IREL 350: Globalization
Taught Fall 2012
Globalization has become an nearly ubiquitous term in contemporary thought. Describing seemingly any processes or phenomenon, the term risks spiraling into banality and over-generalization. Yet, at the same time, the effects of a range of globalizing processes are undeniable. They impact and transform everything from the international and cross-border politics between states to what we buy in the supermarket. So, to paraphrase Raymond Carver, what do we talk about when we talk about globalization? Is it a broad and amorphous process or does it describe a set of concrete shifts? Is it a theoretical construct or does it reflect new political-economic and socio-cultural practices? Is it a synonym for transnational capitalism or something more?
This class seeks to provide a set of provisional answers to these questions by working from the standpoint that “globalization” is, at once, two things—a set of accelerating processes that have wrought concrete and often destabilizing transformations in contemporary life and a set of academic theories struggling to come to grips with these transformations. To that end, we will look at, and critically unpack, a set of studies seeking to explore and theorize the impacts of global shifts across spatial scales—from broad macro-political and economic projects to their local instantiations and negotiations.
Specifically, the class will avoid moving through a series of “globalization and...” studies of everything from environment to social movements, and will instead focus on a set of processes and outcomes that have generally shaped the debate over the meanings of globalization, its pasts, and its futures. Namely, we will explore: broad theorizations of globalization; the rise of neoliberalism, arguably the political- economic logic of globalization; contemporary transformations in state sovereignty and concomitant spatial restructuring; the social impacts of global integration on identity and everyday life; and the rapid expansion of so-called “illicit” globalization. Additionally, we will engage case-studies of globalization through exploring the history of oil in the twentieth and twenty-first century and the broad shifts of globalization and neoliberalism, specifically in Africa.
In short, the course seeks to invite you into a conversation about globalization, its processes, its outcomes, and its various theoretical explanations. Far from exhaustive in scope, the course instead focuses on introducing you to a set of key debates that will allow you to explore the outcomes of globalization in a range of more specific contexts.
Globalization has become an nearly ubiquitous term in contemporary thought. Describing seemingly any processes or phenomenon, the term risks spiraling into banality and over-generalization. Yet, at the same time, the effects of a range of globalizing processes are undeniable. They impact and transform everything from the international and cross-border politics between states to what we buy in the supermarket. So, to paraphrase Raymond Carver, what do we talk about when we talk about globalization? Is it a broad and amorphous process or does it describe a set of concrete shifts? Is it a theoretical construct or does it reflect new political-economic and socio-cultural practices? Is it a synonym for transnational capitalism or something more?
This class seeks to provide a set of provisional answers to these questions by working from the standpoint that “globalization” is, at once, two things—a set of accelerating processes that have wrought concrete and often destabilizing transformations in contemporary life and a set of academic theories struggling to come to grips with these transformations. To that end, we will look at, and critically unpack, a set of studies seeking to explore and theorize the impacts of global shifts across spatial scales—from broad macro-political and economic projects to their local instantiations and negotiations.
Specifically, the class will avoid moving through a series of “globalization and...” studies of everything from environment to social movements, and will instead focus on a set of processes and outcomes that have generally shaped the debate over the meanings of globalization, its pasts, and its futures. Namely, we will explore: broad theorizations of globalization; the rise of neoliberalism, arguably the political- economic logic of globalization; contemporary transformations in state sovereignty and concomitant spatial restructuring; the social impacts of global integration on identity and everyday life; and the rapid expansion of so-called “illicit” globalization. Additionally, we will engage case-studies of globalization through exploring the history of oil in the twentieth and twenty-first century and the broad shifts of globalization and neoliberalism, specifically in Africa.
In short, the course seeks to invite you into a conversation about globalization, its processes, its outcomes, and its various theoretical explanations. Far from exhaustive in scope, the course instead focuses on introducing you to a set of key debates that will allow you to explore the outcomes of globalization in a range of more specific contexts.
