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| Semester | spring semester 2019 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Teresa Pullano (teresa.pullano@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | This is a reading seminar of the book "Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities" first published in 1998 by Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein. Forty years after the defeat of Nazism, and twenty years after the great wave of decolonization, how is it that racism remains a growing phenomenon? What are the special characteristics of contemporary racism? How can it be related to class divisions and to the contradictions of the nation-state? And how far, in turn, does racism today compel us to rethink the relationship between class struggles and nationalism? This is a classic book, completely transdisciplinary, bringing together philosophy, politics, social theory, sociology, history and political economy. Forty years after the defeat of Nazism, and twenty years after the great wave of decolonization, how is it that racism remains a growing phenomenon? What are the special characteristics of contemporary racism? How can it be related to class divisions and to the contradictions of the nation-state? And how far, in turn, does racism today compel us to rethink the relationship between class struggles and nationalism? This book attempts to answer these fundamental questions through a remarkable dialogue between the French philosopher Etienne Balibar and the American historian and sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein. Each brings to the debate the fruits of over two decades of analytical work, greatly inspired, respectively, by Louis Althusser and Fernand Braudel. Both authors challenge the commonly held notion of racism as a continuation of, or throwback to, the xenophobias of past societies and communities. They analyze it instead as a social relation indissolubly tied to present social structures—the nation-state, the division of labor, and the division between core and periphery—which are themselves constantly being reconstructed. Despite their productive disagreements, Balibar and Wallerstein both emphasize the modernity of racism and the need to understand its relation to contemporary capitalism and class struggle. Above all, their dialogue reveals the forms of present and future social conflict, in a world where the crisis of the nation-state is accompanied by an alarming rise of nationalism and chauvinism. |
| Learning objectives | This seminar has the following learning objectives: 1. In-depth reading and analysis of a classical book that renewed social sciences, history and philosophy in the last twenty years; 2. Collective discussions during the seminar about the concepts, arguments, background, methods and structure of the book and of its parts; 3. Analysis of a transdisciplinary work connecting history, sociology, philosophy and political science; 4. Study of the postcolonial and critical debates in the last twenty years through the text; 5. Analysis of key work on the concepts of Race, Nation and Class and of their interconnection in the present time |
| Bibliography | E. Balibar, I. Wallerstein, "Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities", London, Verso, 2010, reprint. |
| Weblink | Europainstitut |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Course auditors welcome |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
Modul: Erweiterung Gesellschaftswissenschaften B.A. (Bachelor's degree subject: Political Science) Modul: Erweiterung Gesellschaftswissenschaften M.A. (Master's degree subject: Political Science) Modul: Europäisierung und Globalisierung (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) Modul: Fields: Knowledge Production and Transfer (Master's degree program: African Studies) Modul: Fields: Media and Imagination (Master's degree program: African Studies) Modul: Transfer: Europa interdisziplinär (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective) Modul: Ungleichheit, Konflikt, Kultur (Master's degree subject: Sociology) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | The seminar is graded. The grade is composed as follows: 50% of the grade with continuous assessment during the seminar. The reading of the text will be checked and assessed at every session and it is compulsory, as well as the collective discussion during the seminar. 50% of the grade will be determined with the evaluation of two written essays to be presented during the seminar (dates will be indicated in the syllabus, but they will be around end of March and end of May). |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | 1-6 0,5 |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | University of Basel |
| Offered by | Europainstitut |