BSc Economics / Course details

Standing at a crossroads, where ongoing “slowbalization” coincides with new forces such as the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, heightened geopolitical tensions, the emergence of disruptive technologies, and the increasing urgency of addressing environmental challenges, many important questions remain unsolved regarding the nature and impact of the current economic globalisation. This course unit critically examines the process of globalisation and its history along different dimensions, with a focus on economic globalisation and transformation, but also addressing social and cultural forms of globalisation such as migration, labour and the globalisation of cultures, as well as the role of place and cities in the cotemporary era.

• 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.

 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).

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 !

• 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

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

Information handling

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

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