SOAN 337: Globalization,
Culture, and Everyday Life
MW 1:20-2:35, Alumni 108
Colgate University
Spring 2005 Professor Thomas Hall
NEW Office: B3 Alumni, x7042, email: tdhall@mail.colgate.edu
OFFICE HOURS: M 4-5, TU 2-3, W
11-12, & by appointment
Last Updated 1-15-05
Syllabus
COURSE GENERAL GOALS:
Everyone uses the world, "globalization," but there is little agreement on
what means, and thus, not surprisingly even less agreement on whether it is a
good thing, a bad thing, or a mixed thing. This course
WILL NOT resolve these debates. They cannot be
resolved in a college course, by anyone anywhere. What we
CAN DO is try to gain a more precise and more
accurate understanding of what WE mean by the term.
One of the problems with understanding globalization, which for now, can be
defined as all the interconnected "stuff" happening in the world today (there is
an [in]famous bumpersticker that uses a different word than "stuff"). The first
problem in trying to understand this is that it is going on now and changing
rapidly. So it is useful to step back and take a longer view.
Some argue that this "stuff" started happening with invention of the modern state and the conception of the nation-state (for SOAN concentrators, the nation-state as a Weberian ideal type) which coincide, more or less with the industrial revolution. These changes drastically transformed the ways in which people lived their daily lives. Thinkers began to puzzle over how and why the changes were occurring in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe. Later in the nineteenth century and throughout the 20th century other thinkers have puzzled over why Europe -- and its derived settler colonies -- led and why the rest of the world either did not follow suit, or did so slowly, or even at times actively resisted following suit. The changes associated with modern European society and their spread around the world are often glossed under the term "development."
In the last couple of decades this process has sped up considerably, fueled, in part, by vast increases in ability of humans to move themselves and their products over long distances rapidly, and by vast increases in the speed of communication. New of he recent Tsunami to hit Indonesia, Southeast and South Asia spread rapidly and pictures were almost instantly available. [For some interesting before and after pictures go to: http://homepage.mac.com/demark/tsunami/8.html]. And we all know and recall how rapidly the news of the attacks on the twin towers spread around the world very rapidly on 9/11/2001.
But both of these events -- the attacks and the destruction caused by the Tsunami -- are rooted in the same processes that led to the development of the modern state and the industrial revolution. These events, however, are rooted in much older social processes, processes that began, I argue, with first invention of states some 5,000 years ago, at Uruk in what is now Iraq. So like a pole vaulter who needs a long start, we will back up to gain a view of this processes. However, we will begin with discussions and readings on what various people mean by globalization, so we can have some idea of where we are trying to vault to, given this very long running start. In fact, what I want to do is simultaneously explore contemporary issues of globalization and search out its ancient roots.
SPECIFIC GOALS, i.e., Objectives: My specific objectives for each of you to gain an enhanced understanding of globalization and its historical roots, and the various debates that surround these topics. Another objective is for you to develop and strengthen what sociologist C. Wright Mills called the "sociological imagination," that is, understanding the place of your own biography in society, that is understanding your individual roles in much larger social processes.
Closely related to this is to understand Karl Marx's famous dictum: "men make their own histories, but not any way they please." [Today we would replace "men" with "humans" in this statement]. Thus, less formally this objective is to develop a more nuanced and subtler understanding how our individual actions shape change, yet also understand how the choices we have, and sometimes even make, are often constrained by processes and conditions beyond our control.
Key in all of this is developing an understanding upon which you can build future decisions about your own reactions, actions, and proactions regarding processes of globalization that will continue to affect you throughout the rest of you lives.
COURSE STRUCTURE: The course will be a combination of discussion and lecture. We may have some videos, and I may occasionally ask you to attend a lecture outside of class if it is particularly germane to our topics. The first such lecture will by Thursday Feb. 3, at 4pm by Professor Glen Kuecker, I will give you the details as soon as I have them. The course will traverse the same ground several times, but each time from a new angle and at different depth. The organization is based on a recognition that learning is often a spiral process, in which one first gains a broad, if sketchy understanding, THEN refines it in detail and scope. This also allows students with quite diverse learning backgrounds to "get on board" and fill in gaps so that they will not be left behind when we start moving much faster through other material later.
We will have 3 reaction papers, essays topics will be posted at least a week before they are due, and I will give further guidance on these later in the class. The topics will provide ways for you to summarize and synthesize course readings to the point they are due.
To keep us on track reading reports I will ask for brief Reading Reports (approximately one half page) on some of the readings. Each student will need to submit 15 of these over the semester.
There will be a midterm and final. I will post a study guide for each at least a week before the tests.
For grading see Grading and Attendance page.
THE READINGS (also listed under Textbooks):
Clark, Robert P. 2002. Global
Awareness: Thinking Systematically About the World. Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield.
Gunn, Geoffrey C. 2003. First Globalization: The Eurasian Exchange, 1500-1800. Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield.
Hobson, John M. 2004. The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kasinec Wendy Edited by Michael A. Polushin, eds. 2002. Expanding Empires: Cultural Interaction and Exchange in World Societies from Ancient to Early Modern Times. Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield.
Lechner, Frank J. and John Boli, eds. 2004. The Globalization Reader, Second Edition. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Sklair, Leslie. 2002. Globalization: Capitalism and Its Alternatives, 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ABOUT THE TEXTS:
We will read texts in tandem, that is, moving through each of them as the course
progresses. Why not read one book at a time? I have a couple of
reasons for this. First, this is not a reading course, but a course on
globalization. Second, this breaks up the concentration on only one text.
Third, it allows comparing and contrasting the differing approaches to
globalization. Fourth, and most important, it allows us collectively, as a
class, to develop our own understandings of globalization.
I note too, that the we come to explanation, or theory at the end. Again this placement has several reasons. First, it allows you to begin struggling to develop you own understanding, i.e., theory, of globalization. Thus, when you encounter the explanations of others, you will have already thought about this a lot, and will be able to read them critically. Second, you will have seen a great deal of the evidence in the readings, again allowing you to be critical of various theories. Finally, by looking at these last we have a great review and preparation for the final.
Clark is a systems approach to the modern world. It has several relatively abstract chapters, each followed by a case study that illustrates concretely the issues raised abstractly.
Gunn attempts to do several things simultaneously. First is to take roots of globalization back 500 years and to locate them in the patterns of exchange between Europe and Asia. Second, he seeks to emphasize culture over economic or material exchanges. In this he provides a useful counterbalance to my own political-economy approach to globalization..
Hobson goes even further back in time nearly 2,000 years ago. He also reverses the usual approach of asking why Europe leads, to ask how did such a backward place ever get out front. His short answer is by borrowing, and often stealing ideas and "stuff" from Asia. He also opens with some fascinating discussion of maps, which we will pursue throughout the course. You may find it interesting to look at the original of the cover picture on his book which superimposes one of Columbus's caravels over one of Zheng He's treasure ships. It is an excellent metaphor of the relative "power" and size of Europe and China in the fifteenth century. The original drawing is by Jan Adkins at: http://www.janadkins.com/treasure.html
Kasinec and Polushin provid an edited collection of articles on ancient empires, designed originally for a world history course. But, as I will argue, empires are what start globalization or at least globalization-like processes, these give some insights into how they worked. The readings are short, and simplified. They are supplemented by various early texts, which will give you some idea of how historians, and sociologist, and others learn the kinds of things discussed in those readings. They end each section with a few questions. I suggest you read the questions first, so you know what to read for. I will help with connecting this material to globalization.
Lechner & Boli also provide an edited collection, but his one focuses on globalization in contemporary times. They have writers from virtually every school of thought on globalization. Again, they have simplified the articles to get to the point quickly. They, too, end each section with a set of questions. Again I suggest you START with the questions, so you know what to look for in the readings. Here, unlike with Kasinec the jump to course topics is straightforward. Lechner and Boli are sociolotists who work, as I do, from a world-systems analysis perspective. I suggest we start with Part III on how we experience globalization, to help us ground many of the other more abstract discussions in real daily experiences.
Sklair provides a straight forward account of globalization, although
he strongly emphasizes it new-ness over its older roots. He also finishes
with discussions about possible futures. In many ways this is our main
text. Along with student from a social change course at DePauw, I wrote
and published a review of Sklair:
Hall, Thomas D. and Erica McFadden. Globalization: Capitalism and Its
Alternatives. By Leslie Sklair. Journal of World-Systems
Research 9:1(Winter, 2003):187-189. It is available on-line at:
http://jwsr.ucr.edu/index.php
The review will give you my take on Sklair.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:
After I had ordered the texts, a new book came out:
Wallerstein,
Immanuel. 2004. World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
I have ordered this for the library, and a few copies for the book store.
This is a brief, about 100 pages, account of world-systems analysis by its major
developer. It is short and very readable, and in the later chapters gives
an alternative account of globalization.
Finally, my colleague, friend, and
often co-author Christopher Chase-Dunn who teaches at the University of
California at Riverside, is teaching a course on globalization. It, too,
is on-line at:
http://www.irows.ucr.edu/cd/courses/181/syl181.htm
One of his early readings is a paper we wrote together. It gives our take
on globalization. We will eventually read it. But if you want an "sneak
preview" of "where I am coming from" check it out:
Hall, Thomas D. and Christopher Chase-Dunn. in press. "Global Social
Change in the Long Run." Global Social Change: A Reader, edited by
Christopher Chase-Dunn, Salvatore Babones, and Susan Manning. Baltimore.
Johns Hopkins University Press.
available on-line at:
http://www.irows.ucr.edu/cd/courses/10/socchange.htm
Reserves:
The course books and other materials are, or will, be on reserve at
Case Library. These will be listed on the
Reserve Readings page.
Communications with professor Hall:
Also I am at Colgate only Tuesday through Thursday [most weeks], but read email daily. Of course, if the question or issue cannot be dealt with via email, we can meet during office hours or any other mutually agreed upon time.
Occasionally I will respond to an emailed question asking you to please re-ask the question in class. This is NOT an to put you off. Rather, it is because I think you have an excellent question, and that the entire class should hear the answer.
Send comments or questions to tdhall@mail.colgate.edu
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