Final

Hi Class, please feel free to ask any questions/comments related to the final assignment. Also, I am leaving the blog open until Monday so you can work on those participation grades :-)

For those who want a recap, or for those not in class, I have uploaded the first three parts of the film below. This should cover the entire first part of the film....

Alex

Chunking express-3

Chunking express-2

Chunking express-1

Organizations

Another very interesting presentation. You address the topic broadly and thoughtfully. I enjoyed the breadth of the project and also the diversity in opinion that you proffered.

Rather than me asking you lots of questions at this point, I'm going to leave this space more open so that this group can post more information as some of their presentation was missing.

A few general questions, though:

How are these different organizations connected? Are they essentially Western organizations or are they truly global? Is there a a difference between an organization that is global in reach and one that is global in its set-up?

Health Care 2

I very much enjoyed this presentation. The data presented were very interesting and it was quite shocking to see so clearly the disparity between different life expectancies around the globe. Interestingly, of course, the US has quite a depressed life expectancy given how much we spend on health care provision. You also drew attention to the wider social and cultural conditions which impact on health care. It would be of some interest had you discussed this in more detail. Certainly the data you cited inferred the connection but I would be interested in how you interpret these data.

While the above clip showcases poverty in the US and its relation to health care, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how different identities both within and outside the US are impacted by stratification and how this specifically affects health care provisions and outcomes.

This was implied through your presentation but it would be of some interest (and would help with clarification),

Global Healthcare

Another very interesting presentation... There are many variations out there, but, as you discussed, the main difference between countries and the way they run their healthcare system, is whether they have a national system of health or a private system of health. America spends more than ANY other nation on health and yet has lesser outcomes than other countries in terms of life-span and illness prevalence. You rightfully point out that Americans are generally fearful of a national health system because it has been tied to 'socialism'.

Who do you think is driving this ideological message? If healthcare is inefficient in the US and our outcomes so lacking, why are we holding on to a privatized system? Who benefits from this system?

Internationally, countries far poorer than the US are nationalizing their healthcare systems....

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/interviews/reinhardt.html

You also mentioned prescription drugs. Most drug companies, of course, are located in first world countries - and they are driven by profit. How do you think this shapes what research is done? And globally, what populations and diseases do you think go unattended?

You use many great clips to show some of your points, but what is one of the problems of relying on commercial media (made in the US) to tell us about the healthcare system? (Think of The Corporation).

Global Institutions

There was a lot of very interesting info here. From the discussion on the social order, to the WTO, to economic hit-men. Very intriguing. The WTO clip was very helpful, too. You made some excellent links to the reading, and chose some choice quotes to exemplify your points. One of the issues watching the presentation related to overall coherency... how do these segments tie in together.

How does the configuration of the social order help us to understand what is going on in the world when it comes to global economics and institutions?

How are rap music, the WTO, and economic hit men related?

What might it say about who holds power in a global society? And what affects will this have on the various identities across the globe.

Cultural Imperialism

Cultural Imperialism

Another fascinating presentation... and one which really showed the scope of the issue. I have a few questions for you, of course!

You discussed how cultural imperialism can be either enforced or embraced... and I wonder if there could be something more subtle going on here? If Western countries have the most control over media forms and other scapes, it could be argued that their values and cultural ideas will dominate. That this is not so much a global marketplace of ideas which is free to everyone, but a marketplace constructed in such a way that our ideas are the only ones given any air time or credence. In other words, people around the world, especially in the US, might not get much choice. Thus, if someone seems to embrace a value it might be because in the 'circuit of culture' that's all there is. Also, think about the documentary The Corporation ... in light of the following clip, how much are values embraced and how much is embraced? Is something else going on, do you think?

I was also really fascinated by your work on sex, fashion, rap music and cars... and all of you touched on hybridity (how things change when they enter new cultural contexts)... You all highlighted, though, the way in which these cultural products change cultural values and mores. All these products have been used to actually RESIST cultural hegemony. For example, rap music (outside of the gangsta commercial rap we get mostly today) is often a form used to protest inequality and racism around the world. It has been a means to actually spread opposing ideologies.... Also, clothing. The sari was a great case study. The veil, while we think it has very negative connotations, has been used to counter Americanization. In Egypt, for instance, there was a movement to actually wear the veil (by women) who wanted to resist American values of femininity and Western notions of sexuality and commercialism. Any thoughts?

Global Food

Food

This was such an interesting presentation... and, as others have commented, it was very well put together. You incorporated some wonderful concepts from the reading and this made for a great analysis. Of course, I enjoyed the point about food choices being tied to masculinity and other markers of identity such as class and ethnicity. I think this is especially the case in the US where food really conveys meaning. For example, what identities do we associate with people who shop at Whole Foods and those who might shop at Walmart?

I also very much enjoyed the work on 'mediscapes' and the way in which food (and how it is consumed) actually has an effect on the culture it is imported to. As all presentations seemed to appreciate, McDonalds affects not only the cuisine, but also the cultural fabric..

A few questions:


I was not quite sure how you were using the concept 'ideoscape' during the presentation. There are many ideologies around food and its consumption... The McDonaldization of food is a good case in point here, where ideologies of commercialism and capitalism are spread through the fast-food industry. Can you think of other examples?


I would love to hear more from this group - but also classmates - how food ties in with your own identities. How do your food choices help create your identities? How does food mark you apart from other identities? Do you think that your eating patterns will change as you go through life?

Finally, and this is to everyone. what sort of identities might be associated with:


And



Any guesses as to what my favorite is out of these two!?

Globalization presentations

Hi Class,

Please leave questions and comments about the presentations here...

Check out this website...

http://www.scn.org/cmp/modules/soc-glb.htm

Also, here is a graph which lays out how stratification operates within America.

Hidden Face of Globalization

This week we started to examine more closely the concept of globalization. We explored how global processes lead to an increasingly connected world where events that occur elsewhere affect more and more how we experience the local. The five 'scapes' helped to elucidate how and why global processes operate, and how carious cultures become dispersed around the world. Next week we will look more closely at what occurs to culture and identity in a global world...

Now, though, I want you to view the following video clip and consider your own views on globalization. We discussed the relative pros and cons of this new world order... the spread of more democratic values, the coming together of different nations to form benevolent NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders, The Red Cross, and more, but we also started to think about the disadvantages of globalization. What happens if other developing nations over-develop to the extent of America and other first world nations? Is globalization equitable? Do nations and cultures have the same amount of 'say' in this global order? Will globalization just mean, in the end, the end of local cultures as Western culture and values dominate?

We'll explore some of these questions more on Monday... before then, view and comment with your reflections on the clip, which focuses on the hidden economic downside of globalization... As you watch the video, consider how identity-ideologies are at work in encouraging us to consent, or not mind, that the clothes we wear are made under these work conditions. Think, too, whether we could care more if we thought the factory workers were white, American children...

Presentations and Papers

Hey class,

Please leave questions and queries relating to the presentation and paper... Please read the guidelines carefully. I will be around during Spring Break so can respond to any concerns.

Enjoy break, people!
A

Rwanda

Dear class,

Please cut and paste the following links into your browser and read the article and power point relating to the Rwandan genocide.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1288230.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3594187.stm

Hotel Rwanda portrays the enormous suffering which can flow when people identify strongly with an identity-position. Indeed, it was the firm belief in difference which led to the massacre of 800,000 Rwandans, mostly Tutsis.

As you read through the material and consider the film, think about the following questions and leave your thoughts in the comments section.

1) Rwandan society is divided into two different groups - the Hutus and the Tutsis - is this a natural division? If not, how was this division created?

2) Why did the Belgian colonial power create this difference?

3) How is difference marked? (consider the first article you read on the Croat and Serb who separate their identities through cultural symbols - such as a cigarette.

4) In the film, we view the importance of media processes in helping to create the classification, describe how meanings were being attached to each identity through this system of representation (consider the radio broadcasts and how the Tutsis were described).

5) Think about how identity ideologies led to both the genocide, and also in terms of how the West reacted (or didn't react). For instance, ideological meanings about the Tutsis contributed to how the Hutu people perceived the Tutsi people... Also, Western ideologies about Africans affected the response of Western nations.

Finally, feel free to reflect on the film... It is certainly a difficult and harrowing film to view.

Practice Questions

Dear class,

Below are some practice questions. Please post practice answers so that we actively create an additional class study guide. I will be able to give feedback ad advice as you do so. Also, please ask questions and raise any concerns that you might have. The exam will be comprised of short answer questions and extended essay questions.


Short Answer Questions

1. Define identity

2. What are classificatory systems? Give an example of a social classification.

3. Outline Hall’s 3 concepts of identity

Study hint:
Enlightenment subject

The sociological subject

The Fragmented subject

4. If essentialists consider cultural symbols to be expressive of a preformed identity, how do anti-essentialists consider the relationship between symbols and identity?

Study hint: anti-essentialists think that identity is socially constructed and they argue that symbols are drawn upon to create identity. Thus, symbols do not express identity, on the contrary, they help to MAKE identity.

5. In what ways is identity ‘relational’?

Study hint: identities gather meaning in relation to other identities; that is, through their difference to other identities. For example, the symbolic systems used to define masculinity are the binary opposite to those symbols used to define femininity. Strong/Weak, Rational/Emotional, etc.

6. In what way are constructions of identity ‘ideological’?


Extended Essay Questions

1. Benedict Anderson describes nations as ‘imagined communities’. Explain what he meant by this term and outline how we actively imagine American identity.

Study hints: consider how we participate in this imagining, from the symbols which mark out US culture to the rituals of raising a flag, swearing allegiance, using pronouns such as ‘we’ which help us to imagine we are part of a collective community. Also, think about systems of representation which help create the idea of the nation: from political rhetoric to national newspapers which have sections dedicated to national news, etc.

2. Drawing on either an anti-essentialist or essentialist perspective, describe how your own identity is made/expressed through cultural symbols, and consider how they position you in society in relation to other identities.

Study hints: be very clear whether you’re arguing from an anti-essentialist or essentialist perspective, and be sure to use consistent language throughout. For example, if anti-essentialism is your conceptual framework, make sure you use words like construct and create rather that express or essence.

3. The documentary The Ad and the Ego makes clear that cultural artifacts including clothing, music, food, and more, are loaded with meaning. Examine how identification with these material objects symbolically positions ‘us’ in society.


4.View the following Ad and consider what identity identity positions are being produced and what meanings are being assigned to certain identities through this system of representation. You should do so with reference to the circuit of culture.

Me and the Media

We've been discussing and exploring the differences between essentialism and anti-essentialism. The following theorizations offer a way for us to break this down even more. The first is an essentialist conception of identity, the latter two, in different though overlapping ways, are anti-essentialist conceptions. Read through them and think about how each perspective would consider how symbols relate to the self, to identity.

The enlightenment subject or Cartesian subject – a conscious and unified subject. Humans are centred and unified – in that they have constant characteristics, something innate which grounds them. That essence – or characteristic – would remain the same across time and culture… for instance: an essence of maleness grounds somebody in their gendered identity; a spirit of Englishness gives someone a bounded and unchanging English identity…

The sociological subject – the human being is created through the internalisation of social norms which ensures that they ‘fit’ in with the social structure – the person is thought to have an inner core – but that inner core is created through an interaction between the inside and outside world. They have a unified identity – kept in check by coordinating what they internalise – which lends unity

The fragmented self stands in contrast to the above conceptualisations. The self is continually shifting and changing – often in contradictory ways. We are pulled in different directions and so are our identities. If we have a sense of unity it is because we delude ourselves – or tell ourselves a comforting story or narrative of the ‘self’. No single aspect offers us a stable identity – because our identities shift according to how we’re being addressed or represented. We comprise multiple identities which are dislocated and fractured. The apparent unity is merely an assertion or articulation – which under different historical and cultural circumstances would be articulated in a different way: such as masculinity, sexuality, even what music we like….



More essentialist thinkers consider symbols to be expressive of a pre-formed identity. On the hand, anti-essentialists suggest that we actively draw on symbols to create and construct identity. Indeed, with technological innovation we can even create a different biological reality for ourselves... Biology, understood in these terms, is symbolic, and like all symbols they h

elp to create a self. Thinking of symbols broadly (anything which articulates meaning, and that includes, of course, language) consider how you construct identity. In doing so, think about what symbols you're invited to identify with (even though this is largely an unconscious process), and thus what identity positions you're invited to identify with.

1) Do any of the above perspectives resonate with you? Does identity feel like something you express or something you construct?

2) When postmodernists say: 'I buy, therefore I am', what do you think they are suggesting about consumption and identity... examples of your own experience would be be valued.

3) In what way is identity a process of becoming? and what role does media play in your own becoming?

4) If identity is always linked to cultural symbols and language, is identity ever unique in the way we generally understand it to be?

Identity in the News: Obama and Race

It's Super Primary day, and so for this week's blog we're going to be thinking about identity in the news related to the 'race' (pun not intended). Clinton's gender identity and Obama's racial identity are big news in this primary race, suggesting that this identity really matters in the US.

Go to the following link and read the Slate article while thinking about the questions below. Please post your comment.

http://www.slate.com/id/2181460

1. Why do you think 'race' matters so much in this election?

2. Does it suggest that we view identity in essentialist or anti-essentialist terms?

3. What does it mean when commentators and pundits talk about securing the 'black', 'Latino', 'white' vote? What IS the black, Latino, White vote? What makes these 'collective identities' and are they really collective identities or do we just imagine them to be?

4. What do you think? Should race/gender matter?

syllabus and questions

If you have any comments or questions in respect to ANY aspect of the syllabus or blog, then please post the question/comment here. No question is too simple or basic... those are the best questions, usually.

Please practice leaving a comment here even if it's just to say that you've read the syllabus and it's crystal clear.

Alex

Welcome!

Welcome to Identity and Globalization.

Since we will only be meeting once per week, this is the class blog which I will ask you to check a couple of times per week. Moreover, I will be asking you to contribute/comment in response to blogs I post. Hopefully, this will help keep people connected to the material and to the class in general.

Course Overview

Course Description

As information technology proliferates, the farthest reaches of the earth are drawn closer to each other; indeed societies around the globe are increasingly interconnected. A consequence of this is that the larger world is having an ever more profound affect on ‘our’ own life experiences. Just as American culture is spreading itself around the world, other societies, too, have an impact on ‘us’.

The need to take a more global perspective, which encourages us to examine the larger world and our society’s place in it, is exceptionally important when thinking about the question of identity in contemporary America, not least because American society is exceptionally diverse.

Mass diaspora has meant that America houses many cultures, which often give rise to conflict. We often perceive our own culture to be ‘right’, ‘normal’, and ‘appropriate’, deeming others who we identify as different to us, or who originate from other geographical locales, to be strange or even deviant.

Our beliefs and opinions about other societies and cultures, and in turn other identities, are largely affected by media images and representations that we consume every day. We habitually fail to question these images, incorporating stereotypical beliefs and values, which enable us to continue to believe that our way of ‘being’ is superior and right, and that ‘others’ are lesser

Difference and Identity will examine representations of ‘other’ cultures and of ‘other’ identities, through American popular culture (including films, TV, newspapers, news stories, and so on), so as to engender a critical appreciation of stereotyping processes. We will concentrate on, in particular, both domestic and international cinema. Indeed this course will also examine ‘alternative’ images of the world, produced and circulated elsewhere, which show different cultures and identities in a new light.

In a multicultural society such as America, the need for understanding and the need to appreciate diversity are considerable. We all too often look for points of difference between cultures, while plastering over points of similarity, which can importantly function to unite groups of people. This course will also seek to explore the meeting of global cultures, and the exciting opportunities that these may bring about.

Blog Instructions

Blog Instructions

A blog or web log is a personal web site made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly from links and commentary about other web sites to observations about news or politics, diaries, photos, poetry, essays, project updates, even fiction. Blogs are a fast growing segment of the web. An article in the August 26, 2002 Newsweek estimated the number of blogs at 500,000 with a new one coming online every forty seconds.

We have a class blog! As indicated in the syllabus, I will post something to the blog most weeks. I will ask you to comment on it – similar to how I ask you to comment on something in class. However, your response will be in text. Responses do not have to be lengthy – but I encourage you to be thoughtful about what you write so that you are awarded the maximum points. ‘Thoughtful’ means that you consider what is being commented about in light of the reading, class discussion, etcetera. Also, I encourage you to check back to the blog after you have left your comment so that you can see what your classmates think.

The blog, then, should be thought of as an ongoing class discussion… and for those of you who are a little shy this will be away for you to increase your participation. Also, some people do their best thinking in writing…

Instructions:

1) click on the link to the blog: http://identityandglobalization.blogspot.com/
2) Posts appear in chronological order but they are archived in the sidebar.
3) Read the blog and from the main page, click the Comment link under the post on which you want to comment. On an individual post page, scroll down to the end of the post if necessary.
4) You can choose to sign-in and create a blogger account and profile (you will need a name and email address to do this)… If you choose to do this but are not comfortable with having your real name out there in blogger world, you can create a ‘name’ for yourself. Obviously you will have to let me know what your screen name is…
5) You can also leave posts anonymously, but you will have to identify yourself in the body of your comment so that I know who you are
6) You will need to post at least one comment in response to a blog.
7) The blog is public for now. However, if there are a lot of comments from people not in the class which are not appropriate, I can make the blog private (i.e. only the class will be able to access the blog).
8) If there are any inappropriate class comments I can delete the comment.. and I can also make the blog so that I moderate the comments before they’re posted (I’d much prefer not to do this.. so keep it clean and respectful…)
9) You should check the blog regularly – at least twice week.
10) Finally, thanks to tracking software I can see how often your computer is logged into the blog, and for how long!
11) Any questions? please let me know.