BA Geography with Professional Placement / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Geographies of Globalisation

Course unit fact file
Unit code GEOG10101
Credit rating 10
Unit level Level 1
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Offered by Geography
Available as a free choice unit? Yes

Overview

This course will critically examine notions of globalisation, and in particular, economic globalisation, under the following headings:

  1. Introducing globalisation…
  2. From international to global economy: the changing map of economic activities
  3. Major shapers of the global economy 1: nation-states
  4. Major shapers of the global economy 2: transnational corporations
  5. The role of technology in economic globalisation
  6. Cities/regions in the global economy
  7. Labouring in the global economy
  8. New geographies of international migration
  9. Global markets, global cultures?
  10. The global economy: Who gains?

Aims

  • to develop an understanding of the global scale of human activity with a particular emphasis on the economic dimension.
  • to develop an understanding of how the world is shaped by the interaction between economic, political, social and cultural processes operating at different, but connected, geographical scales, from the global through the national to the local.
  • to develop cognitive and analytical skills.

Teaching and learning methods

 This course unit will essentially be lecture based with some student interaction during lectures.

Course materials/Blackboard:

Course materials – including lecture notes – will be available through the Blackboard site for this course, available at: https://blackboard.manchester.ac.uk/. Lectures will also be recorded (voice and visuals) for you to revisit later.

Lecture materials should be available before the lecture for you to print off. The lecture presentations will only provide the bare bones of the argument, and you must still attend all the lectures and take fulsome notes

Knowledge and understanding

  • demonstrate a basic understanding of the major processes which are creating a new global economic geography
  • demonstrate a basic understanding of the role of key institutions in creating global economic change
  • demonstrate a basic understanding of the key role of city-regions in articulating economic processes in the global economy
  • demonstrate a basic understanding of the population and cultural issues surrounding the processes of economic globalisation

Intellectual skills

  • critical and analytical interpretation of data and texts
  • a basic ability to assess the relative merits of different theories and explanations

Transferable skills and personal qualities

  • reading, learning and study skills
  • spatial awareness and observation skills
  • awareness of your responsibility as a global citizen

Assessment methods

Method Weight
Written exam 100%

Feedback methods

You’ll receive feedback on your work through discussions in your tutorials and through written comments on your tutorial essay on globalisation, should you chose to take this option. 

Recommended reading

Key Text:

  • Dicken, P. (2015) Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy (7th edn.) London: Sage. [Personal E-copy available from the library]

Other Important Texts:

  • Diamond, P. ed., 2018. The crisis of globalization: democracy, capitalism and inequality in the twenty-first century. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
  • Held, D. and McGrew, A. (2003) (eds.) The Global Transformations Reader (2nd edn.), Polity, Cambridge.
  • Herod, A. (2009) Geographies of Globalization. Wiley-Blackwell, Malden/Oxford.
  • Jones, A. (2006) The Dictionary of Globalization, Polity, Cambridge.
  • Knox, P., Agnew, J. & McCarthy, L. (2013) The Geography of the World Economy (6th edn.) Arnold, London.
  • Murray, W. (2006) Geographies of Globalization, Routledge, London.

Key journals

Economic Geography, Environment and Planning A, Geoforum, Global Networks, Globalizations, Journal of Economic Geography, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Urban Studies

A week by week list of essential and recommended reading will be made available

 

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Assessment written exam 2
Lectures 20
Independent study hours
Independent study 78

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Martin Hess Unit coordinator
Jamie Doucette Unit coordinator

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