Just how involved are we are on a daily basis with the processes, the politics, the social and economic relations and the other formations that constitute this complex and slightly scary thing called globalisation? Beginning with some of the things that are closest and most familiar to us - including the clothes on our backs - we're going to start at the ground and trace upwards the links that connect us to far off countries, economies, sites of production and just plain old other people we would never usually imagine as being connected to us. In this way we will trace our own map of the world system and get some sort of critical understanding of how we slot into it. We might even get some ideas as to how we can contribute to changing the things we don't like about it!

In the process of doing this we will learn the fundamental concepts anthropologists and other social scientists use to make sense of globalisation's exciting new cultural and social forms and its not so exciting new forms of exploitation. The focus will be on the practical and critical application of these concepts to some hot global issues, including: cross cultural consumption, tourism, "ethnic eating", expatriate communities, Fairtrade and food miles, virtual communities, relocalisation and global sporting events.

By the end of the course you should be able to:

• Identify some key examples of global processes, flows and networks.
• Discuss how local experiences are influenced and shaped by globally extensive systems, for instance of production and consumption.
• Show how globalisation creates very specific experiences of time and space, particularly that of time-space compression.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the limits and inequalities of globalisation (for instance in terms of resources or social equity).

Think critically and creatively about how social relations, communications and our relation to space might be evolving in a deglobalising world.

Group research project (groups of 5-6) presentation: 20%; individual report: 30%; 1500-1700 word essay: 30%; tutorial exercises:20%

1 hour lecture, one to two hours of group work (timing is flexible for this) and five hours of tutorial work

This is a required second semester course for the Associate Degree Social Science stream.

Associate Degree Students Only

Eriksen, T.H., 2007 Globalization: The Key Concepts,  Berg: Oxford and New York.

Computer access