Theories of Globalization

Catalog description

This course introduces students to theoretical approaches to understanding and explaining globalization. Through a comprehensive and critical overview of the complexities and controversies surrounding the multiple dimensions of globalization, students will draw out the common threads between competing theories, as well as to pinpoint the problems that challenge our understanding of globalization. The course sheds new light on several crucial current issues, such as the changing shape of democracy and citizen engagement with governance, the global economy and liberalization, and problems relating to empire and cultural hegemony. Key terms and topics include globality, globalism, creolization, economic liberalism, world-systems analysis, world polity theory, world culture theory, globalization and the environment, and theories of global flows.