Download Work, Consumption, Globalization: New Challenges for Economic

Program Erasmus Teacher Exchange. Prof. Hugo Valenzuela García [Ljubljana, May 2011]
Work, Consumption, Globalization: New Challenges for Economic Anthropology.
Professor: Hugo Valenzuela García
Mail: hugo.valenzuela@uab.es
Aim
The aim of his short, monographic, course is to present some contemporary theoretical lines on three interrelated
phenomena of great socio-economic and cultural relevance: work, consumption, and globalization. These phenomena
increasingly permeate the global and local socio-cultural reality, from big cosmopolitan and multicultural cities to small
and traditional sites, here and there. This course -necessarily introductory and heterogeneous- it will be articulated by
the common perspective: Economic Anthropology.
What is globalization and how it affects our topic of study? What kind of global work relationships are brought by Late
capitalism? How these relationships affect migratory flows and how do construct emerging social realities? What effect
do have the commoditization of culture? What’s the relationship between consumption and cultural identity?, How postFordism influences the International Labor Organization, migration fluxes or the creation of ethnic entrepreneurship in
multicultural cities? Can we still think from a local, particular, Anthropological standpoint? These are some of the
questions this course aims to address.
Session 1 and 2. Globalization. The complex World we inhabit.
Concepts, theoretical perspectives, history of globalization.
Possible readings:
Scase, Richard (2002) Living in the Corporate Zoo. Life and Work in 2010. Oxford: Capstone Publishing Limited. [Fragment]
Kearney, Michael (1995) "The local and the global: The Anthropology of Globalization and counter-movement", Annual Review of
Anthropology 1995, 24: 547-65.
Possible audio-visual material [fragments or complete films depending on the time available]
Hubert Sauper. 2004. Darwin's Nightmare . France, Belgium and Austria, 107'
Uys, Jamie. 1980. The Gods Must Be Crazy. Bostbuana.
Charles Chaplin. 1936 Modern Times. USA. 87'
Session 3. Work, an anthropological Approach.
From religious thought to ethnic entrepreneurship.
Reading:
Some reading on anthropology of Work.
Audiovisual documents
Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott. 2003. The Corporation [La Corporación. institutions or psychopaths?.]. Canada. 140'
Pilger, John and Alan Lowery. 2001. The new rulers of the world. United Kingdom. 65'.
Session 4. Consumption, an Anthropological Approach.
Program Erasmus Teacher Exchange. Prof. Hugo Valenzuela García [Ljubljana, May 2011]
Culturalism, procesualism, materialism.
Reading:
Miller, Daniel (1995) "Consumption and Commodities", Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 24 (1995), pp. 141-161
Audiovisual documents
Sut Jhally & Loretta Alper No Logo: Brands, Globalization & Resistance (Downloadable at http://www.sprword.com/videos/nologo/)
(Naomi Klein). 40'
TELLES, Ray 2009. Black market [Inside the Body Trade]. 50'. USA.
Methodology
The course is divided into theoretical sessions accompanied by texts or visualizations (fragments of films or
documentaries that provide an overview of the problem and its scope). It is expected that the students can connect these
theoretical aspects with their own research topics and readings. Discussion is welcome.
General references.
Abbot, Andrew (1988) The System of Professions. An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press.
Alonso, L. E. (2005) La era del consumo. España: Siglo XXI. Barcelona: Plaza & Janés.
Bonilla, Luis (1975) Breve Historia de la Técnica y del Trabajo. Madrid: Istmo.
Bueno Castellanos, Carmen y Steffan Igor Ayora Díaz (2010) Consumos globales: de México para el mundo. Universidad
Iberoamericana. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Cook, Scott (2004) Understanding Commodity cultures. Explorations in Economic Anthopology with Case Studies from
Mexico. Rowan and Littlefield.
Eriksen, Thomas Hylland (ed.) (2003) Globalisation. Studies in Anthropology. London: Pluto Press.
Freidson, Eliot (2001) Professionalism. The Third Logic on the Practice of Knowledge. Chicago. University of Chicago Press
Friedman, Jonathan (1994) Consumption and identity. Harwood Academic Publishers.
Gereffi, Gary y Miguel Korzeniewicz (1994) Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism. London: Praeger.
Hammond, J. L. and Hammond, B. (1987) El Trabajador Especializado. Madrid: Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social.
Inda, J. X. y Renato Rosaldo (2002) The Anthropology of Globalization: A reader. USA: Blackwell.
Jaccard, Pierre (1971) Historia Social del Trabajo. De la Antigüedad hasta nuestros días. Barcelona: Plaza y Janés.
Jameson, Fredrick (1991) Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Duke University Press.
Kearney, Michael (1995) “The local and the global: The Anthropology of Globalization and Transnationalism”, Annual
Review of Anthropology 1995, 24: 547-65.
Program Erasmus Teacher Exchange. Prof. Hugo Valenzuela García [Ljubljana, May 2011]
Lewellen, Ted C. (2002) The Anthropology of Globalization. Cultural anthropology Enters the 21st Century. London: Bergin
and Garvey.
MacDonald, Keith M. (1995) The Sociology of the Professions. London: SAGE Publications.
Martín-Moreno, Jaime y De Miguel, Armando (1982) Sociología de las Profesiones. Madrid: Centro de Investigaciones
Sociológicas.
Méda, Dominique (1998) El trabajo. Un valor en peligro de extinción. Barcelona: Gedisa.
Molina González, JL y Valenzuela, Hugo (2006) Invitación a la Antropología Económica. Barcelona: Bellaterra.
Mossé, Claude (1980) El Trabajo en Grecia y Roma. Madrid: Akal.
Nash, J. Y María Patricia Fernández-Kelly (Eds.) (1983) Women, Men and the International Division of Labour. Albany.
State University of New York Press.
Rifkin, Jeremy (1996) El Fin del Trabajo. El declive de la fuerza del trabajo y el nacimiento de la era posmercado.
Barcelona: Paidós.
Scase, Richard (2002) Living in the Corporate Zoo. Life and Work in 2010. Oxford: Capstone Publishing Limited.
Schaeffer, Robert K. (2003) Understanding Globalization. The Social Consequences of Political, Economcic and
Environmental Change. Rowan and Littlefield.
Sayer, A. Y Richard Walker (1992) The New Social Economy. Reworking the Division of Labor. USA: Blackwell.
Tamayo-Acosta J.J. (2002) 10 Palabras clave sobre Globalización. Editorial Verbo Divino.
0073131-970
Hugo Valenzuela García [Short CV]
PhD (UAB, 2006) and MA’s degree (2001, UAB/Manchester)
Lecturer, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology (Autonomous University of Barcelona). He has done fieldwork on
fishing population in Malaysia, peasant population in Mexico, and Pakistani and Indian ethnic entrepreneurship in Barcelona.
His main interest is Economic Anthropology. He has recently published “Pecunia Ex Machina, el emprendedor pakistaní en
la ciudad de Barcelona”, (Revista CIDOB d’Afers Internacionals, 2010); An Ethnography of the Impact of Politics and
Globalization on the Malaysian Fishing Economy (The Edwin and Mellen Press, 2010) and Invitación a la Antropología
Económica (with JL Molina, Ediciones Bellaterra, 2007). During 2008-2009 we was visiting professor at the Universidad
Autónoma Metropolitana (México DF). He’s currently engaged in several research projects related with ethnic
entrepreneurship, migrations, tourism, and work.