Unit information: Globalisation and Culture in 2012/13

Unit name	Globalisation and Culture
Unit code	SOCIM2106
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Goldblatt
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will present students with a range of debates on globalisation and invite them to consider critically the idea and practicalities of the 'global' and globalising process. The unit critically examines theoretical and historical debates on the formation of the global and globalisation, engaging the key themes of space, time, reflexivity and risk as pivotal dynamics in the shift from the 'traditional' to the 'modern' to the 'global postmodern'. These debates will be applied to the relationship between the 'local' and the 'global' alongside the concepts of risk and control. The unit will specifically explore the development of information technologies and networks and the persistence of national and ethnic particularisms and conflicts that question the salience of the state as a localised repository of power and nexus of social control. The unit will also engage the relationsip between globalisation and culture and the meanings of global cultural flows through a variety of approaches including notions of cultural heterogeneity, cultural homogeneity, cultural imperialsm, and cosmopolitanism.

• To present students with historical, theoretical and conceptual debates on globalisation.
• To illustrate the interactions between 'risk' and 'control' within globalisation and globality.

To explore the relationship between the 'local' and the 'global' in the formation of social orders and communicative networks.

Intended Learning Outcomes

• Understand the relationship between modernity, post/late-modernity and globalisation.
• Link key theoretical and coneptual positions to concrete aspects of the 'global' and 'globalising' processes.
• Critically assess the key factors in evolving economic, political and cultural aspects of international relations.
• Be conversant in principal contemporary debates on globalisation.
• Evaluate the inclusionary and/or exclusionary premises of globalising forms of social control, informational and communicative technologies and cultural production.

Teaching Information

The main method of teaching will be weekly face-to-face seminar sessions which will involve a combination of lecturing, group discussion and student presentations.

Assessment Information

The assessment will relate directly to one of more of the learning outcomes specified and will be an extended essay of 4000 words (or equivalent) showing an in-depth understanding and integration of key aspects of the unit.

Reading and References

• Held, D, McGrew A, Goldblatt D, Perraton J (1998) Global Transformations, Cambridge Polity

• Bauman, Z. (2002) Society Under Siege, Cambridge: Polity

• Beck, U. (2001) Global Risk Society, Cambridge: Polity

• Castells, M. (ed.) (2005) The Network Society: A Comparative Analysis, London Edward Elgar

• Hobsbawm. E. (1994) Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, London: Abacus

• Wallerstein, I. (2005) World Systems Analysis: An introduction, Durham: Duke University Press.