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| Semester | fall semester 2016 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Till Förster (till.foerster@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Today, globalisation is seen as the major driving force of social change. It permeates all spheres of life, and it affects the economic hubs as well as the poorest regions of the world. Accordingly, globalisation has become one of the new catchwords that inform many current debates in the social sciences. Anthropology is no exception. Globalisation has become a new subject area of anthropology when it became more and more obvious that societies could not be studied as entities; as relatively bounded communities. Since the early 1990s, globalisation has become a thematic field that instigated a series of highly stimulating ethnographic studies and generated novel ways of thinking about the social at large. On the one side, globalisation is a theoretical concept that has immediate significance for the explanation of social change in all societies. On the other side, globalisation is a heuristic lens that focuses on aspects of social change that anthropology had largely ignored in the past. This seminar addresses three key debates in social studies of globalisation: • The question of periodisation. Are there distinct periods of globalisation? How does globalisation differ from modernisation? Or is it merely a radical form of modernity? • The driving forces of globalisation. Do only economic forces drive globalisation? Or is it rather driven by the growing interconnectedness of the current life-world? • Homogenisation vs. heterogeneity. Will globalisation produce a uniform world culture? Or will it rather generate a higher diversity of life-styles and social orders? All three key debates will be discussed within the framework of empirically based studies of globalisation in Africa, Asia and Latin America. A final section of the seminar addresses the consequences of these debates for social theory. |
| Learning objectives | Develop a thorough understanding of processes of globalization in the Global South. Capacity to discuss current trends in social theory. |
| Bibliography | Appadurai, Arjun, Modernity at Large. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. Inda, Jonathan Xavier, and Rosaldo, Renato (eds.), The Anthropology of Globalization. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2nd ed. 2008. Lewellen, Ted C., The Anthropology of Globalization. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey, 2002. |
| Weblink | https://ethnologie.unibas.ch/studies/cou |
| Admission requirements | Die Teilnehmerzahl ist auf 30 Personen beschränkt. Die Plätze werden nach Anmeldedatum und Studienfachzugehörigkeit vergeben. Vorrang haben die Studierenden der unter "Module" aufgelisteten Studienfächer/-gänge. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
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No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
| Modules |
African Studies: Recommendations (PhD subject: African Studies) Anthropology: Recommendations (PhD subject: Anthropology) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | All students are expected to do a presentation on the respective themes. The presentations may take some 30 minutes and should be accompanied by a two-page hand-out, which should also contain basic data on the respective author. The hand-outs for this part of the seminar should be uploaded on Adam in the folder “handouts” one week before the presentation. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Ethnologie |