ANTH 4340 – Advocacy and Social Movements
2nd In-class exam study guide
Two of the following questions will appear on the 2nd exam. Prepare essays of appropriate length for
each one, being comprehensive and detailed in your discussion, and conveying a well-rounded grasp
of the issues involved, citing examples as appropriate.
Value: 20%
1. Resistance against the forces of what has come to be widely called ‘neoliberalism’ takes many
forms. Numerous movements of different kinds the world over protest and resist a fairly consistent set
of social, political, and economic arrangements that have become definitive of late modernity, and, in
their rejection of the status quo, aim for the establishment of something different – a different world,
based on a wholly different set of values. Prepare an essay in which you discuss this theme, drawing
parallels among widely disparate ‘aurora movements,’ pointing out key similarities but also
accounting for differences among them. What can we say about the significance of these movements?
STRUGGLE FOR THE WORLD AUTHORS: CHARLES LINDHOLM AND JOSE PEDRO
ZUQUETE
-Willingness to use any means necessary, i.e literal/symbolic violence.
● Neoliberalism = a particular mutation of what we know as liberal modernity
○ It is resistant to state-controlled market, the market in neo-liberal is controlled by
individuals.
○ Post 1991 phase of globalization → collapse of communism → russian communist
empire shattered
○ Free market trade
○ A particular kind of order based in free markets, capitalism, individualism
● Struggle For the World
○ Rejection for modernity
○ Resentment towards the social order following the industrial revolution, trade &
commerce, free market in all its forms
○ Liberalism, right + left wing
● Aurora Movements
○ Study by Lindholm who is an anthropologist and Zuquete a political scientist who
both claim that many anti-globalist movements, especially in Latin America, Europe,
and the Middle East, “share a great deal structurally, ideologically, and
experientially,” as they struggle, each in their own way, to redeem a world in ruins.
○ Globalization, they claim, disrupts the equilibrium between humanity, society, and
nature, stultifying man, emptying his world of meaning, and leaving him indifferent
to the most important things in life.
○ Globalization, the authors conclude, may destroy national differences, but so too does
resistance to globalization - to redeem “the world from the evils of globalization.”
○ Oppose capitalist globalization
○ Called “aurora movements” because they promise a new liberating dawn that will
banish dark injustices of the previous era (aurora means sunrise)
○ “No compromise is possible because, for the aurora movements, American– style
neoliberal-capitalist globalization represents a dark power of indignity,
, disenchantment, homogenization, and debasement. It is not just awed or mistaken; it
is evil.” P. 155
○ “Degradation caused by commodification and disenchantment of the spiritual world,
which has become simply an object to be manipulated and marketed by heartless and
soulless entrepreneurs” P. 155
○ “Every time the leaders of the Western world, knowingly or not, with good intentions
or not, refer to a coming “New World Order,” they only conform the aurora
movement’s narrative of a coordinated global assault.” P. 156
○ The left: global justice, alter globalization, no-borders movement who reject the idea
of human movements, largely marxian
○ The right: xenophobic, restrictive + conservative, nationalistic
○ What they have in common:
■ Popular protest against insecurity and rootlessness with free market ideology
(neoliberal order)
■ Strongly anti-modern in their large scale value
■ They strive to recapture the small, the local, unique, distinct
■ Attempt to valorize “community” in a general sense
■ They resent the modern global liberal order and all its elements - what makes
up/constitutes it
■ The mindset of the aurora movements blurs the old right/left distinction. Both
right and left wish to redirect the course of history and inaugurate a new
world where human potentials are realized, justice reigns, and happiness is
universal. Their shared goal is to defy and transform, not adjust and reform.
■ Propose solutions that are global in their ramifications, while also reversing
the order of the present
■ These activists tend to see themselves as soldiers in an existential battle for
redemption of the world from the evils of globalization
■ They are, they believe, engaged in a life or death conflict between two
expansionist models of the human future - one rational, bureaucratic,
commercial, and immoral; the other spiritual, humane, heartfelt, and
righteous.
○ The differences: ?
■ ENR value individuality and uniqueness of each group but Jihadists want
everyone to be under one religion
■ Jihadists seek to use violence and terror but ENR strives to use political
means to transform
● “All these movements see themselves as engaged in a last-ditch war against the “system,” a
war waged by writing books, calling meetings, creating “spaces of resistance,” convening
new collectives, altering individual and collective consciousness, by political action, by riots,
by protests, and, in the case of jihadists, by bombs.” P. 154
● “From Left to Right, from politicians to ravers, all those engaged in the uprising against
globalization adhere to the belief that humanity is living through an interval, “moving the
center” away from the “old world” (ruled by brutal free-market fundamentalism and a
soulless technocratic society) to the “new world” (which is framed in di erent ways but is
always imagined to be a paradise of lasting peace, plenty, and harmony where di erence is
valued but also subsumed within the larger unity).
2nd In-class exam study guide
Two of the following questions will appear on the 2nd exam. Prepare essays of appropriate length for
each one, being comprehensive and detailed in your discussion, and conveying a well-rounded grasp
of the issues involved, citing examples as appropriate.
Value: 20%
1. Resistance against the forces of what has come to be widely called ‘neoliberalism’ takes many
forms. Numerous movements of different kinds the world over protest and resist a fairly consistent set
of social, political, and economic arrangements that have become definitive of late modernity, and, in
their rejection of the status quo, aim for the establishment of something different – a different world,
based on a wholly different set of values. Prepare an essay in which you discuss this theme, drawing
parallels among widely disparate ‘aurora movements,’ pointing out key similarities but also
accounting for differences among them. What can we say about the significance of these movements?
STRUGGLE FOR THE WORLD AUTHORS: CHARLES LINDHOLM AND JOSE PEDRO
ZUQUETE
-Willingness to use any means necessary, i.e literal/symbolic violence.
● Neoliberalism = a particular mutation of what we know as liberal modernity
○ It is resistant to state-controlled market, the market in neo-liberal is controlled by
individuals.
○ Post 1991 phase of globalization → collapse of communism → russian communist
empire shattered
○ Free market trade
○ A particular kind of order based in free markets, capitalism, individualism
● Struggle For the World
○ Rejection for modernity
○ Resentment towards the social order following the industrial revolution, trade &
commerce, free market in all its forms
○ Liberalism, right + left wing
● Aurora Movements
○ Study by Lindholm who is an anthropologist and Zuquete a political scientist who
both claim that many anti-globalist movements, especially in Latin America, Europe,
and the Middle East, “share a great deal structurally, ideologically, and
experientially,” as they struggle, each in their own way, to redeem a world in ruins.
○ Globalization, they claim, disrupts the equilibrium between humanity, society, and
nature, stultifying man, emptying his world of meaning, and leaving him indifferent
to the most important things in life.
○ Globalization, the authors conclude, may destroy national differences, but so too does
resistance to globalization - to redeem “the world from the evils of globalization.”
○ Oppose capitalist globalization
○ Called “aurora movements” because they promise a new liberating dawn that will
banish dark injustices of the previous era (aurora means sunrise)
○ “No compromise is possible because, for the aurora movements, American– style
neoliberal-capitalist globalization represents a dark power of indignity,
, disenchantment, homogenization, and debasement. It is not just awed or mistaken; it
is evil.” P. 155
○ “Degradation caused by commodification and disenchantment of the spiritual world,
which has become simply an object to be manipulated and marketed by heartless and
soulless entrepreneurs” P. 155
○ “Every time the leaders of the Western world, knowingly or not, with good intentions
or not, refer to a coming “New World Order,” they only conform the aurora
movement’s narrative of a coordinated global assault.” P. 156
○ The left: global justice, alter globalization, no-borders movement who reject the idea
of human movements, largely marxian
○ The right: xenophobic, restrictive + conservative, nationalistic
○ What they have in common:
■ Popular protest against insecurity and rootlessness with free market ideology
(neoliberal order)
■ Strongly anti-modern in their large scale value
■ They strive to recapture the small, the local, unique, distinct
■ Attempt to valorize “community” in a general sense
■ They resent the modern global liberal order and all its elements - what makes
up/constitutes it
■ The mindset of the aurora movements blurs the old right/left distinction. Both
right and left wish to redirect the course of history and inaugurate a new
world where human potentials are realized, justice reigns, and happiness is
universal. Their shared goal is to defy and transform, not adjust and reform.
■ Propose solutions that are global in their ramifications, while also reversing
the order of the present
■ These activists tend to see themselves as soldiers in an existential battle for
redemption of the world from the evils of globalization
■ They are, they believe, engaged in a life or death conflict between two
expansionist models of the human future - one rational, bureaucratic,
commercial, and immoral; the other spiritual, humane, heartfelt, and
righteous.
○ The differences: ?
■ ENR value individuality and uniqueness of each group but Jihadists want
everyone to be under one religion
■ Jihadists seek to use violence and terror but ENR strives to use political
means to transform
● “All these movements see themselves as engaged in a last-ditch war against the “system,” a
war waged by writing books, calling meetings, creating “spaces of resistance,” convening
new collectives, altering individual and collective consciousness, by political action, by riots,
by protests, and, in the case of jihadists, by bombs.” P. 154
● “From Left to Right, from politicians to ravers, all those engaged in the uprising against
globalization adhere to the belief that humanity is living through an interval, “moving the
center” away from the “old world” (ruled by brutal free-market fundamentalism and a
soulless technocratic society) to the “new world” (which is framed in di erent ways but is
always imagined to be a paradise of lasting peace, plenty, and harmony where di erence is
valued but also subsumed within the larger unity).
