ARC Seminar Series

Fall 2015-Spring 2016

INEQUALITY AND THE COMMONS

Co-ordinators: Ida Susser, Anthropology

Marianna Pavlovskaya, Geography

Many have suggested that social movements today may be understood in terms of a theory of the commons.  The idea of the commons connects with calls for human rights and environmental justice – shared rights to health, education, land, air, urban space, cyberspace, and water that expands the working class struggles over industrial collective bargaining. Such powerful multiple movements are also responding to the emerging forms of stratification in the global economy manifested or precipitated by the increasing privatization and enclosures of public goods in the broadest sense. People are recognizing and struggling against increasing inequality and, in addition to industrial workers, the emerging movements involve a much broader swath of the working population. This seminar series will address far ranging struggles around taxes and entitlements, poor people’s movements, community-based natural resource use, urban housing, public space and others. We will critically explore these social movements and the groups they represent in order to contribute to the ongoing theorization of the commons.

This interdisciplinary seminar will include a speaker series throughout the year, combined with two courses in the spring, one taught by Ida Susser in anthropology on “Inequality and the Commons” and one taught by Marianna Pavlovskaya in geography on “New struggles over urban space”.

All faculty are welcome. Please email Ida Susser if you are interested in participating or if you would like to recommend students to the seminar: susseris@gmail.com

Students will only register for the Spring Semester but will be expected to attend for the year, mostly on alternate Fridays. We encourage second year and upper level doctoral students and as well as returning students who participated in last year’s seminar to attend, but please contact us if you are interested: Ida Susser  (susseris@gmail.com) or Marianna Pavlovskaya (mpavlov@hunter.cuny.edu).