ClassInfo

In this class we will work to answer two primary questions: (1) How can we put the ethno-nationalism, increased militarization, environmental destruction, and rampant neoliberalism that defines our national political landscape in a global context? We will consider the rise of authoritarian and populist political candidates across Europe, the rapid neoliberalization of India, and the implications of the rise of China as a global power. We will discuss how US policies about war and peace in the Middle East impact the so-called "refugee crisis." And we will consider how anti-globalization movements in the Global North impact the social, cultural, and economic conditions in the Global South. (2) Within this socio-political reality, how are artists, activists, organizers, and even "deep state" bureaucrats fighting back against regressive policies and beliefs in order to advocate for social justice? How can we engage with both the local and the global in an attempt to create a more just and equitable interconnected world?

This will be a discussion-based class. You should expect regular short writing assignments (probably Moodle posts) and a final research project on a local social justice issue or movement.

Manifestations of the new global economy are everywhere. From the jeans you buy at your favorite shopping mall to the place mats you purchase at Target, most of the items we consume here in the United States are made somewhere else. Global production networks link consumers of fresh green beans in Britain with horticulturalists, pickers, and exporters in Zambia. And it isn't only products that move around the globe; so do people. Thanks to immense economic inequalities, upper and even middle class families in Europe, Japan, Canada and the U.S. enjoy the cheap and plentiful labor of Eastern European, Filipino, and Honduran nannies, housecleaners, and gardeners. Even diverse forms of "waste" associated with consumption and production from metal scrap to plastics to discarded electronics to a city's garbage have become global commodities as giant container ships make it economical to transport items unwanted in richer countries for use as raw materials in poorer ones, albeit at a high cost to human health and the environment.

How did this new global economy come to be, what forces are responsible for these changes, how has it impacted working people, consumers and ecosystems, and with what ethical and political implications?

In this course, we will focus on the changes that have taken place in the global economy over the last half-century (and occasionally more) in the realms of labor, consumption, and the environment. We will examine the economic theories, institutional changes, technological developments and practices that have undergirded them. We will focus heavily on transformations in forms of work, as well as ecological implications of global capitalism. Our mode of exploration will be both historical and contemporary. We will examine the movement away from the relatively regulated national economies of the 1940s-1960s to a more fully integrated global economy; changing patterns and organization of production, distribution, consumption, and waste disposal; the rise of neoliberalism; and the shift in the U.S. from "managerial capitalism to shareholder capitalism". Some of the substantive topics we will explore include the globalization of mass consumption and the rise of new middle classes in Turkey, China, India, and elsewhere; the culture of the "new" capitalism; the growing "precarity" and insecurity of work at all levels; the environmental changes global capitalism has wrought; recent economic and political crises in Europe and the United States; and alternatives to the "business-as-usual" economy.

We will learn from writings, film, songs, and plays by writers, artists, activists, and thinkers from a range of historical and contemporary locations and struggles. These include: Marie Lily Cerat, W. E. B. Du Bois, Suheir Hammad, Sterlin Harjo, Naeem Inayatullah, June Jordan, AnaLouise Keating, Kauanui, J. Kehaulani, Audre Lorde, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Middle East Research and Information Project, Munshi Premchand, Alok Rai, Nina Simone, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Sangtin Writers, Standing Rock Collective, Eve Tuck, Patrick Wolfe, and K. Wayne Yang. Several of the 'Acts' in this course will be co-facilitated with writers and artists, including Beaudelaine Pierre, co-author and co-editor of How to Write an Earthquake; Esther Ouray, a theater artist and playwright who has worked with zAmya Theater and Heart of the Beast Theater in Minneapolis, and Tarun Kumar, an actor and director who has worked with Parakh Theatre in Minneapolis, Lucknow and Mumbai and with Sangtin Kisaan Mazdoor Sangathan in Sitapur, India.