Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism

About our authors Richard H. Robbins received his PhD in anthropology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has spent his entire teaching career at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. Some of his most formative academic experiences include field research among Cree, Inuit, and Naskapi First Nations peoples of Canada; Acadian farmers and fisherfolk in New Brunswick, Canada; and religious communal societies in the United States. A research semester at the Science Studies Unit at the University of Edinburgh would count as 1 of his most stimulating intellectual experiences. His most recent books include Debt as Power (Manchester University Press, 2016) and Anthropology of Money (Routledge, 2017), both co-authored by Tom DiMuzio. He has received the State University of New York’s Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the American Anthropological Association/McGraw-Hill Teacher of the Year Award. He also appeared in the hit anti-globalization documentary, The Yes Men. He is currently SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at Plattsburgh. Rachel Dowty Beech is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Fire Science, and Coordinator of the online Emergency Management Master’s Degree Program at University of New Haven. She published works in the fields of Science and Technology Studies (STS), disaster anthropology, environment and ecology, learning, and organizational culture. Her edited volume Dynamics of Disaster: Lessons on Risk, Response, and Recovery with Barbara L. Allen (Earthscan 2011) addresses some of the sociocultural problems arising from the nexus of disasters and the culture of capitalism.

I. INTRODUCTION: THE CONSUMER, THE LABORER, THE CAPITALIST, AND THE NATION-STATE IN THE SOCIETY OF PERPETUAL GROWTH
1. Constructing the Consumer
2. The Laborer in the Culture of Capitalism
3. The Rise and Fall of the Merchant, Industrialist, and Financier
4. The Nation-State in the Culture of Capitalism

II. THE GLOBAL IMPACT OF THE CULTURE OF CAPITALISM: INTRODUCTION
5. Population Growth, Migration, and Urbanization
6. Hunger, Poverty, and Economic Development
7. Environment and Consumption
8. Health and Disease
9. Indigenous Groups and Ethnic Conflict

III. RESISTANCE AND REBELLION: INTRODUCTION
10. Peasant Adaptation and Resistance in the Face of Uncertainty
11. Anti-Systemic Protest
12. Religion and Anti-Systemic Protest
13. Solving Global Problems: Some Options and Courses of Action