Documentary on Pierre Bourdieu - Sociology is a Martial Art

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Pierre's Bourdieu's forty books and countless articles represent probably some of the the most influential renovations and applications of social science in the twentieth century. The highly influential and controversial intellectual - a longtime Professor of Sociology at the College de France - passed away in January 2002.
A "committed" thinker in the vein of Foucault, his work is concerned with elucidating the processes of symbolic violence and cultural domination in various areas of social life. His most well known book, Distinction (1979), addressed these themes in an effort to overcome the opposition of objectivist (Marxist) and subjectivist (Weberian) theories of class. Click here for more books by Bourdieu.
In the late nineties he became something of a celebrity scholar, one of the world's most important academics actively associated with the anti-globalization movement. Bourdieu himself argued that scholars and writers could and should bring their specialized knowledge to bear on social and political issues. His powerful critiques of the neoliberal revolution were the natural outgrowth of a lifetime of research into economic, social and cultural class domination among peoples as disparate as Algerian peasants and French professors, and as expressed in everything from amateur photography to posture.
SOCIOLOGY IS A MARTIAL ART, a new documentary about Bourdieu's life, became an unexpected hit in France just prior to his death. Filmed over three years, director Pierre Carles' camera follows Bourdieu as he lectures, attends political rallies, travels, meets with his students, staff, and research team in Paris, and includes Bourdieu having a conversation with Günter Grass.
The film's very title stresses the degree of Bourdieu's political engagement. He took on the mantle of Emile Zola and Jean-Paul Sartre in French public life, slugging it out with politicians because he considered those lucky enough to have spent their lives studying the social world could not be indifferent to the struggle for justice.

Nate Hagens on Century of the Self(less)

Nate Hagens, the ex-vice president of Lehman Brothers turned generalist Limits to Growth scholar, wrote and article that introduced me to the wonderful documentary 'The Century of the Self', about how psychoanalysis was used in pubic relations and advertisement to bring consumerism and stable, western style democracy to a whole new level. Here is the link to the article for theoildrum.com on the BBC documentary 'Century of the Self'. I seriously recommend both the article and the documentary.

"I've recently rewatched The Century of the Self (COTS), a four part BBC special on the birth and explosion of public relations/advertising, and it's impact on American culture. The series documents how the Freudian theory of subconscious irrational behavior was seized on and manipulated by governments and businesses in the 21st century, initially spearheaded by Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, and consultant to several administrations (Coolidge, Roosevelt, Wilson per COTS). While watching, I had to agree that the 20th century WAS the century of the self, and in no small part from the cultural push/pull of advertising/media. The films creator, Adam Curtis, seemed to suggest that studying the behaviors of individuals is interesting, but that the real power to move societies lies in the ability to impact the psychology of crowds, via appealing to subconscious desires (for freedom, status, etc.)"

Documentary 'The Century of the Self, by Adam Curtis and the BBC

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Documentary: The Take

In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats, and refuse to leave. All they want is to re-start the silent machines. With The Take, director Avi Lewis, one of Canada's most outspoken journalists, and writer Naomi Klein, author of the international bestsellers No Logo and The Shock Doctrine, champion a radical economic manifesto for the 21st century. But what shines through in the film is the simple drama of workers' lives and their struggle: the demand for dignity and the searing injustice of dignity denied.

Interestingly enough, it seems that the current depression is making more and more places take a path similar to Argentina. And indeed Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein are now at the forefront of a growing progressive movement to call for nationalisation and cooperatisation of the American auto industry for example, to put the industry to work for the public good. http://thetake.org/

Documentary: A Place Called Chiapas

'A Place Called Chiapas' is a breathtaking Canadian documentary of first-hand accounts of the EZLN, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, and the lives of its soldiers and the people for whom they fight. Director Nettie Wild takes the viewer to rebel territory in the south west Mexican state of Chiapas, where the EZLN live and evade the Mexican Army.

Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land

From The Real News: "'Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land' was broadcast on the French CBC on October 23, 2008, provoking a flood of complaints to the Canadian network. These complaints overwhelmingly took the network to task for running what they deemed to be a "pro-Palestinian" film, largely sidestepping the critically acclaimed 2004 documentary's explicit focus on how pro-Israeli pressure groups methodically influence American media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

CBC management asked the network's Ombudsman to launch a full-scale investigation into the substance of the complaints and the central charge that the film was unduly biased.

On December 8, 2008, the Ombudsman released her findings. She issued a report concluding that Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land should not have been shown on French CBC at all."

The funny thing is that this film addresses the propaganda war in favour of the Israeli state, that uses strategies like creating an atmosphere of fear to keep journalists from stepping out of the official narrative that justifies the occupation. It is an analysis of the very practice this Ombudsman's report is an example of.

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported.

The Evilness of Power - A Documentary on Authority

Few, if any documentaries I have come across go as deep into what motivates people to commit acts that our conscience normally would never allow. Montageing commentary from a host of intellectuals and shards of history, recent politics and popular culture to back them up, this film makes a powerful case that the evil people do to each other is not inherent in human nature: it requires authority and hierarchy to come about.

On www.anarchy.net, the creator of the film had this to say about his montage documentary:
"My motivations for creating The Evilness of Power are varied. I wanted to clarify the ideas and channel the strong emotions I'd been internalizing since I became an activist in 2004 and which I had been sketchily trying to articulate in my youtube channel since late 2006. I also realized that there weren't that many documentaries dealing exclusively with the concept of hierarchy--perhaps none at all--. I noticed how relatively easy and effective it would be to weave together some of my youtube videos with parts of programs, films, documentaries etc to offer a more comprehensive examination of hierarchy and hopefully contribute to revolutionary change."

Documentary: Secrets of the CIA

In this amazingly accessible documentary, the secret history of the CIA since its founding is covered case by case. It explains how the CIA pioneered, developed, manipulated prisoner abuse, sold drugs, changed regimes and killed millions of people worldwide to further 'security interests'. Very helpful as a first tip for people who are just doubting the stylised story that hides so much of political history after the Second World War.

The Mondragon Cooperatives

A lot of writers that I have cited or linked to here have deep criticisms of capitalism, which should raise questions about what might replace it. I think this is a topic that should be far more debated than it is today, because it deals with possible answers on how life might be better if organised in a different way.

The worker cooperative 'business model' is one promising practical example of how people might reclaim their democracy in the work place and become an empowered community; and Mondragon in Spain is one of the places which can show us how it's done.

So to approach economic democracy in a practical way, I thought I might link to a documentary and a speech on the Mondragon Cooperatives, which are one of the largest federations of cooperatives in the world. Learning about their integrative system is seriously inspiring because it works so beautifully. It is a group of democratically governed businesses helping each other to get ahead. They take care of the creation of new coops in the neighborhood through coop banks using refined development strategies. If they run a profit, the workers generally share 70% amongst themselves as dividend because the workers ARE the shareholders. 20% goes into reinvestment, necessary for productive capital, and 10% goes into community services, from a research university to medical care and cultural activities. Empowered by this well-designed system, these people are in a constant process of figuring out how to live democracy in their daily lives.
The coops coordinate to ensure no member worker goes unemployed for long. If some do, they are guaranteed 80% of their original wage under the coops' social security funds. The system has been so successful that from its quiet birth in 1955 under the Franco fascist regime, it has grown into a network providing more than 100.000 jobs and countless services in the Basque country. After seeing this, who can claim capitalism is the only possibility?

Mondragon Website in English

"The Mondragon Experiment" is a BBC documentary produced in the 70s, which documents the founding and rise of the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation. Tracing its birth back to the time of the Civil War in Spain and its remarkable success since then, combined with an analysis of the actual structure of the company, The Mondragon Experiment makes a strong case for industrial democracy as an alternative to the present economic order.



Praxis Peace Institute Founding Director, Georgia Kelly discusses the unique collaborative business model of the Mondragon Cooperatives located in the Basque country of Spain. This presentation will cover the ethics and vision of Mondragón as well as unique success stories that are an inspiration to those seeking alternatives to business-as-usual. The goal of the Mondragón Cooperatives is to create community through economic relationships and to transform society through conscious economic practices. (Video a little bad, sound is no problem though)



Books on the Mondragon Cooperatives

Economist Paul Grignon's 47-minute animated presentation of "Money as Debt" tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is and how it is being created.

Documentary on Frankfurt School Critical Theorist Herbert Marcuse as a figure in the American student activist movements.

Oil, Smoke, and Mirrors: an outstanding documentary on peak oil and how exactly oil as a strategic resource was one of the motivations for 'the war on terror'. The American agreement to leave Iraq in 2011 and the election of Obama puts the end of this documentary on the road to dictatorship in a somewhat new light, but understanding the psychological mechanisms that lead to repressive states remains important today.