ECONOMICS FOR EMANCIPATION PAX 692

Summer Peacebuilding Institute/SPI 2021

Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9-11:30 a.m. ET

INSTRUCTORS’ INFORMATION: Jonathan Donald Jenner (he/him) [email protected] +1 (540) 421-9648 (WhatsApp)

Francisco Pérez (he/him) [email protected] +1 (917) 865-1774 (WhatsApp)

Francisco is the Director of the Center for Popular Economics. Jonathan is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Johannesburg and an Assistant Professor of Global Political Economy at the University of Manitoba. Jonathan and Francisco met while working on their PhDs in Economics together at the University of Massachusetts.

Jonathan will hold weekly office hours on Friday, from 9-11 a.m. ET, held only when students email ahead of time that they would like to meet then (on Zoom). For those who cannot make it then, we will do our best to hold office hours by appointment on Zoom. Please contact Jonathan by email and we will arrange to meet.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is intended to demystify the economy and give students the ability to critically assess how economies can either perpetuate injustice or serve justice. In particular, we will examine capitalism from the lens of political economy and think about how social power functions in our economic lives. This course pulls from the heterodox tradition in economics and is structured as a series of workshops that explore Marxian political economy, economic history, and philosophy. We aim to develop analytical tools which serve the planet and people, with a perspective rooted in ecology and the struggles for liberation from patriarchy, imperialism, racism, and class domination.

This class is meant to have broad appeal to anyone who would like to sharpen their understanding of economics. As such, we do not assume any prior knowledge and will try to build up our analysis in class. We recognize, though, that some students may feel like we are moving too fast, while others will already be familiar with some of the topics we discuss. As such, we will make ourselves available in weekly office hours to go over some of the topics in class with students. Also, we will provide more in- depth readings on each topic, for students to pursue their interests further.

1 © 2021 by Jonathan Jenner & Francisco Pérez PAX 692 SPI 2021 COURSE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: By the end of this course, students should: • Understand and describe the features of capitalism; • Not be intimidated by the dense and often inaccessible language of economics; • Comprehend (and critically appraise) a range of economic policies and policy proposals from the perspective of political economy; • Establish a base of knowledge of concepts and resources by which to conduct further reading and research on topics which interest them; • Present problems with current economic structures and appraise alternatives;

REQUIRED TEXTS AND OTHER RESOURCES: Understanding Capitalism: Competition, Command, & Change by Samuel Bowles, Richard Edwards, Frank Roosevelt, and Mehrene Larudee Any editions (1-4) are acceptable. The book costs $90.00 new, ISBN-10 : 0195138651; ISBN-13 : 978-0195138658

Economics for the 99% by the Center for Popular Economics freely available online, here.

Each week will have required readings, which students are expected to complete before class. In addition, each class will have further and optional readings. These further and optional readings form the basis of the classroom content that we will teach, and we provide them here for students to optionally explore, should any particular topic become of interest to students.

Most reading material will be provided by the instructors. Where available online, the optional readings will also be posted (though not possible for books). Each week, each student will write a response paper, tying together readings with themes discussed in class.

REQUIRED ASSIGNMENTS: All students – those taking the class for 2 credits or for 3 credits – will: • Participate in a weekly online group discussion, responding to prompts on the week’s topics and to classmates, due Thursday of each week of class; • Write 5 (one per week) short papers (2 pages), responding to prompts from instructors on course themes, due Tuesday of each week of class (except the first week); • Write a 6-8 page paper, detailing how a piece of family history fits into a particular structure of economic history we have discussed, due on Tuesday, June 8th; • Make a short (10 minute) presentation to the class on a particular dynamic, its effects on people and planet, and possible alternatives, due on Thursday, June 17th.

In addition to the above, students taking the course for 3 credits will: • Write a longer (~10-12 page) research paper focusing on a particular dynamic/possibility of the economy that relates to your work. How does what you have learned in this course help you understand the obstacles you face in your work? How will you approach them differently now? Students may pair up with another student and write a longer paper on a topic they choose together. Topics and discussion with the instructors are due on June 10th, and the final paper will be due on August 8th.

2 © 2021 by Jonathan Jenner & Francisco Pérez PAX 692 SPI 2021 DAILY CLASS SCHEDULE: We will meet every Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for five weeks from May 18th until June 17th, on Zoom.

The themes and readings for each week are posted at the end of this syllabus, and subject to small changes before the beginning of the course.

SPI ATTENDANCE POLICY: It is expected that individuals registering for an SPI course will participate in the entire course (barring unforeseen emergencies). Please contact SPI directly at [email protected] before registering if you know you will have to miss any portions of a course. For-credit participants are expected to attend all synchronous class sessions unless they are given permission from the instructor to miss a session. SPI courses rely on active student participation in a learning community. If a participant misses class repeatedly and this disrupts the learning for others, they will be asked to leave the course and no money will be refunded for remaining course time.

GRADING CRITERIA AND OTHER POLICIES: SPI provides all students taking the course for graduate credit some supplemental information that will serve as a resource after SPI when students are working on course assignments. This includes information on library resources, EMU’s academic integrity policy, and guidelines for writing graduate papers, information regarding the grading scale and course deadlines, and then some suggestions we have for you in order to make your experience of taking SPI courses for graduate credit as successful as possible! These documents are all available online.

3 © 2021 by Jonathan Jenner & Francisco Pérez PAX 692 SPI 2021 Session Date Required Readings Optional & Further Readings 1. Introduction | Three - “On the Moral Grounds of Economic Relations: A - Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value: The Forms of Exchange | Maussian Approach” by David Graeber False Coin of Our Own Dreams by David Graeber 5/18/2021 What is an economy? - Europe and the People Without History by Eric What is economics? Wolf. Ch. 3 "Modes of Production" - Understanding Capitalism Ch. 5: "The Surplus - How Europe Underdeveloped Africa Ch. 5.1 2. Surplus, Modes of Product: Conflict & Change" "Expatriation of African Surplus Under Colonialism" Production, & 5/20/2021 - Understanding Capitalism Ch. 6: "Capitalism as an Capitalism Economic System” - Understanding Capitalism Ch. 14: "The Mosaic of - Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici Inequality" - The Rise & Decline of Patriarchal Systems Nancy - "Towards a Socialist Theory of Racism" by Cornel Folbre 3. Patriarchy, Racism, & 5/25/2021 West - Racial Inequality: A Political-Economic Analysis by Capitalism - "What is Social Reproduction?" interview with Tithi Michael Reich Bhattacharya - Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson - Europe and the People Without History by Eric -Global Economic History: A Brief Introduction by Wolf Ch. 7 "The Slave Trade" & Ch. 11 "The Robert C. Allen Movement of Commodities" -The Haves and the Have-nots: A Brief and 4. A Brief History of Global 5/27/2021 - Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert Ch. 13 “The Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality by Branko Economy Return of the Global South” Milanovic -The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi

- Understanding Capitalism Ch. 7 "U.S. Capitalism: - How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America by Accumulation and Change" Manning Marable - Economics for the 99% Ch. 3 "How we got here" & - Contemporary Capitalism and its Crises: Social Ch. 4 "What caused the financial and economic Structure of Accumulation Theory for the 21st Century 5. A Brief History of disaster" by Terrence McDonough and others 6/1/2021 Modern US Economy -Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy since the Civil War by Gavin Wright -The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward Baptist

- “Political Economy of Full Employment” by Michal The Worldly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner 6. Topical Explorations: Kalecki Government Spending 6/3/2021 - “Talking to My Daughter About the Economy: Or & Debt | History of How Capitalism Works—and How It Fails” by Yanis Economic Thought Varoufakis Ch 3-5, 7

4 © 2021 by Jonathan Jenner & Francisco Pérez PAX 692 SPI 2021 - Understanding Capitalism Ch. 15 "Progress and - How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Poverty on a World Scale" Rodney. Ch. 6 "Colonialism as a System for - Monthly Review: "What Every Environmentalist Underdeveloping Africa" Needs to know about Capitalism" - The Law of Worldwide Value by Samir Amin. 7. Dependency, - The Haves and the Have-nots: A Brief and Development, and 6/8/2021 Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality by Branko Climate Change Milanovic Vignette 2.1 "Why Was Marx Led Astray?" pp 109-114, 2.2 "How Unequal is Today's World?" pp. 115-119, 2.3 "How Much of Your Income is Determined at Birth"? pp120-124 - "Why Socialism" by Albert Einstein - Envisioning Real Utopias by Erik Olin Wright - Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism by - Cuba Since the Revolution of 1959: A Critical Richard Wolff Assessment by Samuel Farber. - Changing Venezuela by taking power: the history - Parecon: Life After Capitalism by Michael Albert 8. Flavors of Socialism & and policies of the Chavez government by Gregory - After Capitalism by David Schweickart Strategies for 6/10/2021 Wilpert. Appendix: "What is 21st Century - The Contradictions of “Real Socialism”: The Transformation Socialism?" pp 237-266 Conductor and the Conducted by Michael Lebowitz. - The Haves and the Have-nots: A Brief and - Ours to Master and to Own: Workers' Councils from Idiosyncratic History of Global Inequality by Branko the Commune to the Present by Immanuel Ness & Milanovic Vignette 1.5 "Was Socialism Egalitarian?" Dario Azzellini. pp 53-60 - "Forty Acres and a Mule in the 21st Century" by - From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black William A Darrity Americans in the 21st Century by William A Darrity Jr. 9. Reparations & - “From Redistribution to Recognition? Dilemmas of & A. Kirsten Mullen Intersectional 6/15/2021 Justice in a ‘Post-Socialist’ Age.” By Nancy Fraser Movements for Social - Mistaken Identity: Race and Class in the Age of Justice Trump by Asad Haider. Ch 1 "Identity Politics" Ch 3 "Racial Ideology" 10. Review & Closing 6/17/2021 - Prepare for Presentations

5 © 2021 by Jonathan Jenner & Francisco Pérez PAX 692 SPI 2021