The Plan (long form)
For each country, I will spend at a minimum one week of intensive preparation to familiarize myself with its historic and current challenges, ancient and popular culture and important points of interest. This Preparation Week includes six specific activities:
A) Preparation Week:
- 1. Daily Review of Periodical.
- 2. Tour Guide
- 3. Literature
- 4. History
- 5. Academic Treatment
- 6. Recent Cinema (two genres)
The observation program begins with a week of familiarization with the social, political and economic life of each place. I begin with a guide-book to provide a general overview of the country and a daily reading of a local, national newspaper (available online). Daily reading of a newspaper not only gives you insight into the political issues of the day, it provides an opportunity to appreciate what that society cares about. It provides insight into its cultural fascinations, its human-interest stories, its athletic dramas; all of these provide insight into where a society is at any given moment. My goal is to appreciate that society at that moment. Following their press on a daily basis will allow me to do that.
In addition to the popular pulse reflected in the press, I want to add the depth that would be provided by sampling more established sources of culture, cinema and literature. I will choose a recent novel that has captured the popular imagination and sample films that have received popular acclaim demonstrated either by box office performance or the receipt of industry awards. I seek also to broaden my academic understanding of these places. To this end, I will select and read a history of the country, or of a significant era or person in that country’s history. Finally, I will read the relevant parts of a second academic text that would be suitable for use in my course. In other words, a text I do not currently employ for the course, in order to provide me with a second opinion to the one with which I am already quite familiar.
B) Travel Week
- 7. Arrival,
- 8. Transit to secondary destination,
- 9. Primary Site Visitation
- 10. Secondary Site Visitation
- 11. Second city exploration - most important points of interest
- 12. Transit to Capital
The second (travel) week is designed to give me the opportunity to experience the country beyond the capital. Capitals are often intentionally designed to be the showpiece of the nation. As such, they often present a very different picture of a society. A presentation of a society as it wants to be seen. Appreciating that image is certainly part of what I hope to accomplish, but that image needs to be placed in its larger context.
If one were to travel to the United States and visit only Washington DC, they would have a very limited and distorted picture of what America was really like. Because my goal is to understand the countries I am visiting, not just their capitals, it requires me to get out into the countryside. In each country I will select and visit a secondary site at some distance from the capital, known for either its cultural or historic significance. The purpose of this second trip is to provide a context that will balance the impressions gained from a visit to the capital.
Appreciating that context is the goal of the travel week. The destination selected will be a place of historic or cultural significance outside of the capital region. The goal is to travel to these locations slowly, so that I have the opportunity to see the countryside and to meet some of the people who live in it. Once there, I intend to continue to move slowly, taking the opportunity to visit not only the attraction which drew me there but also the elements of everyday life, the neighborhoods and shops, the things which will allow me to make comparisons to what I will see in the capital.
C) Visiting the Capital
- 13. National Art Museum
- 14. National Historic Museum
- 15. Primary Site Visitation
- 16. Secondary Site Visitation
- 17. Capital city exploration - most important points of interest
Institutions:
- 18. Seat of Government/Legislative Proceeding,
- 19. School/ Youth Activity,
- 20. Police Station/Court,
- 21. Medical Clinic,
- 22. Sporting/Cultural Event,
- 23. Shopping District/Grocery Store,
- 24. Religious Service,
The elements, which are part of the formal visitations are all selected because understanding them sheds great light on the culture and specific nature of a place.
Some elements are pretty obvious: You visit the Seat of Government and a Legislative proceeding to appreciate the architecture of its setting, the content of its discussions, the nature and origin of its traditions. They are tangible expressions of a government and its philosophies. They have a lot to say about a society.
A society’s schools and the activities organized for its youth speak to its future and existing perspectives on how that future will be shaped. What are the buildings like? What technologies are employed? What subjects are required? Who are the students? How do students and teachers interact with each other, with peers? Are there significant differences between schools? The answer to these and many other questions will provide insight into the cultural values important to society. One would expect that the values around which a school is organized would also be reflected in the government and politics of that society. Further one would expect that the culture of a school would have a lasting and growing impact on the rest of society over time.
The Police Station and Court provide an opportunity to observe the interface of government and society and the principles on which it takes place. At a Medical Clinic you can gauge the state of a society’s technological development and perhaps its social stratification. The preference of certain
Sporting and Cultural Events shed light on the particular qualities and skills valued by society.
There are fascinating studies about the connection between national cultures and sports. (For example: “How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization” Franklin Foer) The purpose of this activity is to have the opportunity to observe that connection in order to better understand those things I have already learned about the subject. Some of the questions I would ask are: Why do the British have problems with Football violence? Why do Indians have a passion for Cricket? How does Sumo relate to modern Japan? Do Chinese women play basketball?
In the realm of culture, there is much to learn from a country’s choices in what they designate “National Treasures”. American examples might include Jazz, or Nashville. Those choices speak volumes about us as a people. In the future, will we celebrate the birthplace of “Rap”? What was it about Geisha that made it important to Japan? Has it lost that importance? What will replace it? Investigating these questions tells you more about a society than what music they like. The values that shape these realms are not exclusive to sport and culture. They seep into politics.
A Shopping District/Commercial Center or even a Grocery Store speaks volumes about both where a society is economically as well as it speaks to its aspirations. What can you learn by going to a store? You might be surprised. Here in California, I can walk into a store, select exactly the apple I want to eat, pay for it and leave without ever interacting with another human being. Why is that? When was the last time you negotiated the price of something you bought? In my class, I point out that the structure of our commercial experience is dictated by the same cultural values that drive the structure of our political institutions. Americans prefer our institutions impersonal and individualistic. We prefer the speed of the “self-checkout” to a relationship with a grocer. We demand to select each and every piece of our produce our self, something you cannot do even in Eastern Canada. When I was last in Germany there was a person at each counter who selected your produce for you. How is it done in Russia? These proclivities translate into politics. Our impersonal and individualistic nature is reflected in the fact that we will vote for a person we have never met and we expect and reward politicians who are independent of their political party. Other societies have different relationships with their politicians and their grocers.
If you want to understand political life, observing economic life is a great place to start. But it does not end with observing the conduct of economic transactions. Where do people do their shopping? In their neighborhoods? At malls and chain outlets or in markets with merchant stalls. What is offered for sale in the stores? Is it locally produced or imported? Imported from where? Do people have an affinity or aversion to products from one source or another? In the 1990’s when Japanese students began dressing like American youth of the 1950’s it said a lot about who they wanted to be. I think it enabled one to predict that they would not show the same deference to party elders shown by their parents. Should it have been a shock that they would elect a ground-breaking Prime Minister who idolized Elvis? (Koizumi)
In every country, religion has played a pivotal role in the development of government and the expression of politics. I will attend a religious observance in order to provide texture and context to that contribution. I could talk about the connections here as well, but I am hoping by now you get the point:
All of a society’s institutions are connected. The values of one are often transmitted to the other. All of them have an important influence on politics. That is what I hope to understand.
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