Study
Guide
Social Change in the Global Economy
Essay Portion of Final Exam (50%)
Choose one of the
questions below and write an essay of 2-3 typewritten pages (double-spaced)
that addresses each part of the question you have chosen. Be sure to
integrate relevant course material (readings, films, lectures) from
throughout the course, not just one particular section. I will be evaluating
your essay both on the degree to which you use the relevant course material
and on the basis of how well you support the arguments you make. Additional
research effort is appreciated.
1. Some "anti-globalization"
protesters have called for the elimination of the IMF, World Bank, and
ITO. Why is this? Discuss what these institutions do and why they have
aroused so much opposition. Do you agree that a globalizing world would
be better off without these institutions? Describe and explain your
own position on these issues.
2. We have seen in this course
that the "anti-globalization" movement is mainly committed
to an alternative type of globalization, not the ending of globalization
per se. Looking at the various proponents of this view--from
the UNDP's "Globalization with a human face" to Richard Falk's
call to renew the quest for "humane governance," discuss the
key ideas of the alternative globalization movement and explain where
you stand in this ongoing debate.
3. Is a global culture emerging?
Discuss this question with particular reference to the issues of human
rights, democracy, and sustainable development. Are human rights, democracy,
and environmentalism Western impositions on the rest of the world, as
some have suggested? Are they really cynical ploys to punish and sideline
developing countries who just want their place in the sun? Discuss how
this controversy has taken shape, what the relevant readings in the
course (including Sen's) have to say about it, and whether you think
that concepts of human rights, democracy and sustainable development
are indicative of the emergence of a global culture.
Multiple
Choice Portion (50%)
Political Globalization (its
meaning)
Bretton Woods institutions
Understand the basic functions the IMF, World Bank, and ITO were designed
to play. Also understand why these three institutions are so controversial.
World Bank Group: you need not memorize the names, but be familiar with
the range of things the different institutions in the World Bank Group
do.
Be familiar with what quotas are and how they are linked to weighted
voting in these institutions.
Know what the organizational forerunner of the WTO was called.
Understand: dumping, export subsidies, protectionism
Be familiar with WTO decisions about hormone-treated beef, bananas,
and tuna and dolphins killed in the process of harvesting tuna and shrimp
Precautionary principle
Downward harmonization
United Nations: know what the UNDP and ILO are
Kofi Anan
US foreign aid: how its level compares with other countries
Ohmae: his argument about
the end of the nation-state.
Rodrik: his three main arguments about why globalization may have gone
too far
Garrett: his argument about whether social democratic policies are compatible
with globalization
Brooks and Wohlforth: their argument about US primacy and unilateralism
Understand the terms: social democracy, corporatism, transitional economies,
multilateralism, unilateralism, unipolarity
Be familiar with the general US position on the International Criminal
Court and how the US has linked its opposition to the ICC to the issue
of international peacekeeping forces.
NGOs and INGOs
Be familiar with the arguments
in the readings about the relationship between globalization and democracy
Absolute vs.
relative poverty
How the World Bank defines the "extreme" and "upper"
poverty lines
Know: what region has the highest number of poor people; what region
has the highest rate of poverty among its population; what region has
been most successful in reducing poverty; how many people remain below
the two poverty lines worldwide.
What is happening to poverty and inequality in the transitional economies
Amartya Sen:
Why Kerala attracts so much
attention
The UNDP's call for "globalization with a human face" (what
that is a critique of and what it sees as necessary to achieve it)
What the trend is in international inequality
Human Development Index: how it is designed to be a different sort of
measure from GNP
Beyond Beijing: Women and Economic Development. What the women
working in maquiladoras say about their lives; the Grameen Bank and
microcredit. Muhammad Yunus.
The debate over globalization
and Westernization/Americanization/McDonaldization, McWorld/Coca-Colonization,
Homogenization. The possible meanings of a global culture.
Huntington: his claims about
the "clash of civilizations"
Appardurai: what he is saying about how the globalization of culture
proceeds
Hannerz: the nature of global cultural change. Creolization.
Sinclair et al: their point about the impact of television in the rest
of the world.
Tomlinson: what he says about "Dallas" and cultural homogenization
Barber: his critique of both McWorld and Jihad
Key issues in the film, Trekking on Tradition
Be familiar with the general
issues connected with globalization and the environment discussed in
class.
Bio-invasions
Bio-prospecting
Bio-piracy
Rio Convention on Biological Diversity
Coltan: what it is and the environmental and political consequences
of its place in the computer commodity chain
The global origins of West Nile virus
The Brundtland Commission (1987)and the concept of sustainable development
Global warming, greenhouse gases, and the Kyoto Accord
Key points of the film, Banking on Disaster