Paper written for sociology class Globalization and Social Change

This paper was written for the class Sociology 434: Globalization and Social Change. The instructions for the essay were as follows:

Divide your paper into sections according to the numbered questions.

Expectations and Standards for Evaluation. It is important that you draw extensively on the materials we have covered in this class, including the readings, the internet materials, including specific web sites, and the contributions of other students through the forums. For the main readings in the class (including the Barber book and the readings in The Globalization Reader, as well as those posed under Course Documents) you should include in your answers specific examples, with page numbers, of places in these readings that are relevant to or help illustrate the arguments you are making. Your paper is more likely to evaluated positively if your use examples that others in the class (or yourself) have contributed to forums, especially from case in point and shared resources forums. It is expected that a good paper will include materials from web sites that have been cited in forums. Papers that do not show that you have read and drawn upon the materials in the forums will do less well than a paper that shows the use of such materials. TO REPEAT: An important criterion in evaluating your paper will be your use of course materials, including ones drawn from forum contributions.

There is no need in the papers for this course to use formal footnotes. However, if you are referring to a specific example, or including a short quote, or if in other ways you want to show that you are using particular course materials (which is a good thing to do!), you should indicate where the material comes from or just what material you are using. To this end, I would recommend using a brief and abbreviated system of cites. For example, you could place, right in the text, a source note in parentheses: (Barber, p. 67); or (Globalization: The Globalization Reader [which can be called TGR], p, 85); or (student X , Forum 3) or a web site. Since I know who Barber is, and can find forum 3, there is no need to add any more detail to your cite.

For the first paper, you are to write responses to the following three questions:

1. In Jihad vs. McWorld, Benjamin Barber writes: culture has become more potent than armaments. What is the power of the Pentagon compared with Disneyland? Can the Sixth Fleet keep up with CNN? McDonalds in Moscow and Coke in China will do more to create a global culture than military colonization ever would. Explain and evaluate Barbers argument that global companies and the products and culture they bring are more powerful than governments and military power. Use examples from the readings and the forum materials of students.

2. In the arguments of Barber and others who claim that Jihad embodies important forms of opposition to globalization, modernization has been portrayed as being in conflict with forces of religion and tradition. Discuss what Barber, the Chicago Tribune articles, the articles in The Globalization Reader, and others mean by Jihad and other such traditional forces and evaluate the extent to which they do represent a significant challenge to globalization as well as well as to what they offer as alternatives to globalization. Draw upon a range of relevant readings and the forum contributions of students in the class in your discussion.

3. Globalization is said by some to impose a single standardized culture on the world. Others claim that globalization brings the diversity of the world to people who once lived lives limited by their own bounded communities (regardless of whether people lived in America, or in Africa, Asia or elsewhere). Based on course readings and forum materials, discuss and evaluate these two views.

About the Solutions
The final essay is around 1500 words using the following sources:

Barber, B. 1992, ‘Jihad vs. McWorld’, [Online]

Craig, B. 2000, ‘Aid, Policies and Growth’, American Economic Review, vol. 90, no.9, p847-68.

Duffey, T. 2000, ‘Cultural Issues in Contemporary Peacekeeping’, International Peacekeeping, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 142-169.

Held, D. 2005, ‘Washington gets it wrong’, Global Agenda, no. 3, p100-101.

Li, X. 2002, ‘Dichotomies and Paradoxes: The West and Islam’, Journal of Interdisciplinary International Relations, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 401-418.

Robinson, W. 2005, ‘Global Capitalism: The New Transnationalism and the Folly of Conventional Thinking.’ Science & Society, vol. 69 no. 3, pp316-328.

Rodrik, D. 2001, The Global Governance of Trade as if Development Really Mattered, UNDP: New York.

Stiglitz, J. 2002, Globalization and Its Discontents, Norton, New York.

The first few paragraphs of the essay are reproduced below. Please purchase the full essay if you wish to use any part of it.

It is quite easy to agree with the statements made by Barber and since the words were first written in 1995, more than a decade later, their validity and their importance is only heightened. In fact, given the present situation on Wall Street, not only can the giant companies of the world have greater influence than many government, they can also influence the strongest country in the world. American tax payers and American money is being used to foot the bill for the follies of bankers and speculative investors who essentially lost nothing out of their own pockets in the current economic crisis.

However, the point made by Barber comes across quite clearly when we consider how technology today has permeated essentially every facet of our lives. From the music we enjoy to our tastes in clothes, fashion even political ideals are deeply connected with the emerging global culture. Coke and McDonald’s have become middle class staples today as much as primary goods such as grain and meat used to be for the Roman Empire (Li, 2002). The well to do and the rich in the developing nations of the world may be as familiar with iPods and Nike trainers as the well to do in developed countries.

However, there is certainly a counter argument which can be presented to Barber in which culture in many regions of the world may not be based on getting on with the latest trends. In places such as Sudan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and even parts of India, mere survival on a day to day basis may be a real concern to the people living there (Stiglitz, 2002). In this respect at least, the power of the government and even the military strength that is required to function as peacekeeping forces could be more important than giving everyone designer clothes, a digital music player and a digital camera. When the people of a country are living on less than one dollar a day, spending $5 on a single meal is nothing less than an unaffordable luxury (Held, 2005).

Other Details about the Project/Assignment
Subjects: Globalization and Social Change
Topic: Essay for sociology class Globalization and Social Change
Level: College / University
Tags:

sociology class, Globalization, Social Change

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Project Details

Subjects: Globalization and Social Change
Topic: Essay for sociology class Globalization and Social Change
Level: College / University
Tags:

sociology class, Globalization, Social Change

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Paper written for sociology class Globalization and Social Change

sociology class, Globalization, Social Change

sociology class, Globalization, Social Change