GLOBALIZATION

HUM & SOC SCI SECTOR (NEW CURR ONLY) CROSS LISTED: ANTH-012 HIST-012

This course analyses the current state of globalization and sets it in historical perspective. It applies the concepts and methods of anthropology, history and sociology to the analysis and interpretation of what is actually happening in the course of the semester that relates to the progress or decline of globalization. We focus on a series of questions not only about actual processes but about the growing awareness of them, and the consequences of this awareness.

In answering these questions, we distinguish between active campaigns to cover the world (e.g. Christian and Muslim proselytism, opening up markets, democratization) and the unplanned diffusion of new ways of organizing trade, capital flows, tourism and the Internet. The body of the course will deal with analytical types of globalization, reviewing both the early and recent history of these processes.

The overall approach will be historical and comparative, setting globalization on the larger stage of the economic, political and cultural development of various parts of the modern world. The course is taught collaboratively by an anthropologist, an historian, and a sociologist, offering the opportunity to compare and contrast distinct disciplinary points of view. It seeks to develop a concept-based understanding of the various dimensions of globalization: economic, political, social, and cultural.

Course Professor:
Brian Spooner
Mauro Guillen