Anthropology and Sociology
Academic year 2021-2022
Global Capitalism, Precarious Labour and the Luxury Industry
ANSO144 - Printemps - 3ECTS Schedule and Rooms
Course Description
The luxury industry is one of the most powerful industries of global capitalism, both in symbolic and economic terms.
Images of luxury goods circulate all over the world through magazines, influencers and advertisements, producing consumption desires, gender constructions, and normative relation to the body. Behind this overexposed circulation of desirable imaginaries, workers, capitals and products circulate on a global scale. This course provides an anthropologically informed understanding of the luxury industry as a system based on the production and circulation of goods and imaginaries on a global scale. It focuses on the different forms of precarious labour that the luxury industry mobilizes within the logic of capitalist accumulation. It sheds light on the construction of 'luxury' as an overexposed 'dream' of contemporary capitalism hiding the dynamics of exploitation and precariousness embedded in the various sectors of its production. From a theoretical point of view, the course introduces students to the literature on globalization and global systems as well as the contemporary transformations of work and labour.
PROFESSOR Giulia Mensitieri
Office hours:
10 -12 am 8th April 10-12 am 29th April 9 -11 am 4th May
ASSISTANT
Esteban Ruiz Gayol Office hours
Syllabus
Teaching Method
This course primarily relies on academic sources, but also uses films, documents from the general press and NGO reports. In addition to the required readings, students are encouraged to watch films
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Classes will consist of interactive lectures, followed by student presentations on the compulsory readings, which should lead to a collective debate on issues of globalisation, luxury and work.
Course content
Session 1 – Luxury is serious matters
Session 2 – Capitalism and the body: work and values on a global scale Session 3 – Tracing objects, showing inequalities
Session 4 – Capitalism through luxury: bringing together the top and bottom of hierarchies Learning Outcome
By the end of the module, students will be able to:
1) Analyse, using the academic literature, the different forms of labour characteristic of contemporary capitalism.
2) Analyse situations, empirical material, or others materials such as movies, documentaries or images of the luxury industry through the theoretical tools introduced in class
Transferable, practical and generic skills
1. Refined ability to identify and access appropriate primary and secondary research resources.
2. Ability to collate and critically analyse those resources in relation to complex issues in the field 3. Ability to present concise and cogently structured arguments, both orally and in writing
4. Ability to work together with others as well as independently, including effective time management 5. Ability to deploy a range of communication and information technology skills.
Assessment
NB – Depending on the number of students signing up for this course, the mode of assessment may be slightly revised.
1) A 10 minutes individual presentation (or in pairs, depending on the number of participants) in class of a compulsory reading
2) A collective mapping of a luxury object More precisely:
1) In each course, students will present the readings, using a PowerPoint presentation (see presentation guidelines a the end of this syllabus). The presentation should open up the discussion on the topics covered in each session. The viewing of the films is compulsory and will feed into the discussions. The films could be freely linked to the readings presentation.
2) Mapping of a luxury object: students will be divided into 4 or 5 groups depending on the number of participants during the first class. Then I will assign 4 or 5 luxury objects to be traced and the guidelines for the final work. Students will go see and touch (if possible!) them in shops in Geneva and carry out ethnographic observations of the object’s surrounding environment. Students will then have to retrace the "life of the object" in question, paying particular attention to the forms of work mobilised in its production. Students will also analyse the media supports, the representations and the discourses related to the object on the brands’ websites and on social media networks. Are there any controversies related to the object and its modes of production (NGO reports, journalistic articles or other)? If so, include them in your report.
3) The data collected during this exercise will reveal the obscure sides of the global circulations of luxury goods. The analysis will mobilise the theoretical tools provided in this course in order
to highlight the global circulations of value and commodities, as well as the forms of labour and exploitation that produce them.
4) In concrete terms, the different groups will present their map during the 3rd session (28 April).
The map will take the form of a visual representation (PowerPoint or other) and a written document (around 2000 words) that traces the life of the object through primary sources and analysis.
Each group will have 15 minutes to present its work. Speaking time during the presentation should be equally distributed among group members.
Grade will be determined as follows: 20% for general participation in class; 30% for the individual reading presentation; 50% for the object mapping exercise (presentation, visual representation and 2000-word document).
Course Policies
• Papers should be written in English or French, double-spaced, using standard 12-point font, with 1-inch margins. The student’s name, the paper’s title, the date, the course’s title and page numbers must be mentioned.
• Quotations and bibliography must follow the Chicago Manual of Style or the Harvard Referencing System.
• Students must hand in papers on time electronically as a Word file (no need to provide a hard copy). Papers that are sent late without a valid reason or importantly exceed the word limit will not receive a grade higher than 4.0.
• Students who missed more than two classes without being excused by the instructor will not receive a grade higher than 4.0.
• Plagiarism constitutes a breach of academic integrity and will not be tolerated. Students who present the work of others as their own will receive a 0.
• Assigned readings will be made available as electronic reserve on the class’ website.
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Session 1 –Luxury is serious matters (7 April)
Compulsory readings:
Abélès, Marc. 2020. « “A mad exuberance”: The globalization of luxury ». HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 10(1):54-68.
Appadurai, Arjun. 1990. « Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy ». Theory, Culture & Society (7):295-310.
Rofel, Lisa, et Sylvia J. Yanagisako. 2019. Fabricating Transnational Capitalism: A Collaborative Ethnography of Italian-Chinese Global Fashion. Illustrated edition. Durham: Duke University Press Books pp.1-33.
Friedman, Jonathan. 1999. « Indigenous Struggles and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie ». The Australian Journal of Anthropology 10(1):1-14.
Qiu, Jack Linchuan, Melissa Gregg, et Kate Crawford. 2014. « Circuits of Labour: A Labour Theory of the IPhone Era ». TripleC: Communication, Capitalism & Critique. Open Access Journal for a Global Sustainable Information Society 12(2):564-581-564-81.
Session 2 –Capitalism and the body: work and values on a global scale (8 April)
Compulsory readings:
Anon.aa.vv. Aesthetic Labour - Rethinking Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism | Ana Sofia Elias | Palgrave Macmillan. pp.3-49.
Jarrett, Kylie. 2015. Feminism, Labour and Digital Media: The Digital Housewife. 1 edition. New York, NY: Routledge. pp.52-75
Mears, Ashley. 2015a. « Girls as elite distinction: The appropriation of bodily capital ». Poetics (53) Weeks, Kathi. 2007. « Life Within and Against Work: Affective Labor, Feminist Critique, and Post-
Fordist Politics ». ephemera 7(1).
Williams, Christine L., et Catherine Connell. 2010. « “Looking Good and Sounding Right” Aesthetic Labor and Social Inequality in the Retail Industry ». Work and Occupations 37(3):349-77
Film:
David Redmon, Ashley Sabin, Girl Model, Carnivalesque Films, 2011
Session 3 –Tracing objects, showing inequalities (28 April)
Compulsory readings:
Appadurai, Arjun. 1986. The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge University Press pp.1-63.
Jounin, Nicolas. 2014. Voyage de classes. Paris: La Découverte. Pp.75-113.
Newell, Sasha. 2013. « Brands as masks: public secrecy and the counterfeit in Côte d’Ivoire ». The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 19(1):138-54.
Stallybrass, Peter. 1998. « Marx’s Coat ». in Border fetishisms: material objects in unstable spaces., Zones of religion. New York. pp. 183-207
Film:
Stefanne Prijot, The story of a panty, Lea productions, 2018
Session 4 –Capitalism through luxury: bringing together the top and bottom of hierarchies (29 April)
Compulsory readings :
Mensitieri, Giulia. 2022. « précaires de luxe ». Communications. (to be published) Nader, Laura. 1972. « Up the Anthropologist: Perspectives Gained From Studying Up ».
Stryker, Rachael, et Roberto J. Gon. 2014. Up, Down, and Sideways: Anthropologists Trace the Pathways of Power. Berghahn Books. pp. 1-24
Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. 2015. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 109-135.
Loïc Prigeant, Signé Chanel, 2005
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Guidelines for readings presentations
General Orientations: Different perspectives on reading and multiple levels of engagement with the text
● Content: What is the content, theme, topic being discussed? What sets of issues does this piece of writing present? What types of questions does it ask?
● From the author’s perspective and interpretation: What is the author’s perspective and approach? What is the author’s question and main argument? What is the theoretical orientation of their study? What are the claims the author is making? What questions, ideas does this study illuminate or obscure? Within which historical context was this piece written? Which theoretical perspective?
● From your perspective - critical thinking, analysis and interpretation: What did you come away with from reading this piece? What is your perspective? What in this piece resonates with the topic of this course? How would you have approached this subject differently? What is your analysis of the author’s argument? What do you think is successful about this piece and what does it not do for you? What is your interpretation of it?
● Class Preparation: What questions and issues do you want to discuss in class? Why are these ideas important to your scholarly interests, the course topic? How would you frame your reading of this piece for class discussion? How would you frame your question in a term paper?
