Lecture 9: Industrialism, Post-Industrialism, and the Post-Colony

Question 1

Industrialism as the Economic Base

Answer 1

• Industrial Revolution: around 1760 (in England) to 1840 (in many other places), and beyond
• the biggest impact was making big factories putting smoke into the air
• it spread from West to East and Center to North and South; the IR didn’t arrive at the same time all around Europe
• it’s a very technologically-oriented mode of production; the machines can produce things faster and better than humans
• relations of production:
  
  • manufacturing
  • wage labour; people working for pay
    
    • there’s no loyalty; you don’t have any obligations towards your employer aside from doing your job, and if you find a new job you can leave
    • but the employer also has the right to kick you out of your job if you aren’t doing it well enough since they have no loyalty/obligation to you aside from giving you pay
  • unprecedented surpluses

Question 2

Relations of Production: The Class System

Answer 2

• there were always divisions in society, but not like the class society in industrialized societies
• the main reason is because they’re not defined by law or tradition, but by the economy
• “upward mobility” (moving up through classes) is ideally very possible
• but in practice may be pretty difficulty
• bourgeoisie: the industrialists/investors/bankers, or “capitalists”, they are the highest class
  
  • originated mainly among the townsfolk of the agricultural period
• the working class (historically) emerged from the peasants
  
  • the largest class in industrial society (as opposed to post-industrial, where most people are middle class)
  • in the agricultural society, the working class (peasants) were also the biggest populations
• working class organizations (e.g. unions)
  
  • socialism arose as a result of workers wanting a say in how society should be run, as opposed to everything being decided by the bourgeoisie
  • these ideas have now become fairly mainstream

Question 3

Industrialist Superstructures

Answer 3

• megalopolis: a huge urban conglomeration (e.g. The Golden Horseshoe of Ontario)
• cities (which are contained inside the megalopolis)
• market ideology: the idea that the best way for people to be as wealthy as possible is to have a free (as possible) market
• individualism—in order to be efficient, individuals should move into jobs that they’re most competent in and manufacturers should only put into the market what people what/need
  
  • the fact that there isn’t any loyalty in this system isn’t a sad thing
• nationalism—it’s more efficient to have united countries
  
  • capitalism wasn’t the cause of the German or Italian unification, but it wasn’t a coincidence
• love marriage—e.g. if you and your husband want to be anthropology professors, and you get a job in Pennsylvania and he gets a job in Northern BC, it would make more sense for both of you to move and forget about him and find a new job in Pennsylvania
  
  • people used to live with their extended families, but now it’s become very nuclear
  • and we even promote children moving out to increase efficiency

Question 4

The Post-Industrial Society

Answer 4

• the term originated in the 1970s, which is when people started noticing changes
• means of production: knowledge and technology; manufacturing and agriculture are no longer the main means of production
• the largest class is the middle class—it’s not a coincidence that there aren’t as many factory workers anymore; workers move into knowledge industries
• the consumer becomes “king”—finding things they want to buy is just as important as giving them what they want to buy; i.e. create demand
• the rise of “youth culture” because there’s a generation gap
  
  • because there’s a knowledge industry, people are in schools for longer periods of time
  • not just youth, but many new cultures appear (that are targeted towards youth)

Question 5

Post-Industrial Relations of Production: Within the State

Answer 5

• in the rich (“developed”) countries, the service sectors become very important; they are perhaps more important than manufacturing and agriculture
• increasing income disparities (compared to industrial societies)
• growth of unemployed or underemployed “surplus” populations

Question 6

Post-Industrial Relations of Production: Globalization

Answer 6

• there are internationalized activities by investors and entrepreneurs
• businesses, banks, and big companies become international

pros:

• more efficient production
• often we see the rise of the middle class around the world
• ordinary people migrate and make contact with other people

cons:

• in general, business and investment move around the world but people don’t
• in the EU, if you’re a citizen of one country you can move anywhere there to work, but not the same with the rest of the world
• we think it’s normal that someone who’s born in Guatemala can’t just randomly come and work in Canada without governments letting them in
• what’s efficient about moving into other countries is that those people will do the work for cheaper; i.e. outsourcing to “developing” countries
• increasing waves of illegal migration—if you lived somewhere where you had to work very hard to make very little, it makes sense you’d try to move
• “bad neighborhoods” of surplus or underpaid labour in rich and poor countries; “law and order” issues
• “failed states” among the poor countries; “corruption” issues

Question 7

Industry and Post-Industrial Societies in a Globalized Economy

Answer 7

• only the rich world is post-industrial
• the post-colony undergoes a form of industrialization
• in the rich world: a nostalgia for working class manufacturing jobs

Question 8

Unequal Development and Emerging Markets

Answer 8

• Forbes Magazine (2014): the 67 richest people own as much wealth as the poorer half of the world’s population
• Forbes Magazine (2015): of the 10 richest people in the world, 7 are Americans, 1 is French, 1 is Spanish, and 1 is Mexican
• the distribution of wealth could not be more unequal
• who is to blame?
  
  • the World Bank, multinational corporations, neoliberalism, bleeding-heart liberals, lack of education, backwards culture, dictatorship, globalization, religion, the West, misguided MGOs, cliques and mafias, government red tape, sexism, corruption, right-wing conservations, class or caste prejudice, etc.
  • all of these people are being blamed, but we don’t have a real solution to solve unequal development
• the relatively wealthy middle class is expanding in several “emerging market” countries
• the GDP is raising in the developing world
• but the great majority of people who continue to live there are still poor

Question 9

Colonial Origins of Unequal Development

Answer 9

• the colonizing western powers wanted to bring “civilization and religion” to these savage countries
• but it most often has to do with business gains—it was always in the colonizer’s interests
• refashioned production and markets in the colonies and semi-colonies
• the focus was on developing sources of raw material
• for industrial development (manufacturing) in the mother country
• the result was a dependent economy directed by the colonial power to serve the colonizing country

Question 10

The Post-Colony

Answer 10

• post-colony: (1) a former colony or now dominated country, now independent, or (2) the state of all former colonies, taken together
• the point is that the means and relations of production did not change when the colonizers left
• the political system is different, but the economic systems remained much the same
• the foreign owners and production managers remained in the post-colony
• or the local people replaced them, but the system still doesn’t really change

Question 11

Development Models to End Unequal Distribution

Answer 11

• the oldest one is supporting large-scale government projects
  
  • e.g. damns, new cities, etc.
  • typically undertaken by the local government with foreign aid
  • now less in favour
• foreign aid; i.e. giving money to developing countries and let the governments use the money
  
  • considered to be a failed policy
• neoliberal models; an orientation that supports free markets
  
  • Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776): Every individual “intends only his own gain, [but] is […] led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.”
  • laissez-faire, “let them act” or “let it be” capitalism
  • liberalism; originated in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century
  • neoliberalism; the new version currently dominating national and international economic policy
  • ideally, the government doesn’t get directly involved in it (the government can’t possibly not be involved)
  • in this context, liberal is not the opposite of conservative; many conservatives tend to be neoliberal, some of them are called “neoconservative”
  • the prefix neo- just means “new”

Question 12

Neoliberalism Success Stories: The Asian Tigers

Answer 12

• four newly (1960s-1990s) industrialized nations: Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea
• if you look at the GDP in 2014 (in USD)—South Korea: $35k; Taiwan: $46k; Hong Kong: $55k; Singapore: $78k; compared to Canada: $44.9k
• neoliberals attribute success to neoliberal market reforms
• others believe government intervention was important
• aside from the Four Tigers, these results have been hard to reproduce elsewhere

Question 13

Neoliberal Models: IMF and the World Bank

Answer 13

• they don’t get directly involved, but they lend money and give advice
• they are the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank
• they have a very neoliberal attitude; by investing in free markets, they will produce more countries like the Four Tigers (but this hasn’t happened)
• they’re international organizations, but dominated by the USA and the rich countries
• they lend money to countries that are in need; so those countries become indebted
• in return for lending their money, the IMF and World Bank demand free-market reforms
• criticisms: the system may not work; it often happens that a country will develop, but not make enough money to pay back their debt
  
  • economic growth can slow down because the government stops focusing on the economy and starts worrying about paying back the debt
  • however, it’s a complex issue and it’s hard to say that any one model could certainly lead to the proper, desired economic growth

Question 14

Neoliberal Models: Microfinance

Answer 14

• microfinance: lending on a small scale to the local business people
• criticisms: does this system really work?
  
  • it’s difficult to monitor; quite often, the accounts aren’t as well-kept or audited as by banks
  • there’s a high rate of interest (as high as 28%) because the local loan people need to borrow money themselves from banks
    
    • there are many layers to the borrowing; and each layer added increases the interest
  • most MFIs operate on too small of a scale to achieve high earnings
  • most MFIs would gladly take a factory job than start their own business; the better way to bring people out of poverty would be to create more stable, well-paying jobs
• microfinance can create more opportunities for women
  
  • in many cases, women tend to be the principle borrowers
  • however, we see in many cases that the husbands are the ones who own the business and won’t let their wives go anywhere near it
  • there have been in some cases where women have been empowered, but there hasn’t been a drastic change
• other development models: the fair trade movement
  
  • conducted by NGOs, typically from or supported by the rich countries
  • criticisms: these activities may develop local clients and new inequalities
• how anthropologists can help: study the effect of development policies “on the ground”