Social Thought and Political Economy 392H

Junior Seminar II

Social Thought and Political Economy 392H

Antonia Carcelen-Estrada

Tu/Th 11:00-12:45

Dickinson 210

Office Hours: Wed. 10-12 or by appointment

Translation Center, Herter 19

A. COURSE DESCRIPTION

This seminar is the second in the year-long STEPC Junior Seminar sequence. Junior II focuses on major currents of political, social, and economic theories and its applications (i.e. Marx vs. Marxism, Keynes vs. Protectionism, the Chicago School of Economics vs. Neoliberalism, Communism vs. Socialism vs. Anarchism, etc.), their implications and influences, cultural reactions and specificities, and the historical circumstances that gave rise to the theories and consequent movements of the 20th Century (i.e. the Mexican Revolution, the Russian Revolution, fascism, anti-colonial and neo-colonial wars, etc.). In Junior I you studied major driving forces behind the production of modernity as a Western episteme (the way we structure and decode the world as a Eurocentric fiction). Junior II will pay particular attention to the complex ways in which the political, social, and cultural practices and philosophies of the 20th Century relate to the contradictions and pitfalls of modernity, especially from the perspective of the subaltern. The class will be divided in three sections, one from the perspective of Native-Americans, the second from the perspective of the white working class, and finally from the perspective of Afro-descendents.

As this is an interdisciplinary class, we will be bringing tools from various disciplines (i.e. economy, sociology, anthropology, political science, history, cultural studies, and literature), always paying special attention to the construction and reception of ideas in specific contexts, as well as to the relation of ideas and events with diverse populations, differentiated by class, race, gender, religion, geopolitics, and local politics allegiance. The objectives of this course are to prepare students:

To read primary texts while fostering a broad critical understanding of historical grounded texts and their persistence in contemporary case studies;
To know the main authors, intellectual and cultural lineages, and the relation of theory to historical contexts as both causal and consequential;
To relate learned abstract concepts to governmental policies, and their reformulations in resistant social actions;
To develop an awareness of key social theories and movements, and critically identify them in your personal experiences, memories, epistemologies, politics;
And to incorporate reflection and research on these topics to your independent learning.

The European tradition of social thought and political economy can be traced to early modern times although it has influenced later modern formations from the emergence of nations to the development of human rights to the rethinking of the world in our days, and makes one question if we can have a different theoretical framework to conceive the world and future political constructions. Concepts such as the individual, natural rights, civil rights, democracy, the state, the nation, are all rooted indistinctly within the incipience and development of liberal economies, capitalism, and globalization ranging from slavery to the launching of the press, both global trades. Therefore, our contemporary political structures are intimately related to our economic configurations and, in our contemporary global economy, imagining a government outside of the scaffold of a liberal bourgeois democracy seems a significant challenge.

The readings in this course will provide an important background to understand our societies today and will empower students with enough critical tools to break down thought as it was rooted in historical contexts and their implications in society today, hoping to enable students to contest Eurocentric theories while learning (sub) alternative models.

B. STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES

Journals:I expect a lot from you and you should expect a lot from yourselves. This course is an advance university course; it requires much reading, but mainly thinking and analysis. The reading of the material is necessary for any real discussion. Discussions are necessary for any real significant learning. Each class students must write a journal entry with the major concepts learned from the readings as well as the main argument of the required reading. Concepts in some texts will overlap, and the student must build up the terminology with their nuances as the class advances.

These journals will also include questions and issues to share with the class at the beginning of the class. To prevent lecturing from the instructor, you must come prepared to discuss the issues you want to raise and engage in dialogue with other students. The class will develop from your journals, so if you don’t fulfill this responsibility, the class dynamic will be affected. Remember this is a community learning experience, and your work is very important for the community to work. You should include reflections on your historical, conceptual, and autobiographical ideas, particularly related to your activism. This journal will serve as a terminology database, and it will help you understand how concepts change with time, and how previous arguments enable the formation of new ones. Furthermore, this journal will enrich your reading of any text. Finally, the journal will help orient the class towards a collective learning. These journal entries must be brought to class, and you are expected to write notes on them while hearing other student’s reading and ideas on these texts.

Facilitating discussion: Each student will serve as a facilitator-instructor of a class. Another will be the note taker of the class, to then post the notes on the course website. Our goal is to build a learning community where students work as learners and teachers, where theory is accessible, expandable, and practical for the students’ own aspirations for social change and praxis. The facilitator will select the issues to discuss among the ones raised by student and will direct the discussion according to his/her discretion.

Final project: Because this course cares about your learning experience as a collective effort, you will base most of your reflections in the journals around your activism. It would be ideal if you were also doing an internship or had a real activist plan to use as a case study for your final project. It is important that you see yourself as a member of a community where you can have a real input for change. Moreover, you will need a peer-editing partner to share your ideas and journals and peer edit your final paper. You will write a 15 page final research assignment, and a great importance will be given to the process of writing: picking a topic, having anintersectional, clear hypothesis, exposing a thesis statement, come with clear and working arguments, develop an outline and an annotated bibliography, write a paper draft and deliver a final version. Remember that I care much more about your learning than about your publication potential!!! So, just do your best and find an engaging topic that works for you, one that is comparative in nature and relevant for issues today, and one that relates to your activism.

For research guidelines visit rutgers.edu/~jlynch/EngPaper/ and remember that plagiarism is a serious academic offense. Please visit the UMASS Amherst Plagiarism Policy at and be aware that you will get an “F” for the class if plagiarism occurs.

Attendance will affect your participation. I will accept only THREE (3) unexcused absences. Every absence after that will lower your final grade by a third of a letter. All excused absences MUST be accompanied by proper documentation (doctor’s note, obituary, athletic department letters, etc).

I look forward to learning together and I hope you enjoy the class as much as I will!!!

C. SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS

Week 1

Tu. 1/22:Introduction

Th. 1/24: The Fiction of the West

Mignolo, Walter. Local Histories/Global Designs, “Preface.”

Week 2

Tu. 1/29:1848-1898: Empire and White Supremacy

Lao Montes. “The Reconfiguration of Empire: The Spanish-Cuban-American-Philippino War as a World Historical Event.” In Revisiting the Colonial Question in Latin America.

Th. 1/31: Heteropatriarchy

Smith, Andrea “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing”. In Color of Violence: The Incite! Anthology.

Week 3

Mon. 2/4: Last day to drop class

Tu. 2/5: The Mexican Revolution

Wolf, Eric. “ Mexico ”. In Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century.

Th. 2/7: Nation and Identity

Bartra, Roger. The Cage of Melancholy: Identity and Metamorphoses in the Mexican Character

Chatterjee, Partha. “Whose Imagined Community?” The Nation and Its Fragments.

Week 4

Tu. 2/12: Zapatismo

Rajchenberg, Enrique and Catherine Héau-Lambert. “History and Symbolism in the Zapatista Movement.” In Zapatista! Reinventing Revolution in Mexico. Ed. John Holloway and EloínaPeláez. London: Pluto Press, 1998. 19-37.

Th. 2/14: Indigenismo and Aprismo

Edwards McNicoll, Robert. “Intellectual Origins of Aprismo”.

Mariategui, José Carlos. “The Problem of the Indian” and “The Problem of Land”. In Seven Interpretative Essays on Peruvian Reality.

Movie Night:

La Boca del Lobo(The Lion’s Den), Dir. Francisco Lombardi (1988)

También la lluvia(Even the Rain), Dir. IcíarBollaín (2010)

Week 5

Tu. 2/19: No class, Monday schedule will be followed

Th. 2/21: Community and Revolution

Paredes, Julieta. Spinning Fine Thread: Perspectives from Communitarian Feminism. Trans. Cerullo, Margaret and Antonia Carcelen-Estrada. Forthcoming.

Week 6

Tu. 2/26: Back to Border/Thinking

Anzaldúa, Gloria. “Bridge, Drawbridge, Sandbar or Island: Lesbians-of-Color Hacienda Alianzas.” In Bridges of Power: Women’s Multicultural Alliances. Ed. Lisa Albrecht and Rose M. Brewer. Philadelphia, PA: New Society, 1990. 216-231.

Guerrero, Marie Anna Jaimes. “Civil Rights vs. Sovereignty: Native American Women in Life and Land Struggle”.

End of first section, turn in journals.

Th. 2/28: The Russian Revolution

Wolf, Eric. “ Russia ”. In Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century.

Trotsky, Leon. “Dual Power.” In The History of the Russian Revolution.

Week 7

Tu. 3/5: Lenin and a Critique

Lenin, Vladimir. “An Urgent Political Question”, “What Can We Learn from the Resolution of the Third Congress of the R.S.D.L.P on a Provisional Revolutionary Government”, “What is a ‘Decisive Victory of a Revolution over Tsarism?’”, “The Abolition of the Monarchist System and the Republic,” and “‘Revolutionary Communes’ and the Revolutionary-Democratic Dictatorships of the Proletariat and the Peasantry”. In Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution.

Stepin, V.S. “The Fate of Marxism and the Future of Civilization.” In Studies in East European Thought 45 (1/2:1993); 117-133.

Th. 3/7: LAST DAY TO DROP WITH “W”

The Rise of Fascism and The Decay of the Communist Party

Gramsci, Antonio. “On Intellectuals”; “State and Civil Society” (Political Parties in Periods of Organic Crisis, Caesarism, Agitation and Propaganda, The Transition from the War of Manoeuvre to the War of Position, Hegemony and the separations of power, Religion, state, parties, State and Parties); and “Problem of Marxism” (Some Problems..). From Selections from the Prison Notebooks.

Week 8

Tu. 3/12:The Spanish Civil War and Anarchism

Peirats, Jose. “Repression and martyrs”, “Spain in Flames”, “The Tide of Revolution”, “The Revolution inthe Countryside”, “From the Army of Africa to the Army of People”, “The Last Bastion” Anarchism and the Spanish Civil War.

Graham, Helen. The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction. Ch. 2 and 3.

Th. 3/14: The Cuban Revolution

Raby. “Originality and Relevance of the Cuban Revolution.” In Democracy and Revolution: Latin America and Socialism Today.

Sat. 3/16: Spring Recess begins

End of second section. Turn in journals.

Week 9

Tu. 3/26: Black Modernism

DuBois, W.E.B.,“Of our Spiritual Strivings,” “Of the Dawn of Freedom,” “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others.”In The Souls of Black Folk.

Th. 3/28: Harlem Renaissance

Maxwell, William. “Kitchen Mechanics and Parlor Nationalists: Andy Razaf, Black Bolshevism, and Harlem’s Renaissance.” In New Negro, Old Left: African-American Writing and Communism between the Wars. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 13-62.

Select your theme and start preparing your hypothesis.

Week 10

Tu. 4/2: Pan Africanism and the Black Diaspora

James, C.L.R. The History of Pan-African Revolt. Pp. 102-150

Th. 4/4: PanAfricanism and Fascism

Césaire, Aimé. Discourse on Colonialism. Trans. by Pinkham, Joan. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000. 31-78.

Week 11

Tu. 4/9: Rethinking Modernization

Fanon, Frantz (1965). The Pitfalls of National Consciousness.” In The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 148-205

Tu. 4/11: Black Folks vs. Orient

Said, Edward. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. 31-92.

Turn in annotated bibliography.

Week 12

Tu. 4/16: Black Feminist Movements

Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Berkeley, CA: The Crossing Press, 1984. 110-114.

Mohanty, Chandra. “Introduction.” In Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1-49.

Th. 4/18: Guest Speaker John Jarvis, BaypathCollege ?

The Cold War and African Independence

Dangarembga, Tsitsi. “The Letter”.

Okri, Ben. “A Prayer from The Living”.

Englebert et al. “Postconflict Reconstruction in Africa: Flawed Ideas about Failed States.” In International Security, 32(4), Spring 2008:106-139.

Begin peer-editing papers

Week 13

Tu. 4/23: The “Third World” and the “Fourth World” and the Development Industry

Escobar, Arturo (1994). Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994. Introduction. 3-20.

Ferguson, James. Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006. 1-23.

Th. 4/25

Melucci, Alberto. “The Symbolic Challenge of Contemporary Movements.” In Buechler and Cylke, 259-274.

Alvarez et al., “Introduction: The Social and the Political in Latin America”. In Cultures of Politics/Politics of Culture” Re-visioning Latin American Social Movements.

Screening in class.

Week 14

Tu. 4/30: Last day of class

The Arab Spring

Badiou, Alain. The Rebirth of History: Times of Riots and Uprisings. London and New York: Verso, 2012. Pp TBA.

Turn in edited paper of your learning partner.

End of third section. Turn in journals.

Week 15

Turn in final projects May 9th at noon at the Translation Center.

D. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alvarez et al., “The Social and the Political in Latin America.”In Cultures of Politics/Politics of Culture” Re-visioning Latin American Social Movements.Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1998.

Badiou, Alain. The Rebirth of History: Times of Riots and Uprisings. London and New York: Verso, 2012.

Bartra, Roger. The Cage of Melancholy: Identity and Metamorphoses in the Mexican Character. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992. 1-12; 17-21.

Césaire, Aimé. Discourse on Colonialism. Trans. by Pinkham, Joan. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000. 31-78.

Chatterjee, Partha. “Whose Imagined Community?” In The Nation and Its Fragments. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.

Dangarembga, Tsitsi. “The Letter.” InWomen Writing Africa: The Southern Region. Eds. M.J. Daymond et al. New York: Feminist Press, 2003. 392-396.

DuBois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Englebert et al. “Postconflict Reconstruction in Africa: Flawed Ideas about Failed States.” In International Security, 32(4), Spring 2008:106-139.

Escobar, Arturo. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1994. 3-20.

Edwards McNicoll, Robert. “Intellectual Origins of Aprismo.” In The Hispanic American Historical Review, 23 (3:1943): 424-440. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Fanon, Frantz (1965). “The Pitfalls of National Consciousness.” In The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 2005. 148-205.

Graham, Helen. The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Gramsci, Antonio. Selection from the Prison Notebooks.New York: International Publishers, 1971.

Guerrero, Marie Anna Jaimes. “Civil Rights vs. Sovereignty: Native American Women in Life and Land Struggle”. In Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures. Eds. Jacqui Alexander and Chandra Mohanty. New York: Routledge, 1997. 101-124.

James, C.L.R. The History of Pan-African Revolt.Chicago: Charles Kerr Publishing Co., 1995.

Lao Montes, Agustín. “The Reconfiguration of Empire: The Spanish-Cuban-American-Philippino War as a World Historical Event.” In Revisiting the Colonial Question in Latin America. Eds. Moraña, Mabel and Carlos Jáuregui. Frankfurt: Vervuert, 2008.

Lenin, Vladimir. Two Tactics of Social Democracy in the Democratic Revolution. Geneva 1905.

Lorde, Audre. “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”. In Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Berkeley, CA: The Crossing Press, 1984. 110-114.

Maxwell, William. “Kitchen Mechanics and Parlor Nationalists: Andy Razaf, Black Bolshevism, and Harlem’s Renaissance.” In New Negro, Old Left: African-American Writing and Communism between the Wars. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. 13-62.

Melucci, Alberto. “The Symbolic Challenge of Contemporary Movements.” InSocial Movements: Perspectives and Issues.Eds. Buechler and Cylke. Mountain View CA: Mayfield Publishing, 1996. 259-274.

Mignolo, Walter. Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking. Princeton NJ: Princeton UP, 2000.

Mohanty, Chandra. “Introduction.” In Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1-49.

Okri, Ben. “A Prayer from The Living.” Under African Skies; Modern African Stories. New York: Larson, 1993. 240-243.

Paredes, Julieta. Spinning Fine Thread: Perspectives from Communitarian Feminism. Trans. Cerullo, Margaret and Antonia Carcelen-Estrada. Forthcoming.

Peirats, Jose. Anarchism and the Spanish Civil War.London: Freedom Press, 1990.

Raby. “Originality and Relevance of the Cuban Revolution.” In Democracy and Revolution: Latin America and Socialism Today. London: Pluto Press, 2006. 77-131.

Rajchenberg, Enrique and Catherine Héau-Lambert. “History and Symbolism in the Zapatista Movement.” In Zapatista! Reinventing Revolution in Mexico. Ed. John Holloway and EloínaPeláez. London: Pluto Press, 1998. 19-37.

Said, Edward. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin, 1995. 31-92.

Smith, Andrea “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing”. In Color of Violence: The Incite! Anthology. Cambridge MA: South End Press, 2006. 66-73.

Stepin, V.S. “The Fate of Marxism and the Future of Civilization.” In Studies in East European Thought 45 (1/2:1993); 117-133.

Trotsky, Leon. “Dual Power.”In The History of the Russian Revolution.Trans. Max Eastman (1932). Vol. 1. 274-286.

Wolf, Eric. Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1999.