1.2: Lineages of the Everyday in International Political Economy (Term Test 1)

Lineage

A theory or ideology that explains how events fit into the world and provides ways to view and understand them.

Critical Theory

A moral critique of culture and society that aims to challenge power structures and assumptions in order to achieve a full and true understanding of how the world works.

Liberalism

The belief that the wants and desires of individuals within the market should direct economic tasks efficiently, without significant government influence.

• must be sympathetic to another in transaction, to achieve fair price of the commodity

• shouldnt be a monopoly

• people should make more money than others as they have offered “more” to society, positions seen as more important

  • the more the important people are paid, the more their workers will theoretically make

Role of the State/Government in Liberalism

The government should have a small role in the economy, supporting the functioning of the market to ensure fairness and prevent theft.

Free Trade

The belief in unrestricted trade without tariffs or taxes, allowing countries to focus on what they are best at.

Market

A physical or virtual site where goods and services are exchanged, and a way of organizing economic relations.

Adam Smith

Known as the first economist, he developed the first form of capitalism and advocated for the market as the primary distributor in society.

Invisible Hand

The concept that through self-interest and freedom of production, the best interests of society are fulfilled.

Voluntary Exchange

The idea that no one is forced to buy a product and all individuals have the ability to choose.

Market Sympathy

The belief that a definite price for an item exists, and how sellers and buyers interact based on that price.

Economic Nationalism

The idea that the market needs stable intervention by the government to prevent economic catastrophe and promote development.

• buy homemade products

Infant Industry Production

The protection of smaller local industries from imports to allow them to develop and compete with established industries.

Marxism

A critique of the commercial society that serves the interests of those who benefit from market exchange, focusing on the exploitation of the working class.

Disagrees with the naturalization of the commercial society we live in, as it merely serves the interests of those who benefitted from the spread of market exchange.

People could not form social relationships required to understanding the labour that goes into a product as they understand the economy through market relationships—how much an item is priced compared to another

Bourgeoisie

The capitalist class that owns the means of production and benefits from market exchange.

Proletariat

The class of

International Economics

Is a competition between nations, end result will depend on which nation is more powerful

Infant Industry Production

When smaller local industries start up, they are not going to be as advanced as already established big industries. As a result, countries would block imports from these established industries so their nation could develop on their own.

• List argued that no big nation developed with a liberal lineage

Government role in Economic Nationalism

cannot leave market to its own devices, government needs to intervene and look over trade

How do big nations feel about IIP?

United States and Europe want nations to sign free trade deals to allow their products into countries attempting to establish Infant Industry Protection

The role of the state in marxist societies

The State should serve the interest of the dominant class (the Proletariats), and those in power would reflect class strength

Commodity Fetishism

How an object hides their social relations behind their production and exchange. Basically, people value commodities based on their exchange value rather than their use value. This creates a false consciousness among the consumers who do not see the exploitation of the capitalist system.

Example of Commodity Fetishism

Perfume is often advertised using popular and attractive celebrities, not described in terms of its use (what it smells like).

Karl Marx on Commodity Fetishism

In a capitalist society, a commodity appears as if by magic to the consumer. This miraculous appearance, crucially, is divorced from the labour which produced it.

The Common Sense

The popular opinion of the dominant class. For those in power to gain support, they must engage in the dominant class’ ‘common sense’ to further their political agendas.

Henri Lefebvre

The everyday

Everyday and Everyday Life

Everyday: The ‘everyday’ is not what people do on a day-to-day basis but how activities are subordinated to the imperatives of capital and become routine

Everyday Life: life left over once all distinct superior specialized structured activities have been singled out

Social Reproduction

Feminist political economy about the often unpaid and undervalued work involved in bearing children, maintaining households and caring for others, which reproduces the labour power and social cohesion on which capitalism depends.

Feminist Lineage

many economists/philosophers (predominantly men) would bracket out certain tasks from the formal economy, like cooking and cleaning. these tasks are mostly done by women within the home without pay.

Biological Determinism

what you are “supposed to do” within a society may be determined by what gender a person is born as.

Patricial Hill Collins Philosophy:

Cleavages that create common interests within a society.

• there are specific things that create common interests in society, “cleavages”

  • ex black people are treated worse than white people in police

Intersectionality:

The effects that ensue when multiple axes of differentiation intersect in historically specific ways

• how gender, sexuality, race, class and nation mutually construct on another as systems of oppression in their everyday lives

Post-structural Lineages

A structure in which a minority is visible to the authority at all times