Mini-Lecture Part 2

DOCUMENT by: Bob Hassenger
Subject: Mini-Lecture Part 2

In Part I, Barber directs our attention primarily to globalization (McWorld), but always against the backdrop of Jihad. In the next part, he will reverse the figure and ground. Chapters 1-9 will be read in this module, and we shall complete the book and have a third assignment at the end of Module 7. So, this "mini-lecture" (more questions than answers) and the next are focussed on the first nine chapters of Barber.

These chapters can be read in, as distinct from reading carefully every word and studying every table and graph. For one thing, some of the data are outmoded. The book is 6 years old, which means the data are more like 8-10 years old. Some countries' relative positions have changed in the past decade. But, what is important is the case Barber is making.

You should know what he refers to with some shorthand such as "Keynesian", "invisible hand", Rousseau, or Hobbes. Not because you want to be an economist; these are references every educated person should recognize.

What is meant by "the resource imperative" (Chapter 2)? The section on ""Petroleum" is an example of some material that can be skimmed. But read the final paragraph on p. 43, and the one on pp. 48-49.

Barber's case for interdependence and the risks to democracy by both McWorld and Jihad is elaborated in Chapter 3. As the developed world, led by the U.S., has moved away from manufacturing --the "post-industrial revolution" (see Bell's books, in Shared References)--to a service economy, it has become more interdependent. And the industrial sector is being itself transformed, in his view. Do you agree with the case he makes, here? Why or why not? See what your classmates think, and contribute the the dialogue, in the Discussion Area.

The central thesis of the first five chapters is found at the beginning of Chapter 4. You should be clear about what Barber means by: "The ancient capitalist economy in which products are manufactured and sold for profit to meet the demand of consumers who make their unmediated needs known through the market is gradually yielding to a postmodern capitalist economy in which needs are manufactured to meet the supply of producers who make their unmediated products marketable though promotion, spin, packaging, and advertising" (p. 59). Can you read that aloud in one breath? Does it make sense? The remainder of the chapter expands on this.

This is an easier--or, at least, more entertaining--chapter to read. The examples will be familiar to you--especially if you have travelled abroad. Certainly, my young students in Athens are great consumers of "American" products--wherever they are actuallly made. (And most of them oppose American foreign policy.) Barber makes one point over and over. One place he says it is p. 71: "...[corporations] can maximize [the bottom line] only by intervening actively in the very social, cultural and political domains about which they affect agnosticism" and the following sentence.

On the final page of Chapter 4, Barber cites Banfield The Moral Basis of a Backward Society and refers to "lifestyles," although perhaps not in the same way as Bellah et al. What do you think the authors of Habits of the Heart think about the Barber book?

In Chapter 5, the author further elaborates the case that we have become a service society, with services themselves being transformed by electronics and computers. The data (especially about Japan) may again be outmoded, but his argument would not be affected. As Barber writes on p. 77, "...McWorld will be less about resources than about goods, less about manufactured goods than about goods tied to telecommunication and information; less about goods than about services; less about services in general than about information, telecommunicaton, and entertainment services; less about software per se than about cultural software..."
Do you think he later modified his position on the importance of McWorld? See his 2001 "Introduction," and decide if he thinks (post 9/11) that nation-state capitalism will lead to democracy's demise.

The varieties of the service sector are outlined on p. 79 ff. See again Reich for a fuller explanation of the importance of "symbolic analyists." A more recent book , Zuboff and Maxmin's The Support Economy (see Shared References) argues that we have moved even beyond the service economy.

In the next module, we shall continue to explore Barber's consideration of the "infotainment telesector." Does what he has said so far make sense to you? Share your thoughts in the Discussion Area.

Click here to go to the discussion for Module 6: Tensions in Community: Globalization

If you have any questions about this material, please click on the ASK A QUESTION link below. Now go to the next document to continue this module.