Anthropology 316PR - Special Topics in Anthropology: 'Productive and Reproductive Labor in the Middle East'

How has global capitalism shaped labor and the lives of working people in the Middle East, a region that has historically been considered marginal to European and North American metropoles? This question will guide our analysis of "free" versus "unfree" and "formal" versus "informal" labor. We will develop a better understanding of the shifting location of the Middle East within the world economy. We will examine ways in which the region's incorporation into the global economy has relied on and encouraged the spread of "unfree" and "informal" labor. Finally, we will study the effects of this proliferation of unfree and informal labor on the organization of reproductive and care labor within households in different parts of the Middle East.

Prereq: 8 credits in Anthropology or Middle Eastern Studies.