SOC 330 Syllabus, Fall Semester 2000
Introduction
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Did someone say the world's changing? French trains can fly at 200+ MPH between cities, and Japan is developing an even faster rail system. But the big news is communication, and with new information technologies, the shrinking of the world and a new meaning for what "distance" means. These developments are rapidly changing all facets of what it is to be human, to put it simply! That's our subject this semester, and it's a tall order to try and come to terms with some of the dominating themes that are shaping our world today.
All of our readings this semester will be accessible through the Internet. Assigned articles will be linked to the course outline, below, at least a week before you need to read them, and usually earlier.
How the Course Will Work
On Mondays, we'll meet in the classroom for lectures; and on most Wednesdays, we'll have online discussions. You can join the discussions from anywhere that's convenient for you. I'll be in the new computer lab in the Hibbs basement, and two of the rooms there are reserved for our class during that hour. But you can as easily work from home -- or even from Maine or Madrid, if you have a computer and an Internet connection!
We'll have three discussion groups, named for the three capitals of the Baltic countries: Tallinn, Estonia; Vilnius, Lithuania, and Riga, Latvia. Each discussion group will be comprised of twelve or so people. (The discussion groups will be rearranged about halfway through the semester.) Just in case you've never been to these fascinating places :-), I'm including a few photos on this page that I took in each capital city a few years ago.
The discussions should be interesting and rewarding. I'll pose questions for those discussions -- ahead of time -- that will draw on your readings and the Wednesday lectures. In addition to assigned readings, you're encouraged to also bring insights and information to your postings from supplementary readings that you may be doing on your own about various subjects related to overarching themes of the course.
Each Wednesday discussion hour will last from 2:00 until about 3:00. We'll begin with questions that I've put "out there" in advance. I also suggest that you to read something on your own that is related to the theme of that day's discussion. The discussions will take lots of paths, depending on how you address the initial questions and what you bring to the discussion from your outside reading. Hopefully, the paths will be intriguing, and with luck you won't lose your way in the woods!
Sixty percent of your overall course grade will come from your participation in the Wednesday real-time discussion forums during the semester. I'll give you discussion feedback periodically, and those evaluations, averaged together, will be the "discussion" part of your overall grade. I'll evaluate the quality of each person's contributions according to the dimensions that are stated on the page entitled "Discussion Guidelines and Progress Reports."
The remaining forty percent of your grade will be from your term paper -- your own independent research on a theme of your choice. Please see the "Term Project Guidelines" page that is accessible from the home page. Details about the term paper requirements will also be discussed in class. The term paper is due the last regular day that our class meets: Wednesday, December 6.
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Class Attendance; VCU Honor Code
Absences from lectures will affect your grade through your discussion forum performance, and absences from discussion forum meetings... (Well, that part's obvious.) I'll do everything I can to make each class meeting valuable. Your readings and the lectures are coordinated to facilitate inquiry and learning that you'll find valuable.
I expect all students to adhere to the VCU honor code. The VCU Honor System is described in the VCU Resource Guide. See my "Page on Plagiarism and Web Citations" for information about what plagiarism is, why it's a serious problem, and how you can avoid it.
My office is in Lafayette Hall, Room 302 (312 N. Shafer Street). My office hours for the fall semester are as follows:
Mondays:
3:30-4:30
Wednesdays: 11:00-11:50
(also at other times by appointment)
If you'd like to make an appointment during my regular office hours on either Mondays or Wednesdays, please e-mail me at least a couple of days ahead of time to be sure that I don't have another meeting at that time. I'll respond to confirm the appointment.
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You should complete each assigned reading before class time on the date indicated. Additional readings will be added to the outline below at least a week before they are due. There is a section on the "Internet Resources" page that will give you some useful sources for readings that you select on your own which are tied to our course subjects.
Monday, Aug. 28: Introduction (also a 30-minute
lab tutorial for those who would like it)
Reading, etc.: Please
become familiar with our course work web (www.globalstudies.net) and
create your own unique user name and password for the message board. And
if you don't have e-mail, please set up an e-mail account.
Wednesday, Aug. 30: How cultures change and how
they change people
I'll draw several points in my lecture from the
following article. It isn't required reading, but some of you may want to
skim through it: Samuel P. Huntington, "Cultures in the 21st Century:
Conflicts and Convergences," Presentation at Colorado College's 125th
Anniversary Symposium, February 4, 1999.
Monday, Sept. 4: Labor Day holiday (no classes)
Wednesday, Sept. 6: Globalization and societal
transformation
Reading: Peter F. Drucker, "Beyond the Information Revolution,"
The Atlantic Monthly, October 1999
Also recommended (not required):
Monday, Sept. 11: The global
economy...
Also, please read any one of the following articles or some other work that you choose on the subject of the global economy:
Peter Beinart, "An Illusion for Our Time: The False Promise of Globalization," The New Republic, October 20, 1997. (This article is fairly long, with a complex theme.)
Harvey Cox, "The Market as God, The Atlantic Monthly, March 1999.
J. Bradford De Long, "What 'New' Economy? The Wilson Quarterly, Autumn 1998.
Kevin Kelly, "New Rules for the New Economy," Wired, September 1997.
Jonathan Schlefer, "Today's Most Mischievous Misquotation," The Atlantic Monthly, March 1998.
George Soros, "The Capitalist Threat," The Atlantic Monthly, February 1997.
George Soros, "Toward a Global Open Society, The Atlantic Monthly, January 1998.
Wednesday, Sept. 13: Discussion
Monday, Sept. 18: ...and national/global politics
Reading:
John Lewis Gaddis, "Living in
Candlestick Park"(in two parts; The Atlantic Monthly, April
1999).
Also, please read any one of the following articles or some other work that you choose on the subject of national/global politics:
Christopher C. DeMuth, "The New Wealth of Nations," Commentary, October 1997.
Stanley Hoffman, "Too Proud," The New Republic, January 17, 2000.
C. John Ickenberry, "Why Export Democracy?" The Wilson Quarterly, Spring 1999.
Robert D. Kaplan, "Was Democracy Just a Moment?" The Atlantic Monthly, December 1997.
John Mueller, "Democracy: Optimal Illusions and Grim Realities," Center for the Study of Democracy: Research Papers, 1999. (This article isn't about globalization specifically, but it includes ideas that are useful for inquiry into the subject of globalization and politics.)
Walter Olson, "Dark Bedfellows: Postmoderns and Traditionalists Unite against the Enlightenment," Reason Online, January 1999. (This article is only indirectly related to our subject but includes some intriguing ideas. And it is related...)
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., "Has Democracy a Future?" Foreign Affairs, September/October 1997.
James Q. Wilson, "Democracy for All?" Commentary, March 2000.
Wednesday, Sept. 20: Discussion
Monday, Sept. 25: Environmental questions
Reading:
Matt Ridley and Bobbi S. Low, "Can Selfishness Save the
Environment?" The Atlantic Monthly, September 1993.
Also, please read any one of the following articles or some other work that you choose on the subject of environmental questions:
Kenneth E. Boulding, "The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth," in Toward a Steady-State Economy, edited by Herman E. Daly (W.H. Freeman: San Francisco, 1973; available from L. Klemas's, Combustion in the Rain Forest; click here). A classic essay that highlights the finiteness of the earth's resources. Bouldng coined the phrase "cowboy economy" to describe the exploitiveness of societies in the twentieth century.
Mark Hertsgaard, "Our Real China Problem," The Atlantic Monthly, November 1997.
Bill McKibben, "A Special Moment in History," The Atlantic Monthly, May 1998.
Mark Sagoff, "Do We Consume Too Much?" The Atlantic Monthly, June 1997.
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Here are some web sites with information about globalization issues: Independent Media
Center Prague
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(Preliminary discussion progress reports distributed by e-mail)
Wednesday, Sept. 27: Discussion
Monday, Oct. 2: Environmental questions (continued); the
Prague summit
Reading: Edward S. Herman, "The Threat of Globalization," Global
Policy Forum, April 1999; and "March Madness" (editorial),
The New Republic, May 1, 2000.
-The article by Edward Herman is a clear presentation of one position in this debate. It's well worth reading, although it includes lots of numbers. We'll discuss the major points of the article in class on Monday the 2nd. The New Republic editorial presents a different point of view, as you'll see.
Please read some material related to economic globalization and the protest movement from one of the following sources, or some other that you find on your own:
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Some web sites with information about globalization issues: Independent Media
Center Prague "The Case for Globalisation" (cover story), The Economist, Sept. 23-29, 2000 ...and several
pages from The World Bank:
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Please note that I've made several changes below in our class schedule.
Wednesday, Oct. 4: Population issues
Reading:
David M. Kennedy, "Can We Still Afford to Be a Nation of
Immigrants?" The Atlantic Monthly (December 1996).
Also, please read any one of the following articles or some other work that you choose on the subject of national/global politics:
Virginia Abernathy, "Optimism and Overpopulation," The Atlantic Monthly (December 1994). From the article: "Well, yes, the West must pay attention to the population problems of the Third World. But what sort of attention? The conventional wisdom holds that economic development -- and thus economic aid from the West -- is the key to curbing population growth in poor nations. Not true, says the author."
Alexander Aleinikoff "A Multicultural Nationalism?" The American Prospect (January -February 1998).
George J. Borjas, "The New Economics of Immigration," The Atlantic Monthly (November 1996). From the article: "Affluent Americans gain; poor Americans lose."
Richard W. Judy, "The Coming Retirement Torrent, American Outlook, Fall 1998.
Peter Salins, "Toward a New Immigration Policy," Commentary Magazine (January 1997). This article is informative and thought-provoking, but it isn't easy.
Max Singer, "The Population Surprise," The Atlantic Monthly (August 1999). From the article: "The old assumptions about world population trends need to be rethought. One thing is clear, in the next century the world is in for some rapid downsizing."
Monday, Oct. 9: The digital/global communications
revolution: how it is changing what we get, what we do and how we
think
Reading: Robert W.
McChesney, "The New Global Media: It's a Small World of Big
Conglomerates," Nation, November 29, 1999. Home page for the Nation: http://www.thenation.com/
Also, please read any one of the following articles or some other work that you choose on the subject of digital/global communications:
Robert Coover, "Literary Hypertext: The Passing of the Golden Age," FEED Magazine, February 8, 2000. In this technical but valuable article, the author asks, "Is literature dying on the Web?" and several other important questions. And he even ventures some answers.
Mark Dery, "With Liberty and Justice for Me," Atlantic Unbound, July 22, 1999.
John Katz, "Birth of a Digital Nation," Wired, April 1997. This is a controversial article, with a perspective that has been strongly opposed in some of the articles that are listed here. If you're interested in Katz's follow-up article, it's here:
Jon Katz, "The Digital Citizen," Wired, December 1997.
Morton Keller, "The Making of the Modern Corporation," The Wilson Quarterly, Autumn 1997. This is a long article and a bit tangential to this week's theme. But it is also informative and thought-provoking.
Geoffrey Nunberg, "Will Libraries Survive?" The American Prospect Online, November-December 1998.
Sidney Perkowitz, "Connecting with E.M. Forster," The American Prospect Online, May-June 1996.
Jedediah S. Purdy, "The God of the Digerati," The American Prospect Online, March-April 1998.
Howard Rheingold, "Misunderstanding New Media," FEED Magazine, September 9, 1998. Inquires into the social potential, and the perils, of the Internet.
Pamela Samuelson, "The Digital Rights War," The Wilson Quarterly, Autumn 1998. This article focuses on a narrow subject -- what it means to restrict the availability of digital information --, but it's an important one. If you're interested in the topic, it's worth reading.
Wednesday, Oct. 11: Discussion
Monday, Oct. 16: Cultural explorations, 1:
Asia
Reading: Francis Fukuyama, "Asian Values and the Asian Crisis,"
Commentary, February 1998.
Also, please read any one of the following articles or some other work that you choose on the subject of Asian culture:
Trevor Corson, "China's Blue Collar Blues," The Atlanatic Monthly, February 2000.
James Fallows, "What Is an Economy For?" The Atlantic Monthly, January 1994.
Donald K. Swearer, "The Worldliness of Buddhism," The Wilson Quarterly, Spring 1997.
Arthur Waldron, "How Not to Deal with China," Commentary, March 1997.
Two papers from a conference held in March 1997 at Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan:
-NOTE: These two papers are on the same web page and together take up about a third of the page.
"China Opens Up," The Economist (November 20-26, 1999). When you access The Economist, select "Library/Archive" from the menu on the left, and when the page downloads in the large frame, scroll down about 3/4 of the way. You'll see the links to the article "China Opens Up."
Wednesday, Oct. 18: China and Globalization (Guest presenter: Dr. Weiping Wu, Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, VCU)
Friday, Oct. 20: Last day to withdraw with a mark of "W."
Monday, Oct. 23: Cultural explorations, 2: The world of Islam
(Guest presenter: Dr Amina Wadud, Associate Professor, Department
of Philosophy and Urban Studies, VCU)
Reading: NOTE TO FRANK: I
can't find the right page -- the one with the readings that I assigned.
I'm going to have to reconstruct it, and it may take some time. Sorry
about that!
Also, please read one of the following articles or some other work that you choose about the world of Islam:
Dale F. Eickelman, "Inside the Islamic Reformation" (The Wilson Quarterly, Winter 1998).
Benjamin R. Barber, "Jihad vs. McWorld" (The Atlantic Monthly, March 1992).
Bernard Lewis, "The Roots of Muslim Rage" (in two parts; The Atlantic Monthly, September 1990).
Paul M. Lubeck, "Islamist Responses to Globalization: Cultural Conflict in Egypt, Algeria, and Malaysia." In The Myth of “Ethnic Conflict”: Politics, Economics, and “Cultural Violence,” edited byBeverly Crawford and Ronnie D. Lipschutz. University of California, Berkeley, 1998. This is a fairly difficult article but well worth reading.
You may want to read articles about Iran or other Muslim countries. For example, here's an article that can be accessed at the Washington Post web site:
"Democracy in Iran Prompts Arab Introspection," By Howard Schneider.
You'll also find stories in several news magazines, such as The Economist and others...
Wednesday, Oct. 25: Discussion
Monday, Oct. 30: Cultural explorations, 2: The world of Islam (continued)
Preliminary project sketches: (Some time this week or next, I hope you'll post a message to the bulletin board -- under the category "Preliminary project sketches" -- which summarizes what you're thinking of doing for a term project. It will help you to focus on your subject by writing just a few sentences describing its "essence," and it will give other class members and me an idea about what you're planning. Maybe some of us will have useful suggestions... :-)
Wednesday, Nov. 1: Cultural explorations, 3: Russia and
Eastern Europe
Reading: Jeffrey Tayler, "Thin Walls, Bad Neighbors" (The
Atlantic Monthly, November 1997);and David Remnick,
"Can Russia Change?" (Foreign Affairs, January/ February 1997;
sorry about the red
type!).
Also, please read one of the following articles or some other work that you choose about Russia and Eastern Europe:
Check out these web sites for news and information about Russia:
There's lots of stuff here -- some useful some not, some in English...:
-For a sketchy summary of Feshbach's main ideas, see Murray Feshbach, "Dead Souls," The Atlantic Monthly, January 1999.
Robert D. Kaplan, "Hoods Against Democrats", The Atlantic Monthly, December 1998.
Janine R. Wedel, "The Harvard Boys Do Russia," The Nation, June 1, 1998.
There's also lots of useful information about Russia in newspapers and news magazines -- also the VCU online library holdings. Check out some of the resources on the "Supplementary Readings" page.
Monday, Nov. 6: Cultural explorations, 3: Russia and Eastern Europe (continued)
Wednesday, Nov. 8: Discussion
(Mid-term discussion progress reports distributed by e-mail)
Monday, Nov. 13: Cultural explorations, 4: Latin
America (Guest presenter: Dr. Christina Turner, Associate Professor,
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, VCU)
Reading: Chris Kraul, "Growing Troubles in Mexico," Los Angeles
Times, January 17, 2000
Also, please read any one of the following articles or some other work that you choose on the subject of Latin America:
"Brazil's New Look," Business Week, May 4, 1998.
Stuart E. Eizenstat, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs, "Latin America and U.S. Policy" (Presentation at the Wall Street Journal Conference on the Americas, New York, October 1, 1998).
Enrique V. Iglesias, President of the Inter-American Development Bank, "Globalization, Competitiveness and Social Equity: Sketching a Vision for the Future" (Statement presented at the Meeting of Government, Business, and Society in the Caribbean Bridgetown, Barbados, June 11, 1999).
José Antonio Ocampo, "Income distribution, poverty and social expenditure in Latin America" (Paper presented at the First Conference of the Americas, held by the Organization of American States in Washington on 6 March 1998).
ALSO SEE:
Internet Resources for Latin America, compiled and copyrighted by Molly Molloy, New Mexico State University Library
The "Americas" section of The Washington Post
Wednesday, Nov. 15: Discussion
Monday, Nov. 20: Cultural explorations, 5: Africa (Guest
presenter: Dr. Christopher Brooks, Associate Professor of
Music and African-American Studies, VCU)
Reading: Carol Thompson, "In Focus: Economic Policy Toward Africa,"
Foreign Policy In Focus (vol. 2, number 23, January 1997).
Also, please read any one of the following articles or some other work that you choose on the subject of Africa:
There are many web sites that focus on the subject of debt forgiveness, nearly all of which are tied to questions about Africa and globalization. Here's a very long but useful piece on the subject. You can find many others with a good search engine and such terms as "debt forgiveness" and "africa":
Vincent Ferraro and Melissa Rosser, "Global Debt and Third World Development" (from World Security: Challenges for a New Century, edited by Michael Klare and Daniel Thomas; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994, pp. 332-355).
...and here are some additional articles on different themes related to our Monday subject:
Michel Camdesssus, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, "Integrating Africa More Fully into the Global Economy" (Statement at the Euro-African Convention ,Bordeaux, France, May 13, 1996). (This is a technically detailed article that covers important ground.)
Robert D. Kaplan, "Proportionalism," The Atlantic Monthly (August 1996)
Robert D. Kaplan, The Coming Anarchy," The Atlantic Monthly (February 1994). (The "Proportionalism" article listed above is a follow-up to this one.)
Robert Kagan, "Inside the Limo," The New Republic, April 10, 2000. (This is a review essay that centers on Robert Kaplan's book The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post-Cold War. The book is an expansion of the Kaplan article listed above.)
Allister Sparks, "Mandela's South Africa -- and After," The Wilson Quarterly, Spring 1999. (A long but informative article.)
African Studies Internet Resources (Columbia University)
The "Africa" section of The Washington Post
Monday,
Nov. 27: Cultural explorations, 6: Globalization and The New
Europe
Reading: I
suggest reading one of the following two articles and also something that
you find from another source, such as a newspaper or news magazine -- or
possibly the VCU online library collection.Check out some of the resources
on the "Supplementary Readings" page.
Robert A. Levine, "Euroland, Open for Business," The Atlantic Monthly, November 1999.
J.G.A. Pocock, "What Do We Mean By Europe?" The Wilson Quarterly, Winter 1997.
And look over the European Union Center web site at the University of Washington. It's chock full of good things. Also EuroDocs, from Brigham Young University. Not to be forgotten: Europa, the European Union's server (English language version).
Wednesday, Nov. 29: Discussion
Monday, Dec. 4: Emerging globalization trends and
issues
Reading: Please read at least a couple of articles
from the selection below or locate other works that you may find on
the subject of globalization trends and issues:
Lawrence H. Summers, "How to Help the Poor," The Washington Post, April 16, 2000. (Lawrence Summers is secretary of the Treasury.)
Peter Beinart, "An Illusion for Our Time: The False Promise of Globalization," The New Republic, October 20, 1997. (This article is fairly long, with a complex theme. It was also listed for January 26.)
William Finnegan, "After Seattle: Anarchists Get Organized. The New Yorker, April 17, 2000, pp. 40-51. This article isn't available online, but it's worth searching out in hard copy. It has excellent information.
George Soros, "Toward a Global Open Society, The Atlantic Monthly, January 1998. (This article was also listed for January 26.)
(more to be added)
Wednesday, Dec. 6: Discussion