Sociology of Globalisation
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Department of Sociology Course Handbook Spring and Summer Terms 2012 Third Year L4043 Globalisation: Migration, Economy, Politics global a. world-wide; pertaining to or embracing the whole of a group of items etc; total; hence ~ly adv. Tutor and convenor: Luke Martell e-mail [email protected] 01273 (67)8729 Friston Building 261 2011-12 1 Aims and Objectives We are living in a fast-changing and exciting world where companies produce international goods and the media carries news, images and cultural products across the globe in massive quantities in an instant. Trade goes across national boundaries, as can money with the click of a mouse. We can communicate instantly with people right across the globe and with travel, trade and tourism experience many cultures and national identities on a continuous basis. Politics also seems to be transforming with states seemingly having to cope with the shift of power to smaller units or to globalised forces such as capital, or global political organisations or alliances or social movements. The drive for profit and new technological developments make spatial distances less important and lead to the interpenetration and spread of cultures. All of this has consequences for our social and individual experiences and identities. But what are we to make of all this? How can it be explained and what exactly is going on? Are we living in a globalised world? If so what aspects of our lives are affected by globalisation, how, to what extent and for how long has this been the case and why? Is it all as exciting and thrilling as the description above sounds or are there impositions of power and exacerbations of inequalities, conflict and violence which make the whole scene much less attractive? This is the aim of the Globalisation courses in the department – to investigate the causes, nature and consequences of globalisation. Structure of the course There are two Globalisation courses. The first in the autumn looks at concepts, history and perspectives on globalisation and then at the case of cultural globalisation. The second, this term, looks at migration, the economy, inequality, politics and the future of globalisation in the spring, followed by essay supervision in the summer. Spring 2012: Globalisation – Migration, Economy and Politics Week 1 – Migration: causes and patterns of migration Week 2 – Migration: effects of migration Week 3 – Economy: production and finance Week 4 – Economy and Inequality: trade and global inequality Week 5 – Inequality: gender and globalisation Week 6 – Politics: the decline of the nation-state and national social democracy? Week 7 – Politics: global politics and cosmopolitan democracy 2 Week 8 – Global social movements and anti-globalisation Week 9 – The Decline of American Power? Week 10 – War and globalisation Summer 2012 Dissertation supervision Course evaluation There will be a course evaluation questionnaire at the end of term for you to assess the course and teaching. It is anonymous and available online via Sussex Direct. The feedback is taken very seriously by tutors so please do help future students and us by filling it in. There may also be a week 5 feedback session. We also welcome your feedback, suggestions or criticism at any point in the course. Lectures and Seminars There will be a one hour lecture every week. There will then be a two hour seminar every week on the same topic. We will start straight away in week 1 and will be using all 10 weeks of term. To prepare for your 6000 word undergraduate thesis you can write a 2000 word unassessed essay or an essay plan and submit this in week 8. You are entitled to up to 30 minutes feedback or help with this – this could be help while writing it and/or feedback on it after it has been marked. You can then use this feedback when you work on the 6000 word undergraduate thesis. In the summer there will be supervision for your 6000 word undergraduate thesis. I will have office hours every week when you can come and see me about this. Under each topic there are a list of questions to help with guiding your reading and seminar discussion. Think about how you would answer the questions when you are doing the reading and come along to the seminar with your own answers to as many of the questions as you can. Reading Reading every week is necessary to get a good understanding of the course. The seminars will assume you have done substantial reading each week and will be about the reading. You 3 should read two or three article or chapter length pieces each week. (A note, especially for V & E students - you don’t need to read all of the reading listed each week. More than is necessary is listed to help with availability, choice and essay writing). Some weeks the reading is divided into main and further reading. Where this is not the case it is listed in rough order of priority. There will not be a study pack as most of the weeks the reading is available online so everyone should be able to access it. This will save on paper and the save you the price of a study pack. Unfortunately neither the library nor the department have the resources at present to check whether all books listed in course documents are stocked in the library. However I have checked that the main ones are and if you notice any others that aren’t please do let me know so I can order them. These are some core books that are relevant to a number of the topics. You can see what these are below. They are also good introductions to the whole area if you wanted to read something before the course. Jan Aart Scholte, Globalization, 2000 and new edition in 2005, accessible overview on globalisation. Defines globalisation as ‘deterritorialisation’ and sees it as something mostly quite recent. 2005 edn. is substantially revised and expanded. David Held and Anthony McGrew, The Global Transformations Reader, an edited reader of extracts from lots of relevant work on globalisation, editions published in 2000 and 2003. NB, this handbook refers mostly to the 2003 edn. which has slightly different contents and chapter numbering to the 2000 edn. David Held et al, Global Transformations, 1999, quite a big dense book but very useful for the course. Held et al argue for a ‘transformationalist’ view against ‘hyperglobalists’ and ‘sceptics’. Larry Ray, Globalization and Everyday Life, 2007, recent brief, accessible sociology of globalisation. Charles Lemert et al eds, Globalization: a Reader, 2009 Frank Lechner, Globalization: The Making of World Society, 2009, recent but a bit basic. Robert Holton, Globalization and the Nation-State, 1998, and Making Globalization, 2005, both succinct, accessible, balanced overviews. Malcolm Waters, Globalization, 1995 and 2000 editions, short readable book on globalisation. Stresses globalisation as cultural. 4 Frank Lechner and John Boli, The Globalization Reader, 2000, collection of many short extracts relevant to a number of the topics George Ritzer and Zeynep Atalay, Readings in Globalization, 2010, Part I of the reader on political economy relevant to the Spring Part II course. Manfred B. Steger, Globalization: a very short introduction, 2003, as it says, this is a very short introduction! John Beynon and David Dunkerley, Globalization: the reader, 2000, collection of short extracts with a bias towards cultural issues Richard Appelbaum and William Robinson eds, Critical Globalization Studies, 2005. Saskia Sassen, A Sociology of Globalization, 2007, looks at the relation between local and national spaces and globalisation, quite theoretical. Robin Cohen and Paul Kennedy, Global Sociology, 2000, more relevant to a first year than third year level, but useful as a good basic introduction. You will see that there are millions of books and articles on globalisation that have been published! So the reading list below is based on those I think you will find the most useful (or that I like best!). But there are many more and of course I have not been able to read the whole literature. So feel free to go beyond the reading on this list if you find other things you think look good and interesting. Journals and Electronic Journals Journals that are useful throughout the course include: Global Networks Globalizations Review of International Political Economy Journal of World Systems Research Millennium International Studies Review But there are also many others that will be useful. Assessment The assessment weightings of courses (ie how much of your degree they are worth) match the credit weighting, and then are weighted so that the second year is worth 40% of your degree and the third year 60%. This course is worth 30 credits. For this course the assessment will be a 6000 word undergraduate thesis to be submitted in the summer term. There is also a 2000 word non-assessed essay or essay plan for this Part 5 II course which you can submit in week 8 of the Spring. You can write this on what will be your undergraduate thesis topic and have feedback on it. Assessment Guidance There are suggested essay questions on the course document below, but feel free to narrow, shorten or amend these or come up with alternative ones, as long as you check them with me first. The emphasis in the assessment is on in-depth work appropriate for a specialist final year course. You should plan ahead and start work on the assessments at an early stage so that you don’t have too much to do all at the end. During the course please feel free to ask at any time about any ideas you have for the essays or any advice you would like.