Active Outline

General Information

Course ID (CB01A and CB01B)
INTLD008.
Course Title (CB02)
Sociology of Globalization and Social Change
Course Credit Status
Credit - Degree Applicable
Effective Term
Fall 2023
Course Description
An introduction to the sociological study of globalization and other forms of social change. Macrosociological analysis of economic, political, military, cultural, technological, and environmental aspects of globalization; history of globalization, European colonialism and decolonization processes; impact of multinational corporations and global political and financial institutions, and social movements from cross-cultural and global perspectives.
Faculty Requirements
Course Family
Not Applicable

Course Justification

This course is a major preparation requirement in the discipline of Sociology for at least one CSU or UC. This course meets a general education requirement for °®¶¹´«Ã½, CSUGE and IGETC. This course also fulfills a requirement for the AA Degree for Transfer in Sociology. This class provides a focus on globalization, which allows students to see how a sociological perspective on globalization differs from political or economic perspectives. This is a cross-listed course.

Foothill Equivalency

Does the course have a Foothill equivalent?
No
Foothill Course ID

Course Philosophy

Formerly Statement

Course Development Options

Basic Skill Status (CB08)
Course is not a basic skills course.
Grade Options
  • Letter Grade
  • Pass/No Pass
Repeat Limit
0

Transferability & Gen. Ed. Options

Transferability
Transferable to both UC and CSU
°®¶¹´«Ã½ GEArea(s)StatusDetails
2GDX°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE Area D - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
2GES°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE - Environment Sustainability and Global CitizenshipApproved
CSU GEArea(s)StatusDetails
CGDYCSU GE Area D - Social SciencesApproved
IGETCArea(s)StatusDetails
IG4XIGETC Area 4 - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved

Units and Hours

Summary

Minimum Credit Units
4.0
Maximum Credit Units
4.0

Weekly Student Hours

TypeIn ClassOut of Class
Lecture Hours4.08.0
Laboratory Hours0.00.0

Course Student Hours

Course Duration (Weeks)
12.0
Hours per unit divisor
36.0
Course In-Class (Contact) Hours
Lecture
48.0
Laboratory
0.0
Total
48.0
Course Out-of-Class Hours
Lecture
96.0
Laboratory
0.0
NA
0.0
Total
96.0

Prerequisite(s)

Corequisite(s)

Advisory(ies)

EWRT D001A or EWRT D01AH or ESL D005.

Limitation(s) on Enrollment

(Not open to students with credit in the cross-listed course(s).)

(Also listed as SOC D005.)

Entrance Skill(s)

General Course Statement(s)

(See general education pages for the requirements this course meets.)

Methods of Instruction

Lecture and visual aids

Discussion of assigned reading

In-class essays

In-class exploration of Internet sites

Quiz and examination review performed in class

Field observation and field trips

Homework and extended projects

Guest speakers

Collaborative learning and small group exercises

Collaborative projects

Assignments

  1. Reading
    1. Assigned readings from sociological, historical, political, economic, environmental, and cultural studies texts, which focus on globalization and related topics in the study of social change.
    2. Supplementary texts for use in research paper concerning specific or related research subjects or methods.
  2. Writing
    1. Students will complete written and/or multiple-choice exams, taken in class, and a research paper, based on library or original research.
    2. Other writing will include preparations for class presentations, reactions to films, extra credit analyses of books, conferences, speeches or relevant events.
    3. Project-based writing featuring interviews, field work or scholarly research
  3. Oral Communication
    1. Preparation of course material for small group discussions of assigned topics
    2. Oral presentations related to course projects

Methods of Evaluation

  1. Essay and/or multiple-choice exams and a final exam which measure the students understanding of key course content, readings, lectures, presentations by speakers, and films evaluated based on demonstrated mastery of course objectives
  2. Student participation through verbal comments and questions in class, class presentations, and group discussions evaluated based on demonstrated mastery of course objectives
  3. Research project(s), which will demonstrate grasp of sociological research methodology, theoretical frame and content, documentation of sources, evaluated based on demonstrated mastery of course objectives

Essential Student Materials/Essential College Facilities

Essential Student Materials: 
  • None.
Essential College Facilities:
  • None.

Examples of Primary Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisherDate/EditionISBN
Eitzen, Stanley & Maxine Baca Zinn. 2013. Globalization: The Transformation of Social Worlds, 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Lechner, F.J. & J. Boli. 2014. Globalization: A Reader, 5th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley_Blackwell.
Martell, L. 2017. The Sociology of Globalization, 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Polity.
Schaeffer. R.K. 2016. Understanding Globalization: The Social Consequences of Political, Economic and Environmental Change, 5th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Smallman, Shawn & Kimberly Brown. 2015. Introduction to International and Global Studies, 2nd ed. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

Examples of Supporting Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisher
Amin, Samir. 2014. Capitalism in the Age of Globalization. London: Zed Press.
Appadurai, Arjun. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Cheru, Fantu. 2002. African Renaissance; Roadmaps to the Challenge of Globalization. New York, NY: Zed Books.
Crane, Diana, Kawashima, Nobuku, and Kawasaki, Ken'ichi. (eds) 2002. Global Culture: Media, Arts, Policy, and Globalization. NY: Routledge.
Curran, James and Park, Myung-Jin. 2000. De-Westernizing Media Studies. London and New York: Routledge.
Eichengreen, B. 2008. Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Enloe, Cynthia. 2014. Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. Berkeley, CA: UC Press.
Featherstone, Mike. 2013. Undoing Culture: Globalization, Postmodernism, and Identity. London: Sage.
Frank, Andre Gunder. 1998. ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Grove, E. 1998. Ecology, Climate and Empire: Colonial and Global Environmental History. London: White House Press.
Gouliamos, Kostas & Christos Kassimeris. 2013. The Marketing of War in an Age of Neo-Militarism. New York, NY: Routledge.
Guehenno, J.M. 2000. The End of the Nation-State. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Harrington, B. 2016. Capital without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hickel, J. 2018. The Divide: Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets. New York, NY: W.W. Norton.
Lule, J. 2015. Globalization and Media: Global Village of Babel. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Mbembe, Achille. 2001. On the Postcolony. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Mignolo, Walter. 2012. Local Histories / Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Palmary, I. & E. Burman. 2010. Gender and Migration: Feminist Interventions. London, UK: Zed Books.
Parrenas, Rachel Salazar. 2005. Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Sassen, Saskia. 2007. A Sociology of Globalization. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
Starr, Amory. 2005. Global Revolt: A Guide to the Movements against Globalization. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Steger, M.B. 2017. Globalization: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Tickner, J.A. 2001. Gendering World Politics. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Ward, Kathryn. (Ed.) 1990. Women Workers and Global Restructuring. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2004. World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction. Chapel Hill, NC: Duke University Press.

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Course Objectives

  • Analyze the approach and theories of the sociology of social change and the current discourse on globalization in the social sciences and popular media.
  • Apply critical concepts of sociological thought, such as empirical research, social systems, cultural traditions, modernization, postmodernity, sovereignty, power, conflict, and epistemes to the study of globalization.
  • Explore the history and sociological analysis of major periods of social change, including premodern, early modern, imperial, and contemporary phases of globalization.
  • Evaluate the political, economic, and cultural aspects of globalization and other social change processes from a cross-cultural perspective, including materials from Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
  • Analyze the interrelationships of global institutions, networks, and organizations, multinational corporations, the United States and other governments, and social movements to processes of globalization.
  • Evaluate the challenges to the contemporary phase of globalization by social theorists, specific states, Islamism, Western anti-globalization movements, environmentalists, and various forms of local and regional social action.

CSLOs

  • Develop a sociological imagination, which is the ability to evaluate the effects of cultural, structural, historical, geographical, institutional and stratification processes on groups and individuals, including one's own experiences.

  • Distinguish the sociological perspective from other sciences, including its methods, theories and empathetic standpoint.

Outline

  1. Analyze the approach and theories of the sociology of social change and the current discourse on globalization in the social sciences and popular media.
    1. Modernization Theory: science, rationalization, industrialization, urbanism, demographic transition, liberal democracy, Keynesian economics, Third World development.
    2. Marxist and World Systems Theory: European colonization, imperialism, class conflict, revolutionary change, core, periphery, and semi-periphery, underdevelopment.
    3. Postcolonial and Postmodernist theories: critique of Enlightenment model: colonization and genocide as subtext of liberal modernity, eclipse of modernist ideology of scientific truth and linear progress, discourse analysis: Orientalism, social crises in western societies.
    4. Huntington's Clash of Civilization model, Radical Islamism, terrorism, War on Terror.
    5. Neoliberal economic expansionism (Reagan, Bush (I) and Clinton era); World Bank and International Monetary Fund development strategies; Neoconservative/ Project for a New American Century; State-supported capitalism in East Asia and Latin America.
    6. Images of globalization in television and film, education, in high-tech industry, advertising, cultural "fusion", diversity discourse, hybrid identities, etc.
  2. Apply critical concepts of sociological thought, such as empirical research, social systems, cultural traditions, modernization, postmodernity, sovereignty, power, conflict, and epistemes to the study of globalization.
    1. Empirical research methods and data in the large-scale study of globalization
    2. Social systems as cohesive, yet changing patterns of action, containing structural components, each with important functions or purposes for the maintenance and adaptation of the overall organization; world systems, consisting of urban cores and rural peripheries of economic, political, and cultural exchange, influence, conflict, and domination, changing over time; social systems situated within larger natural/ecological systems, which enable and limit social action.
    3. Unique cultural traditions influenced by, yet contesting each other in global encounters over centuries, involving languages, religions, technologies, migration of populations, commodities, arts, and dress, power, transformed by modernization processes.
    4. Epistemes as systems of knowledge, action, and discourse which frame and discipline historical change and globalization processes, such as Orientalism, ancient and modern imperialism, Christianity, Confucianism, Islam, the Enlightenment, Science, Marxism, Liberalism, Conservatism, Modernism, Colonialism and Postmodernity.
  3. Explore the history and sociological analysis of major periods of social change, including premodern, early modern, imperial, and contemporary phases of globalization.
    1. Asian-based world system, prior to the Crusades.
    2. Asian/ African world system from 1250-1350, and decline resulting from Black Plague.
    3. East Asian hegemony in Chinese Ming/Qing, Indian Mughal, Persian, Safavid, and Turkish/Ottoman imperial eras with technology, production, trade, and cultural exchange from the 15th through the 18th centuries.
    4. Iberian colonization and Atlantic Circuit in the 15th through the18th centuries.
    5. British and French global empires in the 18th through the 20th centuries.
    6. Communist Bloc and Third World decolonization.
    7. Post WWII-1970s; Marshall Plan, NATO, the United Nations, the global expansion of multinational corporations, Bretton Woods institutions, neoliberalism.
    8. Contemporary era of U.S.-led global system with GATT, World Bank, IMF, WTO.
  4. Evaluate the political, economic, and cultural aspects of globalization and other social change processes from a cross-cultural perspective, including materials from Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
    1. Political dominance and genocide in the South by European colonialism.
    2. WWII, Cold War, and subsequent global patterns of alliances and conflicts.
    3. Western and U.S. political hegemony after dissolution of Soviet Bloc.
    4. Challenge to national sovereignty by IMF, structural adjustment programs and preemptive war; debates over multilateralism and unilateralism in 2003.
    5. World wars and proliferation of guerilla warfare in decolonization process.
    6. Nuclear arms race, global arms trade and weapons of mass destruction
    7. Transfer of production to Mexico, Central America, Southeast Asia, China.
    8. Liberalization of capital flows and investment, trade barriers, currency trading through free agreements; privatization of industries and land.
    9. Emergence of global financial institutions and structural adjustment programs, and Third World Debt crises, Asian economic crisis of 1997.
    10. Cultural globalization via tourism, trade, mass media, and migration.
    11. Globalization of religious movements, including Protestant and Islamic.
  5. Analyze the interrelationships of global institutions, networks, and organizations, multinational corporations, the United States and other governments, and social movements to processes of globalization.
    1. United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the World Trade Organization, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the International Criminal Court, the G8, the G22, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, European Union.
    2. Multi/Transnational corporations stimulating globalization processes such as General Motors, Chevron/Texaco, Halliburton, Nike, Citigroup, Microsoft, CNN, IBM, News Corporation, Ltd., Mitsubishi, Sony, al Jazeera, Rio Tinto, Mitsui, BBC, Bechtel, Lockheed-Martin, BBC, Bechtel, Enron, DeBeers, the Quantum Fund, Hyundai, Yukos.
    3. Non-Governmental Organizations with a global agenda, such as Amnesty International, Oxfam, Medicins Sans Frontieres, Human Rights Watch, the World Health Organization, Greenpeace, International Forum on Globalization, Anti-Capitalist Convergence, the World Social Forum, the Institute for Food and Development Policy, Public Citizen.
  6. Evaluate the challenges to the contemporary phase of globalization by social theorists, specific states, Islamism, Western anti-globalization movements, environmentalists, and various forms of local and regional social action.
    1. Sociologists, Social Theorists, and Philosophers such as Achille Mbembe, Samir Amin, Edward Said, Arundati Roy, Walden Bello, Chandra Mohanty, Andre Gunder Frank, Pierre Bordieu, Stanley Aronowitz, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Ellul, Jean Baudrillard.
    2. Governments such as Malaysia, Venezuela, South Africa, and Cuba, outspoken opponents of globalization.
    3. Islamist movements in South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, critical of Western cultural and political-economic hegemony, including those using armed strategies such as Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, Ansar al-Islam, Hizbullah, Hamas.
    4. Western Anti-Globalization Movements which confronted the WTO in Seattle in 1999, the World Bank, the IMF, the G8, and the World Economic Forum, the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the Asian Social Forum in Hyderabad, India, and local movements against globally funded dams on the Narmada River, in Gujarat, India, U.S. mining in Indonesia, Shell and Chevron oil operations in the Niger River Delta, in Nigeria, Indigenous, labor, and popular movements in Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, against free trade, neoliberalism.
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