GPP 115 Final Exam Study Guide-Fall2024-6
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School
University of California, Berkeley**We aren't endorsed by this school
Course
GPP 115
Subject
Sociology
Date
Dec 18, 2024
Pages
5
Uploaded by DoctorFlamingoPerson1208
1 GPP 115 – GLOBAL POVERTY: CHALLENGES AND HOPES FALL 2024 STUDY GUIDE FOR FINAL EXAM (closed book, Latimer 120, December 17, 8-11 am) FINAL EXAM POLICIES1. What to bring and leave behind:Come prepared with a blue/green book and 1-2 pens with a comfortable grip. Electronic devices (phones, iPods, laptops, and electronic translation devices) are not permitted, and all notes, notebooks and paper should be out of reach during the exam. Do not open your pack or purse or computer case during the exam. Anyone who is observed using an electronic device or referring to notes during the final will automatically fail the exam, with other sanctions, such as failing the class or being reported for academic dishonesty, applying. 2. Classroom leave policy:Please visit the restroom prior to the start of the exam to avoid having to leave the room during the exam. People coming and going can be disruptive for the other students. Students who leave at any point during the exam should be prepared to leave their phone with the professor or GSI. 3. Food and drinks: If possible, try to eat before the exam. If you do need something to keep your energy and focus up during the final, bring something that you can unwrap and eat quietly (e.g. not something crunchy). 4. Start time:The exam will start promptlyat 8 am (not Berkeley time). Please arrive on time. We hope to start distributing the final exam promptly at 7:55 am. Arriving late to an exam is not good for you and it is also distracting for your classmates. STUDY SUGGESTIONS AND TEST-TAKING STRATEGIES1.Remember that the point of studying is not necessarily to succeed on the test, although that is certainly a welcome outcome. It is also to teach yourself the material so that you retain that knowledge over a lifetime. If you only study “for the test” you are far less likely to retain the information nor will you develop the related sets of skills that will serve you in all walks of life: the ability to make connections, to reason coherently, to develop a persuasive argument and support it with concrete evidence. To that end, we suggest that you: 2.Pace your preparation for the final.Cramming the night before is not effective. It tends to leave you exhausted and stressed out the following day. 3.Form study groups: Study groups are a great way to prepare for the exam. If you brainstorm with fellow students, another member of the group might make a connection that you have overlooked. Study groups give you a chance to test your command of the material by talking it through with your peers and sketching it out in writing. 4.Review your lecture/section notes and the readings themselves, developing your own individualized notes to help you make sense of the material and recall it for the final. You are
2 responsible for material derived from the readings regardless of whether it has been presented in lecture and you must demonstrate knowledge of that material in your responses. A good response is one that does not simply restate lecture/section notes but conveys your individual development/grasp of those notes with reference to the readings themselves.Do not use definitions or examples drawn from internet sites or from other classes; your answers need to show that you can engage this material on its own terms. (We hope you have been updating and reviewing your notes every week, typing them into your computer, organizing them in a way that makes sense to you, and looking for patterns and making connections.) EXAM CONTENT The final will potentiallycover all the readings in the second half of the course. In addition to the concepts covered on the midterm, here are the main second half issues and concepts to keep in mind as you review your notes and readings: •Financialization (and global inequality and the global food system) •Comparative advantage theory and the WTO •Agroecology •Food sovereignty •De-colonialism •Resilience theory •The Anthropocene •Environmental justice •Disaster capitalism •Racio-colonial capitalism •Modernized infrastructure •State of Emergency/Emergencia •Embodiment (and perception) •Representation (and power) •(De)Subjectivation •Somatic solidarity •Degrowth •Social exclusion and intersectional poverty actionThe final will consist of two sections (A and B).Section A will entail a single essay question requiring you to connect the two halves of the course. Section B will entail three essay questions concerning on the second half of the course. You must answer the question in section A and *choose one question among the three provided to answer* in section B. Each section is worth 50% of your grade. The best essays will be those that (a) make a clear argument and are well-organized; (b) demonstrate mastery of the authors, familiarity with their texts, and ability to compare the authors’ work; and (c) draw on evidence from both readings and lectures. Study Questions Your final exam questions will be selected from among the following. I will select one of the following two questions from Section A and three of the following five questions from Section B. Section A (50%) 1.In the first half of the course (as well as the beginning of the second half), we traced the role of colonial and imperial states, transnational companies and corporations, international financial institutions (IMF, World Bank, WTO), and the financial sector (e.g. Wall Street) in transferring wealth from what is now the Global South to the Global North. From this
2 perspective, poverty is not an accident, but an ongoing relationship of enrichment and impoverishment. Hunger, famine, and suffering are the predictable result. In Walter Rodney’s (1972) words, “underdevelopment” is the active, intentional, and ongoing result of deliberate actions taken by the West, rather than the independent actions of poor countries themselves. In the second half of the course, we detailed some of the ongoing processes of “underdevelopment” Rodney suggests in three problem spaces: agriculture as a business, disaster capitalism and the limits of nature, or health infrastructures. In the first, Clapp & Isakson discuss the consequences of the financialization of the farming and food sectors for small-scale farmers and the global poor; while McMichael & Schneider consider how the development industry has created poverty trap and food scarcity narratives to justify industrializing interventions in agriculture. In the second, Naomi Klein and others describe a new model of exploitation that profits from ruin and war (“disaster capitalism”). In the third, Adia Benton (2017) and Susan Shepler (2017) detail grassroots responses to the Ebola outbreak, while Casteñeda (2020) and Johnson & Buford (2020) explore the uneven influence of the COVID-19 outbreak in the US. Using evidence from course readings and lectures, write an essay in which you connect these two halves of the course in two ways. First, detail the implications of “underdevelopment” in one of these problem spaces. Second, connect these processes to institutions described in the first half of the class. In what specific ways have these institutions contributed to, or exacerbated, one of our “problem spaces”? 2.In the first half of the course (and a bit in the second half), we explored theories why mainstream development industry initiatives often fall short of their goals. Escobar (1999) traces the problem to the West’s linear and material wealth-focused notion of development. This encourages 1) the perception of wealth and poverty as the natural result of a country’s and a people’s intrinsic conditions, and 2) reduces wealth to having the right material wealth producing knowledge, technology, and values. Ferguson (1994), meanwhile, argues that the development industry tends to reproduce itself despite its failings by framing development problems in relationship to the technical solutions it is well positioned to provide. Framing problems in narrow technocratic and ignoring the messy political causes of poverty ensures its projects will fail to address poverty, but it also means that the solution is always “a technical fix away”. Prof. Doll argues that these issues are rooted in Enlightenment notions of improvement and dualistic thinking. In the second half of the course, we considered how the development industry, health institutions, and state institutions responded to problems of rising food prices in Africa and the epidemics in Sierra Leone and the United States. Rather than helping those most impacted by problems, the interventions of these industries have often exacerbated their suffering. Using evidence from readings and lecture, write an essay in which you connect these two halves of the class. Describe 1) how the development industry, institutional, or state actors intervened in one of these problem spaces (agriculture or health), 2) how this intervention reflects some of the foundational issues with the development industry described by Escobar
3 and Ferguson, and 3) the implications of these interventions in one of the real-world settings we considered. Section B (50%) 1.Joeva Rock (2019), Elizabeth Fitting (2014), Altieri & Toledo (2011), and Prof. Doll all argue (in different but overlapping ways) that food sovereignty is a particularly effective means of challenging the effects of colonialism and neocolonialism. Drawing on evidence from readings and lecture, write an essay in which you describe 1) what food sovereignty is, and 2) how and why it is well suited to combating the various aims and effects of (neo)colonialism, including, in particular the effects of large-scale industrial agriculture.2.In their respective concepts of relational poverty, emergencia, and embodiment/ subjectivity/desubjectivation, Victoria Lawson and Sarah Elwood (2013), Yarimar Bonilla (2020), and Adrienne Pine (2013) have all in various and overlapping ways described how everyday practices in place can both powerfully re-produce and challenge dominant development and neoliberal discourse. Drawing on evidence from readings and lecture, write an essay that compares these three authors/readings/concepts. What do they argue about the effects of neoliberalism and moments of disruption? How are they similar or different? What implications do they have for understanding the roots of inequality, offer common suggestions for how we can address it, and speak to the ethics of global citizenship?3.Jason Hickel details the global environmental and social cost of the present institutional model of development. In particular, the narrow emphasis on GDP growth as a measure of progress is mathematically impossible to sustain. As David Attenborough said, “Anyone who thinks that you can have infinite growth on a finite planet is either a madman or an economist.” This model of not only growth, but exponential growth, is pushing life on planet earth towards crisis. Hickel and others argue that it is now an existential imperative to support degrowth.Using evidence from readings and lecture, write an essay in which you detail 1) why GDP growth is a poor indictor of success, 2) how and why this priority is damaging the environment, and 3) how alternatives (e.g. degrowth, agroecology) would propose to ameliorate this damage. 4.Kathleen Tierney argues that neoliberally-minded Western government officials and the mainstream development industry have co-opted resilience theory and used it support the idea that – in an increasingly insecure world – modern infrastructures such as highways, shipping lines and levees must be protected and individual citizens must take on greater responsibility for their own security and advocate for their own interests. Tierney says we must be wary of “boundary objects” like resilience. Drawing on evidence from readings and lecture, write an essay that describes 1) what Tierney means by boundary objects and why she considers them dangerous, 2) why Tierney considers such applications of resilience theory dangerous, and 3) how traditional understandings of resilience offer more effective ways forward.5.In their analyses, Adia Benton (2017) and Susan Shepler (2017) both find that mainstream narratives regarding grassroots responses to the Ebola outbreak miss important details. They
4 argue that while such representations and memories from the perspective of the marginalized may seem trivial, they are in fact of critical importance. Using evidence from readings and lecture, write an essay in which you detail 1) why Benton and Shepler believe representation and memory are important, 2) how, what, and why mainstream accounts of grassroots responses missed crucial details, and 3) how an understanding of those details might influence future responses to disasters.