The Web site for the Study of Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism
(to appear in the Bulletin of the National Association of Practicing Anthropologists)
Richard H. Robbins
SUNY at Plattsburgh
Email: robbinrh@splava.cc.plattsburgh.eduIntroduction
The Study of Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism began as site for a senior-level seminar entitled Capitalistic Legacies. The course focused on the affects of the global expansion of capitalism, particularly since the Bretton Woods accords of 1944 that led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the Global Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The major impetus for the site came from a student, Gloria Bobbie, who was fascinated with the potential of the Internet, and convinced me to begin developing the site. During a Christmas break, I bought a copy of Home Page for my Macintosh, and proceeded to learn how to make Web pages. I received some help from our college computer support staff in loading pages on the college Web server, and the site grew from there.
We wanted to develop a site on the Web to help students take advantage of the growing amount of information available on the Internet. The Web was particularly appropriate for courses in global issues because of the rapid obsolescence of other mediums of information for global problems, such as books and journal articles. Furthermore, international agencies, governments, international media, and NGOs, such as the United Nations, IMF, World Bank, U.S. State Department, the CIA, Amnesty International, Multinational Monitor, and the New York Times, to name just a very few, were supplying up-to-date internet resources on global issues.
Purpose and Development of the Site
The initial purpose of the site was to provide access to Internet resources for students. Consequently the major feature of the site consisted of links to other Web sites that addressed global problems. But over the course of three years the site has grown to support a number of other courses, a book on global issues, a Web course on Global Problems, and, most recently, an Online Global Problems Reader. Other than the invaluable assistance of Ms Bobbie, site development and maintenance has been a one person operation. In terms of time, I would estimate that over the course of the last three years, one-quarter of my work efforts have gone into developing and maintaining the site.
Reaction to the Site
Student reaction to the Web site and to the Web in general has been almost universally favorable. In our course evaluations students who had never previously used the Internet rate learning the Web as one of their most valuable experiences in the course. We were also fortunate to have overwhelming student support for a Web course offered for nursing students with limited access to college campuses. But having students use the Web requires careful planning.
First, there must be a clear problem or issue that they must explore. For example, in our global problems course each student is assigned a country and a corporation for their research. The student must prepare papers on such topics as a country's economic history, its patterns of population growth, the process of economic development, health and disease profiles, and so on. Their corporate research includes a company profile and patterns of economic earnings and stock earnings; but, in addition, they must get information on the social, economic, political, and environmental consequences of that company's economic activity.
The second element in successful student use is providing students with specific Web resources from which to begin their research. Search engines are fine, but unless students are familiar with their use, initial confrontations (e.g. getting thousands of hits for a specific search term) can be frustrating. For our courses, students were able to begin their work from a defined set of Internet resources.
Third, if you are using a Web site to facilitate student discussion or collaborative work, you need to provide a platform for discussion. In our courses we used an email distribution list where all messages went to myself or Ms. Bobbie, and were then redistributed to class participants. It was a makeshift arrangement at best. In the future we will add a bulletin board or a separate mailing list to enable student commnication.
Finally, many students will require some hands-on guidance. Initially I was lucky to have Ms. Bobbie to help students. In our experience, it was generally the older students who needed the most assistance. Furthermore, given the degree of gender differentiation that researchers find in computer and Internet use, female students tend to require more support than male students. In helping students to use the site it also helps to have an active computer support staff to work with students. Furthermore, there are some excellent resources on the Web to help students learn about navigating the Internet, using search engines, and even building their own Web sites.
In addition to student reactions to a Web site, you can also expect feedback from other users. In fact, the most gratifying reaction to a Web site is the use to which others put it. We have received comments from other Web developers, comments from instructors, as well as recognition from Web site reviewers. We have also sought help from others through the Web. As part of a group that was asked to assess the Web site of a professional anthropological organization, I had the opportunity to work with professional Web developers. In the course of our exchanges, some offered a critique on the design of our site (e.g. excessive loading time, inadequate navigation, etc) that ultimately led to a site overhaul and redesign. In fact, part of the fun of Web sites is that unlike books or articles, you can tinker with them forever.
Finally, institutional support for your Web efforts can be invaluable. SUNY at Plattsburgh instituted a small-grant program for Web site development that provided computer equipment (e.g. a scanner, a faster computer), and software (e.g. Frontpage) for Web development.
Promoting Your Web Site
Getting your own students to use a Web site is easy; but as with any ultimately peer-reviewed project, having others use the site is more difficult. Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism has the advantage of being tied to a specific book. The Web site is mentioned in the book, and in other promotional material distributed by the publisher as well as on their Web site. Furthermore the marketing staff demonstrate the Web site in their marketing efforts.
In addition, we have promoted the site by sending announcements to discussion lists (e.g. Anthro-L, Activ-L, etc.), requesting Webmasters at other sites to include our site in their list of Web resources, and offering to include links to their sites on ours, and sending announcements about the sites to various Web review groups (e.g. The Scout Report, Anthro Tech, etc).
We have not yet been successful in promoting the site, particularly the Online Global Problems Reader, for use by secondary school teachers and students, but we hope to do more in the coming year.
Significance for Applied Anthropology and Future Development
The significance of a site such as Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism depends, in part, on the defined scope of applied anthropology. If the field is to include social activism, as we feel it should, then the Internet is indispensible. For example, there are activist sources of information available on the Web not readily accessible via the mass media. The availability of alternative media sources itself is invaluable. Furthermore, the Web facilitates collaborate efforts between people and groups with similar agendas.
Our future plans include adding information to assist instructors in teaching about global issues. For example, we plan to add a section on video and film resources for the teaching of global issues. Given the growing sophistication of computers, we hope with the permission of film and video makers, to include brief film clips. In addition, we have submitted grant proposals to develop an Online simulation to take users through the history and expansion of the culture of capitalism.
Finally, we should not neglect the power of the Internet to make people more aware of anthropology and the uses to which it can be put. One purpose of our site is to illustrate the relevance of anthropology to issues of global concern such as over consumption, poverty, hunger, environmental destruction, disease, the destruction and disappearance of indigenous peoples, and social conflict and unrest. The future attractiveness of anthropology, and its applications to specific problems may, in large measure, depend on our ability to organize and make available to Web users relevant resources on the Internet.
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