Global Sociology
Course Syllabus
GLOBAL SOCIOLOGY, LIVE!
Michael Burawoy Sociology 185 Laleh Behbehanian
Spring 2011
Classical sociology has conventionally been trapped within the framework of the nation-state. Today we have to think globally but without denying the importance of the national container. As a first step this means comparing different countries, but the more important step is to try to see the world as a unit unto itself, populated by organizations, networks and movements that transcend national boundaries.
How shall we construct such a global sociology? This course is based on the premise that sociology takes the standpoint of civil society (Gramsci), and that civil society emerged in the 19th century in response to the destructive expansion of markets (Polanyi). Today, the capitalist economy assumes a global character, much of which is outside the control of nation states. Its destructiveness equally transcends national boundaries as we see in such phenomena as financial crises, global warming and human trafficking. In contesting this destructiveness civil society must also transcend national boundaries as it does, potentially, in social movements, NGOs, and religion. We will use Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation and David Harvey’s A Brief History of Neoliberalism to frame the three parts of the course: the global expansion of capitalism; the global logic of states; and global counter-movements.
The development of a global sociology requires not only a theory of global proportions, but a community of sociologists of a global scale, observing and analyzing the world from different places. Therefore, the course calls upon distinguished sociologists from around the world to discuss such contemporary issues as natural resource extraction, terrorism, development projects like microfinance, human rights, labor movements, and so forth.
Each week students will be given a limited amount of reading material. They will prepare short memos on the readings by the next speaker. Memos will include an analytical summary of 250 words and two questions that arise from the readings. These will be due midnight on Saturday. They will be read by the instructors and discussed on Monday when we will prepare relevant and probing questions for the Wednesday lecture. The speakers will be sociology faculty and non-sociology faculty at Berkeley as well as sociologists from around the world. Students will be required to undertake a final project that will address the issues raised by one or more of the invited speakers. Grading: participation – 30%, memos -- 40%, final project – 30%.
The invited speakers will give their lectures (or be interviewed) on Wednesdays in Dwinelle 127. They will talk for 15 minutes and then answer questions for 45 minutes. The proceedings will be recorded and downloaded onto the websites of Berkeley Youtube and the International Sociological Association.
The class meets twice a week: 12.30-2.00p.m. in Barrows 140 (Mondays) and Dwinelle 127 (Wednesdays).
There is one required book, David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Each week I will provide materials on bspace relevant to the speaker.
Laleh Behbehanian (lalehb@berkeley.edu) will work with me to supervise and administer the course, and read the memos.
My office hours are 4-6p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays, Barrows 454. burawoy@berkeley.edu
SCHEDULE
January 19: INTRODUCTION
January 24: KARL POLANYI: MARKETIZATION & COUNTER-MOVEMENTS
Polanyi, Karl. 2001. The Great Transformation: The Political and
Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon Press. (Foreword by Stiglitz, chapters 4, 6, 12, 21)
January 26: CONVERSATION WITH PETER EVANS
January 31: DAVID HARVEY: NEOLIBERALISM
Harvey, David. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. (Introduction, chapter 1 and 2)
February 2: MICHAEL BURAWOY: WHAT IS GLOBAL SOCIOLOGY?
February 7: David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (chapters 3 &4)
February 9: CONVERSATION WITH DAVID HARVEY
PART I: GLOBAL CAPITALISM
February 14 & 16: MICHAEL WATTS: CAPITALISM AND NATURAL
RESOURCES
Watts, Michael. 2006. “Empire of Oil: Capitalist Dispossession and the Scramble
for Africa.” Monthly Review 58(4).
Watts, Michael. 2007. “Petro-Insurgency or Criminal Syndicate? Conflict and
Violence in the Niger Delta.” Review of African Political Economy 114: 635-658.
February 23: ANANYA ROY: POVERTY CAPITAL
Roy, Ananya. 2010. Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Making of
Development. New York: Routledge. (Chapters 1 & 4)
February 28 & March 2: WALDEN BELLO: GLOBAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Bello, Walden and Shalmali Guttal. 2005. "Programmed to Fail: The World Bank
Clings to a Bankrupt Development Model." Multinational Monitor. http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/IMF_WB/WB_ProgrammedToFail.html
Bello, Walden. 2006. "The Crisis of Multilateralism." Foreign Policy in Focus.
Bello, Walden. "U-20: Will the Global Economy Resurface?"
March 7 & 9: CHING KWAN LEE: THE ENIGMA of CHINESE CAPITALISM
Lee, Ching Kwan Lee. 2011. “Chinese Capitalism: A Minimalist Sketch with
Hindsight and Unanswered Questions.” Unpublished Manuscript.
Harvey, David. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. (Chapter 5)
PART II: GLOBAL LOGIC of STATES
March 14 and 16: SARI HANAFI: THE POLITICS OF “SPACIO-CIDE” in
PALESTINE
Hanafi, Sari. 2009. “Spacio-cide: colonial politics, invisibility and rezoning in
Palestinian territory.” Contemporary Arab Affairs 2(1): 106-121.
Hanafi, Sari. 2010. “Framing Arab socio-political space: state governmentality,
governance and non-institutional protestation.” Contemporary Arab
Affairs 3(2): 148-162.
March 21 and 23: SPRING BREAK
March 28 and 30: LALEH BEHBEHANIAN: US COUNTER-TERRORISM as a
GLOBAL PROJECT
Behbehanian, Laleh. 2011. “Logics of Pre-Emption: US Counter-terrorism
Practices.” Unpublished Manuscript.
PART III: GLOBAL COUNTER-MOVEMENTS
April 4 and 6: PETER EVANS: COUNTER-HEGEMONIC GLOBALIZATION
Evans, Peter. 2008. “Is An Alternative Globalization Possible?” Politics &
Society 36(2): 271-305.
Evans, Peter. 2011. “Rethinking Neo-Polanyian Optimism: Transnational Politics
after the Decline of Neoliberalism.” Unpublished Post-script to “Is An
Alternative Globalization Possible?”
April 11 and 13: EDDIE WEBSTER: TRANSNATIONAL LABOR MOVEMENTS
Webster, Edward, Robert Lambert and Andries Beziudenhout. 2008. Grounding
Globalization: Labor in the Age of Insecurity. Malden, Massachusetts:
Blackwell Publishing. (Preface, Chapter 1, p.152-156, Chapter 9)
April 18 and 20: AMITA BAVISKAR: The POLITICS of ENVIRONMENTALISM
Baviskar, Amita. 2001. ‘Between Violence and Desire: Space, Power and Identity
in the Making of Metropolitan Delhi’. Conference on ‘Moving Targets:
Displacement, Impoverishment and Development’, Cornell University.
Baviskar, Amita. 2005. “Red in Tooth and Claw?: Searching for Class in
Struggles over Nature.” Pp. 161-78 in Social Movements in India: Poverty, Power, and Politics, edited by Raka Ray and Mary Katzenstein. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Baviskar, Amita. 2008. “Cows, Cars and Cycle-rickshaws: The Politics of Nature
on the Streets of Delhi’. Distinguished Lecture in the Program on the Global Environment Series at the University of Chicago.
April 25 and 27: ERIK OLIN WRIGHT: REAL UTOPIAS
Wright, Erik Olin. 2011. “Real Utopias.” Contexts 10(2): 36-42.
Wright, Erik Olin. 2006. “Compass Points: Towards a Socialist Alternative.” New
Left Review 41: 93-124.
May 2 and 4: CESAR RODRIGUEZ-GARAVITO: SOCIAL MINEFIELDS in LATIN
AMERICA
Rodriguez-Garavito, Cesar. 2010. “Ethnicity.gov: Global Governance, Indigenous
Peoples, and the Right to Prior Consultation in Social Minefields.”
Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 18(1).
May 6: CONCLUSION: TOWARDS A GLOBAL SOCIOLOGY