Time Schedule:
Matthew Sparke
GEOG 123
Seattle Campus
Provides an introduction to the debates over globalization. Focuses on the growth and intensification of global ties. Addresses the resulting inequalities and tensions, as well as the new opportunities for cultural and political exchange. Topics include the impacts on government, finance, labor, culture, the environment, health, and activism. Offered: jointly with SIS 123.
Class description
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 people networking and moving around the world in new ways? How do these networks and movements change politics locally and globally? Why does increasing global interconnectedness also seem to lead to greater division and greater inequality? How are we all connected together, and who are "we"? 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. At the end of this course, you will come away with more than just some additional knowledge and some additional academic vocabulary. 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 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.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Lectures and sections with TAs
Recommended preparation
Reading the newspaper daily, and, if possible, taking time to read any of the following books:
Naomi Klein, No Logo Michael Hardt and Antonion Negri, Empire James Mittelman, The globalization Syndrome David Held, et al, Global Transformations Jan Art Scholte, Globalization George Soros, On Globalization Aiwha Ong, Flexible Citizenship Thomas Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree William Greider, One World Ready or Not Peter Dicken, Global Shift Saskia Sassen, Globalization and Its Discontents Joseph Stieglitz, Globalization and its Discontents
Class assignments and grading
2 exams 1 term paper
Midterm Exam (in class Monday November 4th.) 20% Final Exam (TBA) 40% Group research project 40%
