Course Meeting Times
Lectures / Discussions: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Course Description
We are living in a time that has witnessed a cascade of political, economic, environmental, information, and health crises. Some of these crises have links to the growing economic inequality of recent decades; others have been shaped by, or have exacerbated, that inequality in profound ways. In this time of upheaval, there are renewed questions about how we think about the nature of the economic system—capitalism—within which we live. What are its benefits and drawbacks? Why does it garner both so much opposition and support? What are its moral, economic, social and political implications? Is it a “system”? How has capitalism played out in different historical moments and regions of the world? Is there something distinctive about our current historical moment? This class addresses the question “what is capitalism?” from a broad social scientific point of view (rather than a narrower classical economic one).
After grounding our discussions in the current historical moment, the class explores the ideas of a range of social theorists who have written classic, yet competing, accounts of capitalism. We consider the historical contexts in which these views emerged and whether or not we find them useful in the contemporary moment. Later, this class offers an “anthropological” take on capitalism, meaning that we read a range of ethnographic studies of how capitalism manifests itself in everyday life in different locations. Such studies consider how capitalism plays out among—and is conceptualized by—investment bankers on Wall Street, urban youth in Japan, unemployed factory workers in the US Midwest, political revolutionaries in Ethiopia, schoolteachers in Finland, and tech workers in India, among other groups. Students will write a final paper on a topic of their choosing that explores some dimension of these questions as it relates to our contemporary moment (possible paper topics and how to construct and write this kind of research paper will discussed in class).
Grading Policy
| ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Essay 1 (5 pages) | 20% |
| Essay 2 (5 pages) | 20% |
| Final paper (10 pages) | 40% |
| Oral presentation, class participation, and attendance | 20% |
For detail on the papers, see the Assignments section.
Required Readings
Required readings may be found in the Readings section.
Policy on Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is the foundation of all scholarship, because being able to trace how our ideas have developed in relation to other people’s theories, research, and evidence, as well as our own, is what ensures the soundness of our research. In short, university communities have a collective investment in ensuring that the practices of academic integrity are thoroughly learned and carefully practiced.
As members of this class and the larger scholarly community, you are expected to abide by the norms of academic integrity. Everything you submit must be your own work, written specifically for this class. While a good deal of collaboration is encouraged in and out of class, all sources—of ideas as well as words and images—must be acknowledged according to the conventions of academic citation. Willful disregard for these conventions—i.e., plagiarism—can result in withdrawal from the course with a grade of F, and / or suspension or expulsion from the Institute.
The booklet Academic Integrity at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: A Handbook for Students (PDF - 1.4MB) explains these issues in detail, and you are responsible for understanding its contents. You can also visit the Academic Integrity at MIT website. We will also work on citing sources in class and discuss ways to acknowledge them properly. When in doubt, consult with me or with the writing advisor.
Additional Writing Assistance
In addition to consulting with the class writing advisor, MIT students can visit the Writing and Communication Center at MIT which offers free one-on-one professional advising from published writers with advanced degrees.
