1. SOCI 2070 The West and The Rest
March 10, 2009

2. Today’s Class Review of Marxist Perspectives on Power
Stuart Hall and the Politics of Representation
The West and the Rest
Colonialism and Globalization

3. Today’s Readings
Robert Young ‘Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction’, 1-7.
Stuart Hall 'The West and the Rest: Discourse and Power', , 197, ,
Wayne Ellwood “Debt and Structural Adjustment”,

4. Capitalism, Class & Power
Through control over economic and political resources and institutions
Inequality
Due to exploitation through the system of wage labour
Class Conflict
Due to the social relations of the class system
Social Change
Through the emergence of working class movements (trade unions and political parties)

5. Capitalism, Class & Power
Marx & Engels: social inequality created through the class system of capitalism
Class is a social relationship
Class is the primary relationship of capitalism
And the central category for sociological analysis

6. Towards an Integrated Approach
Marx
Class power
Foucault
Power/knowledge
Smith
Relations of ruling:
Discourses AND institutions

7. Stuart Hall Interested in the politics of representation
How are social relationships and social phenomena represented and understood?
How do some beliefs come to be regarded as truths, as common sense, as ‘normal’?
How are they ‘effective’ (produce relations of power)?

8. Discourse Produces ‘meaningful knowledge’ Influences social practices
“a group of statements which provide a language for talking about (representing) a particular kind of knowledge about a topic”
“it also limits the other ways in which the topic can be constructed”
Stuart Hall
Produces ‘meaningful knowledge’
Influences social practices
Has effects: produces social relationships
Connected to power: not ‘innocent’

9. “The West”
Refers to modern, industrialized, developed, urban, capitalist and secularized societies
Represents progress, superiority, ‘good’
“Clearly, ‘the West’ is as much an idea as a fact of geography.”
Stuart Hall

10. The West helps us characterize and classify
a system of representation: conjures up images of peoples, places, and cultural practices
a means of explaining difference, of comparing
sets out the criteria for ranking societies

11. Produced and Productive
“We cannot attempt to resolve here the age-old sociological debate as to which came first: the idea of ‘the West’, or western societies. What we can say is that, as these societies emerged, so a concept and language of ‘the West’ crystallized.
And yet, we can be certain that the idea of ‘the West’ did not simply reflect an already-established western society: rather, it was essential to the very formation of that society.”
Stuart Hall

12. Colonialism Slave labour and gold from Africa
Practiced by Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, the Netherlands from the 15th century
Slave labour and gold from Africa
Sugar, rum and fruits from the Caribbean
Coffee, sugar,gold and silver from Latin America
Opium, tea, spices from Asia
Displacement and genocide of Aboriginal peoples in North America
Wayne Ellwood

13. The West and the Rest Orientalism
Failure to recognize and respect difference
Judge difference through European categories and norms
Stereotyping

14. The West and the Rest Era of European Colonialism Era of Globalization
Orientalism
The ‘New’ World
Era of Globalization
The ‘magic of the marketplace’ (Ellwood)

15. What’s Next Coffee and Power How can we develop a sociology of coffee?
What power relations are embedded in a cup of coffee?