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Equality, Discrimination, Marginalization and Development

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Course Type Course Code No. Of Credits
Foundation Core SHS3DP205 2

Semester and Year Offered: Semester 2

Course Coordinator and Team: Prof Anup Dhar

Email of course coordinator: anup[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in

Pre-requisites:

Course Objectives/Description:

is Equality’ and ‘Equality of What’ – these two central questions will be critically examined in this course by situating them in the contemporary substantive experiences on the notions of discriminations and marginalizations in India. The idea ‘equality’, embedded in the question of ‘inequality’, has an intrinsic connection to the concept and practices of development. Similarly, different types of social arrangements, social systems, and political practices have brought direct or indirect implications on the idea of equality. Thus, the meaning of the idea of equality is historical, context specific, and undergoing constant change. In order to understand the empirical specificity of the idea of equality in connection with the discriminatory practices and marginalization of the people, particularly associated with class, caste and gender, it is necessary to look at the genealogy of ‘equality’. This course begins by looking at some of the classical philosophical notions of the concept of equality and their historical introductions. Subsequently, the course will introduce the modern and contemporary political philosophical perspectives on the idea of equality and finally examine the sociological conceptualization of equality by contextualizing it in the Indian empirical reality. This course will also try to establish an integration of normative questions about the ideal of equality with rural empirical issues identified by the students with regard to the nature of inequality, discrimination, and marginalization through their village immersion. Briefly, this course will make an attempt to combine the political philosophical and sociological understandings of the concept equality, through which it will explore the complex contemporary manifestations of inequality, discrimination, and marginalization within the larger terrain of development. It will also relate philosophies of developmental practices (done in the 1st semester) with questions of inequality, poverty, discrimination and marginalization.

Course Outcomes:

On successful completion of this course students will be able to:

  • Look at the genealogy of the concept equality and provide a historical introduction.
  • Familiarize the contemporary notions of equality in the context of discrimination, marginalization and development;
  • Integrate normative questions about the ideal of equality with rural empirical issues.
  • Relate paradigms of development and developmental practices with questions of inequality.

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

Unit I: Classical Conceptions on the Idea of Equality: The module looks at classic text of Aristotle, Plato, Thomas Hobbes, Rousseau to explore how the idea of equality of the universal human.

Unit II: Intellectual Strands on Equality: The second module looks at some of the dominant theoretical strand of modern age such as Conservatism, Liberalism, Socialism and Postmodernity.

Unit III: The notions of Equality in Contemporary Political Philosophy: The third module look contemporary views of scholar like Ronald Dworkin, Robert Nozick, and Amartya Sen

Unit IV Equality and Development: The Indian Context: The final module looks at issues of stratification from the vantage points of modes of production (Marx), interpretive understanding of power and authority (Weber) and solidarity (Durkheim). In this module, effort is to examine if ‘stratification’ can be a useful analytical tool to understand experiences of (in)equality, discrimination and marginalization.

Assessment Details with weights:

  • Critical Review Paper: Significance of Equality amidst multiplicity of Difference
  • Reflective Paper: Issues of stratification and concerns of equality in village immersion sites.

Reading List:

  • Pojman P. Louis (1997) Equality: Selected Readings, Oxford: Oxford University Press (Introduction Chapter, Chapter 1, 2 and 3)
  • Arneson J, Richard (2007) [1993] Equality in Robert E. Goodin, Philip Pettit and Thomas Pogge (eds.) A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy, Vol. I, 2nd ed. USA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Pp. 593-611.
  • Nagel Thomas (2000) Equality in Clayton, Matthew and Andrew Williams (eds) The Ideal of Equality, London: Macmillan Press Ltd. Pp. 60-80
  • Koggel M, Christine (1998), Perspectives on Equality: Constructing a Relational Theory, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. (Chapter 1 and 3)
  • Bloom, Allan (1968) The Republic of Plato, USA: Basic Books
  • Clayton, Matthew and Andrew Williams (2000) The Ideal of Equality, London: Macmillan Press Ltd (Chapter 1 and 8)
  • Robert, Eccleshall, Vincent Geoghegan, Richard Jay and Rick Wilford (1984) Political Ideologies: An Introduction, London: Routledge (Introduction to Chapter 4, PP. 1-151)
  • Kymlicka, W. (2002) Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press (Chapter 3: Liberala Equality, PP. 53-101)
  • Roland, Pierik , The Ideal of Equality in Political Philosophy, www.acdemia.edu
  • Alexander Brown (2009) Ronal Dworkin’s Theory of Equality: Domestic and Global Perspectives, UK: Palgrave Macmillan
  • Cohen G A, (1993), Amartya Sen’s Unequal World, EPW, Vol.8, No. 40, pp. 2156-60
  • Dworkin, Ronald (1981), What is Equality? Part I: Equality of Welfare, Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 185-246
  • Ibid (1981), What is Equality? Part II: Equality of Resources, Philosophy and Public Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 283-345
  • Harris R. Scott (2006), Marital Equality, Albany: State University of New York (Chapter 1: Equality as a Social Construction)
  • Pojman P. Louis (1997) Equality: Selected Readings, Oxford: Oxford University Press (Chapter 10 and 17)
  • Sen, Amartya (1992), Inequality Reexamined, Cambridge: Harvard University Press
  • Beteille, Andre (1987), The Idea of Natural Inequality and Other Essays, Delhi: Oxford University Press
  • Tilly, Charles. 1997. Durable Inequality. Berkeley: University of California Press (selected chapters)
  • Bottero, W. 2004. Stratification: Social division and inequality. New York: Routledge.
  • Valmiki, Omprakash Jhootan
  • Kannabiran, Kalpana. 2009. Sociology of Caste and the Crooked Mirror: Recovering B R Ambedkar’s Legacy. Economic and Political Weekly 44(4): 35-39.
  • Pandian, Anand. Crooked Stalks.Cultivating virtue in South India. Durham: Duke University Press.
  • Basu, Amrita. 1990.Indigenous feminism, tribal radicalism and grassroots mobilization in India. Dialectical Anthropology 15::193-209, 1990.
  • Padel, Felix and Das Samarendra. 2012. Out of this Earth.East India Adivasis and the Aluminiun Cartel. Delhi : Orient Blackswan
  • Smith, L. T. 2013. Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. London: Zed Books Ltd.

ADDITIONAL REFERENCE:

  • Callinicos, Alex (2000) Equality, Cambridge: Polity Press
  • Kymlicka, W. (2002) Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • Lakoff, Sanford A (1964), Equality in Political Philosophy, Boston: Beacon Press Murray A R M (2010) [1953], An Introduction to Political Philosophy, Oxon: Routledge
  • Baker, John (1987), Arguing for Equality, London: Verso
  • Walzer, Michael (1983), Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality, New York: Basic Books
  • Wolfe, Christopher (1994) Liberalism and Paternalism: A Critique of Ronald Dworkin, The Review of Politics, Vol. 56, No. 4, PP. 615-639
  • Christiano, T. and J. Christman (2009) Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy, Oxford: Blackwell
  • Dryzek, J., B. Honig and A. Phillips (2006) (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • Goodin, R. and P. Pettit (2006) (eds.) Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Anthology, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • Lakoff, Sanford A (1964), Equality in Political Philosophy, Boston: Beacon Press
  • Nagel, Thomas (1991), Equality and Partiality, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • Peters J, Christopher (1997), Equality Revisited, Harvard Law Review, Vol. 110, No. 6 (April), pp. 1210-1264
  • White, Stuart (2006) Equality (Key Concepts) Cambridge: Polity Press
  • Williams, Bernard A O (1997), ‘The Idea of Equality’ in Peter Laslett and W G Runciman (eds), Philosophy, Politics and Society, Series II, Oxford: Basil Blackwell
  • .Davis, Kingsley & Wilbert Moore. 1945. "Some Principles of Stratification." American Sociological Review 10(2):242-249.
  • Parsons, Talcott. 1954. ‘An Analytical Approach to the Theory of Social Stratification’.Essays in Sociological Theory (revised ed.), New York, The Free Press, 1954.
  • Gopinath Mohanty. ‘Ants’ and ‘Identity’. In The Bed of Arrows and Other Stories. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.
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