Blast from the academic past
For those of you not in school, here’s a reminder of what it’s like. This is a list of practise essay questions for my class, Anthropology of Globalisation and Development.
(UUSC people, look how relevant my studies are to human rights — particularly the last two):
1. What is the relationship between the restructuring of global capitalism since the Oil Crisis and neoliberalism? What can anthropologists contribute to the study of these processes?
2. Does Asian Capitalism offer an alternative model of development to that of the West?
3. Globalization spells social regression for the majority of humanity. Discuss with reference to Africa AND/OR Latin America.
4. Assess the consequences of economic changes since the 1980s for US urban society in general and immigrant and transmigrant populations in particular.
5. The economic, social and political order in Latin America is maintained by an uneasy equilibrium between “acceptable” levels of social exclusion and “acceptable” levels of violence. Discuss.
6. The current global food regime is good for transnational corporations and pretty bad for farmers, workers, consumers and Nature. Discuss.
7. The classic critiques of “Development” by Escobar and Ferguson are increasingly irrelevant to a much changed global situation, though the need for critical anthropological perspectives is undiminished. Discuss.
8. Can the “thickening of social capital” provide a way forward for poor people?
9. NGOs are essentially agents of cooptation and only grassroots social movements can achieve significant leverage against capitalist globalization. Discuss.
10. With reference to specific ethnographic cases, discuss the implications of devising specific policies targeted at women and/or indigenous peoples.