Syllabus

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Identity and Agency

Anthropology 259
Spring 2000

Instructor: Dorothy Holland, dholland@unc.edu
University of North Carolina
Place: Alumni 201A
Mtgs: Wednesdays, 12:00 - 2:50

This year's version of the seminar takes up issues of identity and agency in contemporary contexts of social change and activism. We will consider a variety of social movements, both reactive and proactive, in a world undergoing economic restructuring, governmental reorganization, corporate globalization, postmodernism and attendant changes in subjectivity.

Our exploration of identity and agency is framed by the works of Bakhtin, Vygotsky, Bourdieu, and G.H. Mead. The course draws together elements of these scholars' theoretical positions in order to address the social and historical formation of self and identity in the context of cultural production. Readings from two books--Holland, et al., Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds, and Holland and Lave, eds. History in Person: Enduring Struggles Identities in Practice--articulate aspects of this joint theoretical perspective, which might be called a social practice theory of identity.

Recent shifts in the conceptualization of social movements highlight the importance of identity processes. We will trace these shifts in the works of European "new social movement" theorists such as Melucci, of scholars of Latin American movements such as Escobar, and in "Post-Fordist" theorists of macroeconomic change, among others. Castells' The Power of Identity provides an overview of several movements set within his broad reading of "the network society." We will read his synthesis and several case studies with an eye to issues of identity and agency. Cases are drawn from a variety of movements, but concentrate on the environmental justice movement in the United States and indigenous movements of Latin America. We will also concentrate on the research (plans) of class participants.

Organization of the Course and Expectations:

1) Discussion: Participants will be expected to contribute to the discussion of the readings through preparing comments and questions on assigned readings.

2) Presentation: Participants will be expected to give a short presentation on their (plans for a) research project drawing upon course material.

3) Papers: Two short papers (3-4 pages) and a final paper (20-25 pages) are required. The short papers should contribute to the final paper. Each sort paper should be thought of as a section of a longer paper or proposal and should apply theory from the course to your project and each should begin with a one-page description of your (planned) project. The first short paper will address social theory/theory of social movements; the second, identity processes. The final paper will be either a paper or proposal addressing your project.

Readings: Copies of the following required texts are available at the Student Stores. Articles will be available in designated areas.

Castells, Manuel (1997) The Power of Identity. 1st ed., Vol. 2. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Holland, Dorothy, William Lachicotte, Jr., Debra Skinner, and Carole Cain (1998) Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press

Warren, Kay B. 1998 Indigenous movements and their critics: Pan-Maya activism in Guatemala. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Tentative Schedule

Jan 12 Overview and Logistics

Part I: Contemporary Movements and Conditions for their Emergence

Jan 19 Social Movements and Identities

Castells, Manuel (1997) The Power of Identity. Our Worlds, Our Lives; Chap 1, "Communal Heavens: Identity and Meaning in the Network Society." Chap 2, "The Other Face of the Earth: Social Movements against the New Global Order.

Melucci, Alberto (1989) New perspectives on social movements: An interview with Alberto Melucci. In Nomads of the present: Social movements and individual needs in contemporary society Pp. 180-232. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Melucci, Alberto

Melucci, Alberto (1988) Getting involved: Identity and mobilization in social movements. International Social Movement Research 1:329-348.

Jan 26 New Social Movements: New Movements in a New Era

Epstein, Barbara. 1990 Rethinking social movements. Socialist Review 20:35-65.

Calhoun, Craig 1993 "New social movements" of the early nineteenth century. Social Science History 17(3):385-427.

Alvarez, Sonia E., Evelina Dagnino, and Arturo Escobar 1998 Introduction: The cultural and the political in Latin American social movements. In Culture of politics the politics of culture S. E. Alvarez, E. Dagnino, and A. Escobar, eds. Pp. 1-29. Boulder, CO: Westview.

Darnovsky, Marcy, Barbara Epstein, and Richard Flacks 1995 Introduction. In Cultural politics and social movements M. Darnovsky, B. Epstein, and R. Flacks, eds. Pp. vii-xxii. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Feb 2 New Social Movements: New Movements in a New Era (continued)

Castells, Manuels (1997) The Power of Identity. Chap 3: The Greening of the Self: the Environmental Movement.

Castells, Manuels (1997) The Power of Identity Chap 4, "The End of Patriarchalism: Social Movements, Family, and Sexuality in the Information Age. (Read rapidly.)

Presentations: 3 (10 minutes/presentation)

Feb 9 New Conditions for the Emergence of Social Movements (cont.)

Harvey, David. 1992 The condition of postmodernity. Basil Blackwell.: Oxford University Press., Chapter 17,: Time--Space Compression and the Postmodern Condition, pages 284-307.

Jamison, Frederic 1984 Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of capitalism. New Left Review 146 July/August. Concentrate on Pp. 53-71, 80-84

Rosenzweig, Jane (1999) Consuming Passions: How the Successors to Love Connection and The Dating Game Reduce Love to a Consumer Choice. The American Prospect: December 6, 1999. Pp. 46-48.

Presentations: 3 (10 minutes/presentation)

Part II: Identity Processes

Feb 16 Social Practice Theory of Identity

Holland, et al. (1998). Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Chap. 1, "The Woman Who Climbed up the House." Chap 2, "A Practice Theory of Self and Identity."

Henriques, et al. (1984): From the Individual to the Social: A Bridge Too Far. In Changing the Subject: Psychology, Social Regulation and Subjectivity. London: Metheun. Pp. 11-25.

Leont'ev (1974/5). The Problem of Activity in Psychology. Soviet Psychology (Winter 1974-75): 4-33.

Bourdieu (1977). Outline of a Theory of Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 1-15.

Voloshinov (1929/73). Marxism and the Philosophy of Language. Part II. Chap. 3, Verbal Interaction, Pp. 83-98.

Presentations: 3 (10 minutes/presentation)

Feb 23 Semiotic Mediation, Inner Speech, and the Formation of Intimate Aspects of Identity

Holland, et al. (1998). Chap 3: "Figured Worlds." Chap. 4, "Personal Stories in Alcoholics Anonymous." Chap 5, "How Figured Worlds of Romance Become Desire"

Reinarman, Craig 1995 The Twelve-Step Movement and Advanced Capitalist Culture: The Politics of Self-Control in Post-Modernity. In Cultural politics and social movements M. Darnovsky, B. Epstein, and R. Flacks, eds. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Pp. 90-109.

Vygotsky (1925/1971). The Psychology of Art. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Chap 7, "Bunin's Gentle Breath."

Vygotsky (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Chap. 7, "The Role of Play in Development." Pp. 92-104.

Optional: Volosinov, V. N. 1986 Marxism and the philosophy of language. 1st ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, First published in 1929. Part III. Chaps, 2,3, and 4. Pp 115-159.

FIRST SHORT PAPER DUE!!

Mar 1 Semiotic Mediation, Inner Speech, and the Formation of Intimate Aspects of Identity (cont.)

Mead, G. H. (1913). The Social Self. Journal of Philosophy, 10: 374-380.

Mead, G. H. 1925 The genesis of the self and social control. International Journal of Ethics 35:251-277.Holland, et al. (1998). Chaps. 6, "Positional Identities" & 7, "The Sexual Auction Block."

Practices of Identification, Positioning and Embodiment

Holland, et al. (1998). Chaps 6, "Positional Identities" & &, "The Sexual Auction Block."

Adrian, Bonnie (1999) Commodified Love: Romantic ritual in Taipei's bridal photography industry. Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings. Chicago.

Aretxega, Begona in press Engendering violence: Women's Bodies and the Body Politic in Northern Ireland. In History in person: Enduring struggles and identities in practice D. Holland, and J. Lave, eds. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

Optional: Holland, et al. (1998). Chaps. 10, "Authoring Oneself as a Woman in Nepal"

Mar 8 Practices of Identification, Positioning and Embodiment (cont.)

Bourdieu, P. 1977 The economics of linguistic exchanges. Social Science Information 16(6):645-668.

Bourdieu (1990). The Logic of Practice. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. Chaps. 3 & 4 of Book 1, pp. 52-79.

The Space of Authoring and the Making of Identities

Holland, et al. (1998). Chaps. 8, "Authoring Selves"

Mar 15 Spring Break

Mar 23 The Space of Authoring and the Making of Identities (cont.)

Holquist, Michael 1990 Dialogism: Bakhtin and his world. New York: Routledge. Chaps 2 and 3.

Bakhtin, M. M. 1981 The dialogic imagination: Four essays by MM Bakhtin. ME Holmquist, ed.; trans. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press. Pp. 275-366.

Lachicotte, W.S. in press. Intimate Powers, Public Selves: Bakhtin's Space of Authoring. In Jeannette Mageo, ed. Poweer and the Self. Cambridge University Press.

Mar 29 Creation, Expansion, and Contraction of Cultural Worlds

Holland, et al. (1998). Chap 11, "Play Worlds…".

Holland and Skinner (1995). Contested Ritual, Contested Femininities: (Re)forming Self and Society in a Nepali Women's Festival. American Ethnologist 22: 279-305.

Gregory, Steven (in press) Moving People: The Political Construction of African-American Identity. In History in person: Enduring struggles and identities in practice D. Holland, and J. Lave, eds. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

Apr 5: Contentious Practice and the Space of Authoring (Resistance?)

Holland and Lave in press . In History in person: Enduring struggles and identities in practice D. Holland, and J. Lave, eds. Santa Fe: School of American Research Press.

Ortner, Sherry (1995) Resistance and the problem of ethnographic refusal. Comparative Studies in Society and History 37(1):173-193.

Brown, Beverly A. (1995) In timber country: Working people's stories of environmental conflict and urban flight. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Brown: Chap: In-Migrations, Timber, and Owls: Background to a Transformation, pages 3-36; Chap: In the Country, pages 37-82; Chap: Language, Complexity, and Power: Life Stories and a Community in Transition. Pp. 243-260.

Presentations: 3 (10 minutes/presentation)

Apr 12: Contentious Practice and the Space of Authoring (cont.)

Escobar, Arturo (1998) Whose Knowledge, Whose Nature? Biodiversity, Conservation, and the Political Ecology of Social Movements.

DeLuca, Kevin Michael (1999) The possibilities of nature in a postmodern age: The rhetorical tactics of environmental justice groups. Communication Theory 9(2)May:189-215.

Presentations: 3 (10 minutes/presentation)

Part III: Contemporary Movements and Conditions for their Emergence (Cont.)

Apr 19 Activism and Transformations of the Nation-State

Alvarez, Sonia E. (1997) Reweaving the fabric of collective action: Social movements and challenges to "Actually existing democracy" in Brazil. In Between Resistance and Revolution: Cultural Politics and Social Protests. Richard G. Fox and Orin Starn, eds. Pp. 83-117.

 

Schild, Veronica (1998) New subjects of rights? women's movements and the construction of citizenship in the "new democracies". In Culture of politics the politics of culture S. E. Alvarez, E. Dagnino, and A. Escobar, eds. Pp. 93-117. Boulder, CO: Westview.

Castells, Manuels (1997) The Power of Identity. Chap 5: A Powerless State? Chap 6: Informational Politics and the Crisis of Democracy. Pp. 241-362.

Alvarez, Sonia E. (1998) Latin American feminisms "Go global": Trends of the 1990s and challenges for the new millennium. In Culture of politics the politics of culture S. E. Alvarez, E. Dagnino, and A. Escobar, eds. Pp. 293-324. Boulder, CO: Westview.

Presentations: 3 (10 minutes/presentation)

SECOND SHORT PAPER DUE !!!

Part IV: Cases

Apr 26 Pan-Maya Activism in Guatemala

Warren, Kay B. (1998) Idigenous movements and their critics: Pan-Maya activism in Guatemala. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.De la Cadena

May 3 Environmental Justice in the Southwest

Pulido, Laura (1996) Development of the "people of color" identity in the environmental justice movement of the Southwestern United States. Socialist Review 26(3&4):145-180.

Pulido, Laura (1996) Environmentalism and economic justice: Two chicano struggles in the Southwest. Tuscon, AZ: The University of Arizona Press. Preface; Chaps 1, 2, and 3.

May 10 Final paper due!!

Copyright © 2000 Dorothy Holland