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ANT 350H1: Anthropology of Work

University of Toronto, Fall 2011
Wednesdays 2-4 pm, MP 134

Instructor: Kori Allan

Email: kori.allan@utoronto.ca
Office Hours: Wednesdays 4-5 pm or by appointment
Office: Anthropology Building, Room 348

Course Description
This course uses ethnographic material to examine the ways in which global forces have
changed the nature of work in different sites since World War Two – North America, Europe, and
the countries of the South are selectively included.

This course begins (Part I) by examining the emergence of capitalist ‘work’* historically, paying
close attention to Industrial and Fordist modes of capitalism before moving on to examine the
transition to post-Fordist and neoliberal times in Part II. We will outline the central
characteristics of these paradigmatic modes of work, while also questioning their discrete
periodization. In Part III of the course we will examine the ways in which globalization and
neoliberalism have transformed work in a variety of areas, geographically, and across various
sectors of the global economy, through ethnographic case studies. Throughout the course we
analyze how economic and political transitions, such as privitization, variously affect regions’
integration into the global economy as well as change the nature of work and workers’ sense of
self. For example, we consider how work’s spatial and temporal dimensions affect worker’s
‘personhood’. We further explore how workers are regulated at work in addition to how labor is
regulated more broadly through labour market segmentation. We pay particular attention to how
labor is disciplined and divided through difference (i.e. cultural, racial, gendered). For example,
in Weeks 8-10 we analyze the feminized labor forces in free trade zones and sites of new
industrialization, in which stereotypes of women as docile and dexterous make them preferred
workers. We also interrogate the feminization of service work and of labour migration, which
are crucial to reproducing centers of privilege and power (i.e. in the North). We end the course by
contemplating the different forms of labour activism that are emerging in response to the
changing nature of work in the global economy.

*Although work and labor have distinctive meanings in theoretical literature, for the purpose of
this course we conflate the meanings of the two. We will discuss these distinctions in Weeks 1 &
2.

Readings
All readings will be made available through Blackboard or through short-term library loan at
Robarts Library.

Course Evaluation
Critical Review of Ethnography on Work 20%, Due: Oct 19
(List of ethnographies will be provided; 5-6 pages.)
Participation (blackboard & in-class activities) 10%
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Final Essay (10-12 pages) 30%, Due: Nov 30

Final Exam 40%, exam period

Course Schedule & Reading List

PART I: FOUNDATIONS - CAPITALISM, INDUSTRIALIZATION, AND FORDISM

Week 1 – Sept 14: Introduction & Capitalism, Labour and Work

What is work? What is labour? To answer these questions this introductory lecture will discuss
classical theorists to provide a conceptual background for the course: Durkheim, Marx, Weber
and others.

Week 2 – Sept 21: Industrial Capitalism

Thompson, E.P. 1967. Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism. Past and Present 38:
56-97.

Recommended:
Polanyi, Karl. 2002[1957]. The Great Transformation. In Readings in Economic Sociology.
Nicole Woolsey Biggart, ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. Pp. 38-61.

Week 3 – Sept 28: Fordism

Harvey, David. 1990. Chapter 7: Introduction, Chapter 8: Fordism. In The Condition of
Postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell. Pp. 121-140.

Nash, June. 1989. From Tank Town to High Tech: The Clash of Community and Industrial
Cycles. Albany: SUNY Press. Selections.

PART II: POST-FORDISM, NEOLIBERALISM, AND FLEXIBLE ACCUMULATION

Week 4 - Oct 5: Post-Fordism

Harvey, David. 1990. Chapter 9: From Fordism to Flexible Accumulation. Chapter 10:
Theorizing the Transition. In The Condition of Postmodernity. Pp. 141-188.

Kasmir, Sharryn. 1999. The Mondragon as Post-Fordist Discourse: Considerations on the

Production of Post-Fordism. Critique of Anthropology 19(4): 379-400.

Recommended:
Thomas Dunk. 2002. Remaking the Working Class: Experience, Consciousness, and the
Industrial Adjustment Process. American Ethnologist 29(4):878-900.

Week 5 - Oct 12: Neoliberalism

Harvey, David. 2005. Chapter 6: Neoliberalism on Trial. In A brief history of neoliberalism.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. 152-182.
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Tickell, Adam and Jamie Peck. 2003. Making Global rules: Globalisation or Neoliberalisation?
In J. Peck and H. Yeuon (eds.) Remaking the Global Economy: Economic-Geographical
Perspectives. London: Sage. Pp. 163-181.

PART III: LABOUR MARKETS & ETHNOGRAPHIC CASE STUDIES

Week 6 – Oct 19: The Character and Culture of New Capitalism & Finance in the ‘New
Economy’
*Critical Ethnography Review Due

Sennett, Richard. 1998. Chapters 1, 5, 6, 7. The Corrosion of Character: The Personal

Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism. New York: Norton. Pp.15-31, 76-118.

Karen Ho. 2009. Disciplining Investment Bankers, Disciplining the Economy: Wall Street’s
Institutional Culture and the Downsizing of ‘Corporate America,’ American Anthropologist
111(2): 177-189.

Recommended:
Ehrenreich, Barbara. 2005. Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. New
York: Owl Book.

Zaloom, Caitlin. 2006. The Discipline of the Speculator. In Out of the pits: traders and
technology from Chicago to London. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Week 7 – Oct 26: Disciplining and Gendering Industrial Labour in the Global South
Mills, Mary Beth. 1997. Contesting the margins of modernity: women, migration and
consumption in Thailand. American Ethnologist 24(1): 37-61.

Green, Linda. 2003. Notes on Mayan Youth and Rural Industrialization in Guatemala. Critique
of Anthropology 23(1):51-73.

Week 8 - Nov 2: The Feminization of the Global Service Economy I: The “High Tech”
Global Assembly Line
Freeman, Carla. 2000. High Tech and High Heels in the Global Economy: Women, Work, and
Pink-Collar Identities in the Caribbean. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Selections.

Patel, Reena. 2010. Working the Night Shift: Women in India’s Call Center Industry. Stanford:
Stanford University Press. Selections.

Week 9 – Nov 9: The Feminization of the Global Service Economy II: Intimate Work
Ehrenreich, Barbara and Arlie Russell Hochschild. 2002. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids and
Sex Workers in the New Economy. Pp. 15-30, 115-141.
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Brennan, D. 2004. Chapter Four: Sosua’s Sex Workers: Their Families and Working Lives. In
Transnational Desires and Sex Tourism in the Dominican Republic: What’s Love Got To Do With
It? Duke University Press.

Week 10 – Nov 16: Film Screening

*The Take (2004), a film by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein
87 minutes + Bonus Feature Short Film: “Gustavo Benedetto: Presente!”, time permitting
(approx 16 min). 2004.

***You will be tested on this film, so be sure to take notes.

Week 11 – Nov 23: Privatization and Post-Socialism

Dunn, Elizabeth C. Privatizing Poland: Baby Food, Big Business, and the Remaking of Labor.
Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. Selections.

Week 12 – Nov 30: ‘New’ Labour Activism

*Final Essay Due

Mills, Mary Beth. 2005. From Nimble Fingers to Raised Fists: Women and Labor Activism in
Globalizing Thailand. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 31(1):117-144.

Vosko, Leah F. and Jim Stanford, eds. 2004. Challenging the Market: The Struggle to Regulate
Work and Income. Montreal & Kingston: Mc-Gill-Queen’s University Press. Selections.

Collins, Jane. 2007. The Rise of a Global Garment Industry and the Reimagination of Worker
Solidarity. Critique of Anthropology 27(4): 395-409.

Course Requirements

(1) Critical Ethnography Review (20%): Write a 5-6 page critical review of an ethnography
from the list provided. These books will be on short-term reserve at Robarts Library. You may
also propose to review an ethnography of work not included in the list, but I must approve this
book no later than October 5, 2011. A brief summary of the book should be no more than one-
third of the paper. The summary should consist of a discussion of the author’s thesis and major
arguments. The critical review should consider the following questions: How effectively is the
thesis proven? What type of evidence does the author use? If arguments or perspectives were
missing, why do you think this might be? (See Assignment Handout on Blackboard) *Due:
October 19, 2011

(2) Final Research Essay (30%): You are required to write a 10-12 page research essay. A list
of topics will be provided. Alternatively you can propose your own topic, but it must be
approved no later than November 2, 2011. (See Assignment Handout on Blackboard). * Due
November 30, 2011
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(3) Final Exam (40%): There will be a final exam in the December exam period. The exam will
be cumulative, meaning the exam questions will be based on material from the entire semester.
(More details to follow on Blackboard.)

(4) Participation Marks (10%): Students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the
readings. Your participation mark will be based on a number of activities that occur in-class in
addition to attendance. Participation in the class discussion board on blackboard will also be
taken into account.

Submission of Assignments
A hard copy of the essay assignments are required and MUST be handed in during class or
during my office hours on the day it is due. It is considered late after 5 pm on Wednesdays. If
you hand an assignment in late, you must drop a hard copy off in the anthropology drop-box in
addition to submitting it to turnitin.com on the same day. This drop box is checked every day at
8:30 am and your paper will be stamped. The drop-box is located on the second floor of the
anthropology building. Since the anthropology building is locked at night, you are advised to
drop it off during regular business hours.

All assignments must first be submitted electronically to www.turnitin.com (before they are
submitted in hard copy form) in order to be scanned for plagiarism. Turnitin.com reviews course
essays for textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so, students will
allow their essays to be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database,
where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to
the University’s use of the Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com web site.
Should you not wish to submit an electronic version of your assignment to Turnitin.com, you
must consult with me well in advance of the due date to make alternative arrangements.

Late Penalties
Late assignments will be penalized at a rate of 5% per day (including Saturdays and Sundays).
Assignments will be considered late if a hard copy is not submitted on the same day you submit
it to Turnitin.com. However, if you submit your assignment on Saturday or Sunday to
Turnitin.com, you may hand in your hard copy no later than Monday.

Email Policy
You can expect a response within 48 hours (although I will usually respond within 24 hours). If
you do not receive a reply within 48 hours, please resend the email, as I likely did not receive it.
The exception is over weekends. You can expect a response within 72 hours over weekends. I
will only respond to emails sent from you UTORmail email account.

Please use email judiciously. Please make sure you consult the course syllabus and the course
website before submitting inquiries by email. Email should NOT be seen as an alternative to
meeting with the instructor during office hours. Ideas are best discussed in person during office
hours or by appointment.

Lecture Notes
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I will post my Powerpoint lecture slides on Blackboard. They are meant to act as an outline for
the lectures. I will not be providing detailed lecture notes. Accordingly, it is imperative that you
attend lectures on a regular basis and take notes during class. You are solely responsible for
familiarizing yourself with the content of all lecture materials; I will not email copies of
Powerpoint slides or lecture notes to students. If you miss a lecture, you must contact a fellow
classmate to obtain copies of the notes.

Blackboard
Students are responsible for checking Blackboard regularly for class announcements, a minimum
of once a week.

Accessibility
The University of Toronto offers Accessibility Services (http://www.accessibility.utoronto.ca/).
Students who require accommodation for documented issues should contact them as early in the term
as possible.

Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct

The University expects your work to be done independently. Plagiarism is considered a serious
academic offense and will in all cases be dealt with according to the Code of Behavior on
Academic Matters (http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/behaveac.htm). Please
refer to the handouts Academic Misconduct and How Not to Plagiarize, available on Blackboard.