21A.461
What Is Capitalism?
Introduces academic debates on the nature of capitalism, drawing upon the ideas of scholars as diverse as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. Examines anthropological studies of how contemporary capitalism plays out in people's daily lives in a range of geographic and social settings, and implications for how we understand capitalism today. Settings range from Wall Street investment banks to auto assembly plants, from family businesses to consumer shopping malls. Enrollment limited.
Fall 2021
This course introduces academic debates on the nature of capitalism, drawing upon the ideas of scholars as diverse as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. It examines anthropological studies of how contemporary capitalism plays out in people's daily lives in a range of geographic and social settings, and implications for how we understand capitalism today. Settings range from Wall Street investment banks to auto assembly plants, from family businesses to consumer shopping malls.
Readings
- Rapacioli, Paul. “Christmas Lights, Riots, and the Fall of Utopia,” “Trump, Eisenhower, and the Values of Success,” “Refugees and the Alternative Media,” “Mutation,” “The Psychology and Economics of News,” and “Entering the Media of Post-Truth.” Chapters 1–6 in Good Sweden, Bad Sweden: The Use and Abuse of Swedish Values in a Post-Truth World . Volante, 2018. ISBN: 9789188659231.
- Otis, Cindy L. “How to Spot Fake News Articles,” “73% of People Say They Don’t Understand Polling, and Other Fake Stats,” “Your Eyes Are Lying: Spotting Fake Photos and Videos,” and “Memes Aren’t News and Other Social-Media Tips.” Chapters 17–20 in True or False: A CIA Analyst’s Guide to Spotting Fake News . Feiwel & Friends, 2020. ISBN: 9781250239495.
- Smith, Adam. “Introduction and Plan of the Work,” “Of the Principle Which Gives Occasion to the Division of Labour,” “That the Division of Labour is Limited by the Extent of the Market,” “Of the Origin and Use of Money,” and “Of the Real and Nominal Price of Commodities, or of Their Price in Labour, and Their Price in Money.” Chapters 1–5 in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: A Selected Edition . Edited with an introduction and commentary by Kathryn Sutherland. Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780192817969.
- Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto . International Publishers Co., 2014. ISBN: 9780717802418.
- Background reading (not required):
- Smith, Adam. “Introduction.” In An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations: A Selected Edition . Edited with an introduction and commentary by Kathryn Sutherland. Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780192817969.
- Bourdieu, Pierre. “The Forms of Capital.” Chapter 1 in The Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education . Edited by John G. Richardson. Greenwood, 1986. ISBN: 9780313235290.
- Ortner, Sherry B. “Reading America: Preliminary Notes on Class and Culture.” Chapter 9 in Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present . Edited by Richard G. Fox. School of American Research Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780933452787. (You can skip the section called “Point of Entry: Class and Culture in America.”)
- Polanyi, Karl. “Societies and Economic Systems,” “Evolution of the Market Pattern,” “The Self-Regulating Market and the Fictitious Commodities: Labor, Land, and Money,” “Market and Man,” and “Freedom in a Complex Society.” Chapters 4–6, 14, and 21 in The Great Transformation . Beacon Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780807056424.
- Recommended:
- Harvey, David. “Fordism” and “From Fordism to Flexible Accumulation.” Chapters 8 and 9 in The Condition of Postmodernity . Wiley-Blackwell, 1991. ISBN: 9780631162940.
- Harvey, David. “Theorizing the Transition.” Chapter 10 in The Condition of Postmodernity . Wiley-Blackwell, 1991. ISBN: 9780631162940.
- Aldrich, Nelson W., Jr. “The Composition of Old Money” and “Class Acts.” Chapters 2 and 3 in Old Money: The Mythology of Wealth in America . Allworth, 1997. ISBN: 9781880559642.
- Read two other chapters (your choice) from The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life .
- Session 21: The Financial Crisis of 2008
Fall 2013
Topics
- What is Capitalism? What is Anthropology?
- Competing Ways of Understanding Expanding Class Inequality in the United States
- An Ethnographic Problem: The Financial Crisis of 2008
- Nineteenth Century Political Economy
- Sociological Perspectives: Weber and Bourdieu
- Capitalism After World War II
- Theories of Capitalism: From Post-Structuralism to Identity Literature
- Capitalism and Globalization
- Contemporary Debates Over Capitalism: The Tea Party vs. Occupy Wall Street
- Capitalism Redux: History, “Progress,” and the Return of the Nineteenth Century?
- Social Class: Thinking Outside the Box
- Film: People Like Us: Social Class in America . Directed by Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker. PBS, 2001
- Film (cont.): People Like Us: Social Class in America . Directed by Louis Alvarez and Andrew Kolker. The Center for New American Media, 2001.
- Discussion of “People Like Us”
- Discussion of Old Money and Blue-Chip Black
- Capitalism and Its Others: Soviet-Style State Socialism
- Capitalism and Its Others: The Nordic Model
- Capitalism And Its Others: The “Third World”
- Inside the 2008 Financial Crisis
- Film: Frontline: Money, Power & Wall Street , Episode 1, April 24, 2012.
- Film: Frontline: Money, Power & Wall Street , Episode 2, April 24, 2012.
- Inside the 2008 Financial Crisis (cont.)
- Final Project Oral Presentations
- Final Project Oral Presentations (cont.)
Readings
- SES #: 1 · TOPICS: What is Capitalism? What is Anthropology? · READINGS and NOtes: No readings for this lecture.
- Murray, Charles. “Industriousness.” Chapter 9 in Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010 . Crown Forum, 2013. ISBN: 9780307453433.
- Smith, Adam. An Inquiry into Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (A Selected Edition) . Edited with an Introduction and Commentary by Kathryn Sutherland. Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN: 9780192817969.
- Book I: Chapter I, pp. 11–20.
- Chapter II, pp. 21–5.
- Chapter III, pp. 26–30.
- Chapter IV, pp. 31–5.
- Chapter V, pp. 36–44.
- Chapter I, pp. 9–21.
- Chapter II, pp. 23–31.
- Chapter IV, pp. 43–4.
- Weber, Max. “Class, Status, Party Weber, Max.” Chapter VII in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology . Translated, edited, and with an introduction by H. H. Gerth, and C. Wright Mills. Oxford University Press, 1958. ISBN: 9780195004625.
- ———. “The Spirit of Capitalism.” Chapter II in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism . Translated by Talcott Parsons. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958, pp. 47–78.
- Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time . Beacon Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780807056431.
- Chapter 4: Societies and Economic Systems.
- Chapter 5: Evolution of the Market Pattern.
- Chapter 6: The Self-Regulating Market and the Fictitious Commodities: Labor, Land, and Money.
- Laclau, Ernesto, and Chantal Mouffe. “Recasting Marxism: Hegemony and New Political Movements.” Socialist Review 12, no. 6 (1982): 91–113.
- Ortner, Sherry B. “Reading America: Preliminary Notes on Class and Culture.” Chapter 9 in Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present . Edited by Richard G. Fox. School of American Research Press, 1991. ISBN: 9780933452787.
- SES #: 8 · TOPICS: Capitalism and Globalization · READINGS and NOtes: Harvey, David. The Condition of Postmodernity . Blackwell Publications, 1989. ISBN: 9780631162926.
- Chapter 8: Fordism.
- Chapter 9: From Fordism to flexible accumulation.
- Chapter 10: Theorizing the transition.
- Standing, Guy. “The Precariat.” Chapter 1 in The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class . Bloomsbury Academic, 2011. ISBN: 9781849663519.
- Sinclair, Upton. “Introduction.” In The Jungle . W. W. Norton & Company, 2002. ISBN: 9780393977790.
- Chapters 1-4
- Chapters 11-12
- Chapter 3: How Working-Class Chicas Get Working-Class Lives
- Chapter 4: Hard-Living Habitus, Settled-Living Resentment
- Chapter 5: Border Work between Classes
- Aldrich, Nelson W., Jr. Old Money: The Mythology of Wealth in America . Allworth Press, 1997. ISBN: 9781880559642.
- Chapter 2: The Composition of Old Money.
- Chapter 3: Class Acts.
- Chapter 3: Public Identities: Managing Race in Public Spaces.
- Chapter 4: Status-Based Identities: Protecting and Reproducing Middle-Class Status.
- SES #: 15 · TOPICS: Discussion of Old Money and Blue-Chip Black · READINGS and NOtes: No readings for this lecture.
- SES #: 16 · TOPICS: Capitalism and Its Others: Soviet-Style State Socialism · READINGS and NOtes: Verdery, Katherine. What was Socialism, and What Comes Next? Princeton University Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780691011325.
- Chapter 1: What was socialism, and why did it fall?
- Chapter 8: A transition from socialism to feudalism? Thoughts on the postsocialist state.
- Chapter 1: The Metanarrative of Modernity in Ethiopia: 1974.
- Chapter 2: Revolution within a Revolution.
- Chapter 6: Marxist Modernism at the Ethiopian Center.
- Chapter 7: The Revolutionary State at the Grass Roots.
- Harvey, David. “Neoliberalism ‘with Chinese Characteristics’.” Chapter 5 in A Brief History of Neoliberalism . Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780199283279.
- Chapters 6, 9, and 15.
- Chapter 3: Dollars and Diplomas.
- Stout, Noelle. Close to Home: Personal Failure and Public Affect in the Mortgage Crisis . Paper presented at the American Anthropological Association Conference, San Francisco, November, 2012.
- SES #: 25 · TOPICS: Final Project Oral Presentations · READINGS and NOtes: No readings for this session.
- SES #: 26 · TOPICS: Final Project Oral Presentations (cont.) · READINGS and NOtes: No readings for this session.
- SES #: 27 · TOPICS: Final Project Oral Presentations (cont.) · READINGS and NOtes: No readings for this session.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-S; CI-H
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2021
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2013
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.