Labor, philosophy, and change

Labor, philosophy, and change 2013-14 primary coordinator: Abhijeet Paul, SSEAS & Critical Theory abhijeet@berkeley.edu In 2013-14, the working group, Labor, philosophy, and change will continue to attract scholars from the fields of anthropology, sociology, philosophy, critical theory, film theory, and area studies. In addition, the group will host one talk, organize a mini-labor and philosophy seminar, and a mini-film event in 2013-14. The group aims to meet twice a month (2nd and 4th Fridays) at the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies Library in Dwinelle Hall. The broad working activities of the group in 2013-14 will be as follows: 2013 September 26 Vivek Chibber, Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital (2013) October 10 The National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (NREGS), a critical survey in two parts Discussants: William Stafford, Jr. & Abhijeet Paul October 22 Host talk by Prof. Kannan Muthukrishnan, French Institute of Pondicherry on Dalit literature and labor Title of talk: TBA Dr. Muthukrishnans institutional link: http://www.ifpindia.org/Kannan-M.html

November 26 mini-labor seminar, TBA (co-sponsored by the Center for South Asia Studies) TBA Kalyan Sanyal, Rethinking Capitalist Development: Primitive Accumulation, Governmentality and Post-Colonial Capitalism (2007) December 3 2014 January 30 Paul Bowles and John Harriss, Globalization and Labour in China and India - Impacts and Responses (2010) February 6 Gayatri Spivak, An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization (2013) March 6-7 mini-conference TBA April Labor and philosophy film event in collaboration with 3rdi and PFA (TBA) May seminar TBA

We aim to read two seminal texts of political philosophy: Kautilyas Arthastra (4th BCE)an ancient Indian Sanskrit text on polity, economy, and ethicsand Niccol Machiavellis The Prince (1532). The two texts raise fundamental questions about the individuals place in politics and economy in two different temporalities. What binds them together is their quest for the meaning of morality and ethics in the context of property, power, and polity. Especially, the question of state power and the latters
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relations with the individual subject, community, and society are considered important. Both works have contributed to centuries of work on philosophy, legal studies, governance, and political, economic, and social thought. To name a few, Marx, Gramsci, Kosambi, Arendt, Schmitt, Weber, and many others, were aware of both the texts. Max Weber, for one, thought that The Prince was rather mild in comparison to this ancient Indian treatise on governmentality, ethics, and power. Through a reading of these texts, we are interested to understand what it means to be a modern subject who must toil and work for an impersonal state, economy, and polity. More importantly, what forms of political agency does the modern subject have under severe constraints of the polity and economywhich often border on totalitarian forms of control and political behavior? The group meets every second Friday 4-6 pm, Fall 2012-Spring 2013, 341 Dwinelle (SSEAS Library) Required texts Kautilya, Arthastra trans. L. N. Rangarajan. Penguin, 1992 (preferably, R. P. Kangle's 3 volume work available from Motilal Banarasidass) Machiavelli, The Prince. Simon and Brown, 2011 Guest Speaker: Dr. Bhaskar Mukhopadhyay, Goldsmiths College, University of London Title of talk: "Taking Callon to Calcutta: Did Economist-administrators Make Market in the Colony? An Argument out of India" Date: Tentatively 9 October. Please watch this space for any date changes. Dr. Bhaskar Mukhopadhyay's The Rumor of Globalization: Desecrating the Global from Vernacular Margins is just published from Columbia University Press (2012). Link below: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-70292-8/the-rumor-of-globalization Pages to be read TBA. This site will be updated regularly. August 31 Arthastra, The Prince Introduction to the texts: radical political philosophy September 14 Arthastra, The Prince D D Kosambis notes on ancient Indian history and philosophy Romila Thapar on early India Carl Schmitt, Concept of the Political
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September 28 Arthastra, The Prince Weber, Economy and Society R C Dutt, Economic History of India and/or India in the Victorian Age October 12 Arthastra, The Prince Gramsci, The Modern Prince October 26 Arthastra, The Prince Marx, Grundrisse, Capital Louis Althusser, For Marx November 9 Arthastra, The Prince Michel Foucault, Hermeneutics of the Subject Alain Badiou, Theory of the Subject Slavoj Zizek, The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Center of Political Ontology November 23 Arthastra, The Prince Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition

Spring 2013 February 1 Arthastra, The Prince Gayatri Spivak, Critique of Postcolonial Reason February 15 Arthastra, The Prince Kalyan Sanyal, Rethinking Capitalist Development: Primitive Accumulation, Governmentality and Post-Colonial Capitalism

March 1 Arthastra, The Prince Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization

March 15 Arthastra, The Prince G. Aloysius, Ashish Nandy, on caste, nationalism

April 5 Arthastra, The Prince TBA April 19 Arthastra, The Prince TBA May 3 Arthastra, The Prince TBA