Robert Heilbroner, Teachings from the Worldly Philosophy, pp. 55-157. Mary
Wollstonecraft .... Robert Brenner, The Boom and the Bubble. Immanuel
Wallerstein ...
INSTITUTE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY PECO 5000: THEORIES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY FALL 2012 Professor Justin Paulson Email:
[email protected] Office: DT 1504 Office hours: Wednesday 1:30-2:30 and by appointment Telephone: x8859
Seminar meetings:
Wed 2:35-5:25 IPE seminar room
Course Description This seminar examines both foundational and contemporary theoretical perspectives of capitalism, the modern state, and relations of power. Contending views of the dynamics governing economic, political and cultural changes in the modern era, and of modernity itself, will be explored. What light do these theories shed on processes of socio-economic change and the complex relationship between the economic, the cultural, and the political? How ought we to identify the collective actors engaged in making these changes, the sites of their interaction, and the processes through which collective identities are constituted? What are classes, and are they important? What of sex and gender, race, and other bases of both identity formation and oppression? Is 'capitalism' still a discrete entity (and was it ever so)? Does the nation-state still constitute one of the central organising principles of the world system? What is 'neoliberalism', and is 'globalisation' a new phenomenon? How do we make sense of economic and social crisis? The seminar takes an historical approach to these questions, but we will be reminded throughout that voices from the past continue to shed light on the present as they are lost, rediscovered, and reinterpreted, just as contemporary theories can help us better understand the historical roots of the present (dis)order. This approach gives us a chance to reflect on the elements of change and continuity that mark the modern era. Course Requirements •
Attend all seminar meetings, being prepared to discuss the reading for that week. This is a reading-intensive seminar, and keeping up is an absolute requirement. Always bring the texts, and your notes on the text(s), to the meeting.
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Read through and consider your peers' papers before the seminar meets.
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Response papers and seminar presentations: Twice during the semester, you will prepare a short seminar paper on the readings for that week. Your paper should demonstrate familiarity with at least one of the texts from the 'suggested' reading list as well as the required texts for the week. Please distribute copies of your paper to the seminar via email by 5pm on the Monday preceding the seminar meeting, and be prepared to talk about it with the seminar.
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Seminar papers are neither term papers nor summaries of the texts. They should be concise, thoughtful reflections – please, no introduction – on some element or elements of the topic being covered that week that demonstrate critical engagement with the texts and the theoretical perspectives they contain. A paper of 5 single-spaced pages is generally fine; 3pp. is too short, and 10pp. is too long.
One of your papers will be on a topic chosen in advance; the other you may write whenever you choose (but ensure it is sent to the seminar by the preceding Monday). On the occasion of your scheduled paper, you will draw from your paper (and other background reading as necessary) to make a ~20 min. presentation to the seminar on the week's text(s). During one of the weeks in which you are not writing a paper, you will be responsible for being a discussant, responding to the presentations and papers that were submitted for that week. In this
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~10 min. response, you will set the tone and agenda for the seminar discussion to follow. •
Final essay: At the end of the seminar, you will be required to write an essay of approximately 3500 words that must deal with some aspect of the theoretical debates examined in this course. This does not mean that you must pick one of the topics identified in the course outline; in fact, I would encourage you to use the opportunity to begin to formulate the research question you hope to explore in your MA thesis or research essay. I would be glad to help you in this. The essay is due at the end of term and is worth 25% of your final grade.
Assessment:
Your final grade for the seminar will be based on the level and quality of your participation (30%), quality of seminar papers (15% each), quality of presentations (15% – 10% for your presentation and 5% for your response), and final paper (25%). Revisions to seminar papers are allowed until December 7. Papers and presentations will receive letter grades according to the following scheme: A : excellent, highly insightful work; very high level of engagement with the text(s) B : good insights; ability to understand and engage with the text(s) is apparent, although the work may be uneven, unsustained, or there may be a significant oversight
C : level of engagement with the material and overall quality of work falls below expectations. It is given when a piece of work reflects a poor grasp of theory, an inability to develop a basic argument, and/or poor research skills. At the graduate level, a final grade of less than B- at the end of the term is considered a failure.
Grades will be averaged at the end of the term using the 12-point system. Late Work:
Late work will not be accepted except in extraordinary circumstances (and must be cleared with the professor at least one week in advance). ** There can be no rescheduling of presentation and discussant roles after the second week of the seminar. Please plan accordingly. **
Paper standards:
Seminar papers should be typed, proofread, and written in a standard font. They should also be consistent in their use of a citation method. I personally prefer Chicago, but APA is also common around here. Proper in-text or footnoted citations of the texts are important, but a bibliography is not required, except when other sources (beyond required and suggested texts) are used.
Academic honesty: Please see the end of the course outline for the University's policies about plagiarism.
Note that academic honesty is crucial in the environment of a small graduate seminar, and I take it very seriously, without consideration of extraneous circumstances. Cell phones:
Cell phones should be off for the duration of the seminar.
Computers:
Laptop computers should not be used in class except with documentation from the PMC that a computer is required for note-taking. In the latter case, access to the internet should be disabled. Seminar participants should be giving attention to each other and to their note-taking, not to transcribing nor to any of the variety of distractions available from the internet.
Questions:
Questions about the course material that don't come up in seminar are best handled in office hours, rather than over email. Please do not hesitate to schedule an
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appointment! If it is impractical or impossible to schedule an appointment, then you are encouraged to email me your question and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Email turnaround time: I check my email at least once a day, but I am not perpetually connected to mobile devices nor to the internet. Every effort will be made to respond within 24 hours to requests to schedule a meeting. Other emailed questions may take longer, depending on their content and complexity.
If you are unable to meet with me, please don't hesitate to meet with each other. (The course material provides lots to chew on and work through collectively – even over a meal, a pint, coffee, or tea.)
Required and Suggested Reading See outline of seminar meetings, below. All these texts are available online, in the library, via the library (in case of journal articles), or in local bookstores.
F Please make sure you have your own hardcopies! You will need to mark them up and bring them to the seminar meetings. Also, please note: •
Volume I of Marx's Capital is an important foundational reference for any critical study of political economy. If you don't already have a copy, it is available in most academic bookstores.
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Additional resources will be put on reserve at the library. This includes most titles in the 'suggested reading' category, as well as a few others.
☞ The list of required and suggested texts is extensive, but nevertheless incomplete. If you think we're not covering enough feminism, regulation theory, world-systems perspectives, critical race theory, Marx, Foucault, classical theory, regional and comparative studies, development theory, uneven development theory, theories of class, political economy of citizenship, etc., you're right to think so! Such is the unfortunate nature of survey courses. As the seminar is currently structured, each week's set of texts is centred around either a particular lens through which to view political economy or an object of political economic enquiry; I hope you will not think of these as discrete units, but will rather allow them to build on and influence each other throughout the seminar.
Academic Regulations and Accommodations University rules regarding registration, withdrawal, appealing marks, and most anything else you might need to know can be found on the university’s website, here: http://www.carleton.ca/cu0708uc/regulations/acadregsuniv.html
Requests for Academic Accommodations For Students with Disabilities: Students with disabilities needing academic accommodations are required to contact a co-ordinator at the Paul Menton Centre to complete the necessary letters of accommodation. The student must then make an appointment to discuss their needs with the instructor at least two weeks prior to the first class or ITV test. This is to ensure sufficient time is available to make the necessary accommodation arrangements. For Religious Obligations: Students requesting academic accommodation on the basis of religious obligation should make a formal, written request to their instructors for alternate dates and/or means of satisfying academic requirements. Such requests should be made during the first two weeks of class, or as soon as possible after the need for accommodation is known to exist,
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but no later than two weeks before the compulsory event. Accommodation is to be worked out directly and on an individual basis between the student and the instructor(s) involved. Instructors will make accommodations in a way that avoids academic disadvantage to the student. Students or instructors who have questions or want to confirm accommodation eligibility of a religious event or practice may refer to the Equity Services website for a list of holy days and Carleton's Academic Accommodation policies, or may contact an Equity Services Advisor in the Equity Services Department for assistance. For Pregnancy: Pregnant students requiring academic accommodations are encouraged to contact an Equity Advisor in Equity Services to complete a letter of accommodation. The student must then make an appointment to discuss her needs with the instructor at least two weeks prior to the first academic event in which it is anticipated the accommodation will be required.
Plagiarism Plagiarism is a very serious academic offence. For the details of what constitutes plagiarism, the potential penalties and the procedures, please refer to the section on Instructional Offences in the Graduate Calendar. What are the Penalties for Plagiarism? A student found to have plagiarized an assignment may be subject to one of several penalties including: expulsion; suspension from all studies at Carleton; suspension from full-time studies; and/or a reprimand; a refusal of permission to continue or to register in a specific degree program; academic probation; award of an FNS, Fail, or an ABS. What are the Procedures? 1. All allegations of plagiarism are reported to the faculty of Dean of FASS and Management. Documentation is prepared by instructors and/or departmental chairs. 2. The Dean writes to the student and the University Ombudsperson about the alleged plagiarism. 3. The Dean reviews the allegation. If it is not resolved at this level then it is referred to a tribunal appointed by the Senate.
Important Information - Students must always retain a hard copy of all work that is submitted. - All final grades are subject to the Dean’s approval. - Please note that you will be able to link your CONNECT (MyCarleton) account to other non-CONNECT accounts and receive emails from us. However, for us to respond to your emails, we need to see your full name, CU ID, and the email must be written from your valid CONNECT address. Therefore, it would be easier to respond to your inquiries if you would send all email from your connect account. If you do not have or have yet to activate this account, you may wish to do so by visiting https://portal.carleton.ca/
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Seminar meetings FOUNDATIONS (I): Classical political economy SEPTEMBER 12: Introductions. What is 'political economy'? Schedule presentations. (No required reading) Rod Hill & Tony Myatt, The Economics Anti-Textbook
SEPTEMBER 19: Classical theory Robert Heilbroner, Teachings from the Worldly Philosophy, pp. 55-157 Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman (http://www.bartleby.com/144/index.html), chs. 2-3 Fred Block and Margaret Somers, "In the Shadow of Speenhamland: Social Policy and the Old Poor Law" in Politics and Society 31:2 (2003). Giovanni Arrighi, Adam Smith in Beijing (Verso, 2008), esp. ch. 2 Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, esp. ch. 10 Ben Fine and Dmitri Milonakis, From Political Economy to Economics Jim Stanford, Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism
SEPTEMBER 26: Marx Marx, excerpt from "A Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy" Marx, chapters. 1, 2, and 4 of The Communist Manifesto Marx, Capital, excerpts from chapter 1 ("The Commodity"), ch. 4 ("The General Formula for Capital"), ch. 7 ("The Labour Process") and ch. 10 ("The Working Day") Sheila Rowbotham, "Dear Dr. Marx: A letter from a socialist feminist," in Socialist Register 1998. Capital, ch. 25 ("The General Law of Capitalist Accumulation"), ch. 26 ("The Secret of Primitive Accumulation"), and ch. 33 ("The Modern Theory of Colonization") Herbert Marcuse, "The Foundations of Historical Materialism" David Harvey, A Companion to Marx's Capital Ben Fine, Reading Capital Louis Althusser and Etienne Balibar, Reading Capital Terry Eagleton, Why Marx Was Right
OCTOBER 3:
Marxian perspectives on capitalism and modernity
Robert Brenner, "The Origins of Capitalist Development," New Left Review 104 (1977). Read pp. 25-53, 67-77, and 82-92. Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed. Hoare & Smith. "Intellectuals," pp. 5-14; "Notes on Italian History," pp. 52-57, 74-84, and 93-102; "Some Theoretical and Practical Aspects of 'Economism'", pp. 159-168; "Analysis of Situations and Relations of Force", pp. 175-185; and "Americanism and Fordism", pp. 279-286, 301-313, and 316-318. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism, chapters 1 and 10. Georg Lukacs, "Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat" and "Class Consciousness," in History and Class Consciousness Ernest Mandel, Late Capitalism Derek Sayer, Capitalism and Modernity: An Excursus on Marx and Weber Anthony Giddens, Capitalism and Modern Social Theory David Harvey, The Limits to Capital Howard and King, eds., A History of Marxian Economics (2 vols)
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FOUNDATIONS (II): Dimensions of modernity, capital, and inequality OCTOBER 10:
Post-colonial perspectives
Edward Said, "Introduction" to Orientalism Frantz Fanon, "Concerning Violence" in The Wretched of the Earth Anibal Quijano, "Coloniality and Modernity" in Therborn, Globalizations and Modernities Samir Amin, Eurocentrism Fanon, Black Skin White Masks Himani Bannerji, The Dark Side of the Nation: Essays on Multiculturalism, Nationalism and Gender Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity Arturo Escobar, "Development" in Territories of Difference
OCTOBER 17:
Sex, gender, and materialist feminism
Heidi Hartman, "The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism" Capital and Class (1979) Ellen Wood, "Capitalism and Human Emancipation: Race, Gender, and Democracy" Mary McIntosh, "The State and the Oppression of Women" in Feminism and Materialism Jane Jenson, "Gender and Reproduction, or, Babies and the State" Studies in Political Economy (1986) Rosemary Hennessy, Profit and Pleasure: Sexual Identities in Late Capitalism Kate Delphy, "A Materialist Feminism is possible" Maria Mies, Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale Simone De Beauvoir, The Second Sex Joan Acker, Class Questions, Feminist Answers
OCTOBER 24:
Poststructuralism, post-capitalism, and the politics of possibility
J.K. Gibson-Graham, "Introduction", chapter 1 ("Affect and Emotions for a Postcapitalist Politics"), chapter 2 ("Relunctant Subjects: Subjection and Becoming"), and chapter 3 ("Constructing a Language of Economic Diversity") of A Postcapitalist Politics, pp. xix-73 Janet Siltanen, et al, "Urban Contestation in a Feminist Register" (unpublished mss.) Gibson-Graham, The End of Capitalism (as we knew it) Gibson-Graham, Resnick, and Wolff, “Towards a Poststructuralist Political Economy” in Re/Presenting Class Massimo de Angelis, The Beginning of History: Value Struggles and Global Capital John Holloway, "Say No to capital?" Historical Materialism 13:4 (2005), 265-284 Peter Hall and David Soskice, "An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism" in Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage http://www.oxfordscholarship.com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/oso/public/content/economicsfinance/ 9780199247752/toc.html Wolfgang Streeck, "Introduction: Explorations into the origins of non-liberal capitalism in Germany and Japan" Origins of non-liberal capitalism: Germany and Japan in comparison
OCTOBER 31:
Critical race theory, intersectional identities and positions
Cheryl Harris, "Whiteness as Property" Leslie McCall, "The Complexity of Intersectionality" Joan Acker, "Thinking about Gendered and Racialized Class" in Class Questions, Feminist Answers Angela Y. Davis, "Facing Our Common Foe: Women and the Struggle Against Racism" in Women, Culture and Politics Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein, Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities George Lipsitz, "The Posessive Investment in Whiteness" Joan Acker, chapters 1, 2, 4, and 6 of Class Questions, Feminist Answers David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class David Grusky and Szonja Szelényi, eds., Inequality: Classic Readings in Race, Class, and Gender
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SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS AND CRISES NOVEMBER 7:
The state, markets, and social transformation
Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, chapters 11-13 and 21. http://uncharted.org/frownland/books/Polanyi/POLANYI%20KARL%20-%20The%20Great%20Transformation%20-%20v.1.0.html#page_130
Rianne Mahon, "Canadian Public Policy: The Unequal Structure of Representation" in The Canadian State: Political Economy and Political Power Leo Panitch, "The Role and Nature of the Canadian State" in The Canadian State Robert Brenner, The Boom and the Bubble Immanuel Wallerstein, World Systems Analysis: An Introduction Giovanni Arrighi, The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times Nicos Poulantzas, State, Power, Socialism Friedrich Hayek, The Road to Serfdom
NOVEMBER 14: Theorizing globalisation and neoliberalism David Harvey, ch. 1 ("Freedom's Just Another Word..."), ch. 2 ("The Construction of Consent"), esp. ch. 3 ("The Neoliberal State"), and ch. 4 ("Uneven Geographical Developments"), in A Brief History of Neoliberalism. pp. 5-119 (esp. 64-119) William Robinson, "Gramsci and Globalization: From Nation-State to Transnational Hegemony" Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 8:4 (2005), 1-16 http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/robinson/assets/pdf/gramsci_globl.pdf Ursula Huws, "Material World: The Myth of the 'Weightless Economy'" in Panitch, Leys, Zuege, and Konings, eds., The Globalization Decade: A Critical Reader Gérard Duménil and Dominique Lévy, "The Nature and Contradictions of Neoliberalism" in The Globalization Decade Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics (→ very interesting to read this side-by-side with Harvey!) Linda Weiss, "Globalization and the myth of the powerless state" New Left Review 225 (1997) Penny Griffin, "Refashioning IPE: What and how Gender Analysis Teaches International (Global) Political Economy" Review of International Political Economy 14:4 (2007), 719-736. Leo Panitch, "Globalization and the State" in The Globalization Decade William Robinson, "Beyond the Nation-State Paradigm" Peter Newell, "The Political Economy of Global Environmental Governance" Review of International Studies 34:3 (2008), pp. 507-529. Immanuel Wallerstein, "Class Conflict in the Capitalist World-Economy" Barry Eichengreen, Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System
NOVEMBER 21: Political economy of space and scale Rianne Mahon and Roger Keil, "A Political Economy of Scale: an Introduction," in Leviathan Undone? Towards a Political Economy of Scale pp. 3-26. Neil Brenner, "A Thousand Leaves: Notes on the Geographies of Uneven Spatial Development" in Mahon and Keil, pp. 28-50. Janet Conway, "Geographies of Transnational Feminisms: The Politics of Place and Scale in the World March of Women" Social Politics 15:2 (2008) Erik Swyngedouw, “Historical-Geographical Materialism and the Political Economy of Capital” Janet Conway, "The Empire, the Movement, and the Politics of Scale: Considering the World Social Forum" in Mahon and Keil, pp. 281-300. Neil Smith, Uneven Development: Nature, Capital, and the Production of Space David Harvey, Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography David Harvey, Spaces of Hope
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NOVEMBER 28: Political economy of crisis Panitch and Konings, eds., American Empire and the Political Economy of Global Finance (Palgrave, 2009), ch. 1 ("Demystifying Imperial Finance"), ch. 2 ("Finance and American Empire"), and esp. ch. 12 ("The Political Economy of the Subprime Crisis"), pp. 1-14, 17-47, and esp. 253-292. David McNally, "From Financial Crisis to World-Slump: Accumulation, Financialisation, and the Global Slowdown" Historical Materialism 17 (2009), 36-83 Panitch and Gindin, "The Current Crisis: A Socialist Perspective" Studies in Political Economy 83 (2009), pp. 7-32 David McNally, The Global Slump Albo, Gindin, and Panitch, In and Out of Crisis Robert Brenner, The Economics of Global Turbulence esp. chs. 1, 2, and 10. Giovanni Arrighi, "The Social and Political Economy of Global Turbulence" New Left Review 20 (2003) Sam Gindin, "Turning Points and Starting Points: Brenner, Left Turbulence, and Class Politics" Socialist Register 2001 Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin, "Global Capitalism and American Empire" Socialist Register 2004 Doug Henwood, After the New Economy (New Press, 2003)
*** Potluck dinner at Professor Paulson’s house. ***
➳ With a special thanks to Professor Emeritus Rianne Mahon and her version of this seminar.
