Instructor: Kevin Karpiak
karpiak@berkeley.edu
Office:
Office Hours: 1:45-3:00 TuTh
GSI:
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ANTHROPOLOGY 130-A
Cultural Dimensions of Globalization
Fall 2008, TuTh 12:10-1:30pm, 223 Olson
This reading intensive upper-level class seeks to explore recent anthropological approaches to a
contemporary world increasingly characterized by interconnection on a planetary scale. In other
words, we will be studying the ‘cultural’ dimensions of recent economic and political
developments frequently termed ‘globalization’. In adopting so, we will attempt to develop an
anthropological approach towards understanding an often ill-defined and omnipresent topic of
debate.
Rather than taking a specific geographic entry point for our inquiry, the class will be situated
around a series of recurring questions and problems. These include but are not limited to the
following: What is new about the large-scale connections that characterize the present moment?
What is old about globalization – how does it rely on, resemble or reassemble older forms of
connection? What are its silences and its elisions? How do people live at globalization’s
margins? Does globalization inevitably result in homogenization, in a single world culture or are
more subtle processes at work? How can we adapt anthropology’s traditional method of placebased ethnographic study to the challenges of a world in which people are “chronically mobile
and routinely displaced”?
Course grades
Course grades will be based on one Mid-term exam (25%), one Class Project (20%), one Final
Exam (35%) and regular section participation (20%).
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Mid-Term Exam (25%)
Section participation (20%)
Project (20%)
Final Exam (35%)
Required Books
Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt
2005
Friction : an ethnography of global connection. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press..
Plus a READER, available at Davis Copy Shop. It is located at 231 3rd Street (at University Avenue). In addition
the class project on “The Coke Complex” will require that you download material directly from the journal
website (to be explained in class).
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Introduction: Course Organization, Goals & Key Concepts
What are we talking about when we talk about globalization? How have
anthropologists approached the subject? Have anthropologists broached
the topic? What role can anthropologists play in debates on
globalization?
Week 1: Thursday, September 25th – Thursday, October 2nd 2008
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Inda, J. X., and R. Rosaldo. 2002. "Introduction : a world in motion," in The
anthropology of globalization : a reader, Blackwell readers in anthropology ;
1. Edited by J. X. Inda and R. Rosaldo, pp. 1-34. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell
Publishers.
Film:
2007. “Babel”. Hollywood, Calif.: Paramount Home Entertainment. [selections]
Recommended Reading (read at least two):
 Friedman, T. L. 2005. "It's a Flat World, After All," in The New Times
Magazine, pp. 33-37.
 Fukuyama, F. 2000 [1989]. "The End of History?," in Globalization and the
challenges of a new century : a reader. Edited by P. O'Meara, H. D.
Mehlinger, and M. Krain. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
 Huntington, S. P. 2000 [1993]. "The Clash of Civilizations?," in Globalization
and the challenges of a new century : a reader. Edited by P. O'Meara, H. D.
Mehlinger, and M. Krain. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
 Barber, B. R. 2000 [1992]. "Jihad vs. McWorld," in Globalization and the
challenges of a new century : a reader. Edited by P. O'Meara, H. D.
Mehlinger, and M. Krain. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Anthropologies of Interconnection
How old is global interconnection? How did it emerge? What are the
forces and motivations behind this emergence? What does ‘globalization’
have to do with ‘power’?
Week 2: Tuesday, October 7th 2008 – Thursday, October 10th 2008
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Wolf, E. R. 1982. "Introduction," in Europe and the people without history,
pp. 1-23. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Mintz, S. W. 1985. Sweetness and power : the place of sugar in modern
history. New York, N.Y.: Viking. (pages xv-xxx, 19-73, 151-186)
Film:
1989. Isle of Flowers
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Recommended Reading:
 Wallerstein, I. M. 1978. "A World-System Perspective on the Social
Sciences," in The capitalist world-economy : essays, pp. 152-164. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Anthropology Unbound
What happens when anthropologists discover ‘globalization’? How can
we understand cultural difference in an interconnected and mobile world?
Has anthropology become out-moded?
Week 3: Tuesday, October 13th 2008 – Thursday, October 17th 2008
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Appadurai, A. 1996 (1991). "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global
Cultural Economy," in Modernity at large : cultural dimensions of
globalization, Public worlds ; v. 1, pp. 27-47. Minneapolis, Minn.: University
of Minnesota Press.
Clifford, J. 1988. "Introduction: The Pure Products Go Crazy," in The
predicament of culture : twentieth-century ethnography, literature, and art,
pp. 1-18. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Marcus, G. E. 1998. "Ethnography in/of the World System: the emergence of
multi-sited ethnography," in Ethnography through thick and thin, pp. 79-104.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Film:
1991. "The Japanese version." New York: The Center for New American Media
Migration, Movement & Citizenship
What can we learn by studying people, things and ideas that move? Do
anthropologists have a particular insight into this domain?
Week 4: Tuesday, October 20th 2008 – Thursday, October 23rd 2008
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Rouse, R. 1991. Mexican Migration and the Social Space of Postmodernism.
Diaspora 1:8-23.
Gross, J., D. McMurray, and T. Swedenburg. 1996. "Arab Noise and
Ramadan Nights: Rai, Rap and Franco-Magrebi Identities," in Displacement,
diaspora, and geographies of identity. Edited by S. Lavie and T. Swedenburg,
pp. 119-155. Durham: Duke University Press.
Ong, A. 2000.
Graduated sovereignty in South-East Asia. Theory Culture
& Society 17(4):55-75.
Film:
2001. Chain of Love.
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MidTerm Exam,
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
(Re)placing, (Re)stating: Putting the State in its Place
Why is ‘place’ such a large part of our lives despite the degree and
importance of movement and global flows? How are people and spaces
‘placed’, and why? What kind of politics is possible when the States no
longer can claim a monopoly of legitimate political action over their
territories? How can anthropologists study power relations in a world in
flux?
Week 5-6: Thursday, October 30th 2008 – Thursday, November 6th 2008
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Gupta, A., and J. Ferguson. 1992. Beyond "Culture": Space, Identity, and the
Politics of Difference. Cultural Anthropology 7:6-23.
Ferguson, J., and A. Gupta. 2002. Spatializing States: Toward an Ethnography
of Neoliberal Governmentality. American Ethnologist 29:981-1002.
Malkki, L. 1997. "National Geographic: the rooting of peoples and the
territorialization of national identity among scholars and refugees," in Culture,
power, place : explorations in critical anthropology. Edited by A. Gupta and
J. Ferguson, pp. 52-74. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
Fassin, D. 2007. "Humanitarianism: a nongovernmental government," in
Nongovernmental politics. Edited by M. Feher. New York: Zone Books.
Recommended Reading:
 Foucault, M. 2000. "Governmentality," in Power, vol. 3, The Essential Works
of Michel Foucault. Edited by J. D. Faubion, pp. 201-222. New York: New
Press.
 Foucault, M. 2000. ""Omnes et Singulatim": toward a critique of political
reason," in Power, vol. 3, The Essential Works of Michel Foucault. Edited by
J. D. Faubion, pp. 298-325. New York: New Press.
Film:
2006. Hip Hop Colony: the African hip-hop explosion
Class Holiday (Veteren’s Day),
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
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Global Assemblages
Is the topography of globalization, its flows and interconnections, totally
arbitrary? Are the global forms we see pre-determined by a guiding
teleology? What other means are possible of understanding the ways
things “come together” on a global scale?
Week 7: Thursday, November 13th – Tuesday, November 18th 2008
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Collier, S. J., and A. Ong. 2005. "Global Assemblages, Anthropological
Problems," in Global assemblages : technology, politics, and ethics as
anthropological problems. Edited by A. Ong and S. J. Collier, pp. 1-21.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Dunn EC. 2005. Standards and person-making in East Central Europe. In Global
assemblages : technology, politics, and ethics as anthropological problems, ed. A
Ong, SJ Collier. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing
Roitman, J. 2005. "The Garrison-Entrepôt," in Global assemblages :
technology, politics, and ethics as anthropological problems. Edited by A.
Ong and S. J. Collier, pp. 417-436. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Film:
2008. Seda: People of the Marsh
Class Holiday (AAA Meetings in SF),
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
Tales from the Field
What has happened to anthropology’s ‘field’ and its associated narrative
form, the ethnographic monograph, since the turn to studying
globalization? Has it withered away, or become re-entrenched in
unexamined ways?
Week 9: Tuesday, November 24th 2008
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Dubois, L. 1995. ""Man's Darkest Hours": Maleness, Travel, and
Anthropology," in Women writing culture. Edited by R. Behar and D. A.
Gordon, pp. 306-321. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gupta, A., and J. Ferguson. 1997. "Discipline and Practice: "The Field" as
Site, Method and Location in Anthropology," in Anthropological locations :
boundaries and grounds of a field science. Edited by A. Gupta and J.
Ferguson, pp. viii, 275. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Marcus, G. E. 2006. Where have all the tales of fieldwork gone? Ethnos
71:113-122.
Mintz, S. 2000. Sows' Ears and Silver Linings: A Backward Look at
Ethnography. Current Anthropology 41:169-189.
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Film:
1987. Cannibal Tours.
Class Holiday (Thanksgiving),
Thursday, November 27th, 2008
Friction, or, Moving Forward
Given the variety of concerns, approaches, orientations and projections
that we have learned in this class, what is the way forward for the
anthropological study of globalization? Where, and how, is anthropology
“going” now?
Project Due,
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
Week 10: Tuesday, December 2nd – Thursday, December 4th 2008
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Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. 2005 Friction : an ethnography of global
connection. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. [selections]
Film:
2004. "Cola wars: message in a bottle." Princeton, NJ: Films for the Humanities & Sciences
Final Exam,
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
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