‘Globalization’ has become an all-encompassing term for ...



Environmental Studies 37-390

Course Syllabus

Special Topics:

Environment, Globalization, and Critical Theory

Spring 2002

Environmental Studies Program, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh

Class Hours:

Instructor: Dr. Adrian Ivakhiv, Swart 320, 424-0848, ai@

Office hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays: 11.15 am-12 noon and 3.00-4.00 pm; other times by appointment

Course web page

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BRIEF COURSE DESCRIPTION

“Globalization” has become an all-encompassing term for describing a series of processes which are reshaping social, economic, political, and cultural life on the planet. This course will introduce some of the main competing perspectives on globalization, and will apply them to understanding how the natural environment is implicated in and affected by these processes, and how environmental movements (and other social movements) are responding to these transformations. Through intensive readings and discussion, we will try to understand the ways in which the local and the global are increasingly intertwined, and to assess both the risks and the promises of the global society that (seemingly) lies ahead.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the course are three-fold:

1) To explore the many meanings of the term “globalization” by examining the main competing perspectives on globalization in all its dimensions and variants (economic, cultural, political, et al.).

2) To develop an understanding of how the natural environment, and the human treatment of it, are being affected by the processes associated with globalization; and how environmental issues in turn are affecting the debate around globalization and appropriate responses to it.

3) To develop the research skills appropriate to understanding and acting on global environmental issues and controversies, including the ability to critically analyze and adjudicate between different arguments and perspectives, and general skills in critical thinking, reading, writing, communication, argumentation, and (where possible and feasible) action.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

This course will be a seminar exploring the processes associated with “globalization,” how these processes are affecting people’s lives and human-environment interactions, and how people and communities are responding to them. The format will be that of an “exploratory conversation,” one in which the conversing voices will be our own and those of the authors we will read. We will look at a variety of arguments, including those critical and those in favor of globalization (in one or another form), and will examine the different ways in which the term is applied. Since, in a sense, there are many different “globalizations” occurring in the world today, the course will provide a means for students to develop their own responses to globalization – that is, a sense of how, as active citizens, it is possible for us to participate in the creation of tomorrow’s global society, and a sense of what sort of society that ought to be.

The first five weeks of the course will involve an in-depth consideration of today’s global society and the “divided world” that has recently become highlighted by the events of September 11 and their aftermath. We will read selected key writings that have shaped popular and elite thinking about the nature of the post-Cold War world (e.g., Benjamin Barber’s “Jihad versus McWorld,” Samuel Huntington’s “The clash of civilizations,” and Robert Kaplan’s “The coming anarchy”), and will critically analyze their arguments as well as the reasons for their popularity and influence. In the process we will develop an understanding of global society as a single interconnected system, in which competition over resources (such as oil), struggles over territory and power, and cultural interactions (including media and cultural flows across borders) all take place within a single political-economic system. The next four weeks will focus more closely on culture, religion (especially religious fundamentalism), media, work and trade, and cultural and political resistance. The final four weeks of the course will directly examine environmental issues, the ways they are affected by “free trade,” and the movements that have emerged in response to corporate globalization, especially those movements aimed at developing an alternative vision of “globalization from below.” In the process we will weigh the options open to social and environmental activists and will consider the problems and pitfalls of different forms of activism.

REQUIRED TEXTS

1. Naomi Klein, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies (Vintage Canada/Random House, 2000).

2. Frank J. Lechner and John Boli (eds.), The Globalization Reader (Blackwell, 2000).

3. Course Readings, available on E-Reserve through Polk Library.

RECOMMENDED TEXTS

Jeremy Brecher, Tim Costello, and Brendan Smith, Globalization from Below: The Power of Solidarity (South End Press, 2000).

Joshua Karliner, The Corporate Planet: Ecology and Politics in the Age of Globalization (Sierra Club Books, 1997).

Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds.), The Case Against the Global Economy (Sierra Club Books, 1996).

And various links available on the course web page – see

COURSE FORMAT, REQUIREMENTS & EXPECTATIONS

The course will be a seminar, heavily centered around weekly readings and discussion of those readings, with some additional materials (including videos and speakers) brought in where appropriate and available. You will be expected to keep up to date with the readings and to prepare short written responses to them and questions for discussion in advance of every class. Participation (both in-class and potentially electronic) will account for a significant portion of your grade, so you will need to come to class prepared. This will not be a course in which students are expected to learn the “correct answers” to questions. Since “globalization” is a work in progress, with this topic there are only better (or worse) questions and better (or worse) ways of going about thinking through those questions. Free thinking and even disagreement (but respectful disagreement) will be encouraged!

Because most of the course work will take place on a week-to-week basis (readings, written responses to readings, and class discussion), there will not be any term paper or other additional major writing expectations, outside of weekly reading journals and a presentation and accompanying report.

Evaluation in the course will normally be as follows. (Note that variations may be possible, subject to approval by the course director.)

Reading and reflection journal 45%

“Global-local connections” presentation & report 30%

Reading presentation 5%

Attendance and class (&/or electronic) participation 20%

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1. READING & REFLECTION JOURNAL (45%)

OBJECTIVES

The reading journal is intended to

1) allow you to reflect on and respond to the readings, thinking through their meaning and relevance in relation to the course themes;

2) prepare you for classroom discussions;

3) document your “dialogue” with the class, responding to class discussions, instructor comments, etc.;

4) where applicable, allow you to respond to questions which have been assigned on the readings;

5) and allow you to work toward crafting your own understanding of globalization.

SUBMISSION DATES

These can either be submitted electronically to me by 10 p.m. Monday evening preceding a Tuesday class, or they can be brought into class to be collected on Tuesdays. (They will normally not be accepted on Thursdays, though exceptions may be made – these will be announced in class.)

If you write more than 10 weekly journal entries, only the ten “best” entries will count towards your grade. Journal entries are expected to follow the format below and should clearly be marked “Journal entry for week [#].”

You will be expected to hand in all your journal entries a second time as a package in the final class, together with a final course reflection (to be discussed in class; the final reflection will be considered a part of your “quality” grade for the journal).

EVALUATION

Journals will be evaluated as follows:

2% pts. per week (20% in total) for being completed on time (i.e. handed in on the appropriate Tuesday):

Journals should cover all required readings for a given week (i.e., the numbered items on the schedule or readings below). If there are multiple required readings and you only cover some of them (e.g. 2 of 3), you will receive a fraction (e.g. two-thirds) of the grade for completion; the same goes for completing only part of the daily assignment (of the numbered items) below rather than all of them;

25% in total (or 2% pts. per week plus 5% for the final reflection) for quality:

Individual journal entries will not normally be graded for quality during the term, though some indication may be given of how well you are doing with your responses. The final complete journal will be graded based on the overall quality of your reading summaries and critical responses, your demonstration of clear and coherent thinking about the issues raised, and your ability to connect themes and ideas between readings.

FORMAT

Journals should normally follow the following format. (On some days I will provide an alternative format or set of specific questions to be answered.) Each of the numbered items below could be written in one paragraph, though you are free to write more if you wish. But please be concise and not repetitive.

For each individual required reading (one-half to one page in length):

1. ARGUMENT SUMMARY: What is (/are) the author’s main argument(s)? How does he or she develop and support this (/these) argument(s)?

2. QUESTIONS: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments presented? What kinds of questions does it raise for you (or might it raise for other authors we have read up to now)?

(Please do not comment here on the author’s writing style or whether you thought the article was ‘interesting’; the former is more appropriate for a course in literary criticism, while the latter gets boring and shows intellectual laziness.)

Following this section you may (but are not required to) include any additional notes on the readings, lists of words new to you, definitions of those words, etc.

For the week’s readings as a whole: (one-half to one page in length)

1. COMPARISON & DIALOGUE: What are the central issues being debated or discussed in this week’s readings? On what points do the authors agree and disagree? What are the differing assumptions and the evidence upon which the positions are based? What is ‘at stake’ for us (and our understanding of globalization) in these readings?

2. PERSONAL RESPONSE: What surprised you, disturbed you, or enlightened you most in these readings? With whom did you agree most, and why? How have any of these readings helped you to reflect and make sense of any current events or issues?

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2. GLOBAL-LOCAL CONNECTIONS PRESENTATION & REPORT (30%)

PRESENTATION: You will be expected to do an in-class presentations (approx. 15 minutes in duration) on the global dimensions/connections of a locally-based company or non-governmental organization of your choice. This will require doing research on that company or organization, its financial connections with other companies or countries, and so on. You should not rely only on information provided by the company or organization itself; rather, you should seek out complementary and competing perspectives – i.e., you should attempt to “triangulate” your research findings. (We will discuss this in class. More detailed questions will be handed out.)

REPORT: An 800-1000-word report on the company, typed, double-spaced, written in complete sentences and paragraphs, and fully referenced, should be handed in on the same day that you present your report in class. Details will be discussed in class.

PRESENTATION/REPORT DUE DATES: Presentations will occur between the 6th and 13th weeks of classes. You will be expected to sign up for a presentation date ahead of time.

EVALUATION

Evaluation will be based as follows:

Class presentation 10%

Report 20%

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3. READING PRESENTATION (5%)

You will be required to research and deliver a brief (10 minutes or so) in-class presentation on a particular article and author (to be selected and approved by the instructor beforehand).

This should include:

a) a brief introduction identifying the article’s main argument and the important questions it raises for us (i.e., not more than you are expected to do with every article in your reading journals);

b) a background report on the author and article, mentioning any important facts that would allow us to better understand the article, the context for which it was written, and any significant responses it may have had (this component will require additional research);

c) and two or three questions for class discussion.

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4. ATTENDANCE & PARTICIPATION (20%)

ATTENDANCE (10%):

You will be expected to attend and participate in classes regularly. Students who attend all classes will get an automatic 10% for the attendance grade. Failure to notify the instructor in advance or to provide written justification for a missed class (e.g., a signed certificate indicating a medical emergency or death in the family) will automatically be penalized. Students who miss more than three classes without a significant and justifiable reason will automatically drop a two-letter course grade (e.g., from an ‘B’ to a ‘D’).

PARTICIPATION (10%):

For your 10% participation grade, you will be expected to demonstrate

a) informed, thoughtful and critical engagement with course materials;

b) a willingness to engage in respectful, civil discussion with other students, as we elaborate on and think through the course themes;

c) and an ability to integrate what you are learning in this course with information gathered from other sources.

It is important that you keep “one eye” (or ear) open to current events: you are strongly encouraged to make a habit of “surfing” the internet in search of a more global (i.e., not just U.S.-based) perspective on current events, and of sharing (electronically or in class) whatever you find to be most interesting and relevant to our discussions. Students who demonstrate such an active awareness of current events will get a higher participation grade than those who do not.

You may also participate electronically on a class listserv, as a supplement to your class participation (though not normally as a substitute, except due to extenuating circumstances, which will need to be discussed with me beforehand).

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SCHEDULE OF CLASSES & READINGS

Please note that this schedule is tentative and subject to change, depending on how things develop in class (and on student interests).

SOURCES: E-Res = Polk Library E-Reserve

GR = Lechner and Boli, Globalization Reader

CAGE = Mander and Goldsmith, The Case Against the Global Economy

No Logo = Naomi Klein, No Logo

Others as indicated.

REC = Recommended, but not required reading.

|Date |TOPIC |READINGS |NOTES |

|Tue Feb 5 |Introduction to Course | | |

| | | | |

|Thu Feb 7 |Clearing the Air, Getting a Sense of |1. Naomi Klein, “Signs of the times” (hand-out) | |

| |Perspective: | | |

| |Globalization and September 11 | | |

| |Video: “US off the planet” | | |

|PART 1 |MAKING SENSE OF GLOBAL SOCIETY: |One World, or Two, or Many? | |

|Tue Feb 12 |Jihad versus McWorld, or Clashing |1. Benjamin Barber, “Jihad vs. McWorld” (E-Res) | |

| |Civilizations? |2. Samuel Huntington, “The clash of civilizations?” (GR) | |

| | |2. Fouad Ajami, “The summoning” (E-Res) | |

| | |REC: Benjamin Barber, “Jihad vs. McWorld” (GR) | |

| | | | |

|Thu Feb 14 | | | |

| | | | |

|Tue Feb 19 |Global Disorder, or Not? |1. Robert Kaplan, “The coming anarchy” (E-Res) | |

| | |2. Simon Dalby, “Reading Robert Kaplan’s ‘Coming anarchy’” | |

| | |(E-Res) | |

| | | | |

|Thu Feb 21 | | | |

|Tue Feb 26 |Resources, Scarcity, and Environmental |1. Michael Klare, “Wealth, resources, and power: The changing | |

| |(In)security |parameters of global security” (E-Res) | |

| | |2. Matthias Finger, “The military, the nation state and the | |

| | |environment” (E-Res) | |

| | |3. Thomas Homer-Dixon, “Environmental scarcity and mass | |

|Thu Feb 28 |Video: excerpt from “Narmada: A Valley |violence” (E-Res) | |

| |Rises” or “Manufacturing Consent” | | |

| | | | |

|Tue Mar 5 |The World System |1. William Greider, “One world” (E-Res) | |

| | |2. Leslie Sklair, “Sociology of the global system” (GR) | |

| | |3. Immanuel Wallerstein, “The rise and future demise of the | |

| | |capitalist system” | |

| | |REC: R. Barnet and J. Cavanagh, “Electronic money and the | |

|Thu Mar 7 | |casino economy” (CAGE ch. 31) | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

|PART 2 |EVERYDAY LIFE IN A GLOBAL SOCIETY: |Culture, Religion, Media, Trade, Work, & Resistance | |

|Tue Mar 12 |Global Cultural Flows and Fragmented |1. Pico Iyer, “Bali: On Prospero’s Isle/The Pillippines: Born | |

| |Identities |in the USA” (GR) | |

| | |2. Arjun Appadurai, “Disjunction and difference in the global | |

| | |cultural economy” (GR) | |

| | |3. Inda and Rosaldo, “A world in motion” (E-Res) | |

|Thu Mar 14 | | | |

| | | | |

|Tue Mar 19 | | | |

|Thu Mar 21 |MARCH BREAK! | | |

|Tue Mar 26 |Religious Diversity and the Rise of |1. F. J. Lechner, Global fundamentalism” (GR) | |

| |Religious Fundamentalism |2. Andrew Sullivan, “This is a religious war” (course web | |

| | |site) | |

|Thu Mar 28 | |3. R. Robertson and J. Chirico, “Humanity, globalization, and | |

| | |worldwide religious resurgence” (GR) | |

| | | | |

|Tue Apr 2 |Media, the ‘Society of the Spectacle,’ and|1. Klein, No Logo, ch. 1-4, 7. | |

| |the Corporatization of Public Space |2. Ulrich Beck, “The emergence of a world public and a global | |

| | |subpolitics” | |

|Thu Apr 4 |Video: “The Ad and the Ego” |REC: AdBusters Magazine (any issue) | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

|Tue Apr 9 |Trade and Work |1. McMurtry, “The FTAA and the WTO” | |

| | |2. World Trade Organization, “Seven common misunderstanding | |

| | |about the WTO” (GR) | |

|Thu Apr 11 |Video: “The Big One” and/or “Roger and Me”|3. Klein, No Logo, ch. 9-10 | |

| | |REC: A. Goldsmith, “Seeds of exploitation: Free trade zones in| |

| | |the global economy” (CAGE, ch. 23) | |

| | |REC: Heredia and Purcell, “Structural adjustment & | |

| | |polarization of Mexican society” (CAGE, ch. 24) | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

|Tue Apr 16 |Responses from Below: Culture Jammers and |1. Subcommandante Marcos, ”Chiapas: The Southeast in twowinds,| |

| |Political Resisters |a storm and a prophecy” (E-Res) | |

| | |2. Klein, No Logo, ch. 12-14. | |

| | |REC: Paul Hawken, . . . (course web site) | |

|Thu Apr 18 |Videos: “A Place Called Chiapas” | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

| | | | |

|PART 3 |ENVIRONMENT & |GLOBALIZATION | |

|Tue Apr 23 |Global Ecology |1. Steven Yearley, “The transnational politics of the | |

| | |environment” (E-Res) | |

| | |2. Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (GR) | |

| | |3. Vandana Shiva, “The greening of global reach” (E-Res) | |

| | | | |

|Thu Apr 25 | | | |

|Tue Apr 30 |Free Trade and the Environment |1. Joshua Karliner, “Surfing the pipeline: The Chevron | |

| | |corporation and the environmental impacts of oil” (E-Res; | |

| | |Corporate Planet ch. 3) | |

| | |2. Karliner, “Toxic empire: The World Bank, free trade, and | |

|Thu May 2 |Video: WTO documentaries |the migration of hazardous industry” (E-Res; Corp. Planet ch. | |

| | |5) | |

| | | | |

|Tue May 7 |Global Environmentalism |1. Wolfgang Sachs, “Globalization and sustainability” | |

| | |2. Paul Wapner, “Greenpeace and political globalism” (GR) | |

| | |3. Klein, No Logo, ch. 16. | |

| | |3. Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, “Environmental advocacy | |

| | |networks” (GR) | |

|Thu May 9 | | | |

| | | | |

|Tue May 14 |Globalization from Below |1. Joshua Karliner, “Grassroots globalization: Reclaiming the | |

| | |blue planet” (GR) | |

| | |2. Richard Falk, “Globalization from Below” | |

| | |3. Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello, “Reversing the race to the| |

| | |bottom” | |

| | |4. Klein, No Logo, Conclusion. | |

|Thu May 16 | |REC: S. Meeker-Lowry, “Community money: the potential of local| |

| | |currency” (CAGE ch. 38) | |

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