This course aims to introduce students to the principal concepts and theories of globalisation, characterised by ever-closer political, economic, social and cultural connections around the planet. The course begins with a consideration of the history of globalisation and the dominant theories that have sought to explain its development since 1945 and its difference to earlier forms of worldwide interconnectedness. Of primary concern to us will be to develop a better understanding of how globalisation is or is not changing the way that states and political communities act and their roles and responsibilities both internally and internationally. Particular attention will be paid to the difference in the impact of globalisation on different countries and regions of the world. In the second half of the course we will consider many of the most important topics in the contemporary world and examine their relationship to globalisation, always seeking to apply the historical context and analytical tools we developed at the beginning of the course through our examination of these ‘global issues’. Ranging from climate change to security in a post-9/11 and post-7/7 world, from aid to the Third World to the ‘McDonaldization’ of indigenous cultures, these issues will be ones that many of us have opinions on. Our focus will be on understanding the different interests and perspectives involved in the debates and analysing the issues critically.
Learning outcomes:
Explain the principle theories of recent globalisation and contrast that phenomenon with earlier examples of global interconnectedness.
Distinguish between globalisation’s economic, political and cultural impact in the developed and the developing world.
Outline some of the main critical responses to globalisation.
Assess globalisation’s relationship with some of the fundamental global issues confronting humanity in the twenty-first century.
Be able to distinguish between facts and opinions in a variety of texts, be they journalistic or academic.
Method of presentation:
Each session will be run as a seminar with a brief lecture lasting about 30 minutes. The seminars will be dialogue-driven and based on our weekly readings. The style will be lively and participatory.
Required work and form of assessment:
Research paper: 15%
Mid-term exam: 25%
Final exam: 50%
Participation 10%
Research paper: Students will write a 1500 word research paper in which they analyse and take a position on a topic distributed at the end of class in week four. The paper must make use of academic sources as well as journalistic sources; it must also engage with the concepts and tools developed up to that point in class. It will be due at the beginning of class in week five.
Open-book mid-term exam: Students will complete a ‘take home’ mid-term exam, answering 2 questions out of the 4 provided. Each answer should be between 750 and 850 words in lengths. Students should note that, in case they do go over the word limit, only the first 850 words would be taken into consideration during grading. The exam questions will be handed out at the end of class in week 5 and the type-written exam will be due by email by the end of the midterm week.
Closed-book final exam: Students will complete a final examination, answering three questions from among a list of nine. Each answer should be at least 750 words (three sides of A4) long.
Participation: Attendance at all class meetings is mandatory. It is also expected that students do the required readings and actively participate in class. As part of their active participation, students will be expected to make several presentations and to lead the discussion following your presentation. A schedule will be drawn up at our first meeting.
content:
Week 1: What is globalisation?
After introductions we will begin by discussing popular understandings of globalisation today as a way of starting to develop analytic tools for describing and explaining globalisation’s multi-dimensional nature.
Week 2: What is so new about globalisation?
Given contemporary globalisation’s popular portrayal as a manifestly unique occurrence, our discussion this week will centre around understanding why so many—academics, activists and policy-makers alike—continue to debate the exceptionalism of the phenomenon. What makes today’s globalisation so special?
Week 3: Bretton Woods and the global economic order
Even the most die-hard sceptics of globalisation cannot deny that a global economic system exists like none seen before. This week we will turn our attention to this system, built around the Bretton Woods institutions and neoliberalism, in order to understand what drives the global economy and why many criticise it for its failures and hypocrisies.
Week 4: Globalisation and the state
Turning our attention to politics, we will consider the changing nature of national state power in an era of both interdependence and fragmentation. With many international organisations assuming greater responsibility for managing economies, security and people, we will examine the ‘death of the state’ thesis and consider how governance is—and should—be happening in the twenty-first century.
Week 5: Global governance: the UN and beyond
Continuing our investigation of the changing nature of governance, this week we examine the organisations and mechanisms that exist to manage globalisation in its economic, political and social guises. Much ink has been spilled in detailing the inadequacies of current global governance structures, but is anything better really practicable?
Week 6: Globalisation in London
This week we will use London as our classroom. Despite Britain’s relative decline in the post-war period, its capital has continued to shine. Coming second only to New York in most rankings, we will look at what is behind London’s global success and to what extent this rise is likely to persist in the 21st century.
Week 7: Globalisation, inequality and justice
Continuing on from our discussion in week three, we will address the question of whether globalisation ‘works’ for everyone. Proponents and critics alike agree that the global economic order in the twenty-first century has the potential and the imperative to create prosperity and opportunity world-wide. If that’s so, how can we judge globalisation’s performance?
Week 8: global migration and immigration
During this week we will examine how globalisation has allowed for an expansion in movement around the planet. We will consider how the nature of migration has changed as a result of the nature of today’s globalisation. We will also explore how such movements have affected destination countries as well as countries of origin.
Week 9: Identity, culture and globalisation
With people, ideas and goods flowing planet-wide on a mass scale, what’s become of the local, the national, the individual? Our attention this week will be focused on debates about globalisation’s effects on culture. Is it a great leveller or a panacea for remedying social ills?
Week 10: National security and global insecurity
Our question this week is a pressing one: has globalisation caused new threats to security while also bringing about greater integration and, potentially, more prosperity? We will consider what these new threats might be and how, in light of the changing nature of international cooperation and the altered role of the state, these new threats might be addressed.
Week 11: Climate change: a uniquely global problem?
Making use of all our analysis thus far, in week eleven we will address what many consider today’s most challenging global dilemma: climate change. In some respects, the global structures brought about by global markets, global governance and global defence seem ideally suited to addressing this problem. Yet, the problem persists. Our interest will be in understanding how globalisation both helps and hinders attempts at tackling climate change.
Week 12: Global futures
In addition to revising for the final examination, we will spend our final session discussing what a globalised future holds in store for us, relying on the concepts and tools developed during the course to help us in our predictions.
Required readings:
David Held, Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt and Jonathan Perraton, Global Transformations; Politics, Economics and Culture, (London: Polity Press, 2011).
Frank J. Lechner and John Boli (eds), The Globalization Reader, 4th ed., (London: Blackwell, 2012).
Recommended readings:
Beck, Ulrich, and P. Camiller, What is Globalization?. Cambridge: Polity, 2000.
Chasek, Pamela S., David L. Downie, and Janet Welsh Brown, Global environmental politics. Boulder: Westview, 2006.
Dicken, Peter, Global shift: mapping the changing contours of the world economy. London: Sage, 2007.
Diehl, P.F. (ed.), The Politics of global governance: international organizations in an interdependent world. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2005.
Giddens, Anthony, The Consequences of modernity, 55–78. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1990.
Harvey, David, A Brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Heffner, Robert, ‘Multiple modernities: Christianity, Islam and Hinduism in a globalizing age’. Annual Review of Anthropology 27 (1998): 83–104.
Hobsbawm, E. J., Age of extremes: the short twentieth century, 1914–1991, 199–224. London: Abacus, 1995.
Hoogvelt, Ankie, Globalization and the postcolonial world: the new political economy of development, 29–43. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001.
Hovi, Jon, Camilla Bretteville Froyn and Guri Bang, ‘Enforcing the Kyoto Protocol: can punitive consequences restore compliance?’. Review of International Studies 33 (2007): 435–449.
Kaldor, Mary, Old & New Wars; Organizad violence in a global era. London: Polity, 2012.
Ohmae, Kenichi, The End of the nation state: the rise of regional economies. London: Harper Collins, 1996.
Paterson, Matthew, Global warming and global politics. London: Routledge, 1996.
Ritzer, George, The McDonaldization of society, 1–23. Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Oaks Press, 2004.
Roberts, J. Timmons, and Bradley C. Parks, A Climate of injustice: global inequality, north-south politics and climate policy, 133–184. London: The MIT Press, 2007.
Shaw, M., ‘The State of globalization: towards a theory of state transformation’. Review of International Political Economy 4 (1997): 497–513.
Stiglitz, Joseph, Globalization and its discontents, 3–53. London: Penguin, 2002.
Zweifel, Thomas, International organizations and democracy: accountability, politics and power. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2005.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Dr. Sylvia Tijmstra holds a Ph.D. in Human Geography from the London School of Economics and Political Science and Master’s degrees in Local Economic Development (LSE), Public Administration (University of Amsterdam) and International Relations (University of Amsterdam). She is the author of several publications on the political geography of identity and the rescaling of government in the contemporary era of globalisation. In addition she has worked as an advisor to international organisations like the World Bank and the ILO.
This course aims to introduce students to the principal concepts and theories of globalisation, characterised by ever-closer political, economic, social and cultural connections around the planet. The course begins with a consideration of the history of globalisation and the dominant theories that have sought to explain its development since 1945 and its difference to earlier forms of worldwide interconnectedness. Of primary concern to us will be to develop a better understanding of how globalisation is or is not changing the way that states and political communities act and their roles and responsibilities both internally and internationally. Particular attention will be paid to the difference in the impact of globalisation on different countries and regions of the world. In the second half of the course we will consider many of the most important topics in the contemporary world and examine their relationship to globalisation, always seeking to apply the historical context and analytical tools we developed at the beginning of the course through our examination of these ‘global issues’. Ranging from climate change to security in a post-9/11 and post-7/7 world, from aid to the Third World to the ‘McDonaldization’ of indigenous cultures, these issues will be ones that many of us have opinions on. Our focus will be on understanding the different interests and perspectives involved in the debates and analysing the issues critically.
Each session will be run as a seminar with a brief lecture lasting about 30 minutes. The seminars will be dialogue-driven and based on our weekly readings. The style will be lively and participatory.
Research paper: Students will write a 1500 word research paper in which they analyse and take a position on a topic distributed at the end of class in week four. The paper must make use of academic sources as well as journalistic sources; it must also engage with the concepts and tools developed up to that point in class. It will be due at the beginning of class in week five.
Open-book mid-term exam: Students will complete a ‘take home’ mid-term exam, answering 2 questions out of the 4 provided. Each answer should be between 750 and 850 words in lengths. Students should note that, in case they do go over the word limit, only the first 850 words would be taken into consideration during grading. The exam questions will be handed out at the end of class in week 5 and the type-written exam will be due by email by the end of the midterm week.
Closed-book final exam: Students will complete a final examination, answering three questions from among a list of nine. Each answer should be at least 750 words (three sides of A4) long.
Participation: Attendance at all class meetings is mandatory. It is also expected that students do the required readings and actively participate in class. As part of their active participation, students will be expected to make several presentations and to lead the discussion following your presentation. A schedule will be drawn up at our first meeting.
Week 1: What is globalisation?
After introductions we will begin by discussing popular understandings of globalisation today as a way of starting to develop analytic tools for describing and explaining globalisation’s multi-dimensional nature.
Week 2: What is so new about globalisation?
Given contemporary globalisation’s popular portrayal as a manifestly unique occurrence, our discussion this week will centre around understanding why so many—academics, activists and policy-makers alike—continue to debate the exceptionalism of the phenomenon. What makes today’s globalisation so special?
Week 3: Bretton Woods and the global economic order
Even the most die-hard sceptics of globalisation cannot deny that a global economic system exists like none seen before. This week we will turn our attention to this system, built around the Bretton Woods institutions and neoliberalism, in order to understand what drives the global economy and why many criticise it for its failures and hypocrisies.
Week 4: Globalisation and the state
Turning our attention to politics, we will consider the changing nature of national state power in an era of both interdependence and fragmentation. With many international organisations assuming greater responsibility for managing economies, security and people, we will examine the ‘death of the state’ thesis and consider how governance is—and should—be happening in the twenty-first century.
Week 5: Global governance: the UN and beyond
Continuing our investigation of the changing nature of governance, this week we examine the organisations and mechanisms that exist to manage globalisation in its economic, political and social guises. Much ink has been spilled in detailing the inadequacies of current global governance structures, but is anything better really practicable?
Week 6: Globalisation in London
This week we will use London as our classroom. Despite Britain’s relative decline in the post-war period, its capital has continued to shine. Coming second only to New York in most rankings, we will look at what is behind London’s global success and to what extent this rise is likely to persist in the 21st century.
Week 7: Globalisation, inequality and justice
Continuing on from our discussion in week three, we will address the question of whether globalisation ‘works’ for everyone. Proponents and critics alike agree that the global economic order in the twenty-first century has the potential and the imperative to create prosperity and opportunity world-wide. If that’s so, how can we judge globalisation’s performance?
Week 8: global migration and immigration
During this week we will examine how globalisation has allowed for an expansion in movement around the planet. We will consider how the nature of migration has changed as a result of the nature of today’s globalisation. We will also explore how such movements have affected destination countries as well as countries of origin.
Week 9: Identity, culture and globalisation
With people, ideas and goods flowing planet-wide on a mass scale, what’s become of the local, the national, the individual? Our attention this week will be focused on debates about globalisation’s effects on culture. Is it a great leveller or a panacea for remedying social ills?
Week 10: National security and global insecurity
Our question this week is a pressing one: has globalisation caused new threats to security while also bringing about greater integration and, potentially, more prosperity? We will consider what these new threats might be and how, in light of the changing nature of international cooperation and the altered role of the state, these new threats might be addressed.
Week 11: Climate change: a uniquely global problem?
Making use of all our analysis thus far, in week eleven we will address what many consider today’s most challenging global dilemma: climate change. In some respects, the global structures brought about by global markets, global governance and global defence seem ideally suited to addressing this problem. Yet, the problem persists. Our interest will be in understanding how globalisation both helps and hinders attempts at tackling climate change.
Week 12: Global futures
In addition to revising for the final examination, we will spend our final session discussing what a globalised future holds in store for us, relying on the concepts and tools developed during the course to help us in our predictions.
Dr. Sylvia Tijmstra holds a Ph.D. in Human Geography from the London School of Economics and Political Science and Master’s degrees in Local Economic Development (LSE), Public Administration (University of Amsterdam) and International Relations (University of Amsterdam). She is the author of several publications on the political geography of identity and the rescaling of government in the contemporary era of globalisation. In addition she has worked as an advisor to international organisations like the World Bank and the ILO.