50163 Intercultural Interventions

Handbook description

Societies develop and are exposed to many forms of social intervention. This subject examines a range of interventions and identifies the underlying assumptions, strategic goals and sociocultural outcomes of such actions. It focuses on how and why interventions are contested, and encourages students to investigate and critique them. The course is divided into three components: intercultural corporate interventions, e.g. in the form of transnational media networks; intercultural interventions by states, e.g. as peace-making or humanitarian intervention; and intercultural interventions by non-government organisations, e.g. in the field of the environment or human rights. The subject concentrates on situations of cultural diversity, and cross-cultural relations, at international, national and local levels. Global dimensions include the activities of the UN and its agencies, the World Bank and other international agencies. In the national context, the subject explores indigenous relations and intercultural issues in multiculturalism. Particular attention is paid to non-government organisations and their political relationships, and the role of social movements. Crucial dimensions of race and gender set the focus of the theoretical frameworks examined.

Subject objectives/outcomes

At the completion of this subject, students are expected to be able to:

1. investigate forms of intercultural intervention, gaining a familiarity with emerging theorisations as well as more traditional approaches
2. conduct presentations that engage with theories of intervention through issue-centred debates, developing innovative perspectives and proposals
3. formulate and develop research questions, conducting constructive policy-focused research into intercultural intervention
4. participate and reflect on their own conceptual understanding of intercultural intervention.

Contribution to graduate profile

This subject will:

• enhance student capacity to evaluate theoretical claims and address strategic questions through in-depth research and analysis
• contribute to the development of theoretical knowledge in social inquiry, offering a world context for understanding social environments
• contribute to the development of critical thinking, analytical skill and research capacity in relation to key contemporary perspectives and issues
• contribute to the development of ethical behaviour and practice, fostering understanding across widely varying political contexts
• contribute to an appreciation of the importance of theory in understanding social and political life
• contribute to the development of critical understanding of international processes
• open up new perspectives on political life, widening horizons, facilitating greater commitment to lifelong learning.

Teaching and learning strategies

Intercultural consists of a weekly lecture and tutorial over 13 weeks. Core texts are reproduced a subject reader that offers a broad introduction to the field of world politics; additional resources are available online and in the UTS library.

The lectures engage students with key theoretical perspectives and policy concerns. In the tutorials students evaluate theoretical claims through the in-depth analysis of case studies. Tutorials involve students in a variety of activities, including individual presentations, non-traditional group presentations, discussion groups and formal debates. Online debates support and extend these tutorial activities.

Content

The subject is been organised around analysis and critique of four central agents of intercultural intervention: corporations, states, non-government organisations and media organisations. The subject offers analysis and critique of these agencies and the range of programs and processes they have initiated and supported. Issues range across and through national contexts, focusing on dilemmas of intercultural intervention across a wide range of issue areas and cases. The subject thus enhances understanding of working in an international environment, and enhances intercultural communication skills, and aids in the development of socially sensitive research and policy practices.

Intercultural Interventions forms part of the 'Professional' strand in the Social Inquiry degree. It is an applied subject, centred on students' interests and hands-on research. The weekly sessions centre on student projects, beginning with debates about an existing field of intercultural intervention, moving to a constructive critique of a specific intervention, and finally a group presentation focussed around a real life intervention. Students are expected to be 'active learners', working in groups and individually to develop debate and critique, using the wide range of materials and cases that are available.

Activities

In the first week of the subject students draw up a learning goals statement for the subject, and discuss what topics may be addressed in the last two weeks of the subject. Students are also are broken into small groups of four to six students, to allocate tasks for the semester.

During the first half of semester each student writes a statement debating a particular field of intercultural intervention. This is put on UTSOnline and other students from their small group write a short critique or discussion of the statement. The student then uses this material as the basis for a presentation to the class. These debates are grouped week by week, with background reading provided through a subject reader.

Each student then can use the mid-semester break to write-up a short account and critique of a form of intercultural intervention, drawing on their online and in-class presentation, for an individual report to be submitted in Week 10.

In the second half of semester presentations are group-led. Working in groups, students jointly develop a constructive critique of intercultural intervention, as a group presentation leading the tutorial discussion. The presentation should involve all of the group members, as each student's involvement will be assessed. The presentation/report may perhaps build an in-depth report of one case of intercultural intervention, written for, in conjunction with, or drawing on the experience of an existing organisation. The group presentation and ensuing discussion should last about one hour and a quarter, and may involve various activities for other tutorial participants (for instance, in the form of a role play, putting questions to an 'expert panel', participation in a simulated situation or re-enactment, etc). Each group then writes-up their presentation as a Group Report, to be submitted in Week 14.

Finally, also in Week 14 there is an opportunity to reflect on the subject as a whole, and on the extent to which student goals were met, and whether others emerged. This draws on a revised learning goals statement and broader reflection, to be submitted that week.

Assessment

Assessment item 1: Individual online statements

Assessment item 2: Individual report

Assessment item 3: Group report and presentations

Assessment item 4: Reflection

Minimum requirements

Students are expected to read the subject outline to ensure they are familiar with the subject requirements. Since class discussion and participation in activities form an integral part of this subject, you are expected to attend, arrive punctually and actively participate in classes. If you experience difficulties meeting this requirement, please contact your lecturer. Students who have a reason for extended absence (e.g. illness) may be required to complete additional work to ensure they achieve the subject objectives.

Attendance is particularly important in this subject because it is based on a collaborative approach which involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas. Students who attend fewer than ten classes are advised that their final work will not be assessed and that they are likely to fail the subject.

Indicative references

GENERAL REFERENCES

The 2006 reader is lodged in special reserve in the City Library.

An extended bibliography of relevant sources grouped by topic is available on UTS Online.

JOURNALS
Alternatives, Asia-Pacific Journal Migration, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Australian Journal of Political Science, Communal/Plural, Development, Development and change, Development Studies , Ethnic & Racial Studies, European Journal of Intercultural Studies, Gender & society, Global Environmental Politics, Inter-Asia cultural studies, International feminist journal of politics, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, International Journal of Sociology & Social Policy, International journal of women's studies, International Social Science Journal, International Sociology, Journal of American Culture, Journal of Australian Studies, Journal of Communication, Journal of gender studies, Journal of Intercultural studies , Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, Journal of Social Issues, Millennium, Mobilisation, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Nations and Nationalism, New Formations, New Left Review, New Political Economy, Race and Class, Review of International Political Economy, Sexuality & culture, Social Development Issues, Social Research, Socialist Register, The Gay & lesbian review, Theory Culture & Society, Third World Quarterly, Women's studies, Women's studies international forum.

DETAILED PROGRAM

Availability of texts
# = text available as subject e-readings

* = journal available electronically via library catalogue

@ = available on the internet at cited URL

+ = available in 2006 reader in the library


Week 1

Introduction to the subject: the era of inter-culturalism?

+ Harvey, D. (2000) The insurgent architect at work, Chapter 12 from Spaces of Hope, Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh.

Inter-culturalism and intervention, issues of knowledge, intellect, leadership, strategy and emancipation. Addressing conflicts between universalist norms and particularist contexts / between universal contexts and particular norms? Debate on definitions: (see subject description above).

(i) What is a culture? How do we define them and characterise their interactions?

(ii) Intervening into what? A cultural practice, a social institution?

(iii) Who is intervening? Power, causes and effects: leader, intellectual, facilitator?

Drafting of learning goals statement: personal goals in relation to the subject (to be handed in Week 2).

Week 2

Lecture: State interventionism: humanitarian and preventative
Debate: If /when to intervene?

# O'Hagan, J. (2009) Humanitarianism and armed intervention, in Devetak, R. et al (2007) An Introduction to Australian International Relations: Australian Perspectives, Cambridge University Press: Melbourne.

# O'Keefe, M. (2005) Australian intervention in its neighbourhood: sheriff and humanitarian? In Coady T. and O'Keefe, M. (eds) Righteous violence: the ethics and politics of military intervention, Melbourne University Press: Melbourne.

# Macfarlane, S. (2005) International politics, local conflicts and intervention, in Mychajlyszyn, N. and Shaw, T. (eds) Twisting arms and flexing muscles: humanitarian intervention and peace building in perspective, Ashgate: Aldershot.

+ Frost, M. The ethics of humanitarian intervention, in Smith, K and Light, M. (eds) Ethics and Foreign policy, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

@ US President, State of the Union Addresses 2003 + 2003:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ news/ releases/ 2002/ 01/ 20020129-11.html

Week 3

Lecture: Corporate interventionism
Debate: Social Clauses and Codes of Conduct

* # Diller, J. (1999) A social conscience in the global marketplace? Labour dimensions of codes of conduct, social labelling and investor initiatives, International Labour Review, 138, 2.

# Manheim, J. (2001) The codes of the west, chapter 9 in Death of a thousand cuts: corporate campaigns and the death of the corporation, Lawrence Erlbaum, New Jersey.

@ Burton, B. (2002) When corporations want to cuddle, in Evans, G., Goodman, J. and Lansbury, N. (eds) Moving mountains, Otford Press and Zed Press: London.

For download: www.prwatch.org/ documents/ cuddlingcorporates.pdf
@ Asia-Monitor Research Centre (2004) A Critical Guide to Corporate Codes of Conduct, AMRC: HK. For download: http://www.amrc.org.hk/ publication_for_download

@ New Economics Foundation, 'transforming markets' program. www.neweconomics.org/


Week 4

Lecture: NGO interventionism: development NGOs
Debate: NGO-aid interventions, for/against

*# Demirovic, A. (2000) NGOs and social movements: a study in contrasts, Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, 11, 4.

# Jordan, L. and Tuijl, P. (2005) Rights and responsibilities in the political landscape of NGO accountability, in Jordan, L. and Tuijl, P. (eds) NGO accountability: politics, principles and innovations, Earthscan: London.

# Simbi, M. and Thom, G. (2000 'Implementation by proxy': the next step in power relationships between Northern and Southern NGOs? in Lewis, D. and Wallace, T. (eds) New roles and relevance: development NGOs and the challenge of change, Kumarian Press Bloomfield.

@ Petras, J. (1997) Imperialism and NGOs in Latin America, Monthly Review, 49, 7, pp. 10-27. Download at: http://www.monthlyreview.org/ 1297petr.htm

Petras, J. amd Veltmeyer, H. (2001) NGOs in the service of imperialism, in Globalisation unmasked: imperialism in the 21st century, Zed Books: London.

* Malhotra, K. (2000) NGOs without aid: beyond the global soup kitchen, Third World Quarterly, 21, 4.

Hirsch, J. (2002) The democratic potential of NGOs, in Anderson, J, (ed.) Transnational Democracy, Routledge: London.

Martinussen, J. and Pedersen, P. (2003) Role of NGOs in Development Cooperation, in Aid: understanding international development cooperation, Zed Press.

@ Reality of Aid 2006: Focus on conflict, security and development cooperation, An independent review of poverty reduction and development assistance, Zed Books: London. For download: http://www.realityofaid.org/ roa.php

@ James, R. (2001) INGOs and indigenous social movements, INTRAC Oxford. For download: http://www.intrac.org/ pages/ policy_briefing_papers.html


Week 5

Lecture: Media interventionism: inter-cultural information, sites and flows
Debate: Cyber-transformation?

*# Van Aelst, P. and Walgrave, S. New media, new movements? The role of the Internet in shaping the 'anti-globalization' movement', Information, Communication and Society, 5:4, 2002, 465-493.

# Kavada, A. (2005) Civil society organisations and the internet: the case of Amnesty International, Oxfam and the World Development Movements, in de Long, W. and Stammers, N. (eds) Global activism global media, Pluto Press: London.

# Dilevko, J. (2002) The working life of Southern NGOs : juggling the promise of information and communications Technologies and the perils of relationships with international NGOs, in Hajnal, P. (ed) Civil society in the information age, Ashgate, Aldershot.

# Goonasekera, A. (2002) Transnational communication: establishing effective linkages between North and South, in Chitty, N. (ed.) Mapping Globalisation, Southbound, Penang.

Warkentin, C. (2001) Reshaping world politics: NGOs, the internet and global civil society, Rowan and Littlefield, Lanham.

McCaughey. M. amd Ayers, M. (2003) Cyberactivism : Online Activism In Theory And Practice, Routledge, London.

Rodgers, J. (2003) Spatializing International Politics : Analysing Activism On The Internet, Routledge, London.

@ Inter-press news service: http://ipsnews.net/

@ Indymedia: http://www.indymedia.org/ en/ index.shtml


Week 6

Lecture: Social movements and solidarities
Debate: World Social Forum, harbinger or diversion?

# Madison, S. and Scalmer, S. (2006) Unity and difference, chapter 5 in Activist wisdom: practical knowledge and creative tension in social movements, UNSW Press: Sydney.

# Sheoin, T. and Yeates, N. (2008) Division and dissent in the anti-globalisation movement, in Dasgupta, S. and Kiely, R. (eds) Globalization and after, Sage: New Delhi.

@ de Sousa-Santos, B. (20023) The World Social Forum: A Users Manual, Madison. For download at: www.ces.uc.pt/ bss/ documentos/ fsm_eng.pdf

@ Sader, E. (2002) Beyond civil society: the left after Porto Alegre, New Left Review, 17. Download at: http://www.newleftreview.org/ A2411

Pieterse, J. (2000) Globalization and emancipation: from local empowerment to global reform, in Gills, B. (ed.) Globalization and the politics of resistance, Palgrave: Basingstoke.

* Macdonald, K. (2002) From solidarity to fluidarity social movements beyond 'collective identity' – the case of globalization conflicts, Social Movement Studies, 1, 2.

@ Borras, S. (2004) La Vía Campesina: An Evolving Transnational Social Movement, Transnational Institute Briefing Paper, Amsterdam. For download at: www.tni.org


Week 7

Lecture: Indigenous - settler relations
Case study: Northern Territory Emergency Intervention

# Trudgen, R. (2000) Treating the symptoms or the cause: an analysis of the problem, Chapter 13 in Why warriors lie down and die, Aboriginal Resource and Development Services: Darwin.

Mowbray, M. and Senior, K. (2006) A Study in Neo-conservative Populism: Richard Trudgen's Why Warriors Lie Down and Die, Australian Journal of Anthropology, Aug 2006, Vol. 17 Issue 2, p216-229, 14p.

# Altman, J & Hinkson, M (2007) 'Introduction: In the Name of the Child' in Altman, J & Hinkson, M (eds) Coercive Reconciliation: Stabilise, Normalise, Exit Aboriginal Australia, Arena Publications, Nth Carlton.

Commission on International Humanitarian Issues (1987) Indigenous peoples: a global quest for justice, Report of the Independent Commission: New York.

McCallum, K. (2007) Public opinion about Indigenous issues in Australia : local talk and journalistic practice, Centre for Public Culture and Ideas, Griffith University.

Behrendt, L. (2009) Indigenous legal relations in Australia, with, Chris Cunneen and Terri Libesman, Oxford University Press: Melbourne.

Lea, T. (2008) Bureaucrats and bleeding hearts: indigenous health in northern Australia, UNSW Press: Sydney.

Week 8

Lecture: Inter-culturalism and Human Rights
Case study: Zapatismo; Israel/Palestine

# Ishay, M. (2004) Globalization and the new realism of human rights, in Steger, M. (ed.) Rethinking globalism, Rowan and Littlefield, New York.

# Yiftachel, O. (2009) Beyond ethnocracy and conflict in Israel/Palestine, in Grenfell, D. and James, P. (eds) Rethinking insecurity war and violence, Routledge, London.

# Higgins, N, (2008) Lessons from the indigenous: Zapatista poetics and a cultural humanism foe the 21st Century, in Eschle, C and Maiguashca, B. (eds) Critical theories , international relations and the 'anti-globalisation movement', Routledge: London.

# Johnston, J. (2006) We are all Marcos'? Zapatismo, solidarity and the politics of scale, in Laxer, G. and Halperin, S. (eds) Global civil society and its limits, Palgrave: Basingstoke.


Week 9

Study Break
Non Teaching Week


Week 10

Lecture: Gender and inter-culturalism
Case study: womens movements, rights, unionism, peace-making.

# Otto D. (1996) Holding up half the sky, but for whose benefit? A critical analysis of the fourth world conference on women, Australian Feminist Law Journal, 6, 7-28.

# Cockburn, C. (2000) The women's movement: Boundary-crossing on terrains of conflict, in Cohen, R. and Rai, S. Global social movements, Athlone: London.

# Reyes, E. (2008) Transnational class and gender networking between north and south: overcoming diversity or reproducing dependencies?, in Cohen, M. and Brodie, J (eds) Remapping gender in the new global order, Routledge: London.


Week 11

Lecture: Inter-culturalism and environmental justice:
Case study: Climate action and climate justice; Friends of the Earth International

# Dwivedi, R. (2001) Environmental movements in the Global South, International Sociology, 16, 1.

#* Doherty, B. (2006) Friends of the Earth International,: Negotiating a transnational identity, Environmental Politics, 15:5, 860-880. Available for download in UTS Lib Online.

#* Alcock, F. (2008) Conflicts and coalitions within and across the ENGO community, Global Environmental Politics, 8:4, 66-91. Available for download in UTS Lib Online.

Focus on an environmental organisation, and a particular campaign or issue area to illustrate how inter-cultural issues are managed, highlighting what problems arise and how these might be addressed.


Week 12

Lecture: Inter-culturalism, migration and diaspora
Case Study: Australian multiculturalism and refugee solidarity

# Wallerstein, I. (2003) The others: Who are we? Who are the Others?, in The Decline of American Power, The New Press: London.

@ Anderson, J. and Shuttleworth, I. (2004) 'Theorising State Borders in Capitalism: Spatial Fixes Old and New', CIBR Working Papers Series CIBR/WP04-2. For download at: http://www.qub.ac.uk/ cibr/ PublicationsJA.htm

# J. Goodman (2009) 'Refugee solidarity: between national shame and global outrage', in Debra Hopkins, D., Kleres, J., Flam, H. and Kuzmics, H. (Eds) Theorizing Emotions: Sociological Explorations and Applications, Campus Verlag: Frankfurt.

Goodman, J. (2000) Marginalisation and empowerment: East Timorese Diaspora politics in Australia, Communal/Plural, 8, 1.

Cohen, R. (1997) Global diasporas, an introduction, UCL Press: London.

Castles, S. (1998), 'New migrations in the Asia-Pacific region: a force for social and political change', International Social, Science Journal, 50, 156, 215-228.


Week 13

Lecture: Inter-culturalism and labour unions
Case Study: Community unionism ; Labour standards debate

# O'Brien, R. (2003) Globalisation, imperialism and the labour standards debate, in Munck, R. (ed) Labour and Globalisation, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool.

# Dent, K. (2003) Worker's rights Vs Transnational Corporate Profits in Sri Lanka's Free Trade Zone, IIE-ASIA, Colombo.

@ Fine, J. (2006) Workers' centres: organising communities on the edge of the Dream, Economic Policy Institute Briefing Paper 159, December 2005. For download at: http://www.epi.org/ publications/ entry/ bp159/

Clawson, D. (2003) New tactics, community and color, in The next upsurge: labour and the new social movements, ILR Press, Cornell University: London.

@ Jamoul, L. and Wills, J (2008) Faith in politics, Urban Studies, 2008, 45, 10, 2035-56. For download: www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/ livingwage/ pdf/ paper4.pdf

@ London Living Wage Research: http://www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/ livingwage/ index.html

@ London citizens: http://www.londoncitizens.org.uk/

Week 14

Lecture: Intercultural intervention, imperialisms / anti-imperialisms
Case study: Interculturalism and Islamic anti-imperialism

# Halliday, F. (2004) The pertinence of imperialism, in Rupert, M. and Smith, H. (eds) Historical materialism and globalization, Routledge: London.

@ Bayat, A. (2007) Islamism and empire: the incongruous nature of Islamist anti-imperialism, in Panitch, L. and Leys, C. (eds) Global flashpoints: reactions to imperialism and neoliberalism, Socialist Register 2008, Merlin: London. For download at: www.bristol.ac.uk/ politics/ cssn/ files/ bayatuseful.pdf