Development and Globalization: The Changing Face of the World System
In recent years, the term globalization has become a catch-all phrase for the drive to fashion a global architecture for managing the world economy as a single unit, as well as for the sweeping social, cultural, political and ecological consequences of this project. This course approaches the process of globalization critically, from a comparative-historical perspective. We will examine the shift from national development in several regions including East Asia, Latin America, and Africa to globalization as a planetary development strategy between the end of World War II through the information-technology revolution of today. In so doing, we develop an interdisciplinary framework for understanding globalization in both "developed" and "developing" countries. (Any introductory course in sociology, political science, economics, or Geography.)