BA Geography

In recent years the idea of globalization has been questioned in the context of rising right-wing populism, financial instability, and post-pandemic uncertainties. Nonetheless, such turbulent times have only demonstrated the need to better grasp the forces shaping and transforming established global connections across politics, economies, and societies. For despite its maligning by contemporary actors, ‘global’ thinking is perhaps more vital than ever for grasping the changing natures of global production, technology, governance, migration and geopolitics in uncertain times. For many important questions remain unsolved regarding the nature and impact of the current geography of globalisation. This course unit critically examines the process of globalisation and its many geographies. While the focus foregrounds political and economic dimensions of globalisation and its transformations, important social and cultural connections shaping migration, labour, as well as the role of place and cities are also examined in order to paint a comprehensive picture of the global forces shaping the present.

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

Indicative week by week content below (subject to minor changes):

1:  Introducing globalisation… and thinking globally 
2:  Long durée histories of globalization 
3:  The return of the state (in capitalism) 
4:  Labouring in the global economy: North and South 
5.  The Geopolitical Present: war, resources, territory
6:  Global care chains, fortress regions, and reproductive struggles
7:  Planetary scales of urbanization and the salience of cities 
8:  Producing global cultures through mobility 
9:  Tackling trafficking in the global political ecology 
10: Confronting inequality in the contemporary age 
 

Learning style:

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 in advance through the VLE. Lectures will also be recorded (voice and visuals) .

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

• describe and explain the major processes which shape contemporary global connections
• describe and explain the role of key institutions that shape global governance
• describe and explain the key role that place and technology play in the production of global processes
• describe and explain how processes of geopolitics and economics of globalisation are shaped by social and cultural relations

• critically interpret and analyse data and  texts
• evaluate the relative merits of different theories and approaches to thinking globally

• Effectively use data and information and apply as examples to thinking global 
   

• research, select, source, and cite relevant and reliable sources beyond the course materials
• spatial awareness and observation skills
• awareness of your responsibility as a global citizen
 

Formative Assessment Task: Mock multiple-choice quiz delivered around Lecture 6

Length (word count/time):  15 minutes

How and when feedback is provided:  Self-assessed with provided answers

Expected outcome of formative assessment:  Demonstrate level of detail and familiarity with concepts and ideas required for summative assessment.

Assessment task:  Open book exam delivered online, answering one question from a selection of six

Length:  1,200 words maximum

How and when feedback is provided:  Written comments on exam answer, available early in the following Semester

Weighting:  100%
 

Indicative Texts:

Chan, J., Selden, M. and Pun, N., 2020. Dying for an iPhone: Apple, Foxconn, and the Lives of China's Workers. Haymarket Books.

Peck, J., 2023. Variegated economies. Oxford University Press.

Slobodian, Q., 2023. Crack-up capitalism: Market radicals and the dream of a world without democracy. New York: Random House.

Yeung, H.W.C., 2022. Interconnected worlds: Global electronics and production networks in East Asia. Stanford University Press.

Other Important Texts:

Alami, I., Dixon, A.D. and Mawdsley, E., 2021. State capitalism and the new global D/development regime. Antipode, 53(5), pp.1294-1318.

Dicken, P., 2015. Global shift: Mapping the changing contours of the world economy. SAGE Publications Ltd.7th edition.

Mezzadri, A., 2016. The sweatshop regime: Labouring bodies, exploitation, and garments made in India. Cambridge University Press.

Hanlon, B. and Vicino, T., 2014. Global migration: The basics. Routledge.

Fourcade, M. and Healy, K., 2024. The ordinal society. Harvard University Press.

Key journals
Antipode, Political Geography, Economic Geography, Environment and Planning A,C,D, Geoforum, Global Networks, Globalizations, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Urban Studies

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