Past Courses

Graduate Course Descriptions: Spring 2005

Transnationalism, Social Change and Development (Sociology 85200)

Thursdays, 6:30-8:30 PM

Instructor: Mauricio Font (mfont@gc.cuny.edu)
Professor of Sociology, Queens College and Graduate Center
Director, Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies

In recent decades, profound and accelerating social transformations have brought the peoples of the world in closer contact than at any other time in human history. Together, these processes are creating or altering actors and institutions, structural dynamics and policy issues, and patterns of cooperation, conflict and change. Economic and cultural globalization often receive the most attention. In this context, this course focuses on emergent forms of transnationalism -- cross-border contact, interaction, coalition-building, and related processes of social organization involving people, primary groups, various non-state organizations, and firms. These phenomena are important in themselves and are also leading to new perspectives about broader forms of social change, international development, and globalization. To put grassroots transnationalism in context, the course considers the broader framework of globalization and development, inter-state or transnational governance, and global policy. The role of transnationalism with regard to social and general development receives considerable attention in this seminar. We place emphasis on its impact on human development (education, health, income), human rights and democracy, and issues of social equity (inequality and poverty). As they address these broad areas, students will be able to develop a particular focus on such diverse topics as trade and integration agreements, immigrant civil society and politics, local development, the environment, epistemic or scientific networks, transnational social movements, global religious activism, or other issues related to labor, gender, race or ethnicity.

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