Draft Only
Working notes. For full reader go to:
[Tentative long list]
Branding: http://www.adbusters.org/articles/21branding.html
Is the language of advertising replacing the arts (from Adbusters)
The Cult You're In: http://www.adbusters.org/articles/22cultyourein.html
Is the world of consumer culture a cult? (from Adbusters)
Women as Mothers: http://www.siu.edu/~cmcma202/stereotypes_mothers.html
In what ways is kinderculture created in America?
The History of Affluenza in America; http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/diag/history.html
Even the American Revolution was driven by affluenza (from PBS)
Waste a Lot,Want a Lot: Our All-Consuming Quest for Style: http://cnet.unb.ca/orgs/prevention_cruelty/waste.htm
The Growth of Consumption in America
Do you have affluenza? http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/diag/have.html
Take the test yourself and see to what degree you're infected. (from PBS)
Do you know the facts about responsible consumption? http://www.newdream.org/cgi-bin/quiz/answer.pl?qid=1&nq.x=26&nq.y=18
Take this test and find out.
How Do Our Kids Get Caught Up in Consumerism?: http://www.newdream.org/newsletter/swimme.html
What are some of the factors that turn children into consumers? (Center for a New American
Dream)
Zapme! A New Corporate Predator
in the Schools: http://www.essential.org/alert/pr_zapme.html
What are some of the ways that advertisers try to get at children?
Emulation and Global Consumerism: http://www.indiana.edu/~wanthro/nrc2.html
What are the prospects for the rest of the world to develop the consumption habits of the
core?
Inside the Mouse: Deconstructing Disney
http://www.adm.duke.edu/alumni/dm1/inmouse.txt.html
What are the consequences of turning people from producers into consumers?
Helen Rosen Woodward: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~woodward/index.html
Read about a career in advertising and the critique it generated.
Slavery as capitalism: http://www.rit.edu/~nrcgsh/bx/bx03a.html
How and why did America develop its unique brand of slavery?
Child Labor is Growing in Africa: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/235press/magazine/23/child.htm
What percentage of children age five to fourteen are involved in economic activity?
ILO World Employment Report 98/99:http://www.ilo.org/public/english/235press/pr/1998/33.htm
How many people in the world are unemployed or underemployed?
Sex Industry Assuming Massive Proportions in Southeast Asia: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/235press/pr/1998/31.htm
What options do women have in the workforce?
Manifesto of the Communist Party: http://gate.cruzio.com/~marx2mao/M&E/CM47.html;
http://www.workers.org/cm/cm.html
Exactly what did Marx and Engels say?
The Russian Revolution and Communist Manifesto: http://www.workers.org/ww/1998/revolution1119.html
What impact did the Communist Manifesto have on Russia?
Socialism; Utopian and Scientific: http://gate.cruzio.com/~marx2mao/M&E/SUS80.html
One of the major documents of socialism.
Women's Pay: http://www.aflcio.org/women/equalpay.htm
How much do women earn as opposed to men?
Nike Campaign: http://www.summersault.com/~agj/clr/doc_lib.html#nike
What is the Nike campaign all about?
The Story of Nike: http://www.summersault.com/~agj/clr/alerts/sarah_cox.html
How and why did the Nike protest begin?
Between a Rock and a hard Place: Sweatshops in America
http://www.si.edu/nmah/ve/sweatshops/
Take a tour of the Smithsonian Institution's exhibit on the history of sweatshops in America, and learn, also, how where the clothing you wear has been made, and under what conditions. Play the global game.
History of Technology and Work: http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/dot/histwork.html
Just what was the industrial revolution?
Global Debt and Third World Development: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/globdebt.htm
Check out
http://fbc.binghamton.edu/ for Fernand Braudel papers.
Giovanni Arrighi,"Globalization, State Sovereignty, and the
'Endless' Accumulation of Capital,"
Revised version of a paper presented at the Conference on "States and Sovereignty in
the World Economy," University of California, Irvine, Feb. 21-23, 1997.
The Origins of Money
http://www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/origins.html
Do a section on how Europe accumulated its wealth: include
slavery
The First Slave Auction
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1h290.html
Arrival of the First African Americans to the Virginia Colonies
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p263.html
The End of a "Miracle" Speculation, Foreign Capital
Dependence and the Collapse
of the Southeast Asian Economies by Walden Bello
http://www.essential.org/monitor/mm1998/mm9801.05.html
Young Investors in the Stock Market
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/betting/etal/kurson.html
Explaining African Economic Performance
http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/CSAEadmin/workingpapers/pdfs/9702text.pdf
One of the big questions in economic development circles, is why haven't African economies developed as well as, say, South East Asian economies? The question is not, obviously, a simple one, and various reasons are suggested. The above reading attempts to get at the question; the section is long (46 pages in Adobe Acrobat format), but offers a well-researched explanation. In summary, the articles argues that
"Africa has had slow growth and a massive exodus of capital. In many respects it has been the most capital-hostile region. We review and interpret the aggregate-level and microeconomic literatures to identify the key explanations for this performance. There is a reasonable correspondence of the two sets of evidence, pointing to four factors as being important. These are a lack of openness to international trade; a high-risk environment; a low level of social capital; and poor infrastructure. These problems are to a substantial extent attributable to government behaviour and the paper includes a review of the political economy literature which addresses that behaviour."
MAI Provisions and Proposals: An Analysis of the April 1998 Text
The text of the MAI and an analysis of its affects.
Become a Commodities Trader
http://tfc-charts.w2d.com/tafm/
A history of and instructions for becoming a commodities trader.
The Capitalist Threat by George Soros
http://www.theatlantic.com/atlantic/issues/97feb/capital/capital.htm
It's one thing when an avowed enemy of capitalism is critical of the expansion of free markets. it's quite another thing when the critique comes from someon who has made billions in investments, and is the founder of one of the major investment funds in the world. In Soros' own words: "Although I have made a fortune in the financial markets, I now fear that the untrammeled intensification of laissez-faire capitalism and the spread of market values into all areas of life is endangering our open and democratic society. The main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the communist but the capitalist threat."
The Culture Effects of Globalization by Jay
Walljasper
http://www.consciouschoice.com/issues/cc094/economicglobal.html
What are the cultural effects of globalization on local communities and what can we do about them?
The Biology of Globalization by Elisabet Sahtouris
http://www.ratical.org/LifeWeb/Articles/globalize.html
How does the expansion of free trade affect the biology of our planet and of our nations?
[Stopped on the Economist listing]
Giovanni Arrighi,"Globalization, State Sovereignty, and the
'Endless' Accumulation of Capital,"
Revised version of a paper presented at the Conference on "States and Sovereignty in
the World Economy," University of California, Irvine, Feb. 21-23, 1997.
The end of the nation-state: http://www.web.apc.org/~newsoc/back_issues/3/NationState.html
Is the nation-state obsolete? Read more below.
The decline of the nation-state: http://www.salsem.ac.at/orcomments/1997/vpr-032197.html
Why may the nation-state no longer be the basic unit of the capitalist world economy?
Bullets and Border: http://www.oneworld.org/ni/issue277/keynote.html
If the nation-state is on its death-bed, why are people still willing to die for their
country?
The
Political Economy of Ethnicity, by Paul Collier (April 1998) (16 pages)
http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/CSAEadmin/workingpapers/pdfs/9808text.pdf
In Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, we note that one of the main functions of the nation-state is to provide economic integration of all within its borders. One way this is done is to create a homogenous culture; one consequence is that ethic diversity is often not tolerated. But to what extent does ethnic diversity really affect economic development and performance. That is the subject of this paper by Paul Collier. In the paper, he investigates
"the effects of ethnic diversity on economic performance and the risk of violent conflict. Diversity has various detrimental microeconomic effects, tending to reduce public sector performance, increase patronage, and lower the level of trust among individuals. However, whether diversity adversely affects overall economic growth depends upon the political environment. Diversity is highly damaging to growth in the context of limited political rights, but is not damaging in democracies. The same relationship holds for the satisfactory performance of World Bank projects: in diverse societies, the risk of project failure is nearly doubled by the absence of political rights. There is a relationship between ethnic diversity and the risk of violent conflict, but it is non-monotonic. Those societies most at risk are the ones in the middle of the range of ethnic diversity. Highly diverse societies, such as are typical of Africa, are actually even safer than homogenous societies. A democratic Africa can thus reap the benefits which ethnic diversity provides in terms of a reduced risk of violence, while avoiding the potential costs of reduced growth. Both income levels and political rights are also important influences on the risk of violent conflict, and of its escalation into full civil war. Once a society has reached full scale civil war the balance of influences appears to change. The persistence of conflict, and the sustainability of a settlement, are more dependent upon ethnic composition and less dependent upon income and political rights, than are the initiation and escalation of violence. Hence, some peace settlements may need to change borders so as to increase (or reduce) the ethnic diversity of the state."
The Chile Coup: The U.S. Hand
http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/ats-l/1998.10/msg00029.html
One of the functions of the nation-state is to protect the assets of its overseas investors. When the state believes that these assets are endangered, they may seek to move militarily. One instance occured in Chile when the Nixon administration, plotted the overthrow of an elected governmentin Chile. This was not the first time; the CIA had its hand in the overthrow of an elected government in Iran in 1953, and in Guatemale in 1955. The one in Chile, however, is remarkable well-documented as revealed in this article that appeared in The Consortium.
Consumption: the other side of population for development: http://www.ecouncil.ac.cr/about/contrib/populat/consump.htm
What does more global damage, overpopulation or overconsumption?
Population and Consumption: the U.S. Population Scorecard: http://mail.igc.org/nrdc/bkgrd/poscore.html
A child born in the United States will, in his or her lifetime, have 30 times more impact
on the Earth's environment than a child born in India.
What Do You Know About The Poor? www.globalaid.co.uk/technology/healthcare/gla2/page67.htm (I used this one in the course)
Global Debt and Third World Development
www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/globdebt.htm
(Used this one in the course)
The State of Women in the World www.snowcrest.net/freemanl/women/atlas/index.html (Used this one in the protest section, but it could be used here as well)
Global Povertyin the Late 20th Century by Michel Chossudovsky(new article) www.heise.de/tp/english/special/eco/6099/1.html (also check out the main page at www.heise.de/tp/english/special/eco/ default.htm for some other interesting articles
The Causes of Poverty
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp
(New...gives the causes of poverty with a link from each to a short reading ....great site)
Myths About Hunger
http://www.psagef.org/nowohu.htm
THE ETHICAL DIMENSION: Amarya Sen
http://www.sciam.com/1999/0199issue/0199nobel.html#eco
A more adequate understanding of famine requires examining the channels through which food is acquired and distributed as well as studying the entitlement of different sections of society. Starvation occurs because a substantial proportion of the population loses the means of obtaining food. Such a loss can result from unemployment, from a fall in the purchasing power of wages or from a shift in the exchange rate between goods and services sold and food bought. Information about these factors and the other economic processes that influence a particular group's ability to procure food should form the basis of policies designed to avoid famine and relieve hunger.
Economic Growth and Human Development: http://www.wri.org/wr-98-99/econgrow.htm
What is the relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction?
What do we know about the poor? http://www.globalaid.co.uk/technology/healthcare/gla2/page67.htm
Here are some basic things.
The Persistence of Poverty in the Age of Globalization:
http://www.fonaristide.org/carolina.html
What is the challenge of poverty?
What kind of growth: http://www.religion-online.org/church/cobb_whatkind.html
What can a theologian tell us about economic growth?
Growth without progress: http://www.religion-online.org/church/cobb_growth.html
What is the consequence of free trade for economic welfare?
Development Trends from Which World?: http://mars3.gps.caltech.edu/whichworld//explore/trends/trendsecon.html
Greening Earth Society
http://www.greeningearthsociety.org/
One of the points made in Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism is that corporations have enormous resources with which to convince the public that their actions, regardless of the social, political, or environmental costs, are in the public's interest. To illustrate, check out this Web site of the "Greening Earth Society" that explains that, not only is global warming not a problem, it is actually good for us. Their motto is: "Greening Earth Society believes that humankind's industrial evolution is good, and using fossil fuels to enable our economic activity is as natural as breathing."
Before you begin exploring, however, here is what Wayne Grytting had to say about this in his Newspeak newletter:
A new environmental organization has moved to the forefront of groups trying to educate the public about global warming. While most groups stay fixated on negative consequences like flooding and disease, The Greening Earth Society has chosen to focus attention on the "positive aspects of a rising level of carbon dioxide" in the belief that "nature is growing stronger, bigger, greener and more resilient as a result of what we humans are doing to promote our own growth." The GES has special access to all the latest information because it shares offices and officers with the Western Fuel Association (and who should know more about global warming than coal producers). The Greening Earth Society arguably has one of the better environmental mottoes—"humankind is a part of nature, rather than apart from nature." That’s why they understand that using fossil fuels is "as natural as breathing." (That is, if you still can breathe.)
Warrior for a Healthy Planet
http://www.consciouschoice.com/issues/cc116/howardlyman.html
Ecological Economics: http://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/economic-mustlearn.html
Is economics as it relates to the environment dead? (from Adbusters)
Population and Consumption: Redefining Happiness: http://www.nwf.org/nwf/international/pop/consume.html
"Ecology and Capitalist Costs of Production: No Exit" , by Immanuel Wallerstein[Keynote address at PEWS XXI, "The Global Environment and the World-System," Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, Apr. 3-5. 1997]
In this essay, Immanuel Wallerstein, considered the originator of world-systems theory, offers his analysis of origins of the environmental crisis, and offers some solutions to it. Why, from his perspective, is the environmental crisis inherent in global capitalism? What is the "dirty secret" of capitalism? What solutions does Wallerstein offer to solve the problem?
[site address: http://fbc.binghamton.edu/iwecol.htm
Revisiting Carrying Capacity: Area-Based
Indicators of Sustainability
http://dieoff.com/page110.htm
In Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism we discuss the kinds of reductions in energy use people in core countries would have to make to truly make a difference in preserving the environment (see p. 209ff). In this article, William E. Rees outlines the problems; for him the "fundamental question for ecological economics is whether remaining stocks of natural capital are adequate to sustain the anticipated load of the human economy into the next century."
Environmental Trends (from Which World?) http://mars3.gps.caltech.edu/whichworld//explore/trends/trendsenv.html
The Relationship Between Rum and
the Environment
http://gurukul.ucc.american.edu/ted/RUM.htm
China Can't Support Consumer Economy -Worldwatch http://www.iti.com/iti/kzpg/Archive/Broadcasts/News/I/Back/97/msg00008.html
China's booming economy andgrowing population will soon put more demands on the earth's resourcesthan the United States does, a Washington-based study group said onWednesday. And if China, with its much larger population, tries to replicate aconsumer economy, it will quickly become clear that it is unsustainable, the Worldwatch Institute said.
Being Alive: AIDS in Africa. A Personal Report: http://library.jri.org/library/news/alive/alve9609k.html
What is it like to be a woman and live with AIDS?
Global Sanitation
http://www.unicef.org/pon97/water1.htm
Mastering the Secret of the White man's Power
http://www.beloit.edu/~libhome/Archives/PAP/Mastering/mastering.html
Carlyse Indian School
http://home.epix.net/~landis/
Injustice Studies
http://wolf.its.ilstu.edu/injustice/
Check the stories, particularly about genocide(http://wolf.its.ilstu.edu/injustice/campbelldoc.htm)
Active Voices: The Online Journal of Cultural Survival at http://www.cs.org/cs%20website/AVHome.html.
http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1997_hrp_report/overview.html
This is the U.S. Department of State Overview to Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1997. It describes the human rights violations on countries around the world. However, it is not without its political biases, focusing largely on countries with whom the United States has political disputes. Absent, for example, is a discussionof human rights in the United States. You might also want to check the introduction to Human Rights Watch World Report 1999 that details some of the failures of the United States to support human rights initiatives. The report does not address the issue of the misuse of authority by police in the United States, a problems detailed at Shielded from Justice, a report that details cases of police brutality.
Amnesty International Annual Report: The Americas
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aireport/ar98/amr.htmThis excerpt from the 1998 annual report by Amnesty International, describes some of the human rights violations of countries in the Americas. You might also want to read the introduction to the report.
The New Revolutionary Peasantry
http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/ats-l/1999.01/msg00031.html
A History of the Guerrilla Movement in Colombia
http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/ats-l/1997.Oct/0038.html
The FARC, The War And The Crisis Of The State
http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/ats-l/1998.05/msg00044.html
The guerrilla war in Colombia. (see also "Dirty War in Colombia.") See also the Website, Colombia Popular
Chiapas Uprising and Trade
http://gurukul.ucc.american.edu/ted/CHIAPAS.HTM
A summary of the origins of the Chiapas Rebellion
Radical
Green Politics
http://www.web.apc.org/~newsoc/2.2/eco-socialism.html
Enough: Anticonsumerism Campaign: http://www.enviroweb.org/enviroissues/enough/enough.htm
Documents from the Black Panther Party
http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/ats-l/1998.06/msg00037.html
Groups Designated as terrorist by the United States Government
http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/ats-l/1997.Oct/0018.html
Women of Uttarkhand: On the Frontiers of Environmental Struggle
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/7039/chipko.html
This article outlines the role of women in the resistence movements in Northern India. (for additional background se TED case study.)
Revolutionary Ecology
http://www.monitor.net/~bari/RevolutionaryEcology.html
An essay by Judy Bari that outlines the philosophy behind Earth First!
The Evolution of Despair
http://users.andara.com/~bpaul/unabomber/time.html
Fundamentalism in the World: http://www.religion-online.org/sociology/wuthnow_fundamentalism.html
What have the world fundamentalisms in common?
The Politics of Rage: Militias and the Future of the Far Right, by Jeffrey
Kaplan:
http://www.religion-online.org/sociology/kaplan_politics.html
What drives the militia movement? A review of two books.
The World of Fundamentalism: http://www.religion-online.org/sociology/wuthnow_world.html
A review of Fundamentalisms Observed
Education and Economism: http://www.religion-online.org/education/cobb_education.html
What purpose can religion serve to protest the exploitation of the earth? Is
Earthism an answer?
Economism as Idolatry: http://www.religion-online.org/church/cobb_economism.html