With changes in technology, the internationalization of production and the mass live increase in trans-border transactions of all kinds, it has been argued that we live and work in an era of substantively different capitalism. Were this true, it has deep implications for politics and for political economy. This undergraduate seminar explores the validity of this claim of a "new capitalism" through a variety of materials, starting with the question of whether "Fordism" ever existed, moving on to the question of whether "Post-Fordism" exists and ending with a variety of ethnographic studies that show how global production chains shape culture, gender, and hieraarchy/power.
The Junior Seminars are intense writing seminars which focus on the research area of the faculty member teaching the course. The seminars provide an opportunity for students to have direct intellectual interactions with faculty members while also giving the students an understanding for faculty research
This junior seminar falls within the Comparative Politics sub-field , and can fulfill an upper division requirement for the major
Please write three (3) short paragraphs addressing the following:
- The reasons for your interest in the undergraduate seminar on Post-Fordism.
- Your background in general political economy and the history of industrialization. We will address these issues in class as well, but I am interested in what you already know, including whether you have taken PS 139B "Development Politics" with me.
- (Very briefly, of course): The number of courses you will be taking in Spring 2011 and your other time obligations. I ask this because this is a reading-intensive seminar that will require at least a full day of reading. If you have already enrolled in other courses, please list them.
Submit your essay to Suzan Nunes <snunes@berkeley.edu> by 8:00pm, January 4, 2011.
Political Science Majors of Junior and Senior status, with a minimum overall GPA of 3.3.
Students must place themselves on the waitlist through TeleBEARS. Selection and notification will occur around January 10, 2011.