Tuesday-Thursday 3:30-4:50 Winter 2020
Social Change
v. 1-3-20; 5 units (80 students) INTN 1002
C. Wright Mills changing his oil
This is a course on the sociocultural evolution and historical development of human institutions and human polities. We will compare stateless, state-based and modern interpolity systems to examine the rise and fall of large polities and settlements and the expansion and contraction of trade networks – waves globalization and deglobalization. The evolutionary history of capitalist globalization and the emergence of anti-systemic transnational movements will also be examined.
Systematic comparisons are made among different kinds of interpolity systems (world-systems) with attention to quantitative changes in scale and qualitative changes in the logic of sociocultural development. General theories of sociocultural evolution and historical development are reviewed and critiqued. The dynamics of the rise and fall of chiefdoms, states, empires, and modern hegemons are considered. Earlier processes of pulsation in which trade networks expanded and contracted will be compared with recent waves of global integration in the modern world-system. And the possible futures that may emerge in the 21st century are discussed.
Grading is based on the midterm exam (30%) [February 6], the final (30%)[ Saturday, March 14, 3:00 pm], attendance (15%), and a short (less than 10 page typed, double-spaced) research paper (25%) [due March 5]. The midterm and the final will be in-class essay exams. Turn in a short description of your research paper topic on January 21.
TA: Armond Hardwick ahard005@ucr.edu
The following book is available at the University Book Store:
C. Chase-Dunn and B. Lerro, Social Change: Globalization From the Stone Age to the Present.
https://www.routledge.com/products/9781612053288
The web appendix to this book is available at http://irows.ucr.edu/cd/appendices/socchange/socchangeapp.htm
Readings marked with an asterisk (*) are required. Others are recommended. All required readings should be completed before the class meeting for which they are assigned.
Schedule of lectures and readings
January 7: Syllabus handed out. Overview of the course. Human history and sociocultural evolution
*C. Chase-Dunn and B. Lerro, Social Change, Preface, Part 1, and Chapter 1
Stephen Sanderson, Social Evolutionism
David Christian, Maps of Time
January 9: The comparative world-systems perspective
* C. Chase-Dunn and B. Lerro, Social Change, Chapter 2: “The comparative world-systems approach”
C. Chase-Dunn and T.D. Hall, Rise and Demise
January 14: Biological bases of sociocultural evolution and the Self as an Institution
*C. Chase-Dunn and B. Lerro, Social Change, Chapter 3 “Biological bases of sociocultural evolution” and
*C. Chase-Dunn and B. Lerro, Social Change, Chapter 4 “Building a social
self: the macro-micro link”
January 16: Hunter-gatherer world-systems
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Part 2: Stateless Systems, Chapter 5, “World-systems of hunter-gatherers”
Lynn H. Gamble 2008 The Chumash World at European Contact.
C. Chase-Dunn and K. Mann, The Wintu and Their Neighbors
January 21 Neolithic Horticulture (turn in short description of paper topic)
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Chapter 6: “The gardeners”
Charles C. Mann 2005. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus.
January 23:
Early world-systems in North America
* Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Web Chapter : “North American world-systems before the chiefs” http://documents.routledge-interactive.s3.amazonaws.com/9781612053288/9781612053288_online.pdf
Also on Ilearn under Course Materials
January 28 The Sacred Chiefs
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Chapter 7 “The Sacred Chiefs”
Patrick Kirch, The Evolution of Polynesian Chiefdoms
January 30 (Midterm Study Questions available on Ilearn) Early State-Based Systems: The Temple and the Palace; and Cognitive Evolution in the Bronze and Iron Ages
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Part 3: State-based Systems, Chapter 8 “The temple and the palace”
Timothy R. Pauketat 2009 Cahokia.
Guillermo Algaze 1993. The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Chapter 9 “Public spaces, self and cognitive evolution”
Bruce Lerro, From Earth Spirits to Sky Gods
February 4 The early empires: semiperipheral marcher states and capitalist city-states
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Chapter 10 “The early empires”
Justin Jennings 2010. Globalizations and the Ancient World.
February 6: Midterm Exam
February 11: The Central System and East/West Synchrony in Afroeurasia
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Chapter 11 “The Central System”
David Wilkinson, “Central Civilization” Comparative Civilizations Review 7: 31-59 (Fall) 1976.
Walter Schiedel and Ian Morris. 2009. The Dynamics of Ancient Empires.
February 13: The Rise of the West; and The Modern World-System
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Part 4: the Long Rise of Capitalism and Chapter 12 “The long rise of the West”
Janet Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony
Ian Morris 2010 Why the West Rules—For Now.
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Chapter 13 “The modern world-system”
Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World-System, Volume 1.
Giovanni Arrighi, The Long 20th Century
February 18: The Early Modern System in the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries: From Genoa to Amsterdam
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Chapter 14: “The early modern systems in the 15th to 18th centuries”
Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World-System, Volume 2.
Giovanni Arrighi, The Long 20th Century
C. Chase-Dunn. and Thomas D. Hall. 2011 East and West in World-Systems Evolution.
Pp. 97-119 in Patrick Manning and Barry K. Gills (eds.) Andre Gunder Frank and Global Development, London: Routledge.
February 20: British Hegemony and the Nineteenth Century Wave of Globalization; and The Consolidation of Individualism and Cognitive Evolution Under Capitalism
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Chapter 15 “The global 19th century”
Eric Hobsbawm, Industry and Empire
Christopher Chase-Dunn, Global Formation
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Chapter 16 “Public spaces, individualism and cognition in the modern age”
Alfred Crosby 1997 The Measure of Reality.
February 25: The Twentieth Century: Age of Extremes
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Chapter 17: “The 20th century age of extremes”
Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes;
Michael Mann, Fascists
Boyer, Richard O., and Herbert M. Morais. 1975. Labor’s Untold Story. 3rd ed. New York: United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America.
Hugill, Peter J. 1999 Global Communications since 1844: Geopolitics and Technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
February 27: Another Round of Hegemony and Globalization
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Chapter 18: “The world-system since 1945”
Brenner, Robert. 2002. The Boom and the Bubble: The U.S. in the World Economy. London: Verso.
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano. 2002. Unequal Freedom: How Race and Gender Shaped American Citizenship and Labor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hayden, Tom. 2006. Radical Nomad: C. Wright Mills and His Times. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
C. Chase-Dunn, "Globalization: A World-Systems Perspective" Journal of World-Systems Research, Volume 5, Issue 2, 1999, 165-185.
March 3: Late Globalization and Deglobalization
*Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Chapter 19 “Late globalization: the early 21st Century”
Arrighi, Giovanni 2008 Adam Smith in Beijing. London: Verso.
Davis, Mike 2006 Planet of Slums. London: Verso.
Moghadam, Valentine 2005 Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Podobnik, Bruce 2006 Global Energy Shifts. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Robinson, William I. 2014 Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity
Chase-Dunn, Chris, Roy Kwon, Kirk Lawrence and Hiroko Inoue 2011 Last of the Hegemons: U.S. Hegemonic Decline and Global Governance International Review of Modern Sociology 37,1: 1-29 (Spring)
March 5: The Next Three Futures (Research Papers Due)
* Chase-Dunn and Lerro, Chapter 20: “The next three futures: another round of U.S.
hegemony, global collapse or global democracy”
Warren Wagar, A Short History of the Future
Heikki Patomaki, The Political Economy of Global Security
Sylvia Walby, Crisis
March 10: The World Revolution of 20xx (Final Study Questions handed out)
* C. Chase-Dunn “The World Revolution of 2011: Assembling a United Front of the New Global Left” IROWS Working Paper #82 http://irows.ucr.edu/papers/irows82/irows82.htm
Todd Gitlin, Occupy Nation
Chase-Dunn, C. Five Linked Crises in the Contemporary World-System IROWS Working Paper # 83
Smith, Jackie, and Dawn Wiest. 2012. Social Movements in the World-System. New York: Russell Sage.
March 12 : Lyrical Upsurge
Saturday, March 14, 3-6 pm : Final Exam
