January 7th, 2018

GINS 1020B - Week 1:

Ethnography, Globalization, and Culture

Introduction:
Proff: ​Luke Struckman
Office:​ Loeb A209
Office Hours: ​Monday 16:30 or by appointment
Email: ​lukestruckman@cunet.carleton.ca

TA: ​Sydney Reis

Course Outline:
1. Processes of globalization
a. Different approaches
2. Mediated or influenced through/by culture
a. Labour migration, commodity supply chains, racism, etc.
3. How can these phenomena be studied using ethnography?
a. Alienation vs. Conformity in society

Final grades will be based on the following:

a) ​Participation and Discussion​ - 10%
b) ​Reading Responses​ - 30% (2 assignments @ 15% each)
c) ​Midterm Examination​ - 25% (February 25th )
d) ​Final Paper​ - 35% (​no​ exam)

Emailing:
● Use carleton email
● Put ​GINS 1020​ in subject heading

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Globalization and Social Change

“Globalization” ​ is a trans-planetary process or set of process involving increasing liquidity

and growing multi-directional flow if people, objects, places, and information as well as
structures they encounter or create are barriers to, or expedite those flows.”
● Q: ​How is contemporary globalization different from earlier on?
○ Majority of population lives in urban areas
○ Biotechnology and genetic engineering
○ Transportation technologies
○ Electronic communication tech
○ Global environmental issues (anthropogenic climate change, pollution)
 January 7th, 2018

○ Global financial markets working in real time

○ Interlinked economy
○ Large labour force working in knowledge and information processing\
● Q: ​How is it the same?
○ Global north is still prevailing,

Culture in the Past

● Culture: collected, examined and observed (like an insect)
● Culture = people of colour, while “white” anthropologists were seen to be modern and
universal and lacking ethnicity
● Subjects seen as = ethnic or tribal
● “Traditional” cultures = static and unchanging
● Texts often composed of secondary sources

“Culture” ​ ​cannot be indexed in an encyclopedic type manner, it is practiced through the

means it is made, rooted in a particular place (but global processes can transport it and change
it). Conversely, global processes can have very significant local effects on cultures.

Q: how do anthropologists study culture w/ ethnographic methods?

● Focus on human agency rather than structural determinants of culture
● Record intimate details (everyday life)