320sp15weeks5and6
TRANSCRIPT
Globalization and CultureLabor and Consumption I & II
Weeks 5 & 6February 25, 2015
Marxism 101
● history & class struggle● proletariat & bourgeoisie● commodity● use value & exchange value● labor power● wage labor● surplus value● social reproduction● reserve army
David Harvey: Neoliberalism
Premises of neoliberalism as a theory:
● market forces will maximize human well-being
● for that to happen, we need an institutional framework of private property rights, individual liberty, free markets, and free trade
● the state’s job is to create and preserve that framework
Keynesianism
● Named after John Maynard Keynes● Keynes called for state intervention - especially
government spending during economic crisis to raise employment and stimulate consumption
● State has to balance market forces● Broadly, Keynesianism describes a philosophy
that is put in action as “social welfare state” policies
● Social welfare programs include state spending on schools, education, health, employment.
Redistributive vs Generative
Harvey argues that neoliberal policies have not actually produced greater wealth. Instead, the net result of neoliberal policies has been a redistribution of wealth to a smaller and smaller elite class.
Accumulation by Dispossession
On page 15, Harvey discusses Marx’s notion of “accumulation by dispossession.” What did Marx mean by that term, and how does Harvey update it for the contemporary moment?
Yellow Peril
What does this term describe?
How does the concept connect to the Ross chapter from Fast Boat to China?
Beneath the Peril
What does Ross argue the "fear of a Chinese threat" actually hides or obscures?
Supply Chains and Value Chains
Supply chain: how goods move from production to consumers
Value chain: where value gets "added" along the way
research & development > design production > marketing > distribution > customer service
Culture and Labor?
Ross depicts massive walk-outs in Chinese workplaces.
What is the common cultural explanation?
How does Ross explain it?
Social Reproduction & Mass Consumption
In a capitalist context, social reproduction occurs through consumption of commodities; this consumption invests some of the worker’s share of surplus value back into capitalism.
Mass consumption develops as a solution to crises of over-production.
Social Reproduction & Mass Consumption
Service Economy: Apple Store
Production & Service
What do Foxconn factory workers, “gold farmers,” Apple store workers, and the Thai clinic workers have in common?
Marxist Analysis?
What concepts from Marxist political economy do we see in these articles?
Marxist Analysis?
● surplus value● means of production● social reproduction● reserve army of labor● mass consumption● strategies for increasing extraction of
surplus value