Spaces, Movements, Identities. Fall 1998. B. Ricardo Brown, Ph.D.


NODE.801 Obsolete Syllabus B. Ricardo Brown, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Cultural Studies Pratt Institute BRBrownIII@earthlink.net Retrurn to the Course Materials Page

Spaces, Movements, Identities
Pratt Institute Fall 1998 Tuesday 2-4:30 North Hall, 112
Instructors: William Menking and B. Ricardo Brown

B. Ricardo Brown, Ph.D.
Department of Social Science & Cultural Studies
Office: Dekalb 419
Office Phone: 1.718.636.3567, ext. 2709
Office Hours: Monday 1:00pm-1:55pm and 4:30pm-5:30pm,
    Tuesday 1:00pm-1:55pm and by appointment
Email: brbrowniii@earthlink.com
URL: http://www.geocities.com/brbgc
Blog: http://node801.blogspot.com
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__Course Description__

With the Cold War and its aftermath an implicit subtext, various commentators have described the “postmodern” moment as being constituted by tremendous changes in three areas: Space, New Social Movements, and Identity. Space and the City: the postmodern world is characterized by the globalization of American culture and the spatial reordering of the social relations of capital. Movements: resistance no longer takes the form of the demand for economic redistribution. Instead, “new social movements” demand new genres de vie, or modes of life, which are explicitly tied to a politics of the everyday. Identities: the end of the colonial period and the successes of the American Civil Rights Movement have occasioned the emancipation of identity which characterize the postmodern as a time of “new subjectivities.” This passage from colonial to neo-colonial subjectivities has occasioned the rise of multiculturalism at the boundaries and New Social Movements at the centers of social conflict. Some of these are progressive and some are not, but all are related to new social conflicts and new spaces of resistance which have the everyday and the body as important points of resistance. These changes affect both the Left and the Right, and are vital to our understanding of the contemporary period.

This course will interrogate these three notions of the present. We will concentrate on some of the most important contemporary writings on space, new social movements, identity, and the body. The texts will be drawn from sociology, geography, architecture, cultural studies, gender and feminism. Always on the agenda will be the question of power, how it is to be conceived, questioned, desired, and resisted.

__Course Requirements__

The class will divide in three study groups on each of the three areas. These groups and their assigned readings will be selected in the first class.

Each group is to prepare an in-class presentation on their topic. The presentation is expected to serve as the basis for individual final papers (see below). Participation, being necessary for your effective engagement with the readings and for others in the class to learn from your experiences and views, is mandatory (20% of grade). Everyone in the class will be responsible for weekly readings of the on assigned texts. It is important that these texts be read closely and completely. Seminars can only be successful when
everyone reads the text. It is more important that each chapter be read to its conclusion than every idea is understood in its entirety. (20% of grade)

Cultural theory is deliberately interdisciplinary in nature, preferring to look at crossovers and reciprocal influences between academic activities, rather than limiting itself to traditional subject domains. Its practice is largely critical in intent, and its primary focus is on new or developing aspects of economic and social life such as the mass media, information technology and the formation of mass markets of urban consumption. Further,
this course will operate as a platform for engaging the urban laboratory of New York City and with this in mind we ask each student to present a particular event ( Museum exhibition, political demonstration, symposium, etc.) taking place in the city this term. In the first class we will discuss this requirement in more depth (10% of grade).

A term paper on a text that focuses on issues presented in the group presentation. It is hoped that each book report will be concise, conceptual and reflect the ideas of discussed in the seminar. A one page description of this term project should be submitted at the end of session six. This report must be at least 14 pages in length, have a bibliography and
footnotes or endnotes and must follow standard term paper format (Ex. Chicago Manual of Style) (50% of grade).

Internet access for email and the WWW is strongly suggested.

For stylistic questions, William Strunk and E.B. White’s Elements of style is highly recommended.

__Texts__

Stanley Aronowitz, Death and Rebirth of American Radicalism
Hakim Bey, T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological Anarchy, Poetic     Terrorism
Manual Castells, The Informational City
Gilles Deleuze, “Societies of Control” from Interrogations
John D’Emilio, “Capitalism and Gay Identity”
Amitai Etzioni, William Galston, and Mary Ann Glendon Communitarian Manifesto
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality
Stuart Hall, “What is this ‘Black’ in Black Popular Culture”
Nancy Hartsock, “Foucault on Power: A Theory for Women”
Christine Holbo, “Euthenic America: Hygiene, Habitation and Americanization,     1880-1920”
Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space
Doreen Massey, “Politics and Space/Time,” in Space, Place, and Gender
Melucci, Alberto. "The New Social Movements: A Theoretical Approach." Social     Science Information 19 (1980) 199-226
____________ "The Symbolic Challenge of Contemporary Movements " Social     Research 52 (winter 1985) 789-816
Aldon Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller, New Frontiers in Social Movement Theory
Toni Negri & Felix Guattari, Communists Like Us
Francis F. Piven and Richard Cloward, Poor People’s Movements
Paul Routledge, “The Imagineering of Resistance” Transactions of the Institute of British     Geography, 22:359-376.
Cornel West, “The New Cultural Politics of Difference”
Iris Marion Young, “The Ideal of Community and the Politics of Difference”

__Course Outline__

The Foundations of Critical Theory

Session One
Introduction to the Course

Session Two
Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, “The Culture Industry as Mass Deception” from     Dialectic of Enlightenment
Michel Foucault, “What is an Author?”
Stanley Aronowitz, “The Death of the Left”

Space and the City

Session Three
Lewis Mumford, “Architecture and Civilization,” pgs. 91-113 in Sticks and Stones: A     Study of American Architecture and Civilization
Christine Holbo, “Euthenic America: Hygiene, Habitation and Americanization,     1880-1920”

Session Four
Henri Lefebvre, “Openings and Conclusions,” pgs. 401-424 in The Production of Space
Doreen Massey, “Politics and Space/Time,” in Space, Place, and Gender, pgs. 249-272     and in the New left Review, n.195, pgs. 65-84.

Session Five
Manual Castells, The Informational City, pgs 7-32, 172-228, and 348-353.
Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on the Societies of Control,” from Interrogations.

New Social Movements

Session Six
Francis F. Piven and Richard Cloward, “The Structuring of Protest,” from Poor People’s     Movements, pgs. 1-40.
David A. Snow and Robert D. Benford “Master Frames and Cycles of Protest”, pgs.     133-155 in Aldon Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller New Frontiers in Social     Movement Theory.
Aldon Morris “Political Consciousness and Collective Action”, pgs. 351-375 in Aldon     Morris and Carol McClurg Mueller New Frontiers in Social Movement Theory.

Session Seven
Melucci, Alberto, "The New Social Movements: A Theoretical Approach." Social     Science Information, pgs. 199-226.
______________. "The Symbolic Challenge of Contemporary Movements " Social     Research, pgs. 789-816.
Paul Routledge 1997. “The Imagineering of Resistance” Transactions of the Institute of     British Geography, 22:359-376.

Session Eight
Iris Marion Young “The Ideal of Community and the Politics of Difference”
Amitai Etzioni, William Galston, and Mary Ann Glendon Communitarian Manifesto

Session Nine
Stanley Aronowitz, “The Situation of the Left in the United States,” pgs. 91-125 in The     Death and Rebirth of American Radicalism.
Hakim Bey, T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone, Ontological anarchy, Poetic     Terrorism

Identity

Session Ten
Stuart Hall, “What is this ‘Black’ in Black Popular Culture?”
Cornel West, “The New Cultural Politics of Difference?”

Session Eleven
John D’Emilio “Capitalism and Gay Identity”
Michel Foucault The History of Sexuality

Session Twelve
Michel Foucault The History of Sexuality
Nancy Hartsock “Foucault on Power: A Theory for Women”

Session Thirteen
Toni Negri & Felix Guattari Communists Like Us
Stanley Aronowitz “Towards a Politics of Alternatives,” pgs.145-198 in The Death and     Rebirth of American Radicalism

Session Fourteen
Review