Lecture

Fordism and Hollywood: Mass Production and Cultural Commodity

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In course

HUM-254: Contemporary international history

Ce cours a pour objectif de mettre en évidence l'histoire du capitalisme de la révolution industrielle (fin 18e siècle) jusqu'à nos jours. Il s'intéresse aux grandes mutations économiques, technologiques, sociales et environnementales qui ont accompagné l' ...

Description

This lecture delves into the concept of Fordism, characterized by mechanized production, assembly lines, high wages, and low prices, and its impact on the global consumer trade. It also explores the parallel development of the Hollywood studio system post-World War I, which mirrored Fordism in the standardized, mass-produced cultural products. The discussion extends to the phenomenon of 'human zoos' in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where indigenous people were exhibited as exotic attractions. The lecture further examines the intersection of cinema and capitalism, the critique of colonial propaganda, and the eventual decline of 'human zoos' due to increasing scholarly criticism and the rise of cinema.

Instructor

Thomas David

Teaching & PhD PhD Students Joel Swai Praz Courses Health B: Innovation, Equity, Sustainability HUM-125(b) The course provides an interdisciplinary examination of key global health challenges, focusing on biomedical innovations, pharmaceuticals, sustainability, mental health, and health policies. It offer a critical skillset to engineering students approaching these complex health challenges.

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Related concepts (29)

State capitalism

State capitalism is an economic system in which the state undertakes business and commercial (i.e. for-profit) economic activity and where the means of production are nationalized as state-owned enterprises (including the processes of capital accumulation, centralized management and wage labor). The definition can also include the state dominance of corporatized government agencies (agencies organized along business-management practices) or of public companies such as publicly listed corporations in which the state has controlling shares.

Anti-capitalism

Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economic system, such as socialism or communism. Socialism Socialism advocates public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals, with an egalitarian method of compensation.

Colonialism

Colonialism is a practice by which a country controls people or areas, often by establishing colonies, generally for strategic and economic advancement. There is no clear definition of colonialism; definitions may vary depending on the use and context. Colonialism is etymologically rooted in the Latin word "Colonus", which was used to describe tenant farmers in the Roman Empire. The coloni sharecroppers started as tenants of landlords, but the system evolved so they were permanently indebted to the landowner and were trapped in servitude.

Criticism of capitalism

Criticism of capitalism is a critique of political economy that involves the rejection of, or dissatisfaction with the economic system of capitalism and its outcomes. Criticisms typically range from expressing disagreement with particular aspects or outcomes of capitalism to rejecting the principles of the capitalist system in its entirety. Criticism of capitalism is generally a left-wing to far-left stance on political economy.

Anarcho-capitalism

Anarcho-capitalism (or, colloquially, ancap or '"an-cap"') is an anti-statist, libertarian, political philosophy and economic theory that seeks to abolish centralized states in favor of stateless societies with systems of private property enforced by private agencies, the non-aggression principle, free markets and self-ownership, which extends the concept to include control of private property as part of the self.

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