<p> Introduction to Globalization SIS 123 / GEOG 123 Instructor: Dr. Matthew Sparke http://faculty.washington.edu/sparke/global123.htm Learning Objectives: </p><p>How do you make sense of people when they argue that they are 'pro-' or 'anti-globalization'? Why was the 'Battle in Seattle' about more than just Seattle? How are goods, capital and people moving around the world in new ways? How do these movements change politics locally and globally? How do they relate to national security and national sovereignty? Why does increasing global interconnectedness also seem to lead to greater division, greater inequality, and greater tension? How are we all connected together, and who are "we"? </p><p>This course aims to help you start answering these sorts of questions by examining globalization in all its diverse forms of world-wide interconnection. Such interconnections include economic ties, political ties, cultural ties, and social ties. These ties can be analyzed independently, but they also need to be understood in terms of how they operate in conjunction with one another to produce the overall effect that has been given the single label globalization. When it is talked about in this singular way, globalization often seems overpowering, inevitable and unstoppable, and the first three weeks of the course address how the term 'globalization' is often used like this in political speech in order to achieve particular political goals. However, by moving on to also learn about some of the actual component ties connecting the world together more tightly you will be able to see globalization as something less monolithic, something that is being contested and reworked, something that ties the world together in a range of both constraining and empowering ways, something that is constantly changing, and something that therefore can also be changed. </p><p>There are 3 main skills you will develop in this class: 1) research skills, that will be developed through researching how, where and why a particular global corporation has globalized; 2) debating skills, that will be developed in section discussions of videos and political struggles such as the 'Battle in Seattle'; and 3) writing skills, that will be developed through the preparation of an independent research report on a global corporation. With a mix of videos and broad-based lectures, the class is very interdisciplinary in scope, serving as a gateway to international studies, political science, sociology, law, geography, anthropology, women's studies, business, economics and the humanities.</p><p>At the end of this course, you will come away with more than just some additional knowledge and skills. More importantly, you will have learnt how to ask your own questions about global dynamics, and you will have also learnt about new resources (ranging from news sources and databases to other UW courses) that will help you set about doing research and answering your questions. Ultimately, a successful experience in this course will lead you to think more actively about how you yourself can work within global ties to change them for the better.</p><p>Required Texts</p><p>1) GEOG/SIS 123 Class Reader from Professional Copy and Print at 4200 University Way AFTER THURSDAY AT 12:30PM</p><p>2) Field Notes from a Catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert </p><p>Recommended Texts </p><p>In addition to the required texts, there are also two recommended books for the course. The first is Global Inc. by Medard Gabel and Henry Bruner (Metropolitan Books, New York, ISBN 0805073957). This is a glossy corporate look at transnational corporations that features colorful maps of TNC growth patterns and their global networks. It will be very useful background for preparing the main class term paper. The second recommended text is How to Succeed at Globalization by El Fisgon (The New Press, New York, ISBN 1-56584-727-x). This book counters the corporatist style of Global Inc. with a critical leftist history of global capitalism that is brought to life with powerful cartoons. It will be a very valuable text to read alongside the assigned class reading of business magazines and shareholder reports. </p><p>Beyond these two books, there are also some other recommended texts and films available on reserve in Odegaard. Click here for a list. AND in addition, I thoroughly recommend a cd for background listening (while writing, not during lecture!). Its called, Another World is Possible and it includes songs by Manu Chao/Tonino Caroton, the Asian Dub Foundation, Femi Kuti, Salif Keita, Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra, The Skatalites, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Idir, Nitin Sawhney, Grandaddy, Massive Attack and The - Underground Resistance [Recording Label: Uncivilized World ASIN: B000B6TRBG]. </p><p>Assessment of student work: </p><p>Midterm Exam (in class Nov 20% 1st) Final Exam (Dec 10th, 10:30- 40% 12:20 Location: KNE 130) Research project /Service 40% Learning</p><p>Please note that the average grade for the class is about 78% or 2.8. For a more detailed breakdown see the 123 grade guide. Definitions of student work: a) The midterm exam </p><p>This will be an in-class exam on Nov 1st consisting of 1 essay question and 10 short answer keyword identification questions based on key terms . Overall the exam will test your knowledge of what has been taught in lectures throughout the first part of the quarter. You will be given three potential essay questions in advance (click here for the midterm preparation sheet); of these, one will be selected for the actual midterm. This exam is worth 20% of the final grade, i.e. 10% for the essay and 10% for the key term identifications. b) The final exam </p><p>This will be a 2 hour exam consisting of 2 essay questions and 10 identifications. The exam will be Monday, DEC. 10, 2007, Kane 130. It will test your knowledge of what has been taught in lectures throughout the quarter. 5 questions will be given in advance, 3 will be selected for the final exam, and, of these, you will have to choose 2 to answer. There will also be 10 identification questions requiring short 3 - 5 sentence responses. This exam is worth 40% of the final grade. c) Research work (please note in Fall 2006, some students will be able to do service learning with a health oriented community group INSTEAD of the normal research project - if you are interested in this please try to register in either sections AM or AT. For further information on the requirements for the service learning option in these special sections, click click here)</p><p>The research work which will contribute 40% towards your final grade consists of three different gradable components. The focus of the research will be to investigate how a large transnational corporation (TNC) has globalized. You will have to find out where it has globalized to, why it has globalized, when it has globalized and how. The overarching goal is to enable you to conduct and write-up a significant piece of independent research. The aim is also to help you see how you can bring together insights from lectures and already exisiting academic writing with primary research conducted by yourself on a large corporation you are especially interested in. The teaching assistants (or TAs) will guide this research process and will evaluate you not just on your final research report (worth 25% of overall grade), but also on your contributions to section workshop discussions (worth 5% of overall grade) your initiative as a researcher (worth 5% of overall grade) and your end of quarter poster presentation (worth 5% of the overall grade). Each of these components is discussed in turn below. i) Research Report For a template guide for writing the report chick here. The research report itself should be between 8 and 10 pages long (approx. 3,500 words). It should be double-spaced, in 12 point characters in the 'Times' font. The report must use examples of wider trends of which the particular business you are investigating is part. You should use the Harvard reference system, and should conclude with a full reference list in the following format: </p><p>References: BRENNER, N. (1999). Beyond state-centrism? Space, territoriality, and geographical scale in globalization studies. Theory and Society, 28, pp. 39-78. BYGRAVE, M. (2002). "Where have all the protesters gone? Anti-globalisation activists no longer make headlines, but they haven't disappeared." Guardian Weekly, August 1-7, p. 21.</p><p>SPARKE, M. ( 2005) In the Space of Theory: Postfoundational Geographies of the Nation-State, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.</p><p>SPARKE, M. (2004) "Passports into Credit Cards: On the Borders and Spaces of Neoliberal Citizenship," in Joel Migdal ed. Boundaries and Belonging, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 251 - 283.</p><p>SPARKE, M. (2004) “Political Geographies of Globalization: (1) Dominance,” Progress in Human Geography, 28,6 777–794. </p><p>WORLD BANK (2002) World Bank Delivers Statement at World Summit on Sustainable Development. Accessed on the web on September 4th, 2002 at: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20063799~menuPK:34463~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.htm l</p><p>Research reports should be your own work and must not be copied or otherwise plagiarized from another source whether it be an internet site or another student. In the case of plagiarism students will receive 0% for the whole research work component of the grade (40% of total). They may also, depending on the severity of the case and its legal implications, be referred to the university administration. To understand better the meaning and implications of plagiarism click here. ii) Workshop contributions Each week there will be two sections scheduled with the TAs. Some days the TA will use this time to clarify the class material, including lectures, readings and key term definitions.In addition, however, you will sometimes be expected to discuss additional materials. a) There will be a number of films shown in class and these will be discussed in section using a debate model b) Other days will be dedicated by the TA to facilitating your own primary research. To these workshops you will be expected to bring updates of your work in progress, including examples of articles you have found in academic journals as well as materials relating to your particular empirical focus. TAs will keep track of who contributes in these ways to the sections and how, and will give a grade between 0 and 5% accordingly. iii) Research initiative This portion of the grade will be mainly based on how well you follow the instructions for preparing your research report. If you simply follow the timetable carefully you will get between 1 and 3%. If you ask innovative and probing research questions too, you will get up to 4%. And if you also show particular initiative at setting up an interview with someone or tracking down a hard to find company report or going out of your way to investigate a complex academic literature, you will guarantee yourself a full 5%. The 3 students who excel most in showing research initiative will be given book awards. iv) Poster Presentation On Wednesday Dec 5th in section time you will be asked to summarize the main points of your research report in both text and graphic form on a 'poster' board. The board should be approximately 18 inches by 24 inches. You will present your poster to the other students in your section and answer their questions about your project. One half of the section will go first at exhibiting their posters while the other half of the class goes around and asks questions (and fills out evaluation forms). Then the roles will be switched for the secon dhalf of section time. The main aim of this excercise is to give you an opportunity to demonstrate how much you have learned with your research. It will help you thus to discover how to synthesise your findings and share them in an interesting way with your fellow students. The poster doesn't have to be especially pretty or arty; the important point is that it should serve as a vehicle for spurring discussion and allowing you to express your findings verbally. At the end of the session students will put a star on the poster and accompanying discussion they found most illuminating. The poster that wins the most stars will go forward to an overall class competition, and the best 3 posters in the class will win book prizes. TAs will evaluate the poster presentations at the same time and give a grade of between 1 and 5%. Grading will be based on synthesis, clarity and style, but anyone who has made a sincere and reasonable effort is guaranteed a grade of 4 or 5%.</p><p>To assemble your poster. Get a board about 18 by 24 inches in size. Think about the main ideas you want to get across from your research on your chosen TNC. Think about the best ways to express those ideas on the poster: possibilities include text, graphics, photos, maps, tables and charts. Lay out the post using pencil first. Prepare yourself to answer questions about your project posed by the TA and/or your fellow students.</p><p>Research Timetable and Instructions (Please note that these same week by week steps are also laid out as part of the weekly assignments on the schedule page)</p><p>Week 2: Go to web, review at least 7 sites listed on the class resources page http://faculty.washington.edu/sparke/resources.htm. In addition, review at least 5 websites of transnational corporations (TNCs) and identify a corporation to study. If you can't find the corporate website using http://www.google.com, and if you would like to explore links based upon the names of particular CEOs you are interested in try http://www.anywho.com, or http://www.knowx.com, or http://www.tracersinfo.com. Remember your key task is to answer the 4 main questions about the TNC: where, why, when and how has it globalized? So pick a TNC that you are interested in, but also one that you think will be easy enough to research.</p><p>Week 3: Research the website of your chosen TNC as carefully as possible. Take note of how it presents itself; what signs and images associated with globalization does it use to market itself or its products? Keep asking the question: what is the TNC trying to accomplish by using these global images? Is it marketing itself or its products to customers? is it marketing itself to shareholders? Is it sending messages to governments or unions that it is globally mobile? Write a one page report on how the corporation uses global images and arguments. (If it doesn't try to do this, explain why.)</p><p>Week 4: Find company reports of your chosen TNC. The TNC website may itself have back issues of summary reports. If not, and if the company is a publically held corporation (listed on the stockmarket), then one option is to call the company's shareholder relations office and ask if they have an annual report. Another way is to search the internet further for reports at the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) website http://www.sec.gov or at http://www.FreeEdgar.com Alternatively private companies have to file a brief report with the Secretary of State's Dept. of Corporations, and to access these reports call the relevant Department of Corporations.</p><p>Week 5: Conduct substantial research into your corporation with a view to doing two things:- 1) Prepare a map depicting the extent of the corporation's global scope. The places from where it sources products in one color, and the places to which it markets products in another color. You can get world and regional map templates to print out and mark-up from http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/ 2) Write a 3 page report on whether the corporation is globalizing mainly for market access reasons, for sourcing efficiency reasons, or for some complex mix of the two.</p><p>Week 6: Prepare for midterm exam. Later in the week find at least two academic articles (or books) that discuss the TNC you are researching. Write a one page summary of each article, noting a) its main argument; b) its disciplinary and theoretical approach; and c) the source and type of data used to make the argument.</p><p>Do more research on your chosen TNC. First, investigate labor issues in the TNC. What are pay levels at the headquarters? What are pay levels at the main points along the production network? What is the gender pattern in hiring at these different levels? One good source in this respect is http://www.coopamerica/programs/rs/ Some more information on these issues for American based TNCs is sometime available at http://www.freeERISA.com or http://www.osha.gov The latter will tell you about any occupational safety and health violations by the TNC but only within the USA. Second investigate, the company's changing share price and earnings over a set period of time (it might be anything from a century, to fifty years, to just a few years). Most of this information is available from stock quote sites such as http://www.quicken.com This site will also provide you with free stock analyst reports on your TNC.</p><p>By the end of the weeken after week 6 you should be in a position to write a first draft of your research report on your chosen TNC. The report must explain where, why, when and how the TNC has globalized over a particular period of time. You must make this period of time clear in the title of your paper (e.g. "The global expansion of Coca-Cola from 1945 to 2000"). You should also include at least one map in your paper showing the spread of the TNC. If you can include more than one map, showing its global scope at two different moments of time, this will help. Ideally the draft of the paper should also cite at least 2 academic articles relating to the company or its sector. High quality papers will additionally address the quantitative growth in the TNC's earnings, its changing share price over the same period, and any data you have discovered relating to its labor practices and pay rate</p><p>Week 7: </p><p>Bring 5 copies of your draft paper to section. (it must be at least 7 pages long). Hand in one to the TA and share the others with your research sub-group Fellow subgroup members should all prepare to give feedback the following week. </p><p>Week 8:</p><p>By Tuesday you should have read your peer review group's draft papers and be in a position to give feedback to one another. During the week you should also research whether, when and how the TNC you are studying has sought to use the prospect of mobility or has invoked free trade rules to make a government do what it wants. One way to do this is to investigate what subsidies states and local governments have given to a TNC at http://www.goodjobsfirst.org Another good option done in conjuction with research into subsidies is to search the newspapers of the city or cities in which the TNC has offices, factories or other facilities. Here you might find stories about how the TNC extracted these local subsidies and tax breaks using particular threats of mobility and job loss. As well as Lexis-Nexis, other good links for this are http://metalab.unc.edu/slanews/internet/archives.html and http://ajr.newslink.org/daily.html You might also try investigating whether the corporation has been mentioned in the US congress at http://thomas.loc.gov/ If you would like like to find out more about how your TNC has acted vis-a-vis environmental laws see http://scorecrd.org</p><p>Week 9: By the end of week 9 you should have fully revised and finalized your research report to be handed in to the TA in section the following week. Remember to put your name and student number on the cover, as well as the title you have chosen. High quality reports should contain maps, graphs and illustrations too. It is vital that the report answer the 4 basic questions set at the beginning: namely, where, why, when and how has the TNC globalized? </p><p>Week 10: Hand in report to TA Tuesday, Nov 28th. Start work on poster for week 11. For the poster presentation on Dec 5th you will be asked to summarize the main points of your research report in both text and graphic form on a 'poster' board. The board should be approximately 18 inches by 24 inches. You will present your poster to the other students in your section and answer their questions about your project. Using the forms that have been prepared and can be printed out you will also take turns at evaluating other students' poster. (Please be sure to bring these forms to class)</p><p>Week 11: Prepare and present poster based on your TNC research. NOTE: No points can be awarded for posters that are handed in early or late. The point of this project is in the presentation of the work which is facilitated by the poster, not in the poster itself (so it doesn't have to be exceptionally pretty or arty). At the end of the session students will award stars to the best poster, and that poster will be entered into the overall class competition.</p>