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SOC466 NATURE, LABOR AND GLOBAL SOCIAL FORMATIONS

Course Objectives

Course Description

This is a reading and writing intensive seminar on human beings’ universal metabolic relationship with the rest of nature and the manifold historical-geographical forms this relationship takes. Moving from the European colonial expansion and the Caribbean transnationalism as a starting point of problematization, our discussion will often revolve broadly around the intersection of political economy and political ecology. We will critically discuss such issues as the relational and intersecting processes of appropriation of nature through human labor, the production of space and social ecologies; appropriation of labor’s surplus by the owners of the means of production; and the relational and transnational formation of social identities such as race, ethnicity, and gender through a historical perspective both in colonial and post-colonial contexts across the globe.

Course Objectives:

• To introduce and debate the relationality among the labor regimes, surplus extraction, land ownership systems and the construction of various social identities along different axes of social difference such as race, gender, ethnicity, and nationality.
• To problematize and discuss the differences between, imperialism, transnationalism, colonialism, post-colonialism, nationalism, and universalism through a historical materialist framework by specifically examining class formations, land ownership and labor regimes in the context of the emergence and consolidation of European political modernity.
• To discuss how above-mentioned processes are integral to the production of socio-ecological environments various peoples lived in and the historical formation of contemporary globalized political-ecological issues.    

Course Requirements

Attendance and Participation (20%)

Attending the seminar: 1 point each week (14 Points in Total)

Attending the discussion: 6 Points in total

Inasmuch as you are free to come and go to our seminars as you like as free individuals, this course will evaluate your ability to bring your bodies and ideas into the classroom. There is a reason for such tyranny: The true gift of seminars is its collectivity, or what Marx calls “the natural advantages of cooperation” in the production process. It is in the classroom where we have a chance to express the way we read texts, hear others’ way of reading them, and challenge ourselves and our fellow readers in a fruitful collective environment.

Honest intellectual engagement in class discussions is, after all, the most challenging demand this course will impose on you.   

Critical Discussion Leading (10%)

Throughout the semester each of you will spin-off the in-class discussion with a presentation that should take 10-to-15-minutes. If the number of students exceed 13, this presentation can be done in pairs, in which case the two parts of the presentation should not exceed 20 minutes in total. You are expected to critically review the assignments of the week, lay down the main arguments and major points of discussion and put them into a dialogue with each other and the other texts of the syllabus whenever possible. Note that this excludes simple summaries. The primary aim of this exercise is to encourage you to construct a productive intellectual engagement with the assigned texts rather than being passive recipients. The experience from the past few semesters shows that it becomes very productive when you come up with critical questions derived from the text(s) to enrich your presentation. This enables us to pick up those questions to facilitate the discussion. When there are multiple texts in a particular week, you are expected to cover all the assigned readings and metabolize them in a single presentation.

Note that the presentations that are unable to lay down the main arguments and crucial points of discussion in 15 minutes (20 if there are two presenters) and take longer are subject to point loss. It is an important skill to be able structure your talk in a time that is allocated to you, be it 5 minutes, 15 minutes or more. It is possible to identify the main arguments and major points of discussion of any text in 15 minutes, unless you try to summarize it.   

Reading Notes (21%)

Throughout the semester you will write two-page response papers to seven weekly assignments of your choice. Each will account for 3% of your final grade. The principles of discussion leading applies to the notes as well. I would like you to critically discuss the assigned texts but given that you have two pages, you are encouraged to pick a point or two that you identify as interesting, important or vital for understanding the texts. You may again put these points into a dialogue with other texts of the course whenever possible. Note that this excludes simple summaries. The papers should be uploaded to turn-it-in until midnight on Tuesdays in order to facilitate the in-class discussion the next day. Since late papers would defeat this purpose, they will not be evaluated.

You should come prepared to make those points and be able to defend them in the classroom when necessary.

Term Paper (50%)

You will submit a final paper at the end of the semester. Your term paper topic is entirely up to you, i.e., you can problematize any aspect of this course, as long as it inspires you, be it theoretical/conceptual or empirical. You can consult me anytime if you are not sure how your intended paper topic could address the debates covered throughout the semester. No matter what your topic is about, I expect you to construct your research topic, produce clear research questions, which will then determine the literature you will review in order to situate your paper and your arguments. This holistic and relational methodology/epistemology will be part of our discussions throughout the semester, which will help you with the construction of your paper.

Your papers should be 15-20 pages. (Double-spaced, times new roman font, size 12.)

Academic dishonesty and the expropriation of labor of others in any form will not be tolerated. This is not because you have to respect the intellectual private property rights, but the labor of others.

Course Content

The course explores the relational and intersecting processes of appropriation of nature through human labor, the production of space and social ecologies; appropriation of the surplus created by labor by the owners of the means of production; formation of social identities such as race, ethnicity and class through a historical perspective both in colonial and post-colonial contexts across the globe.

Course Learning Outcomes

Program Outcomes Matrix

0: No Contribution 1: Little Contribution 2: Partial Contribution 3: Full Contribution