166-413 Globalization and its Discontents

Formerly available as 166-481 & 166-066. Students who have completed 166-481/166-066 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

Admission to the postgraduate diploma or fourth-year honours in political science, public policy and management, sociology or development, or postgraduate coursework programs in political science.

This subject critically examines the diverse claims made about globalisation, paying particular attention to how the relationships between politics, economics and culture are reconfigured. The various claims will be questioned in two ways. Firstly, we will explore how they deal with the issues of identity formation, social cohesion and cultural integrity given the impetus of global economic trends and technological innovation. Secondly, we will investigate how they tally with recent theorisation on planetary or network society. The types of issues and themes considered include global production; cultural flows; information society; transborder mobility; ecological risk; and global governance.

Written work totalling 5000 words.