PUBH 535-401 / Anthropology 625.401: Urban Poverty and Violence:
Ethnographic Perspectives” (LIMITED TO 20 GRADUATE STUDENTS—
PLEASE CONTACT PROFESSOR DIRECTLY FOR EXCEPTIONS:
<bourgois@sas.upenn.edu>
Philippe Bourgois
Fall 2008
Class Meetings:
Tuesdays, 32:00 pm to 6:00 pm in DRLB 4C6
Please purchase the following books online: (The books for the first three weeks
of readings can be purchased at: INSERT NAME OF BOOKSTORE USED BY
PENN PROFS.)
Additional articles and excerpts from books are located on Blackboard at U Penn
at the following URL: https://courseweb.library.upenn.edu/
The password is bourgois
This seminar examines anthropological approaches to poverty and violence
through a close reading of 8 ethnographies. Readings span many of the
theoretical, political, sub-disciplinary and area studies debates in anthropology
and the larger fields of poverty, social inequality, international development, and
violence studies over the past century. My hope is to bring the subjects of urban
poverty, violence, social suffering and a critique of neoliberal governmentality into
the center of the disciplines of anthropology and public health specifically and the
social sciences, humanities and medicine more broadly. In the seminar we will
be bringing students from anthropology, and other social science and humanities
disciplines in dialogue with students in public health, science studies, and clinical
medicine.
Many of the readings and discussions will be concerned with the links between
intimate suffering at the level of the individual and the political structuring of
larger historical, political and cultural forces. This requires an understanding of
the concepts of political economy, colonial/post-colonial history, the emergency
of modern subjectivites, and the continuum of structural, symbolic, political and
everyday violence. Within the field of violence studies,I am particularly interested
in clarifying our understandings of Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and symbolic
violence, Taussig’s “culture of terror and space of death,” Primo Levi’s “gray
zone”, Agamben’s “impossibility of witnessing”, and Foucault’s “biopower and
disciplinary forms of governmentality” among other useful formulations. We will
be reading primarily ethnographies based on qualitative methods and driven by
critical social science theory, but we will also explore the contrasts between
anthropological vs. literary vs testimonial vs political journalistic vs.
epidemiological forms of addressing the topics.
Competencies:
At the conclusion of this course and the completion of all assignments, students
are expected to be able to:
 Understand the limits and potentials of qualitative ethnographic research
methods
 Have a basic understanding of the major social science theories and
debates addressing social inequality and violence
 Understand the historical background to contemporary neoliberal
governmentality both globally and in the United States
 Assess the policy limitations of standard neoliberal approaches to inequality
and poverty
 Identify paths for future theoretical development in the field of poverty and
violence studies at the intersection of the social sciences, the humanities
and public health/medicine
 Explore the potential for building on the insights of critical social science
theory to address the applied practical problems studied and served by
public health and medical practitioners
Requirements:
I: Readings and Presentations
In addition to preparing for class discussions and reading one ethnography per
week, students are responsible for making at least one 15 minute presentation
(that will require extra reading) to situate the theoretical debates/critiques and/or
background context of a particular week’s ethnography. [Depending on the
number of students: Seminar participants can be divided alphabetically into four
permanent reading groups. Each week one of the four groups will be responsible
for co-leading the discussion and presenting relevant background context for the
readings. The reading group will meet independently to decide on the themes
they would like to discuss and present.] Readings and potential “theoretical
context presentation themes” are presented in brackets below the reading for
each week: (BUT please feel free to provide feedback for potential changes in
readings and to suggest alternative theoretical context presentations)
Short reaction papers: Students must submit a total of four (3 to 5 page)
critical reaction papers responding to the ethnography for that week. These
should be more than a summary. They should engage with one or more of the
central arguments of the text. Reaction papers must be posted on blackboard by
midnight on the Sunday prior to the Tuesday seminar meeting so that all
students can read them in advance of class and so that they can inform our class
discussion.
A final paper (10-12 pages + bib.) is due Monday, December 8. It can be
based on either:
a) Original research/literature review in one of the fields of urban poverty
and violence
b) Rough draft of a graduate student field statement – bibliographical essay
on violence
Week 1, September 9: Introduction: Student interests, outline of the course,
theoretical logic of the readings, other logistics.
Week 2, September 16:
ALL READINGS THIS WEEK AVAILABLE ON BLACKBOARD
Engels, Fredrich 1993 [1845] The Condition of the Working Class in England.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. ONLY Chapter 5 “Results” pp. 106-143.
[Marxism, historical perspectives on poverty, industrial revolution in Europe… If
no one volunteers for this first week Philippe will present on Marxism and
industrial revolution]
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy and Philippe Bourgois, 2004 . Introduction “Making
Sense of Violence” pp. 1-31 IN Scheper-Huges and Bourgois eds. 2004
Violence in War and Peace. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing.
Farmer, Paul 2004 Chapter 34 “On Suffering and Social Violence” pp. 281-289.
IN Scheper-Huges and Bourgois eds. 2004
[Approaches to violence studies]
Week 3, September 23:
Harvey, David
2005 A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[Political economy, international development, class power, neoliberalism]
Foucault chapter 8 pp 83-90 IN Scheper-Huges and Bourgois eds. 2004
Violence...
Taussig “Terror as Usual: Walter Benjamin’s Theory...” chapter 31 pp 269-271
IN Scheper-Huges and Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Week 4, September 30:
Farmer, Paul. 2003. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New
War on the Poor. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[Social suffering/human rights/critical (clinical) medical anthropology/international
development/social inequality, structural violence]
Scheper-Hughes “Two Feet Under” Chpater 33 pp. 275-280 IN Scheper-Huges
and Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Week 5, October 7:
Maternowska, M. Catherine
2006 Reproducing Inequities: Poverty and the Politics of Population in
Haiti. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University press.
[Shanty towns, gender, reproductive health, political repression, U.S.
intervention, Development policy]
Scheper-Hughes “Indifference to child Death” Chapter 33 pp. 275-280 IN
Scheper-Huges and Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Week 6, October 14:
No class at Penn--Fall Break
Week 7, October 21
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 1992. Death Without Weeping: The Violence of
Everyday Life in Northeastern Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[Brazilian (nordestino) studies, gender studies, critical medical anthropology,
ethnography and postmodernism
Quesada “Suffering Child” Chapter 35 pp 290-296 IN Scheper-Huges and
Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Week 8, October 28:
All readings this week are AVAILABLE ON BLACKBOARD except chapters in
Scheper-Huges and Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Excerpt from Lewis, Oscar. 1965. La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture
of Poverty in San Juan and New York. New York: Random House.
Bourgois, Philippe 2001 Culture of Poverty. In International Encyclopedia of
the Social & Behavioral Sciences. N.J. Smelser and P.B. Baltes, eds. Pp. 1190411907. Oxford: Pergamon. [Culture of poverty critiques, culture and personality]
Bourdieu, Pierre 2000. Pascalian Meditations. Read ONLY Postcript I
“Interpersonal Confessions” pp. 33-42, Chapters 4-6 “Bodily Knowledge” and
“Symbolic Violence and Political Struggles” and “Social Being, Time and Sense
of Existence” pp. 128-245.
Bourdieu and Wacquant Chapter 32 “Symbolic Violence” pp. 272-274. IN
Scheper-Huges and Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Wacquant, Loïc 2004. “Habitus” In International Encyclopedia of Economic
Sociology. London:Routledge Milan Zafirovski Ed.
[cultural production theory, habitus, symbolic violence, misrecognition]
Week 9, November 4:
Bourgois, Philippe. 2003 [1995]. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio.
New York: Cambridge University Press. (second edition).
[U.S. inner city poverty, cultural production theory, U.S. urban
anthropology/gang-youth-education studies, substance abuse]
Week 10, November 11:
Pine, Adrienne. 2008. Working hard, drinking hard: on violence and survival in
Honduras. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bourgois “... Post-Cold War Lessons... “ chapter 56 pp 425-434 IN ScheperHuges and Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Suarez Orozco “... Dirty War...” chapter 49 pp.378-388 IN Scheper-Huges and
Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Robben “... Dirty War ...” chapter 23 pp. 200-206 IN Scheper-Huges and
Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Week 11, November 18
Wacquant Chapter 39 “The New ‘Peculiar Institution’: On the Prison as Surrogate
Ghetto” pp. 318-324. In Scheper-Hughes and Bourgois eds. 2004.
Rhodes, Lorna A. ONLY CHAPTERS 1 AND 4 OF 2004
Total Confinement:
Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prisons. Berkeley: University of
California Press. AVAILABLE ON BLACKBOARD
Donaldson “Hooking-Up...Punks...” chapter 44 pp. 348-353 IN Scheper-Huges
and Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Week 12, November 25
Beah, Ishmael 2004 A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Taussig “Culture of Terror” chapter 2 pp 39-53 IN Scheper-Huges and Bourgois
eds. 2004 Violence...
Fanon Chapter 58 pp 443-452 IN Scheper-Huges and Bourgois eds. 2004
Violence...
Mamdani chapter 61 pp 468-477 IN Scheper-Huges and Bourgois eds. 2004
Violence...
Sartre “Preface to Fanon” chapter 27 pp. 229-235 IN Scheper-Huges and
Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Hinton “Why did You Kill...” Chapter 18 pp. 157-168 IN Scheper-Huges and
Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Litwack “Hellhounds... U.S. lynching” chapter 13 pp. 123-128 IN Scheper-Huges
and Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Week 13, December 2
Bourgois, Philippe. 2008. Righteous Dopefiend. Berkeley: University of California
Press. EXCERPTS AVAILABLE ON BLACKBOARD
[Harm reduction, governmentality, racialized ethnicities, psycho affective trauma,
habitus and symbolic violence, U.S. medical policy for the indigent]
Levi, Primo “The Grey Zone” Chapter 8 pp 83-90 IN Scheper-Huges and
Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Agamben “The Witness’ Chapter 57 pp. 437-442 IN Scheper-Huges and
Bourgois eds. 2004 Violence...
Recommended Texts:
Biehl, Joao. 2005. Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
Devine, John. 1996. Maximum Security: The Culture of Violence in Inner-City
Schools. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Engels, Friedrich. 1968 [1845]. Condition of the Working Class in England.
Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Lewis, Oscar. 1965. La Vida: A Puerto Rican Family in the Culture of Poverty in
San Juan and New York. New York: Random House.
Rhodes, Lorna A. 2004 Total Confinement: Madness and Reason in the
Maximum Security Prisons. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Required Texts
Beah, Ishmael 2004 A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
(Rhodes 2004)
Bourgois, Philippe. 2003 [1995]. In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio.
New York: Cambridge University Press. (second edition).
Farmer, Paul. 2003. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New
War on the Poor. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Maternowska, M. Catherine 2006 Reproducing inequities: poverty and the politics
of population in Haiti. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University press.
Pine, Adrienne. 2008. Working hard, drinking hard: on violence and survival in
Honduras. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy. 1992. Death Without Weeping: The Violence of
Everyday Life in Northeastern Brazil. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Scheper-Hughes, Nancy and Philippe Bourgois, Eds. 2004. Violence in War and
Peace. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing