Race, Faith, Nation, Class: Solidarities and Conflicts
Dr. Jane Adams
Race, religion, nationality, and class have all formed bases of collective action, charging peoples’ imaginations. Race calls on assumptions of biologically-based commonalities, religion on shared relationship to the divine, nationality to a common rootedness in territory, and class to a common economic status.
The historic period often termed “modernity” gave rise to deeply conflicting theories of political order. One strong strand was nationalism, built on a theory of the sovereign nation-state, based on solidarities viewed as singular in territorial origin. Nationalism frequently merged with theories of common genetic origin, glossed as “race,” and merged biology with locale.
Another strand defined people as members of economic classes. It claimed to be universal, built on evolutionary theories of global economic development. These two theories of social solidarity became dominant, fueling the major conflicts of the 20th century. As we look into the 21st century these forms of political cohesion are being challenged by solidarities based on religious identities that transcend national and class boundaries. These new social movements recall the period when the modern world was first being birthed, when religious enthusiasms burned in western Europe and the U.S.
This course will study relevant theories of social solidarity and of social movements, as well as addressing empirical case studies.
This course has four major aims:
- Develop familiarity with different theoretical approaches used by social scientists to understand social and millenarian movements.
- Become acquainted with selected examples of such movements.
- Undertake a piece of original research.
- Develop professional skills through presenting this research in a variety of professional formats and discussing and critiquing co-participants’ work.
We particularly seek to understand the contexts within which people feel impelled to create new social identities and solidarities. We further seek to understand the processes through which they create such identities and solidarities.
Note further that social scientific canons of coherence explicitly eschew moral, that is, prescriptive, explanations or aims, although many (all?) scholars are to some degree motivated by such aims, and all social research potentially shapes normative orders. Nor does social science include aesthetics as a necessary dimension of creating a satisfying explanation, although the notion of “satisfying” entails aesthetic judgments. Therefore, while our readings remain firmly inside the canons of social science, we will probe its limits and seek more inclusive, less reductive forms of explanation and/or representation.
This course is structured as a working seminar. Participants will be responsible for readings assigned on a weekly basis. Each participant will undertake a substantial piece of original research, write a 20-30 page paper based on that research, critique other participants’ work, and present a brief version of this research in a public symposium. The precise content of the course will, therefore, be determined by the participants, within the framework established here. We will generally discuss readings the first 90 minutes, and discuss work in progress the second 90 minutes.
Assignments:
1. Stay abreast of readings and participate in discussions. The first half of the course is structured around assigned readings. Some everyone in the class will read; others will be assigned to individuals who will write a one-page summary and be responsible for leading the general discussion. This means that everyone must be familiar with all the readings and be able to place their article in the context of the general issues being discussed.
2. Turn in abstract of research paper, Week 3.
3. Prepare semi-annotated bibliography, due in class Week 5. The bibliography should be as comprehensive as possible, and key references should be annotated. With a few inevitable additions, this should be your working bibliography for your paper. It should include both theoretical and topical citations.
4. First draft of paper due Week 10. Distribute to all members of class. One person will be assigned responsibility for writing and presenting formal comments on it.
5. Short (15-20 minute version, 8 to 10 manuscript pages) of paper to be presented at panel presentation during last week of classes.
6. Polished manuscript submitted to the Adams Journal of Social Movements. Due Wednesday Finals Week.
Make copies of all writing assignments for Adams. Your grade will be determined by your fulfillment of all these aspects, although the final products (panel talk and manuscript submission) will be given the most weight.
Books from which readings will be drawn.
Religion:
E.P. Thompson. The Making of the English Working Class. Vintage. 1966
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. (2 different editions ordered by bookstores) (1904)
Kenhelm Burridge, New Heaven, New Earth A Study of Millenarian Activities, Basil Blackwell, 1969 (op – order from used bookseller)
Worsley, Peter, Introduction to the Second Edition: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations. The Trumpet Shall Sound: A Study of “Cargo” Cults in Melanesia. New York: Schocken Books, 1968. pp. ix-lxix, bibliography. (perhaps—book not ordered)
Nationalism:
Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983.
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London: Verso, 1983.
E. J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Geoff Eley and Ronald Grigor Suny, Becoming National: A Reader, Oxford University Press, 1996.
Race:
Theodore W. Allen. The Invention of the White Race. Vol. 1: Racial Oppression and Social Control. London: Verson 1994
Class:
Gibson-Graham, J. K., Stephen Resnick, and Richard Wolff, eds., Re/Presenting Class: Essays in Postmodern Marxism, Durham: Duke University Press, 2001.
Overview:
Michel-Rolph Trouillot. Global Transformations: Anthropology and the Modern World. Palgrave MacMillan 2003.
Selected articles will be assigned as well.
Readings for Week 1: Introduction or first chapter to each book, with one student assigned to report on each Introduction
Questions to address in report to class:
1. Does the author/editor address contemporary issues? If so, how does s/he contextualize the issue with reference to current concerns?
2. What is the basis for the author’s/editor’s concern with the issue?
3. How does the author/editor define the issue? (e.g., through a historical narrative, through a theoretical exegesis, etc.)
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