Course Description:
The contemporary world features astonishing cultural diversity, easily accessed through communication networks and international trade. This course examines classical and contemporary theories of cultural development and its stages, as well as problems posed by global diversity: inequality, imperialism, miscommunication, and intercultural strife.
Tyler Cowen, Creative Destruction: How Globalization Is Changing the World's Cultures. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002).
Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Globalization and Culture: Global Melange. (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003).
Manfred B. Steger, Globalization: A Very Short Introduction. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
Course Reflection:
I never realized how little I knew about the rest of the world before taking this course. Even though I've lived in other parts of the world, this class really helped me open my eyes to what's happening around me. After completing this course I feel that I am better able to communicate with people from other cultures.
Course Assignments:
- Globalization's Effect on Third-World Countries is a short paper that trys to explain how the relationship between the West and the Third World is not simply of the exploiter and the exploited. It also addresses some the issues of globalization in poor countries.
This essay demonstrates the Critical Thinking and Cultural Diversity and Social Responsibility competencies.
- The Nature of Globalization explores Appadurai’s article “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy” and Samuel Huntington’s article “The Clash of Civilizations?”
This essay demonstrates the Critical Thinking, Knowledge Base, and Cultural Diversity and Social Responsibility competencies.
- Globalization: Past, Present Future is an essay written about where one sits on the wide spectrum of globalization.
This essay demonstrates the Critical Thinking, Knowledge Base, and Cultural Diversity and Social Responsibility competencies.