Courses
COURSES
The Cape Town Institute offers four seminars, each of which is equivalent to a one-semester graduate course (complemented by the master class sessions, evening meetings, and study tours). All seminar classes meet a total of 12 times, with an additional 2 follow-up classes to meet in New York upon return (for New School and NY-based students only).
Participants select two of the four seminar classes offered and participate in all master classes. Upon completion of the course requirements, New School students receive appropriate course credits (six credits) and non-New School participants receive certificates of completion.
Courses offered at the 2009 Cape Town Institute include:
Course Summaries
Democracies & Boundaries – Conflicts about Membership, Borders, and Diversity
Prof. David Plotke, Department of Political Science, The New School for Social Research
Democracy means self-governance. But who gets to participate in this process, where, and by what means? The basic democratic proposal, that we should govern ourselves, raises hard questions about boundaries. For good reasons, democratic commitments always seem to collide with boundaries - yet the latter may be necessary for democratic practices. These issues take dramatic practical forms in arguments about voting and inclusion, immigration, civil conflict and separation, and political expression. They arise in and across many different countries and regions, from the U.S. to South Africa to India to Western Europe. We will look at these very general issues via specific questions and contexts.
First, we will examine citizenship and its relation to democratic governance. What should be the criteria for citizenship and which citizens should be able to participate in self-governance? We will address these questions partly by looking at historic and contemporary forms of exclusion.
Second, we consider borders between states, divisions within states, and the problem of immigration. Are there legitimate grounds on which citizens in democracies can bound their own polities?
Third, we examine conflict within democratic politics. Presuming that democratic polities manage rather than dissolve conflict, what limits can be placed on modes of action and forms of expression by political actor? We will consider whether and when limits can be placed on political speech and expression, disruptive political action, civil disobedience, and political violence. When and how (if ever) is it legitimate to impose limits in the name of managing deep conflict within democratic polities and expanding democratic practices?Â
We will examine these questions via theoretical texts and empirical studies of recent and ongoing experiences in different parts of the world. We will make special reference to African cases, including the upsurge of violent protest against immigration in South Africa in 2008.
Profs. Elzbieta Matynia, Department of Sociology & Liberal Studies, The New School for Social Research; and Shireen Hassim, Department of Political Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
The spread of liberal democracy in various parts of the globe has had contradictory consequences for women. On the one hand, women have been the prime beneficiaries of political liberalization, benefiting from the expansion of opportunities for participation and representation in decision-making. On the other hand, however, economic liberalization has worsened poor women’s condition, removing many of the supports necessary for women’s participation in the paid labour force. This course examines the contentious relationship between women and democracy from the advent of industrialization to the present. We consider feminist critiques of democratic theory from early thinkers such as Mary Wollstonecraft to contemporary postmodern thinkers such as Wendy Brown. The course addresses key dilemmas in democratic theory, such as the tension between individual and group rights, the possibilities of universalism, the limits of nationalism, the relationship between private and public, and the challenges of cultural and religious fundamentalism. We use a transnational perspective to understand the diverse ways in which collectivities of women have challenged, extended and rejected democracy, and the implications of these struggles for democratic theory.
Prof. Hylton White, Department of Anthropology, The New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College; and guest speakers
A signature feature of 20th century politics in Africa was the salience of Africanist political thought. Movements and theorists in many parts of the continent regarded their efforts not just in terms of local and national ambitions, but as vehicles for the emancipation of Africa as a whole. In the context of more recent calls for African political and economic renewal, what can we learn by revisiting this older line of thinking? How have major thinkers imagined 'Africa' as the subject and the object of transformative political action? What are the continuities and differences between early 20th century Pan- Africanism, mid-century African Nationalist and African Socialist politics, and the hopes for an African Renaissance that were voiced in the 1990s? What lessons can the aspirations and failures of these diverse projects offer to contemporary democratic politics? To help us think through these questions, the seminar examines major Africanist political statements along with various works by scholars that cast a critical light on them.
Shifting Power in the Global Economy: Rethinking Development Strategies
Profs. William Milberg, Department of Economics, The New School for Social Research, and Stephen Gelb, Executive Director, The EDGE Institute, Johannesburg; and Development Studies, University of the Witwatersrand