Instructor: S. Gregory
We will explore contemporary theories and methods, as well as trace historical trajectories in anthropological engagement with regional trade, production, and labor systems. Many of the questions about globalization revolve around cultural confrontations and social, political and economic transformations. Observers of these processes in multiple disciplines attempt to answer similar questions.
How did trade systems transform production and labor in participating areas in other periods of history? How is identity reconfigured and manipulated in contemporary globalization? How are forms of identity commoditized and marketed in global transactions? What forms of resistance to globalization have emerged, where and why? How do issues of race, gender, class, ethnicity and religion intersect in global labor settings? How are sexualities, bodies and body parts implicated in global economies of consumption?
The anthropological encounter with these complex issues invokes particular theories and methodologies. Fieldwork, longitudinal engagement with issues and locations, multi-sited studies, and following commodity chains are some of the current methods used to uncover the voices and perspectives various actors bring to encounters. Selected ethnographies, case studies, fiction and other forms of media all explore the lived experience of globalized work, travel, and technological encounters at various sites of interaction.
