Postgraduate Course: Globalization (SCIL11016)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course critically examines the subject of globalisation from a sociological perspective. Globalisation is a vast topic, and no one course can cover all its aspects. This course aims to give the student grounding in the most fundamental aspects of globalisation, with exploration of selected substantive topics ('case studies') to help root the general in the particular. We examine the concept itself, the central themes of changing communications, social networks, and experiences of space and time, and the major economic, political and ideological dimensions of globalisation. The view taken in this course is that, while there have been distinctive social changes associated with globalisation in recent decades, to understand this process we need to regularly relocate it in a long-term historical perspective. Globalisation has been happening for centuries, and to understand current processes of globalisation, we need to relate them to a deeper history of globalisation. We also need to be careful about talking of globalisation as if it were one thing. In fact this very broad term encompasses an array of different social processes that need to be distinguished in order to be better understood. |
| Course description |
Lecture Topics:
1. Introduction: conceptualising globalisation critically
2. 'Communications', 'networks' and 'space-time compression'
3. Case study: Global production and China as world factory
4. Economic processes: trade, markets, capitalism
5. Case study: Financialisation and the economic crisis
6. Political processes: states, nations, empires, colonialism and hegemons
7. Case study: Globalisation and social/political movements
8. Ideological processes: religion, science, '-isms', and beliewfs
9. Case study: 'Neoliberalism' as a world ideological movement
10 Conclusion and review
Advanced seminars:
1. Missionaries as globalisers?
2. Immanuel Wallerstein and world systems
3. Global inequality (within and between nations)
4. John W. Meyer and world society
10. World government?
|
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2015/16, Available to all students (SV1)
|
Quota: 21 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
100 %,
Coursework
0 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
One long essay (4000 words). |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- - Be able to demonstrate a clear grasp of the concept of globalisation and contending definitions of it.
- - Appreciate of the importance of historical perspective for a sociological understanding globalisation.
- - Grasp the importance of key concepts of 'communication' and 'social networks' for the study of globalisation.
- - Know how to distinguish between economic, political and ideological dimensions of globalisation, and articulate an analytic understanding of how they interact.
- - Write an independently researched essay on a globalisation related topic.
|
Reading List
Indicative texts:
Albrow, M. (1996) The Global Age: State and Society Beyond Modernity. Cambridge: Polity.
Beck, U. (2005) Power in the Global Age. Cambridge: Polity.
Bhagwati, J. (2004) In Defense of Globalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Castells, M. (1997) The Power of Identity, Vol. II of The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Cambridge MA and Oxford: Blackwell.
Cowen, T. (2002) Creative Destruction. How Globalization Is Changing the World¿s Cultures. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
Dasgupta and Kiely, R. (eds.) (2006) Globalization and After. New Delhi: Sage.
Diamond. J. (1998) Guns Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13, 000 Years, London: Vintage.
Giddens, Anthony (1999) Runaway World: How Globalization is Reshaping our Lives, London: Profile Books.
Featherstone, M. Lash, S. and Robertson, R. (1995) Global Modernities, London: Thousand Oaks.
Harvey, D. (2006) Spaces of Global Capitalism. Toward a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development. London: Verso.
Held, D. and McGrew, A. (eds) (2003) The Global Transformations Reader, 2nd edn, Polity.
Hirst, P. and Thompson, G. (2009) Globalization in Question, 3rd edn, Polity.
James, P. (2006) Globalism, Nationalism, Tribalism: bringing theory back in. London: Sage.
Kreiger, J. (ed.) (2006) Globalization and State Power: A Reader. New York: Routledge.
Mann, M. (2011) Power in the 21st Century: Conversations with John A. Hall, Cambridge: Polity.
Mann, M. (2013) The Sources of Social Power, Vol. 4: Globalizations, 1945-2011. Cambridge: CUP.
Mittleman, J. H. (2000) The Globalization Syndrome: Transformation and Resistance, Princeton UP.
O¿Byrne, D. J. and Hensby, A. (2011) Theorizing Global Studies. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Osterhammel, J. and Niels P. P. (2003) Globalization: A Short History, Princeton UP.
Pieterse, J. N. (2009) Globalization and Culture. The Global Mélange. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Ray, L. (2007) Globalization and Everyday Life, London: Routledge.
Ritzer, G. (2007) The Globalization of Nothing, 2nd edn, Sage.
Ritzer, G., (ed.) (2008) The Blackwell Companion to Globalization, Blackwell. (e-book)
Ritzer, G. (2011) Globalization: The Essentials. Wiley-Blackwell.
Robertson, R. (1992) Globalization: social theory and global culture. London: Sage.
Rosenberg, Justin (2000) The Follies of Globalisation Theory. London: Verso.
Santos, B. de S. (2002) Toward a New Legal Common Sense: law, globalization and emancipation. Cambridge UP.
Sassen, S. (2007) A Sociology of Globalization, W. W. Norton.
Sassen, S. (2008) Territory, Authority, Rights. From Medieval to Global Assemblages. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
Scholte, J. A. (2005) Globalization: a critical introduction, 2nd edn, Palgrave Macmillan. (e-book)
Steger, M. B. (2009) Globalization: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stiglitz, J. (2002) Globalization and its discontents. London: Penguin Books.
Stearns, Peter N. (2009) Globalization in World History. London: Routledge.
Therborn, G. (2011) The World: A Beginner¿s Guide, Cambridge: Polity.
Waters, M. (1995) Globalization, 2nd edn, London: Routledge.
|
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
This course is taught in conjunction with an undergraduate course of the same name. Postgraduates attend weekly lectures for that course and are invited to stay on for second hour discussion of weekly topics. Postgraduates are also required to attend a two-hour 'advanced seminar' every two weeks (10 hours over 10 weeks) in which students lead in-depth exploration of more specialised topics. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Jonathan Hearn
Tel: (0131 6)50 4242
Email: J.Hearn@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Kate Ferguson
Tel: (0131 6)51 5122
Email: kate.ferguson@ed.ac.uk |
|
© Copyright 2015 The University of Edinburgh - 18 January 2016 4:51 am
|
University Homepage