CG 15-1

RMIT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION COLLEGE OF DESIGN & SOCIAL CONTEXT

COMM2402 RHETORICS & POLITICS OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Course Outline 1/2015

Contact hrs: 3 per week (1 hour lecture & 2 hour tutorial) Non-contact hrs: An average of 5-6 hours per week Pre-requisites: None Lecture: TUESDAY, 12.30-1.20pm, in 12.10.02 Tutorials: 1. TUESDAY 3.30-5.20pm Room 08.09.46 (KD)

2. WEDNESDAY 11.30-1.20pm Room 80.07.06 (KD) 3. WEDNESDAY 1.30-3.20pm Room 09.02.18 (KD)

4. WEDNESDAY 3.30-5.20pm Room 09.03.11 (AC) 5. THURSDAY 8.30-10.20pm Room 56.06.83 (HYC) 6. THURSDAY 12.30-2.20pm Room 08.08.45 (HYC) Teaching staff: Philip Dearman, course coordinator

Room 9.4.56 Ph: 9925 9568 [email protected]

Huck Ying Chng, tutor Kristen Davis, tutor Antonio Castillo [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Consultation: Email to make an appointment

COMM2402 Rhetorics & Politics Course Guide 2

COURSE DESCRIPTION Overview Rhetorics & Politics in the Contemporary World is a key course in the Politics Economies Communication (PEC) Contextual Strand. In this course you will explore how contemporary political economic life is governed, and how this is bound up with communication. We explore different ways of talking about politics and economieswhich are usually treated in very different waysand the central role that rhetoric plays in these areas. Our focus is on helping you to develop a working knowledge of contemporary politics, and in particular of businesses as an increasingly dominant focus of debate, policy and practice in contemporary economies.

We pay attention to communication as something that is always appliedas a variety of practices and technologies rather than simply ideasand to the political, economic and business locations and aspects of rhetorical practices and communication technologies. Objectives By the end of the course you should be able to: 1. discuss what is counted as politics, the economy, and business and how these are

routinely organised and communicated; 2. describe the role of communication in the exercise of power through rhetoric, argument and

persuasion; 3. analyse particular uses of communication in politics, economies and businesses including

key descriptions such as global capitalism, the knowledge economy, the new economy, the information society, the digital age, the network society;

4. recognise and be able to communicate arguments, which are presented in scholarly, popular, written and audio-visual forms.

Assessment Summary (see pp.78 for full details) You are required to complete three assessment tasks in this course, as follows:

Short Essay: 1000 words; due 11.59pm, Thursday April 9; value 25%.

Online Quizzes: completed three times during the semester; value 30%.

Major Essay: 2000 words; due 11.59pm, Thursday June 4; value 45%. Learning Activities Weekly lectures introduce, elaborate and exemplify course topics, key concepts and arguments. Lecture slides, lecture audio and a range of relevant reference documents and web links will be posted to the courses Blackboard page. It is important that you become familiar with the Rhetorics & Politics Blackboard as soon as possible after starting the course. Tutorials will run in all weeks of the semester, including Week 1. Tutes provide a forum for testing concepts, discussing readings and other resources, raising questions, strategically developing your capacities for reading and making sense of complex arguments.

Prepare for tutorials by reading and reflecting on the relevant course materials before you come to class (see Detailed Study Program, from p.9, for details of required reading).


LECTURE TIMETABLE at a glance* Week 1 (3 Mar) Introduction and overview Week 2 (10 Mar) What is politics, now? Week 3 (17 Mar) What is governing, now? Week 4 (24 Mar) What is the economy, now? Week 5 (31 Mar) Rhetoric I: some initial categories

[ M I D S E M E S T E R B R E A K ]

Week 6 (14 Apr) Rhetoric II: a framework for interpretation Week 7 (21 Apr) Wiring the nation: governing

telecommunications Week 8 (28 Apr) Recent business histories and cultures Week 9 (5 May) Communication at the heart of business Week 10 (12 May) Governing finance: making up markets and

economies Week 11 (19 May) GFC: finance cultures, innovations and

explanations Week 12 (26 May) Course summary *See Detailed Study Program, from p.9, for short summaries of weekly readings and tute questions.

COURSE ADMINISTRATION Texts, References and Other Learning Resources We ask that you purchase a paper copy Course Dossier, which is a compilation of various readings, available at the University Bookshop on Little La Trobe Street, from Week 1. We provide a small number of additional reference readings electronically, via Blackboard. The second half of this Guide includes a brief Study Program, which introduces each of the readings included in the Dossier. Your Dossier should be viewed as a set of resources for this course and semester, and also for future PEC courses. Dont lose it, or throw it away! Class Etiquette We expect you to give full and complete attention in lectures and tutorials, to participate in whole and small group discussion, listening/viewing and reading. Always bring your Course Dossier to tutorials. Come to class ready to discuss set readings. Using social media for private purposes in class time is considered rude. It shows a lack of regard for the work of teaching staff, and it distracts others around you. Please resist the temptation!


We notice (and very much appreciate it!) when you make constructive contributions in class. We also notice when you are routinely late and/or absent. Talk to us if youre having any difficulties with attendance and/or study routines and skills. We encourage basic questions as well as advanced ones. Disagreements are expected and encouraged, but please always bring good faith and humour to class. Personal attacks are not acceptable.

Many of the readings will introduce you to particular arguments, and you can use them as stepping-stones toward making sense of wider bodies of writing (e.g. you can follow up topics, keywords, authors or publications). In other words, dont expect that you will exhaust the usefulness (or significance and meaning) of the materials contained in the dossier by your first, second or even third reading. You will also have access to a range of resources on the course Blackboard site (via myRMIT), and to RMIT library resources. Submission of Tasks Instructions for completing the Online Quizzes will be circulated electronically in Week 2, prior to the first quiz in Week 3. Submit your Short Essay and Major Essay through Turnitin (inside Blackboard), by 11.59pm on the due date. No paper copy is required. First, make sure you give your essay file a logical name. We recommend you name it Short Essay--. (For example, if your last name is Jones, you would name it ShortEssay-Jones-2015.) Then, go to Assessment Tasks in Blackboard, and look for the title of the task. Click on View/Complete (below the title of the task), and then complete the submission form. Dont panic if you encounter technical problems. It may take some time to upload during busy periods. If you are not able to submit due to any technical issue, email us for advice. Please ensure that you keep copies of all work submitted. Return of Tasks will be through Turnitin, or in class. Before you submit written work Please observe the following requirements when you prepare your Short and Major Essays for submission. If you do not, you may lose marks. Referencing: use one of the author-date in-text referencing styles. This means you should

show only name, date and page numbers (where relevant) in the body of your essay, and attach a full list of all references you have cited at the end of your essay.

Copies of RMIT guidelines on how to use in-text referencing are available via a link in the Assessment Tasks folder, in Blackboard.

Margins and line spacing: your essay should be double-spaced, and you should leave wide margins at the sides, top and bottom of every page. This allows us to offer feedback on the body of your essay.

Pagination: please remember to number each page of your essay. Word-count: provide a full word-count for your essay, on your cover-sheet and/or at the end

of your last paragraph. Final review: always check your draft, between writing and submitting. Use spell-checker, but

dont rely on it exclusively. Spelling mistakes, awkward sentences and confused paragraph construction might seem trivial, but theyre irritating to read and they will undermine your tutors confidence in your work.


Grading principles High Distinction (80% and above) Outstanding work. Distinguished by a clearly worded analytical engagement with the set material, an ability to synthesise points, depth and clarity of argument and structure, and independent thought and research where required. Distinction (70-79%) Excellent work. Contains well-structured arguments and evidence of a comprehensive grasp of course content, and independent thought and research where required, but also evidence of one or two minor problems.

Credit (60-69%) Good to very good work. Displays engagement with course content, and some independent thought and research where required, but undermined by gaps in reasoning and argumentation, or insufficient coverage of material, or weaknesses in overall structure. Pass (50-59%) Average work. Displays a basic grasp of course content, but with a range of more or less serious flaws, such as poor referencing, lack of evidence of independent reading and research where required, poor reasoning, padding, lack of argument, poor structure, and so on.

Fail (0-49%) Fail (or NN) is given to inadequate work. A Fail grade can be allocated where there is no evidence of any attempt to engage with set readings, or do required research. Plagiarism can also be grounds for failure. Extensions Applications for extension must be made no later than one working day before the official due date. An Application for Extension of Time For Submission of Assessable Work form must be submitted with the Course Coordinator. Due dates can only be extended by a maximum of one week. Further extension is subject to Special Consideration policy and procedures (see below). Please consult with us, or with your program advisor, as soon as possible if you are encountering any major difficulties. Late Work Work submitted after the deadline without an approved extension or an approved special consideration application will incur a penalty of 5% of the total mark available for the assignment for each working day after the due date. For example, if an essay is worth 40 marks and is submitted 3 calendar days late, you will lose 3 x 2 (5% of 40) = 6 marks. NOTE: work submitted more than two weeks beyond the due date, without an approved extension or approved Special Consideration application, will receive a mark of zero. Special Consideration Students may apply for Special Consideration on a range of medical or compassionate grounds where they experience unexpected or extenuating circumstances during or at the end of a semester which: a) prevented them from submitting assessable task/s b) prevented them from attending an examination c) substantially affected their performance in the above.

An Application for Special Consideration form is available from the RMIT Current Students website. Go to http://www.rmit.edu.au/students/forms/assessment, and click on Apply for Special Consideration. It must be completed and lodged at The Hub no later than two working days after the date of an examination or the due date for an assessment task.


Plagiarism Plagiarism is the deliberate presentation of the work, idea or creation of another person as though it is your own. Its a form of cheating, and is considered a very serious academic offence that can, ultimately, lead to expulsion from the University. Plagiarized material can be drawn from, and presented in, written, graphic and visual form, including electronic data, and oral presentations. Examples of plagiarism include: Copying sentences or paragraphs word-for-word from one or more sources, without proper

citation; Closely paraphrasing sentences, paragraphs, ideas or themes without proper citation; Piecing together text from one or more sources and adding only linking sentences; Copying or submitting whole or parts of computer files without acknowledging their source; Copying designs or works of art and submitting them as your original work; Copying a whole or any part of another student's work; and Submitting work as your own that someone else has done for you. Go to http://www.rmit.net.au/policies/academic for further detail on RMIT University policies on plagiarism. Study and Learning Centre If you need help with English expression or with effective learning strategies and techniques, make the time to investigate and use the available resources. RMIT University and the School of Media and Communication offer a number of services for Bachelor of Communication students wishing to enhance their academic language and learning skills. Information and appointments can be made at http://www.rmit.edu.au/studyandlearningcentre or via their drop in centre in building 12.04.20.


COURSE ASSESSMENT Task 1: Short essay Length: 1000 words Value: 25% Due: Thursday April 9 (see p.4 for notes on how to submit via Blackboard) Discuss the following statement To govern is not to crush the persons or processes governed, or to dominate them, but to mobilize them toward some ends (Rose, 2005, p.151) with reference to one of the following issues: capital punishment, children in detention, higher education fees, income management for welfare recipients.

Guidelines Make sure you address the main terms and concepts covered in course readings and

lecturesconcerning politics, power, and governingup to and including Week 4. Draw on lecture notes and weekly set readings to formulate your approach to the task. Make reference to at least two recent news sources in your discussion, that you have found

independently (where recent means published within the last six months). You may draw on other scholarly sources, but make sure this is not at the expense of

demonstrating how you have engaged with the materials offered to you in this course. Your essay should use conventional sentences and paragraphs. Be concise and accurate in your

use of course materials, but avoid dot points. Assessment criteria Your essay should demonstrate that you are: a) familiar with key concepts covered in Weeks 1-4 of the course, b) able to draw on relevant readings in describing and exemplifying these concepts, c) beginning to write in an academic register, using appropriate and relevant quotations,

paraphrasing, correctly referencing sources, using clear expression, taking care with grammar, spelling and presentation, and writing in sentences and paragraphs.

Task 2: Online quizzes Length: 3 x online quizzes; to be completed during Weeks 3, 7 and 11. Value: 30% (10% each) Quizzes will test your comprehension of key sections of important set readings, and your understanding of a small selection of news items pertaining to a current related event. Details of what to read will be provided in the week before the quiz. You will be notified when the quizzes are available, and reminded about what readings you are being quizzed on. You will then have a short window of time to complete the quiz. All quizzes must be completed and submitted online, within the allocated timeframe. This is not negotiable. Marks will be made available through Grade Centre in Blackboard, and general feedback provided via an email to the whole student group.


Course Assessment (cont.) Task 3: Major essay Length: 2000 words Value: 45% Due: Thursday June 4 (see p.4 for notes on how to submit via Blackboard) Write an essay in response to the following question: What is entailed in using a rhetorical approach to make sense of rhetoric? In your answer, illustrate your main points about the rhetorical approach through reference to examples of political and economic situations, named and discussed in course materials and associated weekly handouts from at least two of the three topics covered in Weeks 7-11 of the course, i.e. a) governing telecommunications (Week 7) b) business histories and cultures (Weeks 8 & 9) c) finance media and finance cultures (Weeks 10 & 11) Introduce each example with some brief remarks to establish what is most pertinent about the situation in which the example is located. Guidelines You are being asked to explain what exactly is meant by the rhetorical approach. You are also being asked to use the resources offered in the course to show us that you

understand how the rhetorical approach (outlined in the first half of the course) can be used to describe and make sense of a variety of political and economic situations.

In selecting examples to demonstrate your understanding of key terms and concepts, look at what was mentioned in lectures, take note of what situations are referred to in set readings, and go back to your collection of resources passed out during tutorials and made available online.

A selection of previous essays will be shown in classes during Weeks 11-12, and your tutor will help you work through questions you may have about appropriate writing styles.

Assessment criteria Your essay should demonstrate that you are:

a) familiar with elements of the rhetorical approach (outlined in Weeks 5 & 6, and then workshopped during subsequent weeks), and can use rhetorical categories and questions to describe and discuss your chosen examples;

b) familiar with relevant course readings; c) familiar with course materials and arguments concerning business, economies, politics and

government; and d) writing at an appropriate academic level (as per Task 1).


DETAILED STUDY PROGRAM Week 1: Introduction and overview No reading this week. Familiarise yourself with Blackboard. Read through this Course Guide thoroughly, and get a sense of some of the topics we cover during the semester. Pick up your Dossier as soon as you can, from the RMIT Store in Little La Trobe Street. You may find complex reading challengingand its not unusual if you do. If so, you might like to look at the Study and Learning Centres Reading-tips. Its available on the RMIT Learning Hub (you need to be logged in to your RMIT student account to access this) at http://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/1_StudySkills/study_pdf/reading.pdf, or you can grab it as a PDF from the Rhetorics Facebook site. Lecture and tutorial discussion points This week offers a brief introduction to course structure and purpose. What exactly is interdisciplinarity? How does the course work? What topics are covered? How can I get the most out of lectures and tutes? Whats expected in the assessment tasks? How can I make the best use of course materials? Where should I go to learn more about contemporary events, news and current affairs? Week 2: What is politics, now? Required reading 1. Dean, M. (2007), Introduction: Setting the Scene, in Governing Societies: Political

Perspectives on Domestic and International Rule, London, Open University Press, pp. 1-10 (excerpts).

2. Gauntlett, D. (2008) Foucault on Power and Power and Resistance, in Media, Gender and

Identity : An Introduction, London & New York, Routledge, pp. 128-132. Directions for reading Reading 1 draws your attention to the need to take politics seriously, and provides examples of political events, issues, and struggles. Youll know about some, but perhaps not others. Can you add to his list? What are you familiar with? Dean speaks about his examples in relation to ongoing debates over the meaning of government (which well come back to next week), and he introduces a way of talking about power that is further defined in Reading 2. Use this reading to start thinking about politics as argumentin fact, as arguments (plural) over a range of particular issuesrather than as ideas, or as just party politics, which is how its usually presented in mainstream journalism. Reading 2 presents a brief explanation of a way of talking about power as relational. Read it to start thinking about power and politics, about the distinction we often make between power as force and power as an exercise of capacity in the context of a particular relationship. Lecture and tutorial discussion points How is politics to be described and analysed? What will we count as politics in this course? What is power, and how does it work? What are the connections between power and knowledge? What is an actor? Important terms: agency, resistance, contingency. Politics as contested argument.


Week 3: What is governing, now? Reading 1. Rose, N. (2005), Government in T. Bennett, L. Grossberg, M. Morris eds., New Keywords: A

Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Oxford, Blackwell, pp.151-153. 2. Baker, S. (2009) Introduction in S. Baker, Numerati: How Theyll Get My Number and

Yours, London, Jonathon Cape, pp.1-16. Directions for reading Reading 1 introduces an important termgovernmentand explains that it has various senses. Rose takes us through the ways in which government has been caught up in different historical arguments and allied strategies about what government should be. He also, and very importantly for the course, introduces the underlying sense of what the activity to govern involves (paragraph 2) and the development of this sense in the notion of governmentality. Note that this builds on what you read about in Week 2, regarding power and politics. Reading 2 introduces the work of an increasingly important group of expert workers involved in accumulating, tracking, and making sense of data generated in using networked digital devices. As you read, think about the changing forms and volumes of information available to businesses, marketers, and governments. Think about how this might connect up with wider questions about what is political, and the role of information in governing. Lecture and tutorial discussion points What roles do elected governments play, today? Who is governed by them, and how? What other institutions and organizations are involved in wider forms of governing? What role do different forms of knowledge play in governing? What is the difference between governing and control? What is the difference between data, information, and knowledge, and what role does big data have in governing?


Week 4: What is the economy, now? Reading 1. Gibson-Graham, J. K. (2005), Economy in T. Bennett, L. Grossberg, M. Morris eds, New

Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society, Oxford, Blackwell, pp.94-97. 2. Stretton, H. (2005), What You Can Know, What You Cant Know in H. Stretton, Economics:

A New Introduction, Sydney, UNSW Press, pp.3-11. Directions for reading Reading 1 describes how the term economy has been used over time, and identifies some of the major and changing ways economic activity has been studied or made sense of, by which groups, and (briefly) with what outcomes. Read it for an orientation to economy as a much-debated concept. Reading 2 is an excerpt from an introductory chapter in a first year economics textbook. It presents a simple storyabout a small business that makes mousetrapsto demonstrate some of the things that are routinely classified as economic activity. Read it to start to get a picture of economies in which people are engaged in making various kinds of calculations and decisions (as opposed to economics as a discipline), and of what and who these economies entail. Lecture and tutorial discussion points How is the economy talked about in news and current affairs, and in the business presses? What counts as the economy? Where do businesses fit in? What boundaries, inclusions, exclusions? Who is seen to take part, and who is left out? How can we say that the economy has a history? Why are economies (plural), and why are the choices to be made about economic life so complex and uncertain? How are different kinds of sense-making and knowledge involved in various discussions about economic life? Discussions of economic activity are threaded through many different forms of media. Business pages are included in most serious newspapers, and even in traditionally tabloid (i.e. more popular) newspapers like Melbournes Herald Sun. Stories about decisions of government affecting commercial activity (e.g. about taxation, regulation, competition, etc) are often on the front page of the paper. Likewise, stories about important public services (telecommunications, transport, water) are now routinely published in the business section, and in dedicated business presses like The Economist and Business Review Weekly. Theres also a wide spread of reportage and opinion in electronic and online media, from share reports through to DIY magazines on share ownership. Try this week to familiarise yourself with the variety of business media on offer. What do they speak about? What do you notice about the language? To whom are they addressed?


Week 5: Rhetoric I: some initial categories for reading and making sense of arguments

Reading 1. Billig, M. (1996) The science of persuasion and The art of witcraft (excerpts), in Arguing

and thinking: A rhetorical approach to social psychology, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 81, 85-88, 112-113, 117-120.

2. Leith, S. (2012) The first part of rhetoric: Invention, in Words Like Loaded Pistols: Rhetoric

From Aristotle to Obama, New York, Basic Books, pp. 45-71. Directions for reading Reading 1 introduces just a few of the key terms used in classical studies of rhetoric. It begins by distinguishing between aesthetic and pragmatic notions of what rhetoric is supposed to bei.e. language designed to be read as an object of beauty, and language designed to persuade. [Note that in this course we use the term language in the broad sense, to mean any kind of text produced by people, which might be written, or verbal, or image-based. And note also that while we are interested in styles of composition and delivery our focus is very much on the political uses and outcomes of rhetorical tools and techniques.] Billig also distinguishes between the five traditional branches of the study of rhetorici.e. what he calls invention, arrangement, style, memory and deliveryand between different kinds of arguing, which vary depending on their institutional location and purpose: between forensic (or legal) rhetoric, deliberative (political) rhetoric, and epideictic (relating to praise). Reading 2 outlines in some detail the elements of invention, or what Leith calls exploring what there is to say on a subject (p. 45). The reading is long, but its easy and accessible, and uses a mix of popular and classical examples with which you may already be familiar (e.g. The Simpsons, Julius Caesar). Leith speaks about the importance of a speaker/writer knowing their audience, and this is a key point that we will return to next week when we come to read about the rhetorical approach to making sense. Leith adds to our very basic review of rhetoric, explaining that all argumentsaccording to Aristotlecan be divided into three categories: ethos, logos and pathos. By this, he means that its possible to distinguish between how speakers seek to persuade audiences on the basis of their qualifications or expertise (or even status), or on the basis of reason (or logic), or through an appeal to emotion (e.g. anger, pity, or fear). NB: this second reading is held in the RMIT Library as an e-book. We recommend you consider accessing other sections of this book, including the very useful Glossary on pp. 281-293. Lecture and tutorial discussion points How is it useful to distinguish between the different elements of an argument? What does Billig mean by logoi, and anti-logoi? What further examples of audiences can we come up with, beyond Leiths distinction between old and young? What contexts of language use still rely on memory? Where/when is style more important? Is delivery as important as Billig suggests? Are any of the three elements of invention (i.e. ethos, logos, pathos) more important than the others?


Week 6: Rhetoric II: a framework for interpretation Reading 1. Leith, D. & Myerson, G. (1989) The Power of Address: Explorations in Rhetoric, London,

Routledge, pp. xii-xv (excerpts), 1-6, 79-88 (excerpts), 151-154 (excerpts), 177-179 (excerpts), 192-196.

Directions for reading The reading for this week outlines the main points of what we are calling in this course a rhetorical approach. The Leith & Myerson reading consists of excerpts from a book-length treatment of the topic, so it moves across several sections. You have already read about some aspects of rhetoricspecifically, those involved in the invention of political arguments. This week builds on that initial work you did last week. The authors use a range of examples to establish the key concepts and questions of their approach. Its a little less formal than the definitions of rhetoric that the Billig and Leith readings introduced in Week 5. Dont be put off by the fact that their examples are not immediately or obviously about politics, economies or businesses. Work with them to get a sense of the kinds of questions (e.g. about argument, audience, occasion and outcomes) that we can begin to ask about the communicative work that is nevertheless involved in political and economic life. This is one of the more complex readings you will encounter in this course, but it is nevertheless extremely important to get through it. Dont give up! Dont expect to get it immediately. We will spend time this week in tutorials breaking it down, and well come back to their main points repeatedly during the rest of the semester. Heres a suggestion: as you read through, start a list of main points. What do they say about address, argument and play in their introduction, and what examples do they give? What are the key questions they say we should be asking? In what ways might rhetoric (as a set of practices, and also as a broad concept) have a history? How might naming the different elements of performance be useful to us in analysing politics? What tools do they name that can help us describe and analyse the doing of politics (as argument, as persuasion), and the making sense of politics that routinely goes in to many forms of journalism? Lecture and tutorial discussion points This topic consolidates the broad view of rhetoric introduced in Week 5. What key differences, as well as overlaps, can you see between Week 5 and Week 6? What can we say a rhetorical approach involves, what are its objects of description and analysis, and what does it make possible? What tools do Leith & Myerson offer? What do we need to pay attention to, and how?


Week 7: Wiring the nationgoverning telecommunications Reading 1. Anderson, B. (1991), Introduction and Cultural Roots in B. Anderson, Imagined

Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London, Verso, pp. 5-7, 22-28, 33-36.

2. Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (2013) Advancing Australia as a Digital Economy: An Update to the National Digital Economy Strategy. Read pages iii-5 only. (Follow the link from the Week 7 Lecture Notes folder, on Blackboard.)

3. Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2014) Labor's NBN a public policy disaster: review. This is a radio segment, originally broadcast on ABCs Radio National Breakfast. (Follow the link from the Week 7 Lecture Notes folder, on Blackboard, then click on Download audio.)

Directions for reading Reading 1 makes an argument about the relationship between communication technologies and the concept of nation. Anderson says that communication tools like the newspaper and novel can produce a shared sense of identity, which is what we like to call nationhood. Thats what we mean when we say communication is constitutive: a communicative practice like reading the newspaper or listening to the radio can help form (or constitute) a sense of connection to people we will never see. Reading 2 is a section from a government report, which articulates a policy on what the government at the time believed was required to position Australia as a world leader in broadband connectivity and the use of digital technologies, and to become a vibrant, trusted hub in the global digital economy (p.iii). As you read through the Foreword, the Executive Summary and Part One of the report, write down some notes about what kind of rhetorical tools are being used. What are the key words? What assumptions do the authors make about technology, about economy, about future, and so on. What does it promise? What kinds of opportunities are associated with digital communication? Reading 3 is an interview with telecommunications analyst Paul Budde, broadcast at a point in mid-2014 when a report on the National Broadband Network project (which was critical of that project) had just been released. As you listen, try to identify what Budde is saying about the politics of large national projects like the NBN. What were the problems and challenges that drove its original development? What is difficult about making a cost-benefit analysis of a project like the NBN? What impact did political opposition to the NBN, during the Rudd-Gillard governments of 2007-2013, have on the project? What does this suggest about political argument? Lecture and tutorial discussion points What does it mean to see the nation as an imagined community? What are the implications of Andersons view of nation for how we make sense of contemporary political debate? What, indeed, are communication technologies? How can we speak about them in terms of long term governing projects? What kinds of objectives are routinely associated with the National Broadband Network? How are they argued for? How might we use the rhetorical approach to make sense of different kinds of political claims about telecommunications, and about a so-called digital economy? What do the following terms mean, and how to they fit here: i.e. nation building, knowledge economy, competitive advantage, business efficiency, shareholder value, citizen and consumer?


Week 8: Recent business histories and cultures: current conditions, the history of the company form, and a particular rhetoric

Reading 1. McQueen, H. (2001), A Law Unto Themselves in H. McQueen, The Essence of Capitalism:

The Origins of Our Future, Sydney, Sceptre, pp.21-27. 2. du Gay, P. (2004), Against Enterprise (but not against enterprise, for that would make no

sense), Organization, Vol.11, No.1, pp.37-45 (excerpt). 3. Frank, T. (2001), Casual Day, U.S.A in T. Frank, One Market Under God: Extreme

Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy, New York, Anchor Books, pp.170-174 (excerpt), 180-188 (excerpt).

Further reading 4. du Gay, P. (2004), Against Enterprise (but not against enterprise, for that would make no

sense), Organization, Vol.11, No.1, pp.45-57 (excerpt). Directions for reading Reading 1 is a brief account of the invention of the corporation. Read this to consider the kinds of political and economic conditions underpinning various business forms. Note how it suggests that the modern corporation has a history that hasnt always been as it is now, and how its form is an outcome of a legal process. The corporation, as we know it now, was never inevitably meant to be. Reading 2 (i.e. the first section of the du Gay reading) describes and analyses the concept and rhetoric of Enterprise as it has been used to remake public sector organizations, in Britain and elsewhere, following an idealized conception of business and markets. (By idealized we mean a way of arguing for a model of business that imagines a perfect form, a perfect set of circumstances, without the complexity and contingency that Stretton introduced us to in Week 4). Read it to understand the widespread circulation and significance of the idealized business model and also the problems with that model. Reading 3 is a popular history of business management culture in the United States in the 1990s. It also provides a brief account of the earlier scientific management of Taylorism. Read it especially for what Frank says about the political importance of the late twentieth century business revolution. Reading 4 is actually the remainder of Reading 2 (i.e. pp. 45-57). It provides an extended discussion of the effect of the Entrepreneurial/Enterprise model on the British public service. Lecture and tutorial discussion points What makes businesses possible? How have business cultures changed over the last 30 years? How do businesses entail organizational politics? What is the rhetoric of Enterprise? Why is it important? How does it amount to an economic politics?


Week 9: Communication at the heart of business: shaping international business populations and narrating business leadership

Reading 1. Thrift , N. (1998), Virtual Capitalism: The Globalisation of Reflexive Business Knowledge,

in J.G. Carrier & D. Miller (eds.), Virtualism: A New Political Economy, Oxford & New York, Berg, pp.162-165 (excerpts), 166-186.

2. Froud, J., Johal, S., Leaver, A. & Williams, K. (2005), General Electric: The Conditions of

Success, CRESC Working Paper Series, Working Paper No. 5, pp.2-58 (excerpts). Directions for reading Reading 1 looks at the kinds of practical knowledge used in capitalist firms. In doing this, it describes various communication devices and practices, easy to overlook, as integral to doing business. In the second half of the reading, the widespread communication of contemporary management theories is traced in the Asia-Pacific region as a way of understanding how business is being globalised. Read this for what he says about the connections between business and communication technologies and practices, and note his remarks on the changes in Asian business environments during the 1990s. Reading 2 is a detailed case study of the US giant firm General Electric (GE). It deals with the role of narrative in GEs success and with the themes of business leadership, the business press, business models. Read it to acquaint yourself with these themes, and also for an excellent demonstration of what role communicative elements like narrative should be given in explanations of business performance. Note that the case study is staged. There is an Introduction which provides a useful summary of the article and its argument. Read that first, and then read the later sections for detail. This will help you get the full significance of Froud et als argument. Lecture and tutorial discussion points How are communication technologies entwined with business? What practical knowledges do businesses rely on? How are narratives and other communicative forms important in business? Remember the tools of the rhetorical approach? How are they helpful here? How are managerial knowledges communicated and why do they matter? How are managerial knowledges part of the internationalising of business? How are they part of a governing of international business populations?


Week 10: Governing finance: making up markets and economies Reading 1. Parsons, W. (1990), Introduction and Information and the Economic Age (excerpt) in W.

Parsons, The Power of the Financial Press: Journalism and Economic Opinion in Britain and America, London, Edward Elgar, pp.1-10.

2. Langley, P. (2008), The Everyday Life of Global Finance: Saving and Borrowing in Anglo-

America, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp.5-12 (excerpts), 88-111 (excerpts). Directions for reading Reading 1 is a brief overview of the history of the role of newspapers in British and United States economies. Read it to get a sense of the range of ways in which newspapers, journalism and economic activity have been connected. Reading 2 is an interdisciplinary account of global finance as a leading sector of contemporary economies. It addresses what is peculiar about late twentieth- and early twenty-first century finance, and sets out an argument about how best to make sense of it. The second excerpt of the Langley reading provides an example of that authors approach, which works from the level of everyday life, and in this example is concerned with the formative persuasion of people to become investors. As you read, think about the complex government of finance activity. Lecture and tutorial discussion points What role do media play in economies? Who reads economic news, and who produces it? How are notions of the global economy and the (national) economy produced and circulated? What other categories operate? What is a rhetoric of investment? How can we say that the figure of the investor is constituted, and governed? What do these readings suggest are the tensions and contradictions of neo-liberal politics?


Week 11: The GFC: finance cultures, innovations and explanations Reading 1. Lewis, M. (1989), excerpt from M. Lewis, Liars Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on

Wall Street, London, W.W. Norton & Co., pp.84-5. 2. Lewis, M. (2009), Hitting the Wall, The Australian Financial Review, Friday 30 January,

pp.1-2, 10-12. Directions for reading Reading 1 is an extract from the memoir of a stockbroker in the 1980s US finance world. Read it to understand the development of the mortgage bond, an early example of late twentieth-century financial innovation, and how these bonds connected up anonymous investors in far-flung places with myriads of equally anonymous homeowners/ mortgagors. Reading 2 is an account of the current world-wide financial crisis from the author of Reading 1. Read it as an informative and informed, popular account, and also for the particular kind of explanation it provides of the crisis. Lecture and tutorial discussion points What is happening in global politics, finance and economies, now? Why does it matter? What is its recent history? What kinds of explanations are circulating to account for the Global Financial Crisis? How useful are concepts like greed, pursuit of profits, global finance, behavioural finance, etc? Week 12: Course summary No reading is set for Week 12. The lecture will summarise key elements of the course, providing you with guidance on preparation of your Major Essay. Tutorials will provide opportunities for revisiting topics covered in the course, which can be considered in the Major Essay, and for talking about essay writing skills generally. Copies of past essays will be shown, as a way of making clear what is expected in the Major Essay task.

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