Re: activism and academia

Odd. I would have thought (as CJD pointed out) that world systems 
analysis has a rather important role to play, certainly in strategy. 
Any strategy for the future has to be based on an understanding of 
the past and resolution of the latters outcomes as manifested at 
present. After all, surely to claim otherwise would be to claim that 
dependency theory is removed from history.

As for Eurocentrism, and from a development geographer's viewpoint, I 
think we might firmly consider that we are 'post-eurocentrism' - I 
think of it as occidentalism. Walden Bello's "Dark Victory" or 
Richard Norgaard's "Development Betrayed" would thus also be required 
on the undergraduates burgeoning book list  :o)

Paul.

>
>The world systems approach should not be seen as something that gets
>translated into strategy or tactics. It is at much too high level of
>abstraction. Its most important use is as a defense against Eurocentrism
>which is deeply embedded in the Western university. Even subdisciplines
>that seem free of it are problematic. For example, Franz Boas has the
>reputation of being the first anthropologist to challenge the kind of
>Eurocentrism that was institutionalized with the earlier schools which were
>influenced by social Darwinims. But Boas went on what can only be described
>as criminal raiding parties in the Pacific Northwest to remove native art.
>Or look at the horrendous business that went on with the aptly named
>Napoleon Chagnon and the Yanomamis. I think books like "Colonizer's Model
>of the World" and Janet Abu-Lughod's "Before European Hegemony" should be
>required reading for all college first year students.
>
>
>Louis Proyect
>Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/