Weekly Schedule of Classes

SECTION ONE : CONCEPTS & THEORIES OF GLOBALIZATION

This section will deal with the Globalization debate and address conflicts within the field. Using the framework provided by David Held and Anthony McGrew (2007) we will discuss the three main schools of thought in globalization theory and research; the hyperglobalists, the skeptics, and the transformationalist. Besides the foundational theories of Robertson, (1992) and Featherstone, (1995) we will compare Martin Albrow’s  (1996) theory of homogenization and “world society” with  Arjun Appadurai’s  (1996) argument that the globalizing cultural forces produce complex interactions and  disjuncture between different  cultures.

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Week 1: September 10^th

 Introduction to the course and Geographies of Globalization, Key Concepts:

• What is globalization? 
• What are the main issues of globalization?
• Think of local examples of "globalization"..

Readings:

1. Steger, Manfred, (2013) Globalization: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press; pp.1-17
2. Giddens, Anthony (1991): The four dimensions of globalization.
3. Watch, The Travels of a Teashirt 

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Week 2: September 17^th
Globalization: Consensus and Controversies:
 Key historical Phases.

1.    Is globalization a new phenomenon?

 

Readings:  

1. History of Globalization Documentary
2.  Faulconbridge, J & Beaverstock, J (2009), “Globalization: interconnected worlds” in S Holloway, SP Rice, G Valentine & N Clifford (eds), Key concepts in Geography (2nd edition). Sage, London, pp. 331-343,( composed 2006) 

SUGGESTED READINGS 

3. Jan Nederveen Pieterse, (2009),”Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange,” Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, pp. 1-34.
4.  Steger, Manfred, (2013) Globalization: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions), Oxford University Press; CHAPTER 2,  PP. 17-36

 

Week 3: September 24^th
Class Discussion on;
The Three Perspectives of Globalization

Perspectives on globalization: (i) Globalists, (ii) skeptics and (iii) transformationalist.
Readings: 

1.   Held, David, Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt, and Jonathan Perraton. 1999. Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture. Stanford
2. The World is not that Flat Afterall

 

Week 4: October 1^st 

Understanding Cultural Globalization, the three Paradigms;

Readings:

1.   Jan Nederveen Pieterse, 2009,”Globalization and Culture: Global Mélange,” PP 43- 64 ,  Rowman and Littlefield Publishers
2. Movius, L. (2010) ‘Cultural Globalisation and Challenges to Traditional , Journal of Media and Communication 2(1) (January): 6-18. ISSN: 1836-5132 Online
3. Jan Nederveen Pieterse,  Hybridization
4. Anti Globalization: Naomi Klein NoLogo  

 Week 5:  October 8^th

 Class presentation :
 What is Globalization ?
“What is Globalization” – Drawing from the class discussions, and your readings from the text as well as outside sources that you think are relevant, develop a careful definition of the term “globalization”.  Then describe how you see it applying to cultural, economic, and or political processes in the world today.
Argue and defend your position as a
(i) Globalists,
(ii) skeptics or
(iii) transformationailsts.
iv) None of the above and Why?

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Additional Suggested Readings for presentation
1.     Albrow, M. (1996). The Global Age. Cambridge: Polity.
2.     Appadurai, A (1996). Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
3.     Mike Featherstone, (1995) Global Modernities, London: Sage. 
4.     ----- (2002). Globalization and Anti-Globalization. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
5.     Jameson, F. (2000). Globalization and Strategy. New Left Review, 4, 49-68.
6.     Robertson, R. (1992). Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. London: Sage.
7.     Roy, Arundhati & David Barsamian, (2004) The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy .
8.     Klein, N.  (2002). Fences and windows: Dispatches from the front lines of the globalization debate. New York: Picador.

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SECTION TWO : GLOBALIZATION, IDENTITY AND HYBBRIDITY
Ethnicity and conceptualization of self, Nationalism, Religion, and The Search for Identity and Meaning

 In this section we will focus on the processes of globalization and localization. We will investigate how these counterforces help in the conceptualization of self and identity. How are the global and local engaged in continuous exchange and negotiations of the identity discourse?  Using the languages of modern contemporary music we will try to understand the aesthetics of crossover, the aesthetics of the hybrid, and the aesthetics of diaspora. We will also question if dominant regimes are threatened by the de-centered cultural empowerment of the marginal and the local? And how is power used to control people and how do people resist.

Week 6: October 15^th

 

The Global-Local Nexus: Self and Identity

Readings:

1.   Tomlinson, J. (2003) Globalization and Cultural Identity. Polity Press

2.   Elira Bornmam, (2001a) “Struggles of identity in the age of globalization” 

3.   Watch Akram Khan Desh, tracing origins.

4.   Amertya Sen, (January 2008) Violence, Identity and Poverty, Journal of Peace Research,  45: 5-15.

Week 7: October 22^nd.

 

 Globalization and Cultural Identity; Struggles of identity in the age of globalization
Theorizing Hybridity, Politics of Hybridity, Global Mélange and anti-hybridity backlash.

Readings:

1.   Catarina Kinnvall, (2004) “Globalization and Religious Nationalism: Self, Identity, and the Search for Ontological Security” Political Psychology, Vol. 25, No. 5. 741-767

2.    Nederveen Pieterse J,  (2001) “Hybridity, So What: The Anti-Hybridity Backlash and Riddles of Recognition” University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

3. ---

Week 8: October 29^th. 
Music As A Technology of Self,
 Music's promise in forging new senses of inclusive, supranational belonging and its potential to rally communities exclusive of racial, gendered, classed, or ethnic “others”—especially in times of conflict. 

Readings:

1.      Tia  DeNora, (2009) Music As A Technology of Self, Cambridge University Press, pp. 46-74

2.    Akram Khan, An Interview, Patterns, and Structures

3.      Ian Condry, (2006) Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization.  Paperback

4.     Robin Wright, (2011) Rock the Casbah, popular culture and the Arab spring, Simon & Schuster

 

 Week 9: November 5^th

Students Presentation: ( debate Key issues of Identity ) :
THE DISCOURSE ON IDENTITY
 Who am I ? How is the Self Constituted?
The role of the Local/Global
Nation  and religion
identity crisis among others.

Week 10: November 12^th.

SECTION THREE (WEEKS 10–14)
GLOBALIZATION, NEW MEDIA AND NETWORK AESTHETICS

Digital media and information technologies play an important role in the process of globalization. According to  Rantanen (2005, p. 4),  “most theorists agree that there is practically no globalization without media and communications.” We will analyze the effects of new media on culture, politics and social movements within the concept of “Network” which has emerged as a dominant prevailing metaphor of our globalizing world to further understand the clam that everything is interconnected. Some key issues addressed are; have   communication technologies lead to the “death of distance” and the “flattening” of the world? Are media enabling and/or   disabling? Do they include and simultaneously exclude the masses and is the “global village” indeed open to all?  We start this section with major debates on broad questions about the way digital media are reshaping society.

Week 10 &12 : November 19^th & November 26^th,
Networked Society;
CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION AND INTERCONNECTED WORLDS:
The rise of mass self-communication and Understanding the logic of Social Media. 

Readings

1.  Movius, L. (2010). Cultural Globalisation and Challenges to traditional communication theories. Journal of Media and Communication.
2. Kraidy, M. (2002). Globalization of culture through the media. In J. R. Schement (Ed.),
3.  Castells, M. (2007). Communication, power and counter-power in the network society. International Journal of Communication, 1, 238 - 266.
4. Rantanen , T. (2005). The Media and Globalization. London: Sage. pp 12-18
   

 

Week 13 & 14 :December 7 & 14th 
Class Presentation(debate key issues):
Unequal Globalization

• Is Globalization Civilizing or Distructive;
• Inclusive or Alienating;
• Uneven or Flat.
• Is the “global village” indeed open to all? 

  Additional Readings for Class Debate.
1.     Chada, K. and Kavoori, A. (2000). Media Imperialism Revisited: Some Findings From the Asian Case. Media, Culture and Society, 22(4),     415-32.
2.     Gillmor, D. (2006). We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Cambridge: O’Reilly.
3.     Manuel Castells (ed), (2004) The Network Society: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar,
4.     Maneul, Castells. (2009). Communication Power. New York: Oxford University Press.