23 things they don't tell you about capitalism. New York: Bloomsbury Press. ISBN.
978-1608193387. Ho, Karen. 2009. Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street ...
GLOBALIZATION, ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURE ANTHROPOLOGY 401.83 / 702.72 FALL 2012 Monday 5:30-7:20PM, Room 705 Marc Edelman
Office hours: Mon. & Wed. 4:00-5:00pm or by appointment (706 North) tel. 212 772-5659
[email protected]
How have social scientists of different viewpoints and disciplinary backgrounds analyzed globalization? What are the interrelations between today’s economic, environmental and social crises? Why do some countries attain high standards of living, while others remain mired in poverty? Why is inequality growing in many societies and diminishing in others? How are civil society organizations and global governance institutions affecting the development process? How do cultural, geographic and institutional factors interact to produce different development outcomes? Does the economic growth necessary for poverty reduction require unsustainable environmental practices? Can there be a de-growth or no growth economy where people still live well? Students in this course will attain an in-depth background about key historical and contemporary debates in development studies, with an emphasis on the interactions between economic globalization, environment, history and culture. Course requirements include: (1) Active participation in all class discussions (16% of course grade). I take this requirement very seriously. Please consider that the only way to not participate actively and achieve a “B” grade is if you achieve an “A” on every other assignment and examination (which for non-participators is nearly impossible). What you learn in this course and how well you do will depend significantly on how deeply you engage with the material and with the other people in the course. If you are extremely shy or inhibited (as many of us are or once were), use this course as an opportunity to get over it, because it will only hold you back. Anthropologists need to be able to interact with people as part of their fieldwork and in academic and other professional settings (as do non-anthropologists). If you are not shy, it is very important that you contribute to creating a supportive environment for those who might be. (2) Eight one-page, double-spaced reaction papers on any week’s readings, to be submitted by 10:00AM of the day of the class using the Blackboard “SafeAssign” feature (24% of course grade). These papers must respond to a written question posed by the instructor (and posted on Blackboard) or, alternatively, address an issue that you view as significant in the readings. It is up to you to choose which weeks you wish to write reaction papers, but it is probably not a good idea to leave them all for the latter part of the semester. Under no circumstances should reaction papers be more than one page, double-spaced, with oneinch margins, in twelve-point type. Papers must be carefully proofread. Papers that do not meet these criteria or that are written with less than professional standards will receive lower grades. (3) An in-class midterm examination to be held on October 22 (30% of course grade). This exam will consist of short answer and short essay questions, some of which will be distributed in advance. (4) A take-home final examination due at 5:30PM on December 17 via the Blackboard “SafeAssign” feature (30% of course grade). This will consist of short essays. Late assignments and email submissions of assignments will be accepted only under very unusual circumstances. This syllabus may be modified during the course of the semester.
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BOOKS for the course are available at Shakespeare’s bookstore (Lexington Avenue between 68th and 69th Streets): Chang, Ha-Joon. 2012. 23 things they don’t tell you about capitalism. New York: Bloomsbury Press. ISBN 978-1608193387 Ho, Karen. 2009. Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822345992 Other assigned readings may be obtained through web links in this syllabus or via the Library’s Electronic Reserve web page for this course. Go to http://hunter.docutek.com/eres/ to sign in. The password is edelman401. Please note that students registered for Anthropology 702.72 (graduate level) should use the Anthropology 401.83 ERES site. There are not electronic reserves for Anthropology 702.72.
A NOTE ABOUT ON-LINE BOOK PURCHASES: Many readers value independent, “brick-and-mortar,” neighborhood bookstores because they generate local jobs, are pleasant places to browse, and may feature distinctive services (discounts, alternative magazines and books from small publishers, used books, and readings by local authors). On-line booksellers may offer other advantages (shopping ease, greater selection, convenience); on-line book prices (and shipping charges) vary widely. If you order your textbooks for this course (or other books) via the Internet, you may do so at Shakespeare’s site http://www.shakeandco.com/ or you may consult the following sites, which will do an automatic comparison of prices at a large number of on-line stores: http://www.bookfinder4u.com/ or http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/ http://www.bestbookbuys.com/ If you order books through Amazon, please consider going to its site through the CUNY Graduate Center’s virtual bookshop http://www.gc.cuny.edu/bookshop/ Amazon purchases via this portal generate funds that support the CUNY library system.
A NOTE ABOUT BLACKBOARD, ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS AND E-MAIL: This course will make use of a Library Electronic Reserves web page (see above) and a Blackboard web site, which registered students may access from any computer with an Internet connection via the CUNY portal. The syllabus is available on the BB site under “Course Information” and on my Hunter Anthropology website. Blackboard allows the instructor to email individual students or the entire group, but it only uses Hunter email addresses that students receive automatically when enrolling at the College. It is important that you check your Hunter email address or that you set it to forward messages to an account that you check frequently.
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Hunter College is committed to ensuring educational parity and accommodations for all students with documented disabilities and/or medical conditions. It is recommended that all students with documented disabilities (Emotional, Medical, Physical and/ or Learning) consult the Office of AccessABILITY located in Room E1124 to secure necessary academic accommodations. For further information and assistance please call (212- 772- 4857) / TTY (212- 6503230).
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OTHER COLLEGE SUPPORT SERVICES Hunter College also has the following resources available for students who are experiencing academic or other difficulties: Advising Services: East Building, room 1119, tel. 212 772-4882,
[email protected] Reading/Writing Center: Thomas Hunter Hall, Room 416, tel. 212 772-4212, http://rwc.hunter.cuny.edu/ Counseling Services: East Building, room 1123, tel. 212 772-4931,
[email protected] These offices are staffed by highly trained professionals who are there to help you. If you are in trouble of any kind, it is imperative that you contact the appropriate office and receive assistance.
HUNTER COLLEGE POLICY ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY The Hunter College Anthropology Department has a zero tolerance policy for acts of academic dishonesty. The Hunter College Senate requires that the following statement be included on all syllabi: “Hunter College regards acts of academic dishonesty (e.g., plagiarism, cheating on examinations, obtaining unfair advantage, and falsification of records and official documents) as serious offenses against the values of intellectual honesty. The College is committed to enforcing the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity and will pursue cases of academic dishonesty according to the Hunter College Academic Integrity Procedures.” See also http://studentservices.hunter.cuny.edu/advising/advising_policies_integrity.htm
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COURSE SCHEDULE AND READINGS Mon., Aug. 27 – Aspirations for development in a globalizing world United Nations. 2012. The Millennium Development Goals Report 2012, pp. 4-25. United Nations General Assembly. 1992. Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development A/CONF.151/26 (2 pp.). Rio+20 Declaration on Justice, Governance and Law for Environmental Sustainability, June 2012 (3 pp.). Rio+20 International Conference of Indigenous Peoples on Self-Determination and Sustainable Development, June 2012 (2 pp.). Mon., Sept. 3 NO CLASS – LABOR DAY Mon., Sept. 10 – Capitalism, markets, and liberal doctrine Chang, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You about Capitalism, pp. 1-22. Davis, Mike. 2002. “The Origins of the Third World: Markets, States and Climate.” Corner House Briefing 27 Mon., Sept. 17 NO CLASS
Mon., Sept. 24 – Global Inequality Chang, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You about Capitalism, pp. 23-30, 112-124, 157-167, 210-220. Henry, James S. 2012. “The Price of Offshore Revisited.” Tax Justice Network, pp. 1-46. López-Calva, Luis F. and Nora Lustig. 2012. “The Decline in Inequality in Latin America: The Role of Markets and the State.” LASA Forum 43(3): 4-6. Lustig, Nora. 2012. “A Matter of Transparency: The Top One Percent in the Americas.” Americas Quarterly, Spring (2 pp.). Oxfam. 2012. “Left Behind by the G20?” Oxfam Briefing Paper 157, pp. 1-37. Inequality.” OpenDemocracy.Net, 6 April (2 pp.).
Therborn, Göran. 2009. “The Killing-Fields of
United Nations Development Programme. 2012. “Overview” and “Chapter 1. Why Sustainability and Equity?” In Human Development Report 2011. New York: UNDP, pp. 1-22. Page 4 of 7
Mon., Oct. 1 – Inequality in the United States Burcheit, Paul. 2012. “Some Outrageous Facts about Inequality.” Nation of Change, 2 July (1 p.). Chang, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You about Capitalism, pp. 102-111, 137-156. Edsell, Thomas B. 2012. “The Reproduction of Privilege.” The New York Times, 12 March (2 pp.). Inequality.org. 2012. “New York, New York, A Most Unequal Town.” 12 July (1 pp.). Noah, Timothy. 2010. “The Great Divergence.” Slate, 3 Sept. (40 pp.) Wed., Oct. 10 CUNY MONDAY COURSES MEET ON WEDNESDAY Cinematic interlude. Program to be announced.
Mon., Oct. 15 – Life on Wall Street Ho, Liquidated, entire book. Mon. Oct. 22 – In-class midterm examination Mon., Oct. 29 – Wealth, poverty, environment and sustainable rural livelihoods Barkin, David. 2001. “Neoliberalism and Sustainable Popular Development.” In Transcending Neoliberalism: Community-based Development in Latin America, Henry Veltmeyer and Anthony O'Malley. Hartford: Kumarian Press. Swinton, Scott M.,and Germán Escobar. 2003. “Poverty and Environment in Latin America: Concepts, Evidence and Policy Implications.” World Development 31(11): 1865-1872. Mon., Nov. 5 – Ecological footprints and ecological debt Deumling, Diana, Mathis Wackernagel, and Chad Monfreda. 2003. “Eating Up the Earth: How Sustainable Food Systems Shrink Our Ecological Footprint.” Redefining Progress Agriculture Footprint Brief, July (12 pp.). Hornborg, Alf. 2009. “Zero-Sum World: Challenges in Conceptualizing Environmental Load Displacement and Ecologically Unequal Exchange in the World-System.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 50(34): 237-262. Rice, James. 2009. “North--South Relations and the Ecological Debt: Asserting a Counter-Hegemonic Discourse.” Critical Sociology 35: 225-252. Page 5 of 7
Mon., Nov. 12 – Climate change and the politics of carbon emissions mitigation Agrawal, Arun. 2010. “Seeing REDD Over Forest Peoples.” BBC News Viewpoint, 4 May (2 pp.). Bradbury, James, and Christina Deconcini. 2012. “The Connection between Climate Change and Recent Extreme Weather Events.” World Resources Institute, August (2 pp.). Carbon Trade Watch. 2012. “Carbon Trading, REDD+ and the Push for Pricing Forests.” (5 pp.). Corson, Catherine, and Kenneth Iain MacDonald. 2012. “Enclosing the Global Commons: The Convention on Biological Diversity and Green Grabbing.” Journal of Peasant Studies 39 (2): 263–283. Gilbertson, Tamara, and Oscar Reyes. 2009. Carbon Trading: How It Works and Why It Fails. Uppsala, Sweden: Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Chaps. 1-2, 4-5 Rosenthal, Elizabeth and Andrew W. Lehren. 2012. “Profits on Carbon Credits Drive Output of a Harmful Gas.” New York Times, 8 August (3 pp.). Mon., Nov. 19 – Debates on culture and development Crewe, Emma and Elizabeth Harrison, 2005. “Seeing Culture as a Barrier.” In The Anthropology of Development and Globalization, Marc Edelman and Angelique Haugerud, eds. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 232234. Harrison, Lawrence E. 1999. “The Cultural Roots of Poverty.” The Wall Street Journal, July 13 (1 p.). Rodrik, Dani, and Arvind Subramanian. 2003. “The Primacy of Institutions (and what this does and does not mean).” Finance and Development, June, pp. 31-34. Pieterse, Jan Nederveen. 1995. “The Cultural Turn in Development: Questions of Power.” European Journal of Development Research 7(1):176–192. Mon., Nov. 26 – Rights-based approaches to development Center for Economic and Social Rights. 2012. “Fiscal Fallacies: 8 Myths about the ‘Age of Austerity’ and Human Rights Responses,” pp. 1-16. Fatheuer , Thomas. 2011. Buen Vivir: Latin America’s New Concepts for the Good Life and the Rights of Nature. Berlin: Heinrich Böll Foundation Publication Series on Ecology 17 (pp. 1-29). Mon., Dec. 3 – Growth or no growth? Consumption, more or less Dasgupta, Partha. 2010. “Nature’s Role in Sustaining Economic Development.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 365: 5-11. Martínez-Alier, Joan, Unai Pascual, Franck-Dominique Vivien, and Edwin Zacca. 2010. “Sustainable De-Growth: Mapping the Context, Criticisms and Future Prospects of an Emergent Paradigm.” Ecological Economics 69(9): 1741-1747. Page 6 of 7
Mon., Dec. 10 – Alternative models: the activist state Chang, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You about Capitalism, pp. 252-263. Lardner, James. 2012. “Why Oversight is Good for Business.” The Nation, March 21 (1 p.). Joshi, Devin K. 2012. “Varieties of Developmental States: Three Non-Western Pathways to the Millennium Development Goals.” Journal of Developing Societies 28(3): 355-378. Rodrik, Dani. 2012. “Global Poverty Amid Global Plenty: Getting Globalization Right.” Americas Quarterly, Spring (4 pp.). Sandbrook, Richard, Marc Edelman, Patrick Heller, and Judith Teichman. 2006. “Can Social Democracies Survive in the Global South?” Dissent 53(2) (Spring): 76-83. Storbeck, Olaf. 2012. “Excessive Austerity Doesn’t Pay, IMF Economists Show.” Economics Intelligence, August 23 (1 p.).
The take-home final examination will be due on Monday, December 17, at 5:30 PM. It should be submitted using the SafeAssign feature on the course Blackboard site.
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