PLT4229

Abstract communities: from tribalism to globalism

Paul James

12 points
* 2 hours per week
* First semester
* Clayton

Objectives On successful completion of this subject, students should have a broad overview of the range of contemporary theories of social formation; they should have a grasp of the interpretative problems involved in understanding different forms of social relations, from tribalism to globalism; and they should be familiar with the current developments in the contradictory nature of political community.

Synopsis In the present period we face a tension between a tightening of global interconnectedness and a fragmentation of social relations at the level of face-to-face community. This subject examines the structures and subjectivities that both integrate polity and community, and threaten simultaneously to break them apart. It focuses upon practices such as electronic communication, monetary exchange and computerised production, while comparing them to earlier forms of exchange, communication and production. The subject suggests that understanding contemporary forms of polity and community entails making broad historical comparisons to radically different ways of living in time, place and embodiment.

Assessment Essay (6000 words): 60%
* Examination (3 hours): 40%

Preliminary reading

Featherstone M Undoing culture: Globalization, postmodernism and identity Sage, 1995
Gellner E Plough, sword and book: The structure of human history Collins, 1988
James P Nation formation: Towards a theory of abstract community Sage, 1996
Sennett R Flesh and stone Faber and Faber, 1994

Recommended texts

Kahn J Culture, multiculture, postculture Sage, 1995
Maffesoll M The time of the tribes Sage, 1996
Smith D The rise of historical sociology Polity, 1991