SOCI 2251: LaFeber Study Guide (Globalization)
1) LaFeber's brief history of basketball highlights the historical importance of race and gender. Generally, how does he illustrate their centrality?
-
1. While the phrase "the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer" may not be literally accurate, why is it still a useful shorthand description of the situation in the U.S. today?
-
2) How do today's transnational corporations differ from their earlier counterparts?
-
2B) How does the concept of soft power fit in here?
-
2C) Why has even the use of such soft power engendered fear and anger toward the US?
-
2D) What might this tell us about how the use of military (hard) power by the US will be received by much of the world?
-
3) Understand the ways in which the movement of commerce and culture are connected.
-
4) Contrast Michael Jordan's actions in the 1992 Olympics controversy to his inaction with regard to labor issues in Nike factories in China.
-
4A) LaFeber's brief history of basketball highlights the importance of race and gender?
-
4B) How and why did racial segregation affect both the Harlem Rens and the New York Celtics?
-
4D) How did views about women and men affect the way the game was played and its rules?
-
4E) What governmental action transformed women's basketball opportunities in 1972?
-
6B) Why might transnational corporations and advertisers want someone who is "politically neutered?"
-
CEO's without National Loyalties
-
Global Ad Campaigns
-
How and why did racial segregation impact both the Harlem Rens and the New York Celtics?
-
How did gendered views affect the way that the game was played and its rules?
-
How did he deal with competition?
-
How does this illustrate one aspect of the Faustian bargain?
-
In what ways does Nike typify the transnational corporation? (e.g., p. 65)
-
LaFeber discusses a debate that emerged over why blacks were so successful in the NBA. Contrast the positions of John Wooden and Martin Kane. Why was this argument so explosive? (Note LaFeber's discussion of the success of early ethnic/immigrant groups in basketball as well.)
-
Sneaker Crimes
-
TItle IX and Women in Sports
-
What does it mean to talk of the Americanization of Mass Culture?
-
What else are superstar endorsers forced to give up?
-
What is the bargain that superstar endorsers are forced to make?
-
When LaFeber talks about soft power, to what is he referring? (Note: implicitly he contrasts this with military or "hard" power)
-
When did women begin playing basketball?
-
Why did Phil Knight spend so much on advertising? (Did he especially like advertising?)
-
Why might advertisers want someone who is "politically neutered?"
-
1B) What values are promoted by such advertising?
- "almost supernatural aura that seeed to surround Nikes world famous Swoosh symbol and motto, "Just Do It"- which, critics claimed, was exactly he advice gun-toting teenagers followed to obtain their Nikes" (LaFeber 54).
When did the NBA finally integrate racially?
- 1950
A. Compare and contrast the ways in which Michael Jordan reacted to the controversy at the 1992 Olympic Games and the controversy surrounding Nike's factories in Asia.
- 1992 Olympic Games controversy: - - Nike's Asian Factory Controversy: -
Consumerism
- Advocacy of the rights and interests of consumers. - Political Economy. A doctrine advocating a continual increase in the consumption of goods as a basis for a sound economy. - (Excessive) emphasis on or preoccupation with the acquisition of consumer goods. Frequently depreciative.
Americanization of Mass Culture
- Americanization - Mass Culture
3A) What role does American control of global communications play in the transmission of culture?
- Americanization of culture
Athletes as Commodities
- Commodification- "The action or process of treating a person or thing as property which can be traded or whose value is purely monetary; the treatment of a person or thing as a commodity; commercialization." - OED
Commodification of Sports
- Commodification- "The action or process of treating a person or thing as property which can be traded or whose value is purely monetary; the treatment of a person or thing as a commodity; commercialization." - OED
- Which of these did I say has been most often used when discussing the notion of the American Dream?
- Equality of Opportunity Equality of Chances
C. Finally, if we are also responsible and want to resist the negatives of globalization and impose accountability on transnational corporations, how might we creatively "fight the system" and force Jordan (and Phil Knight) to make use of their power and opportunities on behalf of the less powerful. (Hint: Think Faustian bargain)
- Faustian Bargain- "Of or pertaining to Johann Faust (in Latinized form Johannes Faustus), a wandering astrologer and necromancer who lived in Germany c.1488-1541 and was reputed to have sold his soul to the Devil: later, the hero of dramas by Marlowe and Goethe" - Oxford English Dictionary
Homogenization of the World
- Homogenize- "To make uniform or similar"
2. Be able to define ideology
- Ideology = "a set of related propositions stories, or myths, which serve to both explain and justify existing circumstance" - This is the way society is, and this is the way it ought to be - Doesn't explain why people are good people, it just assumes it
Who was Nike's first sports star endorser? (Hint: He ran for Oregon)
- Nike's first professional athlete endorser was Romanian tennis player Ilie Năstase. - The first track endorser was distance runner Steve Prefontaine (University of Oregon).
5B) How does examining Nike's start and emergence as a multi-million dollar company help illustrate the emergence of the new transnational corporation?
- Page 59
1A) What does global advertising sell beyond a product?
- Style - Lifestyle/Attitude: "Just Do It" - sold not just a product (like sneakers) but a lifestyle ("Just Do It") that in most instances was based on American culture (LaFeber 56)
2. What are the causes of this increasing inequality? Know the two theories (and who proposed them) that I discussed in relationship to increasing inequality in America in the 1980s and early 1990s (Word document in module)
- Symbolic-Analytic Services [Robert Reich, Harvard economist & former secretary of labor for the Clinton administration] - we now live in a global economy which has affected different types of American workers differently: - Symbolic-analytic services (lawyers, bankers, consultants, research scientists) are in high demand on the world market, so their wages have risen o Routine production services (factory and clerical workers) are competing with cheap labor in other countries, so their wages have fallen o Routine personal services (restaurant and hotel workers, cab drivers, domestics) don't directly compete on the world market, but are affected by it. They often compete with illegal aliens willing to work for low wages (as well as laid off factory workers), so their wages have fallen o So, the top category has grown richer while the bottom two have grown poorer. - Trickle-Down Economics - [Reagan/Bush policies] - Made the rich richer and the poor poorer: - Trickle-Down Economics (tax breaks for the rich) was supposed to produce more jobs but instead allowed rich to pay less taxes. - Cuts in social programs for the poor have made their standard of living lower.
4. Be able to illustrate and explain the "teleological fallacy."
- Teleological fallacy Telos= what you are, what you become - Deals with the fourth question- Why - Notion that success is associated with virtue - Teological = "Relating to a goal, end, or final cause; dealing with or invoking the concepts of purpose or design, esp. in relation to the natural or physical world; of, relating to, characterized by, or involving teleology."
Globalization
- The action, process, or fact of making global; esp. (in later use) the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale, widely considered to be at the expense of national identity.
Americanization
- The process of making American in character; the state or condition of being Americanized.
Homogenizaiton
- The state produced in something that has been homogenized; uniformity of composition.
What governmental action transformed women's basketball opportunities in 1972?
- Title IX
Media Transnationals
- Transnational- "
New Globalized World Order
- World Order - "an international set of arrangements for preserving global political stability" - OED - Globalization- "the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale, widely considered to be at the expense of national identity." - OED
Sociological Imagination
- [C. Wright Mills] Men feel trapped and have the right to feel trapped The promise of the sociological imagination is that by seeing the ways that we are trapped by society and seeing that our private troubles are connected to public issues (social problems) In a very real way, the sociological imagination is about seeing how our lives are constrained by the society in which we live Focuses on social problems and structural solutions Instead of blaming individuals, sociologists work on highlighting the social and historical causes of problems and highlighting structural solutions to them Several key points to the sociological imagination: 1. It emphasizes the intersection between history and biography 2. It enforces us to look at the big picture (beyond our immediate relationships and surroundings) 3. It helps us to understand our private troubles as public issues/social problems 4. It provides us with tools to help solve these social problems by allowing us to identify the particular constraints and opportunities of a particular tie and place
Sweat Shop
- a workshop in a dwelling-house, in which work is done under the sweating system (or, by extension, under any system of sub-contract); also fig. and attrib.
Nike's "Swoosh" and the Global Market
- designed by Carolyn Davidson - sold to Nike (then Blue Ribbon Sports) for $35
Sports as a Mean of Upward Mobility
- members of low-income neighborhoods would use sports as a means of gaining access to scholarships or other financial support, in order to escape the impoverished conditions they have lived in.
Upward Mobility
- movement from a lower to a higher social level.
Hard Power
- power (of a nation state, alliance, etc.) characterized by a coercive approach to international relations, often involving military action
Soft Power
- power (of a nation, state, alliance, etc.) deriving from economic and cultural influence, rather than coercion or military strength
5A) How do today's transnational corporations differ from their earlier counterparts?
- transnational- "extending or having interests extending beyond national bounds or frontiers; multinational." (OED)
2A) What are the effects of cultural imperialism or colonialism in the world?
-Cultural Imperialism- "extension of the influence or dominance of one nation's culture over others, now usually through the exportation of cultural commodities such as film, music, etc." (OED); the deliberate imposition of one's own cultural values on another culture (Griffiths 54) - Colonialism- "characteristic of a colony; The colonial system or principle. Now frequently used in the derogatory sense of an alleged policy of exploitation of backward or weak peoples by a large power." (OED)
4C) When did the NBA finally integrate racially? When did women begin playing basketball?
1950 - Racially o 1896 - The first women's intercollegiate basketball championship was played between Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley. Stanford won 2-1 on April 4 before a crowd of 700 women. o 1924 - The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) held the first national basketball tournament for women with six teams. o 1926 - The Amateur Athletic Union sponsored the first-ever national women's basketball championship. o 1936 - The All American Red Heads Team, a barnstorming troupe similar to the Bloomer Girls, was formed. It is generally regarded as the first women's professional basketball team. o 1953 - The USA women's basketball team won the gold in the first international basketball game o 1966 - The first intercollegiate women's basketball tournament was played in Pennsylvania o 1982 - The National Collegiate Athletic Association began sponsoring women's basketball. o 1986 - Nancy Lieberman joined the United States Basketball League (USBL), thus becoming the first woman to play in a men's professional basketball league o 2001 - Stephanie Ready was the first female coach of a men's professional league team in 2001, as an assistant coach for the now defunct Greenville Groove of the National Basketball Development League (the minor league of the National Basketball Association) o 2009 - Nancy Lieberman became the coach of the Texas Legends in the NBA Development League, an affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks, thus making her the first woman to coach a professional men's basketball team o 2014 - Michele A. Roberts was elected as the new Executive Director of the National Basketball Players Association, thus making her the first woman to be elected to the highest position of a major sport's players association within the United States
6A) Contrast Michael Jordan's actions in the 1992 Olympics to his inaction with regard to labor issues in Nike factories in China.
1992 Olympics: - Jordan was a Nike-sponsored athlete at the time - Reebok had paid for the advertising for the Dream Team to accept their medals in red, white, and blue clothes dawning the Reebok logo - Michael Jordan refused to wear a competitor's logo- Reebok (since he was sponsored by Nike) - The rest of the Dream Team was okay with the Reebok deal - Michael Jordan ended up wrapping himself in an American flag and covering up the Reebok logo, saying he was proud of his actions because they reflected loyalty - "If I offended anyone... too bad" -Dream team won Olympic Gold Medal in 1992 and again in 1996. Nike Factories in China: -
3. I described three different visions of equality that have developed within America. What are these three different visions?
i. Equality of Condition - Equality of Outcome ii. Equality of Opportunity - Equality of Chances iii. Survival of the Fittest - Equality of Process
3. Be able to critique the American Dream, especially understand why the American Dream as understood by Jennifer Hochschild is "narrowly individualistic."
o Is success truly under one's own control? NO! - Whether we succeed or fail - Could decide to not give us material to go off of and still require us to take another test - We can work just as hard and do worse - There are things outside of people's own control that matter for their success - Efforts do matter, but aren't the only things that matter - Structural, institutional, and things outside of your control also matter - Only looks at the individual, and doesn't at all talk about things outside of one's own control - That's why it's critiqued as narrowly individualistic - The myth of a colorblind or gender-neutral (or religiously tolerant) society - Suggests we live in a colorblind or gender-neutral society - Reality is that we know there is discrimination based on race, gender, religion in the US today - The American Dream can be used to suggest these myths
1. Know the four tenets of the American Dream (What four questions do they answer?)
o Jennifer Hoschild's "Facing Up to the American Dream" 1. Who? Anyone (regardless of race, gender, or family background) a. Linked to escape from religious persecution, moving out west, starting fresh 2. What? Has the reasonable anticipation of success (as one defines it) a. General notion of success and what it looks like in American cuture b. Has the reasonable anticipation of success (as one defines it) c. General notion of success and what it looks like in American culture d. What people generally say is its more than material success, but requires a certain amount of material success in order to achieve a larger vision of success o Sort of like Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs o Need basic elements of successful life to achieve next level o Almost always a level of material success in the American Dream e. Need a certain level of material success to get to the next levels of success 3. How? Through trait under one's own control o E.g., hard work, perseverance, education b. Through one's own efforts that one succeeds 4. Why? Success is associate with virtue a. Linked to Weber's notion of the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism o Predestination. The 'elect' and salvation - God predestined people for what would occur - Some destined to go to heaven, some predestine to go to hell - God knows who they are, already been determined - Ones who will go on to heaven are called the 'elect' (those who are saved) - Something Calvin himself believed - Shaped world view - How large was the elect? Especially in contrast to the damned - Always understood that they were the select few - Vast majority of Calvinists were predestined to go to hell - As a Calvinist, what would be a burning question in your mind? - Ex. Am I going to heaven? How do I find out if I'm one of the elect?
