Pol 596e - Fall 2008
Global Political Economy
Monday 3:30-5:50 pm; Soc Sci 411
V. Spike Peterson, Professor, Department of Political Science
With courtesy appointments in the Department of Women’s Studies,
Center for LGBT Studies, International Studies, Center for Latin American Studies
Office: 318B Soc Sci; 621-7600, 8984; spikep@u.arizona.edu
http://web.arizona.edu/~polisci/people_all/peoplef_peterson.html
Premise and objectives of the seminar:
In the face of contemporary structural transformations (typically--and problematically--characterized as ‘globalization’), reigning explanatory frameworks are inadequate. Hence, we will review existing characterizations of ‘globalization’ and the activities and developments construed as ‘economic restructuring’ with an eye toward what they tell us and what they obscure or omit. The seminar focuses on readings that are critical of the uneven effects of globalization and the new (neoliberal) global political economy. We will consider a variety of analytical/theoretical frameworks with the intention of developing more adequate approaches to today’s transnational political economies. To orient our efforts, we will explore an integration that I cast as “rewriting global political economy as reproductive, productive, and virtual economies.” That is, we will attempt to specify and integrate our knowledge of three interactive ‘economies’ (in the Foucauldian sense of overlapping systemic sites through and across which power operates): reproductive (this involves identities, ideologies and practices of ‘social reproduction’; informal sector activities), productive (this includes conventional but inadequately theorized activities and developments in the ‘formal’ sphere of markets), and virtual (this refers to technologically enhanced dematerialization, deterritorialization; expanding financial markets; consumerism of signs).
Reading materials:
Two paperback books have been ordered as ‘required texts’ and are available at the UA Bookstore.
- Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1983. Historical Capitalism with Capitalist Civilization. London: Verso.
- Peterson, V. Spike. 2003. A Critical Rewriting of Global Political Economy: Integrating Reproductive, Productive, and Virtual Economies. London and New York: Routledge.
- Additional readings will be from articles and book chapters online via E-Reserves and accessed via the seminar D2L webpage: http://d2l.arizona.edu/ Access is via password:
Seminar requirements and grading:
1) Informed participation in seminar sessions on the basis of critical readings of all assigned materials; presentation of assigned readings and leading discussion for one seminar session (details later); peer review of some assignments (20%); 3) Preparation of a succinct, thoughtful and critical ‘response piece’ for each set of assigned readings, to be submitted by email before 10 am on seminar days (Mondays) (clarification below and at first seminar) (20%); Preparation of a short paper evidencing comprehension of the theoretical readings that comprise the first weeks of the seminar (details later) (25%); 5) Final research paper building upon course topics/materials, integrating RE, PE and VE dimensions, and shaped by your individual research interests; outlines and preliminary bibliographies must be submitted for approval by November 10 (35%). NOTE: Please submit RPs and self- and peer evaluations either IN email messages or as attachments. And please (keeping track of these is hard enough!!) make sure that your name appears in the file labels of attachments (e.g., save and send the attachment as ‘Spike RP 3' or ‘Peterson peer eval Aug 30.' This will really help ensure that you receive correct credit for all submissions.
Seminar Participation:
I expect a group with diverse backgrounds and variations in expertise. I welcome this diversity but I do not wish/intend to spend a great deal of seminar time on reviewing ‘introductory’ materials (this has been an issue in the past...). As one strategy to avoid this, I have emailed all of you a pre-seminar ‘assignment’ - to be familiar with some overview of ‘globalization’ and recommending the Scholte book. More generally, it is essential that everyone is prepared for class. (If you find yourself lacking adequate ‘background,’ contact me for additional readings to bring you up to speed; I have included some suggestions on the syllabus below.) I have very carefully identified the assignments; all of them are important and warrant (require?!) a close read. My hope is that we seriously engage the readings and are thus able to not just ‘share info about’ but really ‘get into’ the seminar topics.
To make seminars more productive for each participant and most beneficial for all: prepare well for a discussion of the readings; make sure you grasp the key points of all readings; integrate the course materials (the readings are ‘cumulative,’ so make a conscious effort to relate readings and discussions to previous readings and sessions, as well as events/issues outside of the seminar); think relationally (e.g., how does this point link to, complement or contradict other points) and in terms of building your own analytical/theoretical ‘frame’ for thinking about IR and GPE.
Note: we are all here to learn; this assumes that acknowledging our ignorance is a valuable group contribution (reassuring the rest of us that we can acknowledge how much we do not know), and that we advance most effectively by sharing productively with each other. I feel strongly that engaged, informed and respectful criticism is valuable and often indispensable, but this is *not* most productive when exhibited as a blanket ‘attack mode.’ Criticism is most productive when focused on what authors claim to be doing (hence, whether they do it well etc) and the context within which they are writing (hence, what is reasonable to expect etc). What else they ‘should’ have done is often of interest, but involves different criteria of evaluation. In other words, the point of criticism is to learn from, build upon and move beyond particular texts, not simply to tear down what others do. The latter is too easy (though sometimes seductive and ego-gratifying); the former is what the hard work of learning – and advancing collective scholarship – involves. [Copying from Professor Volgy’s syllabus: ‘Participation is not about how many times you speak or ask questions during a seminar but the quality of the contribution you make (either by questioning or by helping to synthesize and/or critique the materials)’]
Presentations:
Each participant will be responsible for leading the discussion of one seminar session. You will be expected to be especially familiar with the readings and to offer some contextualization of them (regarding how the authors, debates, and articles are situated in the larger picture of our course and IR/GPE inquiry or debates. You may begin–briefly–with the key points of the readings to start us off but the objective is not to summarize the material, which everyone will have read already. Rather, the objective is to stimulate discussion and, if necessary, keep us on some coherent track (!?). All students will have prepared questions anyway, so keeping discussion going should not be difficult. But presenters are encouraged to generate thought-provoking starting points. (You could select themes/issues from the readings for group discussion, emphasizing themes that thread through the course, linking the material to other readings, asking integrative questions. You could comment on what you found most/least interesting or irritating, or offer critique for others to complicate or contest.) Your presentation should not take more than 15 minutes (you should practice timing your presentation; we rarely anticipate how quickly time flies when we are the speaker!).
You will be expected to grade your own presentation, and all seminar participants are required to grade each presentation, by e-mailing me evaluations (assessing preparation, delivery of remarks, handling the discussion; identifying a letter grade) within 48 hours of the presentation.
Response Pieces:
These must not exceed 300 words, as a key aspect of the assignment is to generate the most succinct yet substantive and critical notes on the readings. (Honing your thoughts and notes down to a tight, concise ‘core’ is very effective in facilitating both comprehension and long-term retention.) In general, you are expected to evidence thoughtful comprehension of and engagement with the readings by identifying key points/arguments and their implications, linking the readings/issues/discussions, reflecting critically on the material and its political implications. The objective here is to critically assess what you ‘got’ from the readings. To do this well and productively is very hard work! I have prepared a separate memo (available on coursepage) to clarify guidelines, expectations, and offer examples. In brief here: success requires first of all (before the writing that constitutes the RPs sought here) that you comprehend the material well enough to 1) locate the piece in terms of related literature and debates, 2) articulate the key points/arguments succinctly and in your own words, and 3) identify the conceptual frameworks and substantive material that support the argument. The more effectively you achieve this comprehension, the more readily can you then write the critical assessment and discussion called for in the RPs. You will be expected to draw on these during seminar discussions and to bring at least two questions for discussion to every seminar.
Topics/Reading Assignments The pages of reading assigned are not as high as most seminars, but only because I have higher expectations regarding deeper comprehension of all the readings! The <300 word RP for each week should cover ALL of the assigned readings for the week. That will sometimes mean only 60-75 words for one entry...
Pre-seminar prerequisite/assignment:
The basic and non-negotiable prerequisite for participating in the seminar is a broad (not disciplinary-bound!) grasp of ‘globalization,’ especially in the sense of economic restructuring. To promote this and ensure some level of shared background and understanding, I have suggested Jan Aarte Scholte’s Globalization (any edition) which provides an extremely accessible overview of major themes and developments. General introductions/overviews of globalization are widely available; also the IPE/GPE chapters in readers on IR or globalization will provide general points.
Aug 25: Theories of IPE and IR
Crane, George T. and Abla Amawi. 1997. Introduction. In The Theoretical Evolution of International Political Economy: A Reader, ed. George T. Crane and Abla Amawi. 2nd Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 3-34.
Rupert, Mark and M. Scott Solomon. 2006. Globalization and International Political Economy: The Politics of Alternative Futures. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Pp. 5-23.
Smith, Steve and Patricia Owens. 2005. Alternative Approaches to International Theory. In The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, ed. John Baylis and Steve Smith. 3rd Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 271-293.
Peterson, V. Spike. 1992. Transgressing Boundaries: Theories of Knowledge, Gender, and International Relations. Millennium 21, 2 (Summer): 183-206.
Gills, Barry K. 2001. Forum: Perspectives on New Political Economy: Re-orienting the New (International) Political Economy. New Political Economy 6, 2: 233-245.
Dickinson, Torry D. And Robert K. Schaeffer. 2001. Fast Forward: Work, Gender, and Protest in a Changing World. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. Pp. 3-20.
Suggested additional/back-up readings:
Hobden, Stephen and Richard Wyn Jones. 2005. Marxist theories of international relations. In The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, ed. John Baylis and Steve Smith. 3rd Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 225-249.
Additional IR theory chapters in The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, ed. John Baylis and Steve Smith. 3rd Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Additional PE/IPE/GPE theory articles in various journals, e.g., New Political Economy; Review of International Political Economy; Globalizations; Review of Radical Political Economics.
Palan, Ronen, ed. 2000. Global Political Economy: Contemporary Theories. London and New York: Routledge.
Sep 1; Labor Day Holiday. No class meeting but please read ahead (we have the entire Wallerstein book due soon and there is a lot to learn from it that is of use for the remainder of the course). And/or familiarize yourself with some of the suggested readings if the course topics are unfamiliar!
Sep 8: Globalization: history and marxian interpretations
Rupert, Mark and M. Scott Solomon. 2006. Globalization and International Political Economy: The Politics of Alternative Futures. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Pp. 25-53.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1983. Entire book (use most of your RP word count on the book).
Suggested additional/back-up readings:
Gills, Barry K. 2003. Globalization as global history: introducing a dialectical analysis. In Rethinking Global Political Economy: Emerging Issues, Unfolding Odysseys, ed. Mary Ann Tetreault, Robert A. Denemark, Kenneth P. Thomas, and Kurt Burch. London and New York: Routledge. Pp. 89-108.
Woods, Ngaire. 2005. International Political Economy in an Age of Globalization. In The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, ed. John Baylis and Steve Smith. 3rd Ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 325-347.
Dowd, Doug. 2002. Depths below depths: the intensification, multiplication, and spread of capitalism’s destructive force from Marx’s time to ours. Review of Radical Political Economics 34: 247-266.
Arrighi, Giovanni. 2005. Globalization in World-Systems Perspective. In Critical Globalization Studies, ed. Richard P. Appelbaum and William I. Robinson. New York: Routledge. Pp. 33-44.
Lacher, Hannes. 1999. The politics of the market: Re-reading Karl Polanyi. Global Society 13, 3: 313-326.
Sep 15: Theorizing globalization and IPE/GPE
Peterson, V. Spike. 2003. A Critical Rewriting of Global Political Economy. Chaps 1, 2 (pp. 1-43).
Jessop, Bob and Ngai-Ling Sum. 2001. Pre-disciplinary and post-disciplinary perspectives. New Political Economy 6, 1: 89-101.
Amin, Ash and Ronen Palan. 2001. Towards a non-rationalist international political economy. Review of International Political Economy 8, 4 (Winter): 559-577.
Suggested additional/back-up readings:
Nagar, Richa, Victoria Lawson, Linda McDowell and Susan Hanson. 2002. Locating Globalization: Feminist (Re)readings of the Subjects and Spaces of Globalization. Economic Geography 78, 3 (July): 257-284.
Sep 22: Postmodernism and economics. poststructuralism and IR
Butler, Judith. 1992. Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the Question of ‘Postmodernism.’ In Feminists Theorize the Political, ed. Judith Butler and Joan W. Scott. New York: Routledge. Pp. 3-21.
Biewener, Carole. 1999. A postmodern encounter. Socialist Review 27, 1 & 2: 71-96.
Cullenberg, Stephen, Jack Amariglio and David F. Ruccio. 2001. Introduction. In Postmodernism, Economics and Knowledge, ed. Stephen Cullenberg, Jack Amariglio and David F. Ruccio. London and New York: Routledge. Pp. 3-57.
Edkins, Jenny. 1999. Poststructuralism & International Relations: Bringing the Political Back In. Boulder: Lynne Rienner. Preface and Chapter 1.
Suggested additional/back-up readings:
Gabardi, Wayne. 2001. Negotiating Postmodernism. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Introduction and Chapter 1.
Sep 29: Poststructuralism/postmodernism, liberalism and neo-liberalism
Andrews, Barry, Thomas Osborne and Nikolas Rose. 1996. Introduction. In Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-liberalism and Rationalities of Government, ed. B. Andrews, T. Osborne and N. Rose. London: University College London Press. Pp. 1-18.
Burchell, Graham. 1996. Liberal government and techniques of the self. In Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-liberalism and Rationalities of Government, ed. B. Andrews, T. Osborne and N. Rose. London: University College London Press. Pp. 19-36.
Rose, Nikolas. 1996. Governing ‘advanced’ liberal democracies. In Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-liberalism and Rationalities of Government, ed. B. Andrews, T. Osborne and N. Rose. London: University College London Press. Pp. 37-64.
Lemke, Thomas. 2001. ‘The birth of bio-politics’: Michel Foucault’s lecture at the College de France on neo-liberal governmentality.’ Economy and Society 30, 2 (May): 190-207.
Oct 6: Feminist economics and postcolonial theory
Barker, Drucilla K. 2005. Beyond women and economics: rereading “women’s work.” Signs 30, 4 (Summer): 2189-2209.
Hewitson, Gillian J. 1999. Feminist Economics: Interrogating the Masculinity of Rational Economic Man. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Chap 1 (pp. 3-36).
Chowdhry, Geeta and Sheila Nair. 2002. Introduction. In Power, Postcolonialism and International Relations: Reading Race, Gender and Class, ed. Geeta Chowdhry and Sheila Nair. New York: Routledge. Pp. 1-32.
Slater, David. 1998. Post-colonial questions for global times. Review of International Political Economy 5, 4 (Winter): 647-678.
Suggested additional/back-up readings:
Kaul, Nitasha. 2003. The anxious identities we inhabit. In Toward a Feminist Philosophy of Economics, ed. D. Barker and E. Kuiper. London and New York: Routledge. Pp. 194-210.
Ferber, Marianne A. and Julie A. Nelson, eds. 2003. Feminist Economics Today: Beyond Economic Man. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Barker, Drucilla K. and Edith Kuiper, eds. 2003. Toward a Feminist Philosophy of Economics. London and New York: Routledge.
Barker, Drucilla K. and Susan F. Feiner. 2004. Liberating Economics: Feminist Perspectives on Families, Work, and Globalization. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Waylen, Georgina. Forthcoming. You still don’t understand: Why troubled engagements continue between feminists and (critical) IPE. Review of International Studies.
Rattansi, Ali. 1994. ‘Western’ racisims, ethnicities and identities in a ‘postmodern’ frame. In Racism, Modernity and Identity: On the Western Front, ed. Ali Rattansi and Sallie Westwood. Cambridge: Polity Press. Pp. 15-86.
Zein-Elabdin, Eiman O. and S. Charusheela, S., eds. 2004. Postcolonialism Meets Economics. London and New York: Routledge.
Oct 13: Papers Due in my department mailbox or under my office door by 3:30 pm (instructions provided in class). No class meeting today. Please be thinking about your final paper topic and begin to identify references, etc.
Oct 20: Productive Economy. Politics of trade and SAPs
Dickinson, Torry D. And Robert K. Schaeffer. 2001. Fast Forward: Work, Gender, and Protest in a Changing World. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. Pp. 23-48.
Peterson 2003. Chap 3 (pp. 44-77).
Runyan, Anne Sisson. 2003. The places of women in trading places revisited: gendered global/regional regimes and inter-nationalized feminist resistance. In Globalization: Theory and Practice, 2nd Edition, ed. Eleonore Kofman and Gillian Youngs. London: Continuum. Pp. 139-156.
Suggested additional/back-up readings:
Rai, Shirin M. 2002. Gender and the Political Economy of Development. Cambridge: Polity.
Cleaver, Frances, ed. 2002. Masculinities Matter! Men, Gender and Development. London: Zed Books.
Oct 27: Reproductive Economy
Peterson. 2003. Chap 4 (pp. 78-112).
Bakker, Isabella and Stephen Gill. 2003. Global Political Economy and Social Reproduction, In Power, Production and Social Reproduction: Human In/security in the Global Political Economy, ed. Isabella Bakker and Stephen Gill. Houndsmill, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 3-15.
Nov 3: Reproductive economy, linking ‘levels,’ informalization, trafficking in women.
Elson, Diane. 1998. The Economic, the Political and the Domestic: Businesses, States and Households in the Organization of Production. New Political Economy 3, 2: 189-208.
Beneria, Lourdes. 2003. Gender, Development and Globalization: Economics as if People Mattered. New York: Routledge. Chap 4 (pp. 91- 130).
Hughes, Donna M. 2000. The ‘Natasha’ Trade: The Transnational Shadow Market of Trafficking in Women. Journal of International Affairs 53, 2: 625-652.
Nov 10: Virtual Economy. Global finance, crises, and gender.
Peterson. 2003. Chap 5 (pp. 113-146).
Van Staveren, Irene. 2002. Global Finance and Gender. In Civil Society and Global Finance, ed. Jan Aart Scholte and Albrecht Schnabel. London: Routledge. Pp. 228-246.
Truong, Thanh-Dam. 2000. A feminist perspective on the Asia miracle and crisis. Journal of Human Development 1, 1: 159-164.
All final research papers should be approved by now.
Nov 17: Virtual economy. Politics of networks. Technology, marketing, consumption.
Deibert, Ronald J. 2000. Network Power. In Political Economy and the Changing Global Order, ed. Richard Stubbs and Geoffrey R. D. Underhill. 2nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 198-207.
Youngs, Gillian. 2000. Globalization, Technology and Consumption. In Political Economy, Power and the Body: Global Perspectives, ed. Gillian Youngs. London: Macmillan. Pp. 75-93.
Jenkins, Barbara. 2003. Creating global hegemony: culture and the market. In Rethinking Global Political Economy: Emerging Issues, Unfolding Odysseys, ed. Mary Ann Tetreault, Robert A. Denemark, Kenneth P. Thomas, and Kurt Burch. London and New York: Routledge. Pp. 65-85.
Bauman, Zygmunt. 1998. Globalization: The Human Consequences. New York: Columbia University Press. Chapter 4.
Nov 24: Power of value and poststructuralist insights
Peterson. 2003. Chap 6 (pp. 147-173).
Peterson, V. Spike. 2006. Getting Real: The Necessity of Poststructuralism in Global Political Economy. In International Political Economy and Poststructural Politics, ed. Marieke de Goede. London: Palgrave International Political Economy Series. Pp. 119-138.
Dec 1: Contemporary politics and political economy of risk
Deuchars, Robert. 2004. The International Political Economy of Risk: Rationalism, Calculation and Power. Hampshire: Ashgate. Preface, Introduction, Chapter 3 and Chapter 5. [These readings appear in two files on Eres]
Dec 8: Reviewing and concluding
Beneria, Lourdes. 2003. Gender, Development and Globalization: Economics as if People Mattered. New York: Routledge. Chap 6 (pp.161-169).
Cammack, Paul. 2002. The mother of all governments: the World Bank’s matrix for global governance. In Global Governance: Critical Perspectives, ed. Rorden Wilkinson and Steve Hughes. London and New York: Routledge. Pp. 36-53.
Rupert, Mark and M. Scott Solomon. 2006. Globalization and International Political Economy: The Politics of Alternative Futures. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Pp. 133-137.
For additional reading on ‘what is to be done’:
Hahnel, Robin. 2005. Economic Justice and Democracy: From Competition to Cooperation. New York and London: Routledge.
Dickinson, Torry D. And Robert K. Schaeffer. 2001. Fast Forward: Work, Gender, and Protest in a Changing World. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield. Pp. 275-289.
Scholte, Jan Aart. 2005. Globalization: A Critical Introduction. 2nd Ed. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bennholdt-Thomsen, Veronika, Nicholas G. Faraclas and Claudia von Werlholf, eds. 2001. There is an Alternative: Subsistence and Worldwide Resistance to Corporate Globalization. London: Zed Books.
Dec 17: Final research papers (hard copy please!) due under my office door by 2:00 pm