ash and Nigel Thrift. 2007. “Cultural-­‐economy and cities.” Progress in Human Geography (31)2. 2/3 and 2/5: Why identity and economy? Karjanen, David. 2008. “Gender, Race, and Nationality in the Making of Mexican Migrant Labor in the United States.” Latin American Perspectives, Vol. 35, No. 1 Quijano, Anibal. 2000. “Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America,” PAGES 533 to 542 only. Michael Ennis, trans. Nepantla: Views from the South, Vol. 1, Iss. 3 Kaplan, Carla. 2007. “Identity,” in Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, eds. New York and London: New York University Press. (This reading does not have to be included in your “Conversation Piece.”) 2/10 and 2/12: Wait, what’s the economy again? 3 “A Revisionist’s View of the History of Economic Thought: An Interview with Philip Mirowski.” Challenge, v48 n5 (September-­‐October 2005): 79-­‐94. Bigelow, Gordon. 2005. “Let There Be Markets: The Evangelical Roots of Economics,” Harper’s Magazine. (May) Mitchell, Timothy. 1998. “Fixing the Economy.” Cultural Studies 12(1). 2/17 and 2/19: Commodities and Labor in Cultural Context Kopytoff, Igor. 1986. “The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process,” from The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Arjun Appadurai, ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tsing, Anna. 2009. “Supply Chains and the Human Condition.” Rethinking Marxism: A Journal of Economics, Culture & Society, 21:2. Unit Two: Social and Cultural Biographies of Commodities, Corporations, and Crisis 2/24 and 2/26: Commodities, Colonialism and Global Politics Stoler, Ann. 1995. “Soft-­‐Soaping Empire: Commodity Racism and Imperial Advertising,” in Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest. New York: Routledge. Burke, Timothy. 1996. “Introduction,” and “Bodies and Things: Toiletries and Commodity Culture in Postwar Zimbabwe,” from Lifebuoy Men, Lux Women: Commodification, Consumption, and Cleanliness in Modern Zimbabwe. Raleigh and Durham: Duke University Press. 3/3 and 3/5: Call Centers and Colonialism Shome, Raka. “Thinking through the diaspora: Call centers, India, and a new politics of hybridity.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 2006, no. 9: 105-­‐124 Mirchandani, Kiran. “Practices of global capital: gaps, cracks and ironies in transnational call centers in India.” Global Networks 4, 4 (2004), 334-­‐373 3/10 and 3/12: The Political Economy of Food Patel, Raj. 2007. “Introduction,” “The Customer is Our Enemy: A Brief Introduction to Food Business Systems,” and other selections from, Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World’s Food System. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House. Colbran, Nicola. 2011. “The Financialisation of Agricultural Commodities Futures Trading and Its Impact on the 2006-­‐2008 Global Food Crisis. 3rd Biennial Ingram Colloquium on International Law and Development, University of New South Wales, December 2, 2010; UNSW Law Research Paper No. 2011-­‐14. 3/24 and 3/26: Culture and the Supply Chain Moreton, Bethany. 2009. “The Family in the Store,” “Revival in the Aisles,” and “Servants Unto Servants,” in To Serve God and Walmart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press. 3/31 and 4/2: Finance Culture Ho, Karen. 2009. “Wall Street Historiographies and the Shareholder Value Revolution,” in Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street. Durham and London: Duke University Press. Martin, Randy. 2002. “Introduction: What in the World is Financialization?” and “When Finance Becomes You,” from The Financialization of Daily Life. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 4 4/7 and 4/9: The Social and Cultural Contours of Global Crisis McNally, David. 2011. “Debt, Discipline, and Dispossession: Race, Class, and the Global Slump,” in Global Slump: The Economics and Politics of Crisis and Resistance. Oakland: PM Press. Chakravartty, Paula and Denise Ferreira da Silva. 2012. “Accumulation, Dispossession, and Debt: The Racial Logic of Global Capitalism—An Introduction.” American Quarterly. Vol. 64, No. 3 (PAGES 362-­‐373 and 379-­‐382 ONLY). Unit Three: Focus on Labor 4/14 and 4/16: Capitalism, Wage Labor, and Sexual Identity D’Emilio, John. 1989. “Capitalism and Gay Identity.” Feminist Frontiers II. Laurel Richardson and Verta Taylor. New York: McGraw Hill. Rofel, Lisa. 2007. “Qualities of Desire: Imagining Gay Identities,” in Desiring Subjects: Experiments in Neoliberalism, Sexuality, and Public Culture. Durham and London: Duke University Press. 4/21 and 4/23: Women in the Global Economy Gregory, Stephen. 2001. “Sex Tourism and the Political Economy of Masculinity,” in The Devil Behind the Mirror: Globalization and Politics in the Dominican Republic. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Wright, Melissa. 2006. “Manufactured Bodies,” in Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism. New York and London: Routledge. 4/28 and 4/30: Bodies and Borders Rivera, Alex, dir. 2009. Sleep Dealer. (In-­‐class film) Note: There is no “Conversation Piece” due this week. Instead, you must submit a 250-­‐300 word description of the topic of your seminar paper, along with a list of at least three readings from this syllabus that you plan to cite in your paper and 2-­‐3 additional primary sources you can use. This assignment will count as part of your conversation piece grade. You may not use a “free pass” on this assignment. 5/5 and 5/7: Technology, Labor, and Culture Nakamura, Lisa. 2009. “Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game: The Racialization of Labor in the World of Warcraft. Critical Studies in Media Communications. Vol. 25, No. 2 Scholz, Trebor, ed. 2013. Selections, Digital Labor: Internet as Factory and Playground. New York: Routledge. (R) “Fifteen Million Merits,” Black Mirror, Series One, Episode 2. Euros Lyn, dir. (In-­‐class viewing) 5/12: Millenial Labor Markets Gershon, Ilana. 2014. “Selling Yourself in the United States.” PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review. V ol. 37, Number 2, pps. 281–295 . Gill, Rebecca. 2013. “The Evolution of Organizational Archetypes: From the American Dream to the Entrepreneurial Dream.” Communication Monographs, 80:3, 331-­‐353. * Seminar Papers are due on the day of the final exam as scheduled by the college * 5