SOCSC200 Globalization & Its Discontent

How clean are your clothes? Do you know who makes them? Where do they come from? Is the Iraq War really a war or something else? What do my clothes have to do with the War? We will explore these questions and many others by studying globalization and privatization in the later half of the 20th century. Special attention will be given to the rise of the Global Empire, its impact on developing nations and workers' struggle worldwide. We will study important developments in the late 20th century that have enabled transnational capitalism, including the shift from a military to prison industrial complex, the invention of economic hitmen, the rise of corporatocracies, structural adjustment, the 24-hour media cycle. We will focus especially on the impact of these larger macroeconomic changes on our day-to-day choices as students, workers, parents, consumers, etc. and how humans organize and resist the impact of globalization and privatization.