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Appearing to be tremendous shocks to the current system of worldwide integration, several momentous events seem to threaten an unravelling of “globalization”. Some have declared that the “liberal international order” is now at risk, along with a “rules-based” system of managing international affairs. Even bolder: many observers now declare that we are entering a period of “de-globalization”. The events around which such narratives have gathered, range from 9/11 to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 which violated international law, to the victory for Brexit in the UK on June 23, 2016 (and the subsequent electoral triumph of the Brexit Party in the EU Parliament elections of May 23-26, 2019), and then the election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency of the United States on November 8, 2016. Of course, much more can be added to produce a more complete picture, including the rise of ISIS and terrorist attacks around the world, to the multiplication of barriers whether in the form of actual walls and rising anti-immigrant movements, or sanctions, or protectionist tariffs implemented in a series of widening trade wars launched by the US.

Others will instead paint a more nuanced picture that can consist of some or all of the following elements (or even more):

  • that globalization itself was more an ideal (or a myth) than an accurate representation of reality; that the world has been globalized for at least the past 500 years, or longer, and current events are merely transitional bumps;
  • that challenges to globalization arose almost immediately, in the form of numerous national revolts against structural adjustment programs imposed by the IMF and World Bank, followed by a rise of anti-globalization movements in North America and Europe in the late 1990s;
  • that global trade has never truly been free, and that barriers persisted and even multiplied well before current events;
  • there has been a revitalization of indigenous, ethnic, religious, among various cultures around the world, even in the West itself, or against the West;
  • and, that there has never been anything like a global government, thus states have continued to retain their primary importance in international affairs.

While not having the time to do each of these topics sufficient justice, this course will introduce you to these and other issues, questions, and debates concerning the current state of our world.

INTRODUCTION

Globalization has been used generally to denote the increasingly rapid and far-flung circulation of people, money, commodities, and images around the world. Since at least the early 1990s, a common belief in the media, academia, and international political and economic institutions has been that “we now live in a fully globalized world,” and that this fact is both an inevitable outcome and one that is also irreversible. Yet, in recent years we have started to hear, with increasing frequency, that the world has entered into a period of de-globalization. One of the reasons offered for the onset of de-globalization is the resurgence of nationalism; the vitality of the nation as a central unit of primary political affiliation, cultural attachment, and even emotional loyalty; and, there has been a widespread reaffirmation of the principles of sovereignty and national self-determination. Another reason used to explain alleged de-globalization is the crisis of neo-liberalism, which after four decades has spread from the periphery to the centre of the world-system, provoking intense opposition and resistance to austerity, structural adjustment, privatization, and the liberalization of trade and finance. So what has really happened? What kind of change are we living through right now? And where will this take us?

OVERVIEW: CONTENT and AIMS

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to a range of theories and concepts of globalization, de-globalization, neoliberalism, and nationalism. The primary emphases of this course comprise historical and theoretical questions. In particular we examine a number of critical questions posed by contemporary struggles over processes of global standardization, resistance against international media monopolies, debates about citizenship and immigration, and the emergence of populist and nationalist movements that sometimes disrupt the traditional left-right divide.

The aim of the course is not to either impart or impose a partisan political perspective, to which students must adhere. Many of the subjects up for discussion in this course involve currently contentious and controversial issues, and students are likely to be exposed to one or more points of view that they may find unpallatable. However, the course director’s duty is not to act as a censor who edits reality, but rather to try to present, explain, and assist students in understanding a range of prominent, influential and critical perspectives and paradigms. Students in turn should challenge themselves not to seek aid and comfort for views that they may already hold, but to try to understand some rather complicated problems from different angles of view. Together, both the students and the course director should achieve something that today is increasingly rare and is thus more valuable: substituting analysis in the place of ideological wishful thinking, and focusing on asking the most productive questions possible.

Some of the more basic questions which are addressed in the course lectures and readings are the ones that follow below.

THE 21 KEY QUESTIONS FOR THIS COURSE

  1. What is globalization?
  2. When did the world become globalized?
  3. What are the “facts” of globalization?
  4. What are the structures and who are the agents of globalization?
  5. What has been the role of states in the process of globalization?
  6. Has globalization decreased/diminished state sovereignty? Or has it instead accentuated state sovereignty?
  7. What are the consequences of the different types of globalization (economic, political, cultural)?
  8. What are some of the leading cultural conflicts that have arisen from neoliberal globalization?
  9. How do theories of globalization compare with theories of modernization, dependency theory, analysis of the emergence of the capitalist world-system, theories of transnationalism, and theories of cultural imperialism?
  10. What are the differences, if any, between globalism, transnational capitalism, liberalism, and Americanism?
  11. Is globalization a new stage of human history?
  12. Is globalization a better stage of human development?
  13. Is globalization an inevitable outcome of human societal progress?
  14. Is globalization a new form of colonization?
  15. Why has there been resistance to globalization in different societies around the planet?
  16. Is globalization an irreversible process? Even if not irreversible as such, can it still be undone?
  17. Do trade wars, sanctions, the rise of Brexit, centrifugal tensions in the European Union, and the election of right-wing populist and/or nationalist governments portend a new era of “de-globalization”?
  18. What are the forms and logics of de-globalization movements?
  19. What is being de-globalized, and to what extent if any?
  20. Do local places and nations still matter, and if so, why and how?
  21. How do we understand the current period, and where do we think the world is heading?

These questions will be addressed by analyzing a number of core areas of interest, presented through the lectures and readings.

CORE AREAS OF INTEREST

  1. Neoliberalism: global finance, shifts in the international division of labour, and structural adjustment;
  2. The Transnational Capitalist Class;
  3. Global trade liberalization and trade wars;
  4. Multilateral financial institutions;
  5. Cultural conflicts around globalization;
  6. Transnational social movements, non-state actors, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs);
  7. The media and the production of a putative “global cultural consciousness”;
  8. Time-space compression;
  9. Travel, migration, diasporas;
  10. Nationalism; and,
  11. State sovereignty.

The core areas of interest are embedded within the following structure of the course.

STRUCTURE of the COURSE

This course is divided into three broad parts:

PART ONE: Focusing on how globalization has been defined, and how it has been theorized. In addition, we examine competing perspectives on how parts of the world have come to be incorporated into a larger whole. In this part we also consider what is neoliberalism and how it is tied to political-economic globalization, as well as some of the cultural effects of neoliberal globalization. We thus study the contested meanings and competing projects of globalization, and the diverse interests and histories of globalization.

PART TWO: Here the focus is on the crisis of (neoliberal) globalization, leading toward alleged de-globalization. In this part we spend some time analysing contemporary debates around immigration, and how migration is tied to globalization. We consider various forces of anti-globalization, and address the question of whether or not we have entered into de-globalization.

PART THREE: The Nation is the focus of the final part of the course. In particular we examine the relationships between the nation and globalization, and try to understand how and why national self-determination interacts with globalization, and how the nation has challenged globalization. We consider how nations continue to be important units, and why, and we discuss the resurgence of different types of nationalism.