Module 5 Flashcards
What are some of the basic tenet stuff of critical theory?
- race is a social construction
- Racism can be perpetuated by individuals, but is a societal problem related to social structures
- racism is commonplace in law
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What are the failures of capitalism and globalization?
The oppression of the working class
Overproduction leading to debt
how are postcolonial theory and critical theories of race and racism also anti-globalization theories?
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Superstructure
To marx, secondary social phenomena, like the state and culture, that are erected on an economic base that serves to define them. Most extremely, the economy determines the superstructure
Base
To marx, the economy, which conditions, if not determines, the nature of everything else in society
Culture industry
To critical theorists, industries such as movies and radio that were serving to make culture a more important factor in society than the economy
Mass culture
The culture made available to, and popular among, the masses
Herbert Marcuse
ideas resonated with those protesting the vietnam war
critic of repression and advanced capitalist society
critiqued modern technology
One-dimensional society
To Marcuse, the result of the breakdown in the dialiectical relationship between people and the larger structures they created, so that people are largely controlled by such structures. They lose the ability to create and to be actively involved in those structures, and individual freedom and creativiy dwindle away, leaving people without the capiacity to think critically and negatively about the structures that control and oppress them.
technocratic thinking
Concern with benig efficient, with simply finding the best means to an end without reflecting on either the means or the end
knowledge industry
to the critital theorists, those entities in society concerned with knowledge production and dissemination, especially research institutes and universities. Like the culture industry, these settings have achieved a large measure of autonomy within society, which has allowed them to redefine themselves. Instead of serving the interests of society as a whole, they have come to focus on their own interests; this means that they are intent on expanding their influence over society
reason
the assessment of means to ends in terms of ultimate human values such as justice, freedom, and happiness
irrationality of rationality
The idea that rational systems inevidably sspwan a series of irrationalities
Henri Lefebvre
neo-marxist spatial analysist
absolute spaces
spaces built in natural locations that embody religious and political principles. Ultimately these spaces serve the interests of political and religious elites
historical space
the kind of space produced when seperate nations vie with one another or power and the accumlation of wealth
abstract space
the kind of space produced witin modern capitalist society, where space is treated as a problem to be solved and calculated. Such space dominates nature and all unique human forms
differential space
a hoped-for space that would accentuate difference and freedom from control and would restore the natural unity that is broken by abstract space
David Harvey
neo marxian spatial analysist
-capitalism seeking new geographic areas to exploit
world-system
a broad economic entity with a division of labour that is not cirumscribed by political or cultural boundaries. it is a social system, composed internally of a variety of social structures and member groups, that is largely self-contained, has a set of boundaries, and has a definable life span
core
the geographic area that dominates the capitalist world-economy and exploits the rest of the system
periphery
those areas of the capitalist world-economy that provide raw materials to the core and are heavily exploited by it
semiperiphery
a residual category in the capitalist world-economy that encompasses a set of regions somewhere between the exploiting and the exploited
Norbert Elias
Civilizing process
civilizing process
the long-term change in the west in manners as they relate to daily behaviou. Everyday behaviours once acceptable have, over time, become increasingly unacceptable. Compared with our forebears, we are ore likely to observe the everyday behaviours of others, to be sensitive to them, to understand them better, and, perhaps most imiportant, to find an increasing number of them embarrassing. What we once found acceptable now embarrasses us enormously. As a result, many things that were once quite public are not hidden from view
race
a social construction that classifies people according to phenotypic differences such as skin colour, hair type, and eye shape
colonialsm
the process by which natons occupy and politically dominate other nations. Most oten this refers to the expansion of european nations between the 16th and 19th centuries
settler colonialism
a form of colonialism in which the colonizers establish permanent settlements in the colonies. Examples include the french colonies in what are now the united states and canada and the british colonies in the US, CA, and AU
phob ogenic objec
Fanon’s description of the black man as viewed by french colonial society. for wchite europeans, black persons, and in particular black men, embodied unconscious fears
phenomenology
the philosophical study of subjective experience
dialectic of recognition
the intersubjective process through which people mutually recognize one another’s identities, thereby creating self-consciousness
existentialism
a school of philosophy that emphasizes the importance of freedom and personal responsibility of human beings
racial-epidermal schema
a way of looking at and acting on people that prioratizzes skin colour and other so-called racial features
Frantz Fanon
-raised in french colony
-earned rep in algeria in north africa
-psychiatrist
political involvement with revolutionary National liberation front
primitive accumulation
a process described by marx in which the precious metals and raw materials taken from colonial possessions were used to fuel the early stages of capitalism
ideology
to marxists, and neo-marxists, ideas that distract dpeople from understanding the true causes of social inequality and human suffering
neocolonialism
the idea that even though most colonizing nations abandoned their colonies by the mid-20th century, the basic power structures of colonialism continue to operate under the form of neoliberal globalization
postcolonial theory
a theoretical perspective that describes the cultural forces that enable postcolonial power and describes sources of potential resistance to that power
orientalism
a way of thinking, writing, and talking that distinguishes, in broad, stereotyprical ways, between the occident (western societies_ and the orient (easter societies). this distinction implies that occidental societies are superior to oriental societies and that occidental societies have a duty to dominate and control oriental societies
discourse
a symbolic system that organizes and classifies the world
critical race theory
a perspective centered in the study of the law and it’s relationship to the perpetuation of racism and racial domination
differential racialization
the idea that different minority groups are racialized in different ways at different times
Kimberle crenshaw
coined the term intersectionality
critical theories of race and racism (CTRR)
a set of theories that have much in common with critical race theory but are centered in the social sciences rather than in the study of the law. these theories focus on the way that racism and racial domination are perpetuated through multiple social institutions
postracial society
the idea that race no longer plays a significant role in the social life of a society; specifically, some claim that race has played little role in American social life since the civil rights era
racial formation
the idea that the concept of race is not natural but rather a social construction that has been formed over long periods of time
split labour market theory
the theory that racial and ethnic tensions develop when owning classes (the bourgeoise) pit workers (the proletariat) from different racial categories against each other
racialization
the process by which phenothypic differences are made to matter in a socially significant way
racial projects
the concrete social processes through which racialization occurs
frames of colour-blind racism
common ways of interpreting information about race. Bonilla-Silva describes four such frames: abstract liberalism, naturalization, cultural racisms, and minimization of racism
systemic theory of race
theory of race that brings together multiple theoritical perspectives, operates at multiple levels of analysis, and provides a more or less exhastuive set of analytic categories
racial field
he totality or racial identities that exist within a given society as well as their relationships to one another
racial capital
the kind of capital, and therefore pwer, that comes from being a member of a particular racialized group
racial cultural structures
the symbolic organizzation or racial life
racial collective-emotional structures
the group organization of feelings about race
practical evaluative agency
a concept that emphasizes that action is not a machinelike application of rules, but is based on embodied, dynamic engagement with the field
itrative agency
a kind of action that is focused on the past and aims to reproduce habit, custom, and tarditions
racial illusio
the shared set of ideas that people have about the racial field and how it works
projective agency
a kind of agency that is focused on the future and, through projects, tries to maintain or change the existing order
conservative strategy
in emirbayer and desmond’s theory about race, the kind of projective agency in which actors try to maintain the existing racial order
subversion strategy
in emirbayer and desmond’s theory about race, the kind of projective agency in which actors try to change the existing racial order
negritude movement
an intellectual movement during the early 20th century that opposed the values of white, capitalist, colonial culture and sought a pan-african identity in the values of african culture
cyclical theory of state formation
IBN Khaldun’s theory, based on his experiences with North African societies, that state formation is driven by a cyclical reltaionship between pastoral and nomadic social forms. This is in contrast to modern western linear theories of state formation
asabiyyah
a feeling of group solidarity or social cohesion
northern theory
thoeries developed in europe and north america; also known as western theory or metropolitan theory
southern theory
theories developed in the global southl also known as peripheral theory or indigenous theory
westoxification
the collective negative effects of western imperialism on iran and colonized middle eastern nations, including the alienation of people from local culture and the domination of everyday life through imported machinery
subaltern studies group
a group of indian and south asian scholars who base their social theory on local political movments in india and south aasia
reconciliation
attempts to overcome the damage of the colonial past and to establish equitable and fair relations between colonizers and the colonizer
politics of recognition
political practices shaped by the idea that the integrity and well-being of people depends on the recognition of their unique cultural practices and identities
dispossession of land
the removal of indigenous persons from their traidtional lands as well as the division of definition of land on european terms
resurgence
the reinvigoration and regeneration of indigenous life through indigenous culture and ideas
Zigmundt Bouman
Space wars
What are some of the major differences between Marx’s view of capitalism and that of critical theory associated with the Frankfurt School?
Marx - capitalism and inequality between the proletariat and the bourgeois
Frankfurt - focus on racial inequality and phenemology
Three definitions of orientalist
- ) academic one, and indeed the label still serves in a number of academic institutions. Anyone who teaches, writes about, or researches the Orient–and this applies whether the person is an anthropologist, sociologist, historian, or philologist–either in its specific or its general aspects, is an Orientalist, and what he or she says or does is Orientalism. . . .
- ) based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made between “the Orient” and (most of the time) the “occident.”
- ) corporate institution for dealing with the Orient–dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, Orientalism as a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient.
What are the failures of globalization?
Overall and wealth and productivity down, but elites doing well
Keeps wages down and increases interest rates
Job insecurity and underemployment
Undemocratic - based in what’s beat for businesses
Individualism and personal responsibility
Faith in the market and promotion of it as infallible
enlarging business profits and weakening labor it has shifted the balance of power further toward business, so that political parties have been even more decisively influenced by business money in elections.
Limits political options
How has the downturn in Asian economics revealed the contradictions of capitalism?
Working-class poor
Asia’s increased integration into the world market makes it dependent on it
Battle with international capital
-food riots, student demonstrations for democracy, workers strikes against layoffs - are widespread
the Asian miracle
“Asian miracle,” has seen enormous growth in the size of the employed working-class and major progress in working class self-organization and struggle across the region. Throughout the economic South, or the so-called “developing world,” the number of industrial workers alone increased from about 285 million in 1980 to over 400 million by 1994, much of this growth concentrated in Asia. Moreover, during this period women in East Asia entered the paid workforce in huge numbers. Today, women constitute 42 percent of all wage-laborers in the region and often an overwhelming majority in key industries like garments, electrical goods, and electronics. On top of this, the late 1980s saw widespread growth in union organization. During the years 1987 to 1989, for example, the number of organized workers increased by 27 percent in Bangladesh, 38 percent in the Philippines and fully 100 percent in South Korea. Over the years 1986 to 1989 the number increased more than 50 percent in Taiwan.6
How do capitalists react to an economy in debt? Who are their allies? Who are the fatalities?
Adding capacity at a time of overcapacity
overproduction
objective, after all, is to insure that someone else fails in the scramble for market share
**Capitalists overproduce in an effort to come on top over others producing the same products
Competing centres
Western and non-western
People who are both American and an other (African American)
What does Featherstone suggest will be the effect on individuals when “culture fails to provide us with a single taken-for-granted recipe for action”?
Creates a stage for global differences
Makes us aware of new levels of diversity
