CMNS 423-4
GLOBALIZATION: CULTURAL ISSUES
_______________________________________________________________________
Prerequisites: 75 credit hours including CMNS 221 or 223; and 2 CMNS upper division courses; and CGPA of 3.00 or higher – or Instructor’s permission.
Course Description:
What happens to diverse world cultures amidst the transnational movement of capital and the expansion of technical networks that have facilitated increased flows of commodities, people, information and images? This course explores the cultural dimension of these global flows, comparing, on the one hand, the consequences of increased mobility and, on the other hand, the drive towards increased control and immobility of displaced populations. In terms of increased mobility, we will examine the process of deterritorialization where communication and culture are no just longer defined by the local. We will examine ‘traveling cultures’ and explore how we situate ourselves in rapidly changing world, whether for example, through consumption of cultural differences or diasporic memories. In terms of immobility, the course will examine the ways in which increasingly, the tightening of national boundaries and economic and political processes of globalization have left populations “placeless” whether because of war, environmental disaster, etc. We will look at the ways in which these groups make sense of their displacement and immobility through narratives, stories and images focusing on issues of power and the destruction of social life.
Required Readings/Texts: The readings for this course will be on Reserve in the Library, or be available on-line (see links below).
Grading: Attendance & Participation 10%
Seminar Presentations 10%
1st Written Assignment (1250-1500 words, due week 6) 20%
2nd Written Assignment (1250-1500 words, due week 10) 20%
Research Plan for Essay (1-2 pages, due week 8) 5%
Essay (3000 words) 35%
The School expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices with respect to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the School will follow Policy T10.02 with respect to "Intellectual Honesty," and "Academic Discipline" (see the current Calendar, General Regulations Section).
Plagiarism is a serious infraction. It is a form of dishonesty where you take credit for the work, in particular, the research, conducted by someone else.
It includes failing to refer to the source of the ideas and contextual information in your assignment.
It also includes failing to indicate when you have made direct quotations, which amounts to presenting statements made by a published author as if they were your own.
Attendance & Participation:
a) Attendance: (5%) Half a mark will be deducted from a total of five marks for each class that you miss starting in the second week.
b) Participation: (5%) Your mark will be based on the quality of your contributions throughout the semester. For example, the following will be considered: the extent to which your questions and comments are informed by the readings; the effort taken to understand the course material, for example, by asking questions of clarification; identifying the limitations of the articles; and questioning the applicability of the conclusions. Depending on the size of the class, as well as the level of engagement, the instructor may ask one or two students to be formally responsible for responding to each of the presentations.
Seminar Presentations: (10% -- 2% handout + 2% example + 6% presentation). Students in the class are responsible for giving presentations on the weekly readings. Depending on the number of the students enrolled, you will be required to give one or two presentations. While you need to demonstrate (1) comprehension of the reading, your presentation should focus on (2) analyzing the argument and discussing the issues raised by the reading. Bring an outline of your presentation for everyone in the seminar. Find an example to illustrate one of the main concepts or problems discussed in the article (examples from video clips, newspapers, magazines advertisements, excerpts from novels, etc.). Ensure that you systematically identify how your example illustrates the concept or problem.
First Written Assignment: (20% due Week 6, in class, 1,250-1,500 words).
Second Written Assignment: (20% due Week 10, in class, 1,250-1,500 words).
Research Plan for your Essay: (5% due Week 8, in class 1-2 pages) The research plan should include (1) 3-5 sentences describing the question or problem that your essay will explore; (2) the main concepts or theories that you will apply; (3) an outline describing the different sections of the paper; and (4) at least five references that pertain directly to your topic. Use the correct format for bibliographic references.
Essay: (35%) Due first day of final exam period. Please submit your essay to my mailbox by 4:00 pm.
Style Guides: For all your written assignments, refer to the style guide for APA or MLA on SFU library’s webpage: http://www.lib.sfu.ca/researchhelp/subjectguides/cmns/cmns.htm
I. GLOBALIZATION, CULTURE and PLACE: DEFINING THE PROBLEM
WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION: CHARACTERISTICS OF GLOBALIZATION
1. Held, David and Anthony McGrew (2000) “The Great Globalization Debate: An Introduction” in David Held and Anthony McGrew (ed) The Global Transformations Reader, Oxford: Polity, pp.1-45.
2. Schiller, Herbert (1993) “Not Yet the Post-Imperialist Era”, in Collen Roach (ed), Communication and Culture in War and Peace, Newbury Park: Sage, pp. 97-116.
Background Websites:
http://lass.calumet.purdue.edu/cca/gmj/
http://globalization.mcmaster.ca/
http://www.ualberta.ca/GLOBALISM/index.html
http://globalization.mcmaster.ca/links.htm
3. Bauman, Zygmunt (1998) Globalization: the Human Consequences, Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 55-102.
4. Clifford, James (1992) “Travelling Cultures” in Lawrence Grossberg et. al (ed) Cultural Studies, London: Routledge, pp. 94-116.
5. Morley, David, (2000) “Cosmopolitics: Boundary, Hybridity and Identity” in Home Territories: Media, Mobility and Identity, London: Routledge, pp. 225-245.
Featherstone, Mike (2002) “An Introduction” Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 19(1–2), pp. 1–16 (see pp. 1-3; this is an on-line article in the SFU library)
6. Heiddegger, Martin (1971) “Building, Dwelling, Being”
http://acnet.pratt.edu/~arch543p/readings/Heidegger.html
7. Augé, Marc ( ) Chapters 2 &3 Non-places – book is being ordered
II. GLOBALIZATION, COMMODIFICATION AND THE LOSS OF EXPERIENCE?
9. Cohen, Erik (1996) “A Phenomenology of Tourist Experiences” in Yiorgos Apostolopoulos et. al. (ed) The Sociology of Tourism, London: Routledge, pp. 90-111.
*Further references to this text will be The Sociology of Tourism
10. Clifford, James (1994) “Diaspora”, Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 9 (3), pp. 302-338.
(download from on-line journals on SFU Library’s webpage)
11. Brah, Avtar (1996) “Questions of ‘Difference’ and Global Feminisms” in Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 84-94.
12. Kennedy, Paul and Victor Roudometof (2003) “Transnationalism in a Global Age” in Communities Across Borders: New Immigrants and Transnational Cultures London and New York: Routledge, pp. 1-26.
Background Readings:
a. Mahler, Sarah, J. (1998) “Theoretical and Empirical Contributions Toward a Research Agenda for Transnationalism” in Michael Peter Smith and Luis Eduardo Guarnizo (ed) Transnationalism from Below, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publisher, pp.64-100.
b. Friedman, Jonathan (1999) “The Hybridization of Roots and the Abhorrence of the Bush” in Mike Featherstone and Scott Lash (ed) Spaces of Culture: City, Nation, World, London: Sage, pp. 230-256.
***** ASSIGNMENT #1**** DUE*****
14. Ritzer, George and Allan Liska (1997) “’McDisneyization’ and ‘Post-tourism’: Complementary Perspectives on Contemporary Tourism” in Chris Rojek and John Urry (ed) Touring Cultures, London: Routledge, pp. 96-109.
FILM: Thailand for Sale.
15. de Certeau, Michel (1988) The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkley: University of California Press, pp. 29-42, 25-28 (definition of “la perruque”), 91-110.
16. Sorensen, Ninna Nyberg (1998) “Narrating Identities Across Dominican Worlds” in Michael Peter Smith and Luis Eduardo Guarnizo (ed) Transnationalism from Below, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publisher, pp. 241-269.
17. Morley, David (2000) “Borders and Belongings” in Home Territories: Media, Mobility and Identity, London: Routledge, pp.204-224.
18. Naficy, Hamid (1993) The Making of Exile Cultures: Iranian Television in Los Angelos, Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 1-16, 89-124.
Extra Reading:
Liu, Xin “Space, Mobility, and Flexibility: Chinese Villagers and Scholars Negotiate Power at Home and Abroad” in Aihwa Ong and Donald M. Nonini (ed) Ungrounded Empires, London: Routledge, pp.91-114.
*******HAND IN PROPOSAL FOR PAPER********
19. Brah, Avtar (1996) “Diaspora, Border and Transnational Identities” in Avtar Brah (ed) Cartographies of Diaspora, London: Routledge, pp.178-210.
20. Dossa, Parin (2004 ) Politics and Poetics of Migration: Narratives of Iranian Women from the Diaspora Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc., pp. 25-53, 55-85.
21. Agustín, Laura (2005) “Migrants in the Mistress’s House: Other Voices in the ‘Trafficking’ Debate”, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society, Vol. 12 (1), Spring, pp. 96-117.
(download from on-line journals on SFU Library’s webpage)
****ASSIGNMENT #2 DUE****
22. Appadurai, Arun (1997) “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy” in Modernity at Large, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 27-47.
FILM: Floating Life.
23. Agamben, Giorgio (1996) Means Without Ends, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 3-12, 37-45, 90-100.
24. Malkki, Lisa (1996) “Speechless Emissaries: Refugees, Humanitarianism and Dehistoricization”, Cultural Anthropology vol. 11 (3) August, pp. 377-404.
(download from on-line journals on SFU Library’s webpage)
Extra Reading:
a. Griffin, Gabriele (2004) “ Exile and the Body” in Wendy Everett and Peter Wagstaff (ed) Cultures of Displacement, New York: Berghahn Books, pp.111-124.
b. Wilson, John P. and Boris Drozdek eds. (2004) Broken Spirits: the Treatment of Traumatized Asylum Seekers, Refugees, War and Torture Victims, New York: Brunner-Routledge.
c. Agger, Inger (1994) The Blue Room: Trauma And Testimony Among Refugee Women: a Psycho-Social Exploration, trans. Mary Billem, London and New Jersey, Zed Books.
Background Websites:
http://www.forcedmigration.org/news/prague-conference.htm
FILM: In This World.
WEEK 12: IMAGINATION AND EXODUS: STORIES THAT MOVE
25. BenEzer, Gadi (2002) The Ethiopian Jewish Exodus: Narratives of Migration and Journey to Israel 1977-1985, London: Routledge, pp. 27-36, 41-56, 120-151.
26. Said, Edward (1986) “States” in After the Last Sky: Palestinian Lives, New York: Panatheon, pp. 3-49.
Extra Reading:
Farah, Nuruddin (2000) Yesterday, Tomorrow, London: Cassell, pp. 30-45, 96-123.