Anth 316, April 12, 2000

Arjun Appadurai, "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy" (Chapter 2 of Modernity at Large, 1996; originally published in Public Culture, 1990)

Worksheet

What is the importance for Appadurai of the connections between nostalgia, imagination, and a "social imaginaire"?

What do you think Appadurai is describing with his concept of "global flows," especially given his concern for processes of "reproduction"? What exactly is it that "flows"?

Terms to define (in addition to the dictionary sense, focus on how Appadurai is using them):

Disjuncture/disjunctive -

Deterritorialization -

Fetish/fetishize -

Connect the Dots:

How might Appadurai theorize resistance? How does his conception relate with those of Emily Martin, bell hooks, and Cornel West?

How does Appadurai's conception of scapes and flows play off of the basic Marxist model of base/material order and superstructure/cultural order? In what ways is Appadurai's model post-structuralist?