Community Studies - Winter 1998

Community Studies 142, - "Introduction to Marxism"

Instructor: Mike Rotkin, UCSC

1. I. INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE AND EACH OTHER
   1. People's backgrounds, interests, and conception of Marxism
   2. Structure of the class, projects, or work groups, expectations, etc.
      "Leading a Discussion for Class" (in Reader)
      "Some Comments and Ideas on Group Dynamics and Facilitating Discussions" (in Reader)
      "Combat Liberalism" (in Reader)
      Paulo Freire, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" (in Reader)
   3. Recommended: David McLellan, "The Life of Karl Marx" (in Reader)
      Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 1
      Priscilla Robertson, Revolutions of 1848 (on Reserve)
2. II. DIALECTICAL-HISTORICAL MATERIALISM (Marx's Method)
   1. Lecture on Hegel and Feuerbach
      Recommended: Howard Sherman, "Dialectics as a Method" (in Reader)
      Richard Lichtman, "Notes on the Dialectic in Hegel and Marx" (in Reader)
      John Judis, "The Personal and the Political" (on Reserve)
   2. [The material under II.B. is broken up into logical little chunks for reading and to assign responsibility for facilitating discussions. Start by reading: "Notes on Reading the Theses on Feuerback" (in Reader)]
      1. Theses on Feuerbach I through IV in K.M. pp. 156-7. (4 different people)
      2. "Introduction to the Critique of Hegel's Philosopy of Right," in K.M. pp. 63-4 (up to "...the following exposition.") Read this in relationship to the 4th Thesis on Feuerbach.
      3. Theses on Feuerbach V through VIII and XI in K.M. pp. 157-8. (5 diff. people)
      4. "Historical Materialism" (in Reader). Don't discuss this unless people have questions but read it as preparation for the German Ideology readings.
      5. Preface to the German Ideology in K.M. pp. 159-160 and (the following section originally followed the three dots on p. 160 and was exerpted by McLellan, but we should read it, so it is in the Reader): "Feuerbach: Opposition of the Materialistic and Idealistic Outlook"
      6. p. 160 ("The Premises of the Materialist Method") to p. 161 ("The relations of the different nations...")
      7. from where 6) ends to p. 161 ("The various stages of development..."
      8. from where 7) ends to the bottom of p. 163. (Remember in leading this discussion to get out the basic idea of the relationship between ownership and the division of labor and not get lost in details about each of the three "stages" Marx and Engels are discussing.)
      9. from the top of p. 164 to the double space in the page on p. 165.
      10. Read to prepare for the following section, but do not discuss in class: O'Connor, "The Need for Production and the Production of Needs" (in the Reader).
      11. from where 9) ends (on p. 165) to the break in the page on p. 168.

      Recommended: The Capitalist System, Chapter 2, (on Reserve)
      K.M., pp. 171-176 and other selections from Part II
      Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13, & 14

3. III. ALIENATION
   1. Alienation and Labor" (in Reader)
      Mandel, "The Causes of Alienation" (in Reader)
      Alienated Labor in K.M., pp. 77-87
      Barbara Garson, All the Livelong Day
   2. The German Ideology in K.M., pp. 168-171 and 179-182
      "On Free Human Production" (in Reader)
      
      Recommended: Andre Gorz, selection from Critique of Economic Reason (on Reserve)
      
      Andre Gorz, Strategy for Labor, Chapters 1 and 2 (on Reserve)
      
      The rest of Chapter 4 in The Capitalist System (on Reserve)
      
      The rest of Mandel and Novack, The Marxist Theory of Alienation (on Reserve)
4. IV. Strongly Recommended for an overview of capitalism as a system (not for class discussion)
   1. "The Capitalist Mode of Production" & "The Essence of Capitalism" (in Reader)
   2. "The Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation" in K.M., pp. 485-488.
5. FETISHISM OF COMMODITIES
   1. Marx's Capital for Beginners (in Reader)
      Capital I, Chapter 1, sections 1 and 2 in K.M., pp. 421-430
   2. "How Capitalism is Mystified" (in Reader)
      Capital I, Chapter 1, section 4, in K.M., pp. 435-443.
   3. Balbus, "Marxism and Domination" (in Reader)
      Amin, "In Praise of Socialism" and Response I (in Reader)
6. EXPLOITATION AND SURPLUS VALUE
   1. Paul Sweezy, "Surplus Value and Capitalism" (in Reader)
      Capital I, Chapter 4, in K.M., pp. 445-451
   2. "Wage Labor and Capital" in K.M., pp. 248-268
      Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 7
      Recommended: The Capitalist System, Chapter 3 (on Reserve)
      Capital I, Chapters 6 and 7 in K.M., pp. 451-470
      The Capitalist System, Chapters 9, and 10 (on Reserve)
      Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 8
      Other selections from Part IV of K.M.
7. SOCIAL CLASSES
   1. The Communist Manifesto in K.M., pp. 221-245 (esp. parts 1 and 2)
      "Introduction to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right," in K.M., pp. 70 (line 3)-73
      Lipset and Bendix, "Karl Marx's Theory of Social Classes" (in Reader)
      Classes, in K.M., p. 506
   2. Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 6
      Rotkin, "Expanding the Proletariat" (in Reader)
      Michael Lind, "To Have and Have Not" (in Reader)
      "Racism" (in Reader)
      "Male Dominance" (in Reader)
   3. Highly Recommended: David Smith, "The Myth of the Middle Class" (in Reader)
      Braverman, "The Structure of the Working Class and Its Reserve Armies"
      (in Reader)
      "Capital Accumulation and the Capitalist Class" (in Reader)
      "The Labor Process and the Working Class" (in Reader)
      "Class and Inequality" (in Reader)
      Almaguer, "Class, Race, and Chicano Oppression" (in Reader)
      Hartman, "Patriarchy and Capitalism" (in Reader)
      Hartman, "The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism" (in Reader)
   4. Also Recommended: Gintis, "The New Working Class and Revolutionary Youth" from Socialist Revolution #3 (on Reserve)
      Omi and Winant, "Race in the U.S.," in Socialist Review #71 (on Reserve)
      Eisenstein, "Capitalist Patriarchy and Socialist Feminism" (on Reserve)
      Pat Walker, Ed., Between Labor and Capital (on Reserve)
      Mike Rotkin, "Marx's View of Social Class" (on Reserve)
      The Capitalist System, Chapters 3, 4, 6, 7 ,& 8 (on Reserve).
8. IDEOLOGICAL HEGEMONY
   1. The German Ideology in K.M., p. 176 (first paragraph)
      Gitlin, "The Whole World is Watching" (in Reader)
      Michael Parenti, Selections from Power and the Powerless (in Reader)
      Recommended: Richard Lichtman in Socialist Revolution #23 (on Reserve)
      Douglas Kellner in Socialist Review #45 (on Reserve)
      Daniel Ben-Horin on TV in Socialist Review #35 (xerox on Reserve)
      Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man (on Reserve)
9. POLITICAL AND CIVIL SOCIETY
   1. Jennifer Nedelsky, Private Property & the Limits of American Constitutionalism (in Reader)
      A Reading Guide to "On the Jewish Question" by Mike Rotkin (in Reader)
      "On the Jewish Question" in K.M., pp. 39-57 (stop at p.57!)
      "Theses on Feuerbach" IX and X in K.M., pp. 157-158
      Recommended: John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (on Reserve)
      Milton Freedman, Capitalism and Freedom (on Reserve)
10. THE STATE
    1. "Class Conflict and the State (in Reader)
       Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 9
    2. Recommended: Lenin, State and Revolution (on Reserve)
       The Eighteenth Brumaire and The Civil War in France in K.M., pp. 300-324
       Poulantzas, "The State and the Transition to Socialism" (xerox on Reserve)
       Fred Block in Socialist Revolution #33 (xerox on Reserve)
       Boris Frankel, "The State of the State" (a xerox on Reserve)
       Santiago Carrillo, Eurocommunism and the State (on Reserve)
       G. William Domhoff, The Power Elite and the State (on Reserve)
       Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 10
11. CONTRADICTIONS
    1. "Waste and Irrationality" (in Reader)
       Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Chapter 15
    2. Recommended: Mike Rotkin, "A Three-Part Strategy for Democratic Socialism"(in Reader)
       "From Capitalism to Socialism" (in Reader)
       "Economic Crises" (xerox on Reserve)
       Socialist Visions, edited by Sholom (on Reserve)
       "The World After Communism" (xerox on Reserve)
       "The Future of Socialism" (xerox on Reserve)
       Andre Gorz, selections from Critique of Economic Reason (on Reserve)
       James O'Connor, "Preservation First! Toward a Political Economy of a Good Society." (xerox on Reserve)
       Andre Gorz, Paths to Paradise, The Liberation from Work, Pluto Press, 1985
       (on Reserve as xerox)
       An Anthology of Western Marxism edited by Gottlieb (on Reserve)
       Marxism Essential Writings edited by McLellan (on Reserve)
       Socialist Review, Vol. 95/3&4 "Explorations in Post Modern Marxism" (on Reserve)
12. GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION
    1. The following should be purchased for the course (available at Bay Tree on campus)
       1. David McLellan, Karl Marx, Selected Writings, Oxford U. Press, 1977 (referred to as K.M. throughout the syllabus)
       2. Barbara Garson, All the Livelong Day, Penguin Books, 1994.
       3. Howard Sherman, Reinventing Marxism, Johns Hopkins U. Press, 1995
       4. A Reader for the course to be sold in class (details on Jan 7)
    2. All Reserve readings are located in McHenry Library at the Reserve Desk. If you would like to purchase your own copy of readings from Socialist Review orSocialist Revolution, see Mike Rotkin.

The above reading list is tentative. We will probably make changes during the quarter and hope that you will suggest appropriate changes as well. Even if you do not have a particular reading to recommend but have a topic-passion-concern-interest that you want to have discussed, mention it and maybe someone else in the class can suggest a good reading.

Some of the topics, particularly toward the end of the quarter, have a lot of recommended reading that is in the Reader. This is so the students facilitating the discussions may select alternative or additional readings for their sections and have them easily accessible to all class members. Remember that starting with the section on Alienation, student facilitators will often need to select, from among a variety of readings, which ones will actually be read by everyone and discussed in class. Your section facilitators (or Mike Rotkin) will help guide you in this process, but choices must me made! If you assign too much reading and don't focus, there is always the danger that students in your section will be discouraged and tend to read nothing.

BRING THE SYLLABUS AND THE READINGS SCHEDULED FOR THE FOLLOWING MEETING TO CLASS EACH TIME!

The last 10 to 15 minutes of each section meeting will be devoted to criticism/self-criticism. We will have a longer evaluation session after the fifth and tenth weeks. But please do not wait until the end of the quarter to give each other and the instructor constructive criticism and support. The course will be better if that can be shared regularly.

This course will not work if you approach it passively. The readings are difficult and require energy and a critical approach. The discussions will not be carried by the discussion leaders alone and will work best when people bring in their thoughts and experiences. Small study groups to go over the readings before class are highly encouraged (if not necessary!). An 8-15 page paper is required (the topic of which will be discussed in class). Active class particiption is the most important requirement of this course.

(subject to change)

T Jan 7: Introduction to the Course/Section Selection

Th Jan 9: Hegel and Feuerbach/Dialectical Materialism

Th Jan 16: Film: The History Book

Th Jan 23: The French Revolutions of 1789/1848

Th Jan 30: Commodities

Th Feb 6: The Paris Commune

Th Feb 13: Social Classes

Th Feb 20: Social Democracy

Th Feb 27: Ideological Hegemony

Th Mar 6: The Russian Revolution/The State

Th Mar 13: Contradictions/Socialist Strategy

"Communities of Imagination" is a writing workshop on the representation of communities, actual and imagined. Students will read utopian fiction, community studies and literary journalism, writing three substantial pieces of their own (fiction and non-fiction). In addition to the Monday night meetings, students should expect to meet in small writing groups outside of class. Community Studies majors (including those working on creative theses), journalism minors, and fiction students are invited to enroll.

Community Studies 165 - "Introduction to Public Health"

Instructor: Nancy E. Stoller
314-College 8
459-3104
nancys@cats.ucsc.edu

Course description: The purpose of CMMU 165 is to introduce students to the mission, knowledge base, values and tools of the public health profession. The internal and external value conflicts faced by the profession are also explored. The course provides an overview of the principal strategies of public health: reducing environmental threats to health; providing individuals with defenses against these threats, and advocating for a just allocation of both the threats and the defenses. The theoretical and historical underpinnings of these strategies are also presented, as are contemporary interventions based on them. Political and economic consequences of pursuing these interventions are also discussed.

Objectives:

By the conclusion of this course, students will understand and be able to discuss key concepts relating to the:

• mission of public health;
• political nature of public health;
• determinants of health status in the United States;
• major approaches to health promotion/disease prevention;
• structure of the public health system;
• community perspectives on public health interventions;
• role of social and behavioral sciences in understanding and addressing key public health problems.

Course structure:

The course will meet twice a week, with a lecture format, including some time for questions. Guest speakers will share their experiences promoting health, implementing public health policy, working with culturally diverse populations, and advocating social justice and ethical practice in creating health. Films and videos will also be incorporated to demonstrate various struggles for health.

Students are expected to complete all readings prior to the class and be prepared to participate in class discussion. Please read carefully and slowly, with a goal of understanding the logic as well as the main points of each article. Because the class is large, the primary place to discuss the readings will be in the required discussion sections.

The course Reader containing all the required readings is available at Campus Copy. Recommended supplementary reading will be available at McHenry reserve.

1. Late quarter examination: There will be an examination, based on the reading and the lectures, in class #14. Teaching assistants may give additional assignments to help with comprehension of the reading and course concepts. (30 %)

2. Group project: The most important assignment for the course is a group project. Students must work in groups of no more than four people. You should form your work group with other students in your discussion section. Groups should be formed no later than the third week of class.

Each group will complete a report on a significant public health problem. The report must include the significance, breadth and scope of the problem, a review of current means of addressing the problem, and your group's recommended approach in light of your research and the concepts introduced in the course. More details of this assignment will be distributed during the course. (60%)

The assignment will include four sections, to be submitted on three dates:

a. significance of the problem: due-class 7 (revised version due in class 13)

b. breadth and scope: due class 13

c. review of current means of addressing the problem: due in class 13

d. recommended approach: due with revisions of earlier sections in class 19. Papers must be double spaced with one inch margins and no longer than 20 pages.

3. Self-Evaluation: this will include evaluation of your role in the group project.

Grading:

Examination: 30%

Group report: 60%

Section and class participation: 10%

Specific evaluation issues:

Re group report:

• timely completion of the drafts
• integration of course concepts into the final report
• final report has consistent, logical, and well-supported arguments

Re-examination:

• comprehension of reading and lecture and ability to apply concepts

Class 1 introduction

Class 2-3 The mission of public health

Class 2.Shirley Jackson, "The lottery," The Lottery, NY: Popular Library, 1975, c. 1949; Dan Beauchamp, "Lottery Justice," Journal of Public. Health Policy, 2(3)201-205, 1981

Class 3. Avi Y. Ellencweig and Ruthellen B. Yoshpe, "Definition of Public Health," Public Health Review 12:65-78, 1981; Larry Gordon, "Public Health is more important than health care, " Journal of Pub. Health Policy, 15 (3): 261-264, 1993; Lawrence Wallack and Marilyn Winkleby, "Primary prevention: A new look at basic concepts," Social Science and Medicine, 25(8): 923-930, 1987

Class 4 Public Health as sanitary reform

Reading: Hippocrates, "Airs, Waters, and Places "(400BC); "Early Health Codes from Pistoia;" E.R. Donoghue et al., "Heat-related mortality-Chicago, July 1995," Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 44 (31): 577-9, 1995; William McKenzie et al., "Massive outbreak in Milwaukee of Cryptosporidium infection transmitted through the public water supply, New England Journal of Medicine, 331(3): 161-167

Classes 5-6 Population and Environmental Perspectives

Reading: Ronald Labonte, "Social inequality and healthy public policy," Health Promotion 1(3): 341-251, 1986; Thomas Schmid, Michael Pratt, and Elizabeth Howze, "Policy as interventions: Environmental and policy approaches to the prevention of cardiovascular disease," Am Journal of Pub. Health (AJPH), 85(9): 1207-1211, 1995. Edward L. Schor, "Developing communality: Family-centered programs to improve children's health and well-being," Bulletin of the New York Academy of Science. 72(2): 413-442, 1995.

Classes 7-8 Public health as preventive medicine: from epidemiology to infrastructure

Class 7: Assignment due--Part l of group project report

Class 8: Reading:

Neil Pearce, "Traditional epidemiology, modern epidemiology and public health, AJPH 86 (5): 678-683, 1996; Rene Dubos, "Second Thoughts on the germ theory," Scientific American, 192:131-135, 1955; Elizabeth Fee, "The origins and development of public health in the United States," pp. 3-22 in Holland, et al, Oxford Textbook of Public Health, (2nd edition), Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1991.

Class 9-10 Health Promotion and Behavior Change

Reading:

USDHHS, Healthy People 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives: DHHS Publication No. (PHS) 91-50212, Washington, DC, 1991, pp. 1-8, 43-

51, 85-88; Lyn Lawrence and Kenneth R. McLeroy, "Self-efficacy and Health education, J of School Health, 56(8): 317-321, 1986; World Health Organization, Health Promotion: A discussion document on the concept and principles of health promotion. WHO Europe, Copenhagen, 1984.

Recommended--at library I. Rosenstock et al, "Social learning theory and the health belief model," Health Education Quarterly. 15 (2):175-183 M. A. Winkelby, "The future of community -based cardiovascular disease intervention studies, AJPH. 84(9): 1369-72,1994.

Classes 11-13

Public Health as Social Justice: Reallocating Hazards and Resources Reading: Johann Peter Frank, "Academic address on the people's misery: mother of diseases," Delivered in 1790; Richard G. Wilkinson, "National mortality rates: The impact of inequality?" AJPH, 82(8): 1082-4, 1992; Harriet Orcutt Duleep, "Mortality and income inequality among economically developed countries," Social Security Bulletin, 58 (2): 3450; Milton Terris, "Determinants of health: A progressive political platform," J of PH Policy, 15(1) 5-17, 1994. Robert Bullard, Unequal Protection: Environmental Justice and Communities of Color, Part II, pp. 77-190.

Class 13--Assignment due: Parts 2 and 3 of group project report and revised part 1.

Class 14-Exam on materials through class 13

Classes 15-16: Advocacy Strategies

Reading: Dan E. Beauchamp, "Public Health as social justice," Inquiry, XIII (March): 3-14, 1976; Galen Ellis, Robin Hobart, and Diane Reed, "Overcoming a powerful tobacco lobby in enacting local smoking ordinances: The Contra Costa county experience," JPH Policy. 17(1): 28-46, 1996; James Mercy, et al., "Public Health policy for preventing violence, " Health Affairs. 12 (4): 7-29, 1993; Garen Wintemute, "The relationship between firearms design and firearms violence," JAMA, 275(22): 1749-53, 1996.

Classes 17-18 Responding to Economic and Political Constraints

Reading: Randy Shaw, The Activist's Handbook (Ch. 3, pp. 81-114), Berkeley: U of California Press, 1996; Lawrence Wallack, "Media Advocacy: A strategy for empowering people and communities, " J of PH Policy, 15(4): 420-436, 1994; Berkeley Media studies Group, "Frames for Portrayal of Childhood Lead Poisoning Problems," 10 pp, mimeo, no date --due 2/27

Classes 19-20 Toward a coherent view of public health

Class 19-Assignment due: Final report, including revised parts 2 and 3, or group project. Reading: Nancy Krieger, "On becoming a public health professional: reflections on democracy, leadership, and accountability," JPH Policy, 11, 4, 1990, pp. 412-19.

Class 20 Project Presentations and evaluation

Revised 7/12/04.