SRAP 3000 Social Theory and Policy Analysis

1. SRAP 3000Social Theory and Policy Analysis Dr. JanakaBiyanwila Semester 1, 2014

2. Course objectives • Social science, European modernity, the workings of contemporary society, and the development and implementation of policy • Key theorists, concepts, frameworks, • Social science – knowledge production, epistemology and ontology • Policy – state (institution); politics (representative and movement politics); markets, society, civil society

3. Course framework • understanding the relationship between theory and policy is central for developing a “good” society as well as an ethical life. • Why things matter? the role of values, reason and ethics, and concern with dignity in everyday life (Sayer). • As social agents • how do we respond to social conditioning, • what are our individual patterns of social mobility, and • do we contribute (or not) to social stability or change. • many actors in many levels (local, national, regional, international) and spheres (national/transnational, political, economic, cultural, social)

4. Content • Readings: • Michelle Dillon, (2010) Introduction to Sociological Theory: Theorists, Concepts and their Applicability to the Twenty-First Century, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford. • Andrew Sayer (2011) Why Things Matter to People: Social Science, Values and Ethical Life, Cambridge University Press. EBL eBook Library • Online material: • Assessments: short essay; long essay; tutorial presentation & participation • Reading & thinking critically; experimenting with substantive arguments

5. Globalization: Nation-State and knowledge production • In order to understand social policy & social theory (knowledge production) Globalisation – form and content of the world system – and the Nation-state (form and content) are significant • social theory – causes, consequences, reasons • Separation of facts from values – positivism, empiricism • Values prioritised over facts – social constructivism, interpretivism, hermeneutics

6. Social sciences & discipline • Disciplines that discipline – • anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, sociology, political economy • Humanities – art, languages, literature, philosophy, religion, archaeology, history, law, and linguistics • Feminist theory, cultural studies (media, communication, ethnicity/race, religion) • Positivism and social constructivism • Power & Knowledge (Foucault) - knowledge as power over others, the power to define others. rather than liberation a mode of surveillance, regulation, discipline. • disciplinary power, a system of surveillance which internalised (rationalised) to the point that each person is his or her overseer (self-governance). • Trans-disciplinary & interdisciplinary,

7. Reason and values (emotions) • Modernist Dualisms – is/ought; reason/emotion; science/ideology; science/ethics; positive/normative; subjective/objective; mind/body • Conventionalism and emotivism - • Aim is not to avoid evaluation of social action and the conditions in which people live • Evaluations are open to criticism and revisions; need not close down alternatives; should not be taken as imperatives, since there are feasible and less harmful alternatives; • interventions need inclusive democratic deliberation.

8. modernity (European) • History and geography of modernity – self-understandings of capitalist modernity. • Modernity – science vs religion ; secular state – aristocracy, theocracy ; • modernity – tranditionalism gives way; structure and culture enter a morphorgenetic sequence (Archers) • Enlightenment (1665-1774)– scientific reason + individualism • Transforming Master-servant relations based on status to contractual arrangements, with a sense of mutual obligation • Bourgeois individual – white, male property owner; hierarchy of species; women, working-classes, other races close to nature; scientific racism • Expansion of capital (european modernity) based on colonialism, slavery (1619-1865 US); • free trade in (black) bodies; Haitian Revolution (1791-1804).

9. agency • Agency (subjects & actors) - Socialisation to transform self & situation, not just learn skills to fit into roles/functions - tansformative praxis. • Agency – how individuals make a choice of role; interdependent on structures (& situation) • Corporate agency – through interaction with other collectivities it expands the array of available positions, agents become more articulate about their interests and better able to reflect upon their role positions • passive agents = oppose taking stances; things happen to them • Life politics, movement politics, representative politcs, participatory-emancipatory politics • intertwining of structure, culture, and agency,

10. Agency and action • Agents: • State, bureaucrats; • capital, TNCs, employers; • Workers – full-time, casual, unemployed • Youth – students, workers, unemployed • Women – • People with disabilities, • LGBT • Indigenous, • Ethnic majorities/minorities • Concerns – work; ecology; consumption; war; violence • Reasons for action : • Perceived / real interests • Conscious / unconscious needs & reasons • Consequences of action • Acknowledged/unacknowledged consequences • Creates conditions for further action (emergence)

11. social structure • Social structure (powers & conflicts) – medium + outcome of action; rules & resources • historically predating the interaction of human agents, which shapes their subsequent activity • social systems (organisations, institutions, cultures) as comprising emergent 'micro', 'meso' and 'macro' structures. • determine their respective access to material and cultural resources • define their objective social interests relative to other agents • structure are relatively enduring; shortening time-span ; individual flourishing requires more reflexivity; new structure and new agents; • Hegemonic Modernity - conflate effects of structures to agents ; • instituionalised individualism social structure of new modernity (Archer)

12. Globalisation economy, ecology, culture and polity • Globalisation – “expanding scale, growing magnitude, speeding-up and deepening impact of interregional flows and patterns of social interaction... shift or transformation of scale of human social organisation” (Held, 5). • Economy – expansion of markets (commodification) • national economic integration mediated through Global production networks: • flexible/lean production; outsourcing; off-shoring; • uneven and combined development of the world economy; • Accumulation by dispossession, new imperialism (harvey)

13. Globalisation economy, ecology, culture and polity • State - Liberal democracy – Neo-liberal (competition state) – • Marketisation of the state: deregulation and privatisation • Militarisation of the state – national security; border control • Key economic policy institutions – IMF, WB, WTO, Central Banks Treasury; OECD; ILO • Political institutions – UN, US, EU, G20; G77/China; Regionalism (APEC); Asian Century • Military institutions – NATO; US; private contractors • Key actors – nation-states; TNCs; transnational ruling classes; • Risk society – war & violence - securitisation – 9/11 war against terror;

14. Globalisation economy, ecology, culture and polity • Culture – • Dominant culture of competitive individualism and consumption , “a culture of enterprise” • Cultural commodification : tourism, Education, health, leisure, sports, arts • transcultural contacts , media, electronically mediated communication; visually-oriented global mass entertainment and advertising • cultural homogenisation; McDonaldisation, • cultural imperialism - racial slavery, colonial expansion, ghettoization, mass incarceration, overseas warfare, • intensified cultural hybridization, as well as ethno-religious, ethno-nationalist social movements

15. Globalisation economy, ecology and polity • Ecology - Resource intensive production & consumption • Spread of markets into nature & public commons; • ecological crisis; climate justice • Most effected – marginalised communities in the global South • eco-friendly (living well) vs eco-exploitative (eco-modernisation) cultural orientations • “The North's ecological modernising approach to sustainable development serves mainly to advance international capital, while, climate mitigation through market mechanisms and technology transfer imposes more costs than benefits on the global South.” (Salleh)

16. Global North & the South • global South relates to a strategic and theoretical frame, which highlights the oppression and injuries of colonialism and capitalism. • the South also exists in the North in the form of marginalised people, such as indigenous people, unemployed, ethnic and religious minorities and those injured by racism, sexism and homophobia • global economy represented as one of development in the South, “civilising” mission, • World Systems Theory – core, periphery, semi-periphery

17. Global south and Labour Global south characterized by a majority of workers in the informal sector and, a majority of 1.2 billion people still living in extreme poverty.

19. Growth of employment and real gross domestic product in developed economies, 1971–2011 (Percentage)

20. 62% of people below the poverty line came from households with social security as their main source of income, but a sizeable minority (29%) were in households with wages as the main income source. more than 2.2 million people living below the poverty line in Australia and close to 600,000 of them are children. (ACOSS, 2012) Australian Council of Social Service

21. Features • Principal entity • State • Capital • Production/ consumption • Markets International National economy welfare MNC - national location Centralised Fordism regulated globalisation Global economy workfare TNC - increased mobility Decentralised Post-Fordism Deregulated Globalisation

22. Society, state and government • Society – stratified and differentiated ; relatively enduring structures; transformed or reproduced • Polity – state; government, governance, civil society, democracy, social movements; NGOs, activist networks • State – a political community composed of citizens – nation-state; Sovereignty – independence; rule of law; • institutional complex of governance; executive, judiciary, legislature; federations - regional differentiation; different departments and tiers of the state • Government – political party in power; administrative structures; bureaucracy

23. Globalisation governments and governance “we have a system that might be called global governance without global government, one in which a few institutions  the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO  and a few players  the finance commerce and trade ministries, closely linked to certain financial and commercial interests  dominate the scene, but in which many of those affected by their decisions are left almost voiceless.” • Joseph Stiglitz, Former Vice-president and senior economist of the World Bank, (2002) Globalisation and its Discontents, p.22., Penguin Press: London.

24. Policy, politics, relations of power Public/private; production/reproduction .. • Power = many levels, many forms, varying degrees of intensity • social order - Creation and maintenance • social inequality- Universal and pervasive • Conditions for the possibility of social change, • Emergent powers of individual & collective • 2 dimensions of power: • Structural (social relations, institutions) • existential (sense of self, identity & agency) • Symbolic power ((bordieu) • Disciplinary power (foucault) Class, gender, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, disability, ..

25. Socio-political ideologies • Liberalism • Liberty – individual freedom • Humans as rational and self-interested; contracts • Classical vs (modern) welfare liberalism • Conservatism • Individual freedom subordinated to the community • Conserving the status quo; social order; acceptance of inequality; custom and tradition • Socialism • individual freedom tied with transforming class relations • Human as rational and cooperative • Feminism • individual freedom tied with transforming gender relations • Transforming masculine reason, emphasis on care and justice • Ecologism • individual freedom is entangled with nature and other species.

26. NeoLiberalism • Classical liberalism – protection of property, liberty of contract, the free market, and limited government. • Social liberalism – (minimal welfare) • Neo-liberalism • Federick von Hayek 1899-1992 • Milton Friedman (1912 – 2006) • “human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets and free trade. “ (Harvey ) • Neoliberalism is sometimes conceptualised as a policy paradigm; sometimes more broadly as a hegemonic ideology; and sometimes as a distinctive form of governmentality

27. Neo-liberal ideology • minimum state + markets = competitive state = deregulation, privatisation, reduce public spending (education, health, social protection) = efficiencies !! = economic growth = social justice “good society” !! • methodological individualism, an antipathy towards centralised state planning, commitment to principles of private property, and a distinctive anti-rationalist epistemology; • Competitive individualism • Identity-culture = “enterprising self” + “enterprise culture” • Consumer citizen vs producer citizen • Community – multiculturalism; difference not power • TINA compromise – there is no alternative :

28. State policies, limits, and resistance • Neo-liberal policy implementation - Pinochet’s Chile in the 1970s, Reagonomics in the USA in the 1980s, Thatcherism in the UK in the 1980s; • Global North - Anti-globalisation movement in 1999 at Seattle - environmental, labour and human rights, and more • occupy Wall Street (US); Indignados (Spain); Portugal, Greece, Britain, • Global South: Tunisia; Algeria; Egypt; Bahrain; Food riots; workers, women and student protests • Problems of redistribution, recognition, and representation • global social justice movement (world social forum) contends ‘another world is possible’

29. Summary: social theory and policy • Social theory shaped by specific historical and geographic context • European modernity – intertwined with a world economic system (capitalist industrialisation based on colonial expansion) • Deconstruct and reconstruct dualisms of fact-value, nature-culture, reason and emotion; acknowledge internal differences, interactions and overlaps • Theory – embedded in values • Policy – outcome of power relations; state, capital, representative politics, & civil society (social movements) • Knowledge production – instrumental, substantive, critical, emancipatory