GEOG 210: POLITICAL AND CULTURAL GEOGRAPHIES OF GLOBALIZATION

Globalization. It is a word that we hear all the time in our everyday lives, but what exactly does globalization mean? Is, as Thomas Friedman said, the world really flat now or has increased interconnectedness of places and people meant different things to different people? In this class we will explore what the political, cultural, and social processes are that have been central to “globalization.”

 

By the end of semester, students will be able to make connections between local and global processes in historical depth and through advanced conceptual models and narratives of globalization. The course also prepares students to have deeper understandings of interactions among economic, social, and cultural processes over geographical space. A key focus of this class is to critically examine questions of race, class, gender, ethnicity, place and other aspects of difference, and understand how they are implicated in globalization.

 

Geography 210 falls within UWGEC guidelines for a Tier Two, Individuals and Societies course. It also satisfies the Gen-Ed requirement for a Diversity Emphasis course.

 

Learning outcomes for this course are

• Gain understanding of the spatial organization and historical development of the global economy.

• Acquire knowledge on the spatial dimensions of globalization and understand geographies of unevenness of global 

  development.

• Develop critical thinking skills in understanding contemporary political geography