Global Markets, Human Rights, and the Press

Catalog description

This course will explore some of the choices global businesses face in addressing human rights challenges in their core business operations. The course will include a series of case studies from different industries where accelerating globalization and advancing technology have made these challenges more acute in recent years. The course will focus on the evolving public face of these issues driven in part by rapid developments in the global media and advances in information technology. Today consumers and investors in Manhattan or London are linked almost instantaneously to garment workers in China or Bangladesh, cobalt miners in the Congo or construction workers in Qatar. Consumers of food and beverages know that the cocoa in their food and candy is harvested by young children on West African farms. In these and other industries the news media and social networks are focusing even greater attention on the role of global companies who have become major economic actors on the global stage. The brand reputation of global companies is being tested as media attention to these subjects expands. In addressing these issues, this course will draw upon academic research, case studies and a series of guest speakers from industry and the media to bring these issues to life. The course will start with a broad human rights framework for examining these issues and then present the guest speakers, each with a particular expertise and point of view. Students will be encouraged to participate actively in class discussions which will help develop an appreciation for decisions facing business leaders today as they confront these human rights challenges in their global operations.