Past Courses
Graduate Course Descriptions: Spring 2006
The Political Economy of Globalization
(Sociology 84600)
Prof. Mauricio Font (mfont@gc.cuny.edu)
Mondays, 4:15 - 6:15 p.m. Room TBA, 3 credits
Globalization can be viewed as a set of processes linking
the world into a shared social space. The study of globalization focuses
on the characteristics, origins, and consequences of these complex processes.
The sociology of globalization calls for a broad social science approach
that integrates economic (and technological), political, cultural, and
social dimensions. In this sense, this course explores: (a) the movement
toward and against global economic integration (trade, finance, production)
and global economic realignment; (b) processes of democratization, shifts
in power and governance, including state reform, and their implications
in terms of human rights; (c) transnational collective action and civil
society; (d) cross-border migration and transnational communities; (f)
illegal networks. The course probes main components, actors, and consequences
of globalization in terms of a “political economic” approach
that highlights the interactions (or dialectical relations) between
economic, political, and social-cultural factors. The “political
economic” perspective is compared with other approaches.
One of our challenges is to effectively link global and national levels
of analysis. The social sciences still rely on models of social organization
and change centered on national societies ("countries") or
nation states. Globalization challenges these state and society-centered
models. The emergent challenge is how to combine the two levels of analysis—theoretically,
empirically, and in terms of policy and advocacy. Globalists insist
on a fully planetary or global perspective. Still, contemporary transformations,
transitions, and reforms do take place within the framework of nation
states, even if there is increasing evidence of the role of transnational
processes, actors, networks, institutions, and ideas. Resistance to
globalization and liberalizing reforms has come not only from traditional
communities, but also from advocates of alternative views on social
change often operating transnationally. In exploring the broader historical
and theoretical context of globalization processes, transitions, and
reforms, we pay considerable attention to the creation of transnational
networks of actors, including business, labor, and the new civil society.
We use the term "political economic" broadly to mean an interdisciplinary
approach that bridges the gaps between sociology and the other social
sciences, particularly economics and political science (but also history
and anthropology). The emphasis is on interactions between political,
economic, and social actors, institutions, and policies. The main focus
is on how collective action and political phenomena, in interaction
with economic interests and processes, shape policies, the allocation
of resources in society, the workings of markets, and hence economic
outcomes. These were the concerns of a long list of scholars that stretches
back into the 18th century: Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Jean Paul Rosseau,
Karl Marx, Thomas Malthus, Max Weber, Thorstein Veblen, Friederich.
Hayek, and John M. Keynes. In the latter part of the twentieth century,
many other names need to be included. The list of sociologists broadly
focused on large-scale transnational transformations and development
processes includes F.H. Cardoso, E. Wallerstein, Ralph Miliband, Giovanni
Arrighi, Fred Block, Jürgen Habermas, Barrington Moore Jr., Charles
Tilly, Theda Skocpol, Peter Evans, Alejandro Portes, Saskia Sassen,
Manuel Castells, Phillip McMichael, Anthony Giddens.
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