Power, Ideology and Inequality

This subject is not offered in 2014.

120 hours

Knowledge gained in completing one of the following subjects is recommended but not essential.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Growing numbers of political anthropologists are committed to exploring the ideological, cultural, and social means by which systems of inequality are created, sustained, misrecognized, and transformed by increasingly powerful resistance movements. Drawing principally on Marxist anthropology, political ecology, post-structuralism, and post-colonialism, this subject looks cross-culturally to explore the interrelationships between diverse forms and sources of power, the roles of colonialism and corporate globalization in configuring and sustaining local relations of inequality, and the rise of resistance movements that explicitly challenge exclusions based on class, gender, and ethnicity. Special attention will be paid to the effects of multinational corporations (via brand marketing, legal reform, and corporate social responsibility) on local power relations and patterns of inequality throughout the world. Case studies will be drawn from Latin America, Africa, indigenous Australia, East Asia, and Melanesia.

Students who successfully complete this subject will:

• Have a thorough understanding of the way in which anthropologists have approached political organisation in non-western societies

• Have critically and comparatively examined anthropological theories about the persistence of ‘inequality’ in a range of communities from Latin America to Melanesia

• Have acquired knowledge of the interplay between domination and resistance in the context of colonial and post-colonial states

• Have an appreciation of the ways in which the practices of multinational corporations are shifting local power relations and reconfiguring patterns of domination in the contemporary world

A 1500 word essay (40%) due mid-semester, and a 2500 word research essay (60%) due during the examination period.

Hurdle Requirement: This subject has a minimum hurdle requirement of 75% tutorial attendance. Regular participation in tutorials is required.

Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per working day. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

A subject reader will be available from the University Bookshop at the beginning of semester

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

Students who successfully complete this subject will:

• have practice in conducting research and speaking articulately.
• have practice in writing clearly in a variety of formats and reading with attention to detail.
• have experience of systematically evaluating a body of empirical data and identifying its theoretical context.
• have experience of methods of critical inquiry and argument leading to improved analytical skills.
• have acquired awareness of issues relating to cross-cultural communication.