By the end of this module, you will:
– become familiar with the basic concepts of collective actions and political organizing in American politics.
– have a basic working knowledge the concept of “racial capitalism.
– Identify key ideas across several readings and assigned materials
– have practiced text annotation of the assigned reading
– critically analyze assigned text and video material
Contents
- 1 Lesson 5.1 – Social class: value, labor, capital
- 1.1 WATCH – Intro Video
- 1.2 WATCH – Video 5.1 – Labor and Class Conflict
- 1.3 COMPLETE – Self-assessment exercise
- 1.4 WRITE – Discussion Board 5.1
- 1.5 READ AND ANNOTATE – Reading 5.1 – Pierre Jalee: “Labor Power and Surplus Value”
- 1.6 COMPLETE – Self-assessment exercise 5.1
- 1.7 WRITE – Discussion Board 5.2
- 2 Lesson 5.2
- 3 WRITE – Module 5 Response Paper
- 4 WATCH – Module 5 Summary Video
- 5 READ – notes that go with above summary video:
Lesson 5.1 – Social class: value, labor, capital
In this lesson, we continue our study of social class by focusing in greater detail on key aspects of social class: value, means of production, factors of production, commodity, money, surplus value, profit.
WATCH – Intro Video
WATCH – Video 5.1 – Labor and Class Conflict
Watch this video by focusing on …
COMPLETE – Self-assessment exercise
In preparation for our discussion board, take the following practice quiz.
WRITE – Discussion Board 5.1
Head over to Discussion Board 5.1 for a discussion of labor and class:
READ AND ANNOTATE – Reading 5.1 – Pierre Jalee: “Labor Power and Surplus Value”
This reading is the most challenging, but also the most rewarding/important in our two modules on social class. You should read and annotate it carefully. It presents two “formulas” (or diagrams) describing what each social class in a modern capitalist society (such as the US) does in everyday life. Thinking about social class through these diagrams offers a powerful insight on how classes function in our society, and what motivates the thinking, interests, and ideologies of the people in the different social classes:
Here’s the clean, non-annotated version. I recommend you keep a non-annotated copy of this reading by downloading it on your device:
COMPLETE – Self-assessment exercise 5.1
In preparation for our discussion board, study the following questions, by following the readings closely.
- Small-scale commodity production: selling something that you made, in order to buy something that you need can be represented by the following diagram: C-M-C. Study what the letters mean, and what they describe.
- Compare small-scale commodity production, with buying in order to sell: M-C-M’. What is the difference described by the two diagrams?
- In M-C-M’, pay close attention to what M’ is. What does it mean? M’ represents surplus value (which we have encountered already), but note how it is described in this reading. M-C-M’ is the general formula of capital.
- On p. 24 we have a discussion of labor power (which we already mentioned in the previous video, but now we’ll study it in more detail) and how it makes surplus value (or profits) possible for those who own money/capital.
- How is money transformed into capital? This is a key point, because it describes how wealthy people remain wealthy as a class.
- Another key point here is that the extraction of profits from the value created by workers, happens through something called surplus labor (review this process which is discussed on p. 26-27)
- Pages 28-29 can be read more quickly (skimmed), but make sure you read them!
WRITE – Discussion Board 5.2
Head over to Discussion Board 5.2…
Think about and answer the following questions, as a way of summarizing our discussion in Modules 4 and 5 on social class. You will see some of these questions on our first exam.
Lesson 5.2
Now that we have covered the basics of what social class is, in this lesson we will focus on how social class affects American society.
WATCH – Intro Video
READ AND ANNOTATE – Reading 5.2 – M. Parenti: “Concentration of Capital, Who Owns America?”
Parenti gives a comprehensive and quick overview of how wealth is distributed in the United States. This is important to know in general, but later we will connect it to why the Constitution was designed the way it was, as well as a number of interesting current events in American politics:
Here’s the clean, un-annotated version. I recommend you keep a non-annotated copy of this reading by downloading it on your device:
COMPLETE – Self-assessment exercise 5.2
In preparation for our discussion board, study the following questions, by following the readings closely.
WRITE – Discussion Board 5.3
Head over to discussion board 5.3:
WRITE – Module 5 Response Paper
To conclude this module, think about and answer the following questions, which are designed to focus your attention to some of the key ideas we studies in this module.
Instructions:
– Think of your response paper as a collection of short essays. This is not supposed to be a research paper, but rather the goal is to answer each question as fully as you can.
– The questions you see here will appear on our exam in some form or another. Think of this as a preparation for our exam.
– GRADING: Response papers are NOT graded, but you receive credit for completing and submitting them. As the syllabus indicates, response papers account for 20% of your final course grade.
– Type your answers and save them as a Microsoft Word Document.
– A typical response paper should be in the range of 200 words per question.
– When you are finished with your response, upload your paper my entering your name, attaching your paper, and submitting it by using the form below:
- If, as Reading 5.1 showed, the capitalist (wealth-owning) class can be described through the M – C – M’ diagram, what would be the diagram that describes the lives of working-class people? Use the same letters: M and C to write a diagram that contains three parts (just like the capitalist diagram). HINT: think about what each letter (M and C) refer to (M = money or capital; C = commodity). Then, think about which letter should you start the diagram for the working class (M or C)? Why?
You must log into your BMCC OpenLab account before you can upload a response paper.
