Please download the complete syllabus (PDF)

Schedule of Sessions and Readings

Most of the readings below are accessible using your MyConcordia library login information. When logged in to a campus network, you should be able to access the articles directly. There are no texts to purchase for this course.

Lectures, when ready, will be available as PDF files below. The same applies to Reading Questions, which are files for each week’s readings designed to focus your reading.

Outline:
1: Introduction to the Course

PART ONE: Patterns of a Globalizing World
2: Conceptualizing/Defining Globalization
3: Cultural Globalization, Consciousness, and the Mass Media
4: World-Systemic Perspectives
5: Transnationalism and the Elites
6: Neoliberal Globalization: Theory, Practice, Outcomes
7: American Empire: Americanism and Americanization

PART TWO: The Crisis of Neoliberal Globalization
8: (Anti-)Free Trade and (De)Globalization
9: Structural Adjustment and Austerity: Lessons from Jamaica
10: The UK: Nationalism, Brexit, and the European Union
11: Immigration Debates in the US

PART THREE: The Nation
12: Nationalism and Globalization
13: Why Do Nations Still Matter?

Session 1: Introduction to the Course
Thursday, September 5

PART ONE: Patterns of a Globalizing World

Session 2: Conceptualizing/Defining Globalization
Thursday, September 12

Lecture Outline
Reading Questions

Required Readings:

  • David Held, Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt and Jonathan Perraton, “Globalization”
  • Marco Caselli, “Globalization: In Search of Definition of a Controversial Concept” (or click here for the HTML version)
  • Axel Dreher, Noel Gaston, Pim Martens, “Towards an Understanding of the Concept of Globalisation” (or click here for the HTML version)

Monday, September 16:

  • Last day to add fall-term and two-term courses.
  • Deadline for withdrawal with tuition refund (DNE) from fall‑term and two‑term courses.

Session 3: Cultural Globalization, Consciousness, and the Mass Media
Thursday, September 19

Lecture Outline
Reading Questions

Required Readings:

  • T.H. Eriksen, “Chapter 2. Acceleration”
  • Anna Tsing, “The Global Situation”

Session 4: World-Systemic Perspectives
Thursday, September 26 October 3

Lecture Outline
Reading Questions

Required Readings:

  • Thomas Clayton, “‘Competing Conceptions of Globalization’ Revisited: Relocating the Tension between World-Systems Analysis and Globalization Analysis”
  • Christopher Chase-Dunn, Yukio Kawano and Benjamin D. Brewer, “Trade Globalization since 1795: Waves of Integration in the World-System”

Optional Extra Reading:

  • Carl Strikwerda, “From World-Systems to Globalization: Theories of Transnational Change and the Place of the United States”

Session 5: Transnationalism and the Elites
Thursday, October 3 October 10

Lecture Outline
Reading Questions

Required Readings:

  • William I. Robinson and Jerry Harris, “Towards a Global Ruling Class? Globalization and the Transnational Capitalist Class”
  • Peter Phillips, “Transnational Capitalist Class Power Elite: A Seventy-Year History”

Session 6: Neoliberal Globalization: Theory, Practice, Outcomes
Thursday, October 10

Required Readings:

  1. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg and Nina Pavcnik, “Distributional Effects of Globalization in Developing Countries”
  2. Arthur S. Alderson and François Nielsen, “Globalization and the Great U-Turn: Income Inequality Trends in 16 OECD Countries”

Monday, October 14:

  • Thanksgiving Day — University closed

Session 7: American Empire: Americanism and Americanization
Thursday, October 17

Lecture Outline
Reading Questions

Required Readings:

  • Neil Smith, “Liberalism and the Roots of American Globalism”
  • Leo Panitch & Sam Gindin, “Planning the New American Empire”

PART TWO: The Crisis of Neoliberal Globalization

Session 8: (Anti-)Free Trade and (De)Globalization
Thursday, October 24

Lecture Outline
Reading Questions

Required Readings:

  • Jorge G. Castañeda, “NAFTA’s Mixed Record: The View From Mexico”
  • Craig Benjamin, “The Zapatista Uprising and Popular Struggles against Neo-liberal Restructuring”
  • Richard L. Harris, “Resistance and Alternatives to Globalization in Latin America and the Caribbean”

Session 9: Structural Adjustment and Austerity: Lessons from Jamaica
Thursday, October 31

Discussion of the film and readings, plus completion of the presentation for Session 8

Film: “Life and Debt”

Reading Questions

Required Readings:

  1. John W. Robinson, “Lessons from the Structural Adjustment Process in Jamaica”
  2. Anthony J. Payne, “Orthodox Liberal Development in Jamaica: Theory and Practice”

Optional Extras:

Monday, November 4:

  • Last day for academic withdrawal (DISC) from fall‑term courses.

Session 10: The UK: Nationalism, Brexit, and the European Union
Thursday, November 7

Discussion of the film and readings

Film: “Brexitannia”

Reading Questions

Required Readings:

  • Anthony D. Smith, “A Europe of Nations, or the Nation of Europe?”
  • Anthony D. Smith, “National Identity and the Idea of European Unity”
  • Christopher Caldwell, “The French, Coming Apart—A social thinker illuminates his country’s populist divide”
  • Richard M. Reinsch II, “The Burdens of Belonging: Roger Scruton’s Nation-State”

Session 11: Immigration Debates in the US
Thursday, November 14

Lecture Outline
Reading Questions

Required Readings:

  • Saskia Sassen, “America’s Immigration ‘Problem’”
  • Luis F.B. Plascencia, “The ‘Undocumented’ Mexican Migrant Question: Re-Examining the Framing of Law and Illegalization in the United States”
  • Andrew Kipnis, “Anthropology and the Theorisation of Citizenship”

PART THREE: The Nation

Session 12: Nationalism and Globalization
Thursday, November 21

Lecture Presentation
Reading Questions

Required Readings:

  • Norman Girvan, “Economic Nationalism”
  • Aradhana Sharma & Akhil Gupta, “Rethinking Theories of the State in an Age of Globalization”
  • A.D. Smith, “Towards a Global Culture?”

Session 13: Why Do Nations Still Matter?
Thursday, November 28

Closing Discussion
Reading Questions

Required Readings:

  • Ramesh Ponnuru and Rich Lowry, “For Love of Country”
  • Andreas Wimmer, “Why Nationalism Works, And Why It Isn’t Going Away”
  • Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?”

Thank you for taking this course. Enjoy your break.