080069 VO+UE B520 Culture and Habitat: The People and the Public (2013S)

Ethnology has traditionally studied “peoples” (ethnoi). In this course we will explore how the concept of “people” has come into being in various forms, and how the concept has become politically relevant as it appears in the public sphere.
The first third of the course will follow the historical and cultural formation of “the people” as a central concept of political as well as cultural thought.
The second third of the course moves from “the people” to “peoples” and related concepts such as nations, classes, masses, and multitudes. Rather than studying the histories of nations, classes, etc. as separate cases, we will look for connections among these histories, asking how similarities and differences may be historically related. For example, in what ways was the formation of an “international working class” a response to warring nation-states? In what ways does the precarious multitude point to perceived failures of the traditional working class?
In the final third of the course we will approach the formation of “peoples” from a new angle, exploring the public spaces which have enabled various forms of “the people” to gain political importance. We will learn about different kinds of public spheres, theorized as “civil,” “bourgeois,” “alternative,” “proletarian,” or “plebeian.” We conclude with a look at the ambiguous position of folklore both outside and at the center of modern public spheres. We will see how the form of the people as a political idea depends in no small part on the cultural practices that surround it.