Globalization: Changing Economy and Culture

This interdisciplinary course encourages students to explore culture to satisfy a sense of discovery, as others have done before us; appreciate the intersection of economics, political science and sociology central to the concept of globalization; and consider different ways of explaining the origins of economic inequality and mapping the power behind it.

Globalization doesn’t just involve the US and China. But these two countries and their historic roles in the new world economy in many ways define the experience. After equipping ourselves with a theoretical tool kit to critically assess who wields power in a global economy, we will investigate American and Chinese power holders as well as economic and cultural trends such as the establishment and expansion of the EU to appreciate the transformative capacity of globalization. What we learn through exploring globalization via these cases should help students appreciate the processes and impacts of the EU, countries in Latin America or Africa, regions of Southeast or Central Asia –whatever part of the world matters to each one of us.

Topics:

• Capitalist reorganization

• Location of power

• Globalization’s impact on China

• Chinese adaptations & oppositions

• Reversal of fortunes

books

The McDonaldization of Society by George Ritzer (Sage, 2015)

+ from Golden Arches East edited by James L. Watson (Stanford U Press, 1997)

“McDonald’s in Beijing” by Yunxiang Yan

“McDonald’s in Hong Kong” by James L. Watson

“McDonald’s in Taipei” by David Y. H. Wu

Popular China edited by Perry Link, Richard Madsen and Paul Pickowicz (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002)

China Safari by Serge Michel and Michel Beuret (Nation Books, 2009)

SARS in China: Prelude to Pandemic? edited by Arthur Kleinman and James L. Watson (Stanford U Press, 2005)

According to the course description and the student's interests

Written or oral exam