Guidelines for the Final Paper
Like the midterm papers, this paper will require an analytic discussion of texts and concepts we have covered so far. This paper requires you to focus on texts covered in Part II (Crafting the Global in Technical Realms) and Part III (Markets, Values and Capital).
As was true for the previous paper, this is not meant to be a research paper, but rather an analytic paper that includes a close discussion of the relevant theoretical literature discussed in class and shows how this literature can help us understand our contemporary world in interesting ways.
Please be sure to make a clear argument at the beginning and then systematically develop it through the course of the paper.
Option I: Choose a particular contemporary problem and use some of the literature we have read in class to analyze it. This topic would have to use the conceptual frameworks that we have covered in Part II and Part III of the course. Some examples could be:
–some aspect of COVID 19 (such as how lockdowns are instituted differently in different countries) that reveals how global and national governance are shaped within technical realms that are also simultaneously sociopolitical and historically shaped;
–the workings of a particular global sociotechnical regime such as TRIPS, or the Fairtrade certification system, or the international carbon trading mechanism, etc.;
–a close reading of Polanyi, and his concepts of enclosures, fictitious commodities, and double movement, to understand how Facebook monetizes social relations, or the political economy of intellectual property in vaccine development, or the emerging political economy of data, or some other example;
–a close reading of Marx, and specifically his anchoring concept of class as an analytical lens for understanding the growing drumbeats against globalization both within and beyond the United States, or how the gig economy “frees” the worker, or some other example.
These are but a few examples. You have many other options for applying the frameworks discussed in class to an empirical case. Do run essay ideas or questions by me.
Option II: Alternatively, you can answer a more specific question:
What are differences and commonalities between a Marxian and a Polanyian critique of capitalism/market society? Discuss these differences and assess the contemporary relevance of each in relation to an example. You might here draw on your own examples or on examples from the readings.
***Please make sure that for all assignments you provide a close, analytic discussion of the texts and read over and take seriously the “Notes on Critical Reading and Writing” included in the syllabus.***
Due date: The final paper will be due by 5 p.m., December 15th.
Length: The paper will have to be 2700-3000 words long.
Format: Please send the paper to me in MS Word format with your name in the title of the file.
Feel free to email me if you have any questions. We will also discuss the paper prompt in coming weeks.
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