For instructions on this assignment, click here.
Note that the presenters are responsible only for presenting
the featured book, not the weekly selection from John Scott's Power.
January 22
The military-industrial complex
January 29
Mills, The Power Elite.
Presenter:
Presentation topic:
Thesis: The theory of the power elite explains America in 2010.
February 5
Porter, The Rise of Big Business, 1860-1920.
Scott, Power, chaps. 1-2.
Presenter:
Presentation topic:
Question: In what ways did big business usher in the social structure of modern society?
Capital vs. community
February 12
Cowie, Capital Moves.
Presenter:
Presentation topic:
Question: What are the bases of capital's power over community.
February 19
Class cancelled.
Inner circles of corporate power
February 26
Benoit, The Best-Kept Secret.
Scott, Power, chaps. 3, 7.
Presenter:
Presentation topic:
Question: How do interpersonal scales of gender power support broader scales of corporate power?
March 5
Scott, Power, pp. 71-79.
Gerald F. Davis, "The New Financial Capitalism" and "Financial Markets and Corporate Governance." Chaps. 1-2 in Managed by the Markets (Oxford University Press, 2009).
Michael Useem, "When Investors Challenge Company Performance." Chap. 2 in Investor Capitalism (Basic, 1996).
Presenter:
Presentation topic:
Thesis: Investors are a potent force for reforming corporate power.
Neoliberalism
March 26
Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism.
Scott, Power, pp. 79-91.
Presenter:
Presentation topic:
Question: How is neoliberalism the economic ideology inconsistent with neoliberalism the political project?
April 2
Due: 1-page term-paper proposals.
Himmelstein, Looking Good and Doing Good.
Scott, Power, chap. 5.
Presenter:
Presentation topic:
Question: How do conservative and pragmatic strategies of giving reveal the two faces of corporate power?
Corporate social responsibility
April 9
Holliday et al., Walking the Talk.
Presenter:
Presentation topic:
Debate: Corporations and the market reforms advocated here can save the environment.
Historical fabrics of corporate power
April 16
Widick, Trouble in the Forest.
Presenter:
Presentation topic:
Question:
What is to be done?
April 23
Rushkoff, Life, Inc.
Presenter:
Presentation topic:
Question: