What political, economic, and cultural changes occur as nations shift from the traditional to the modern, or (with the fall of the Berlin Wall) from socialism to capitalism?  Why are some nations mired in debt and dependency while others have become successful "newly-industrializing countries?"  Does transnational capitalism promise greater democracy and planetary consciousness through new media technologies, or does the emerging "global village" portend the widening reach of American cultural imperialism?

This course begins with a discussion of the onset of modernity, or Western Enlightenment consciousness especially as related to broad notions of progress, time perception, identity and community, the nation-state, citizenship and democracy.  The second unit examines whether paradigms used to explain the "modernization" of the advanced capitalist nations can be usefully applied in the Third World.  We consider comparative advantage, Rostow's notion of the economic "take-off," dependency and world-systems theory, imperialism, and readings on the globalization of production.

The final unit considers the abstract but powerful concept of globalization, recognizing that the growing porosity of national borders to economic exchanges also impinges on politics and culture.  Is the nation-state withering in the face of subnationalist separatisms and the emergence of supranationalism (UN, EC, NAFTA, etc.)?  With the acceleration of electronic exchanges through new media such as the Internet, is planetary culture becoming more unified, fragmented, or relativized?  We examine how religious fundamentalisms (jihad) arise in response to the culture-ideology of American consumerism (McWorld).

BOOKS AND READER

Purchase books from the Occidental College Bookstore and Reader from Social Sciences administrative assistant Sue Flaherty in Swan M213.  The Reader comes in two parts.  Book reading assignments are labelled (B) in the syllabus and Reader assignments with an (R).

Benjamin Barber.  Jihad vs. McWorld
Rigoberta Menchu. I, Rigoberta
James Mittelman/Mustapha Pasha. Out From Underdevelopment Revisited
Malcolm Waters. Globalization

FILMS

The Gods Must Be Crazy
The Year of Living Dangerously
The Harder They Come

EVALUATION

There will be three take home exams/papers of approximately 5-10 pages required for this course.  Papers must be typed and double-spaced.  You will also be responsible for a one page reaction paper to each film.

INTRODUCTION: THE STUDY OF SOCIAL CHANGE AND MODERNITY

Aug 31  Introduction to the class

 Sept 2  Screening and discussion of Cuba Va (Cuban students speak out about socialism)

Sept 4  View The Gods Must Be Crazy

Sept 7 - Labor Day - NO CLASS

Sept 9  Marshall Sahlins, "The Original Affluent Society" (R)
Discuss The Gods Must Be Crazy

Sept 11  Piotr Sztompka, Ch. 1 (R)

Sept 14  The Idea of Progress
Piotr Sztompka, Ch. 2 (R)
Teodor Shanin, "The Idea of Progress" (R)

Sept 16-18 The Time and Space of Modernity
Piotr Sztompka, Ch. 3, Social Time (R)
Piotr Sztompka, Ch. 5, Modernity (R)
Peter Hamilton, "The Enlightenment and the Birth of Social Science@ (R)

MODERNIZATION: FROM THIRD WORLD TO FIRST WORLD

Sept 21  Defining the Third World
James Mittelman, Preface, Chapter 1 (B)

Sept 23  Modernization
W.W. Rostow, AThe Five Stages of Growth...@ (R)
James Mittelman, Chapter 2 (B)

Sept 25  Dependency
A.G. Frank, "The Development of Underdevelopment" (R)
Fernando Cardoso, "Dependency and Development in Latin America" (R)
First paper due

Sept 28,30 World-Systems Theory and Imperialism
Immanuel Wallerstein, from The Modern World-System (R)
Thomas Shannon, from An Introduction to the World System Perspective (R)
Harry Magdoff, "Imperialism: A Historical Survey" (R)

Oct 2,5  Multinationals and the Globalization of Production
James Mittelman, Chapters 3-4 (B)
Stephen Hymer, "The Multinational Corporation" (R)
Folker Frobel, "The new international division of labor" (R)
Gary Gereffi, "Capitalism, Development, and Global Commodity Chains" (R)

Oct 7  Women in the Global Factory
Ehrenreich and Fuentes, "Life on the Global Assembly Line" (R)
Helen Safa, "Runaway Shops and Female Employment" (R)
Rachel Grossman, "Women's Place in the Integrated Circuit" (R)
Journalism on Nike Corporation in SE Asia (R)

Oct 9  Brazil and the Latin NICs
James Mittelman, Chapter 5 (B)

 Oct 12-13 Fall Holiday - NO CLASS

Oct 14  Morning class cancelled for evening viewing of Year of Living Dangerously

Oct 16  Indonesia
Adam Schwarz, "Growing Pains" (R)
Recent journalism on Indonesia (R)
John Walton, "...the IMF Riots" (R)

Oct 19  The East Asian NICs
James Mittelman, Chapter 6 (B)
Bruce Cumings, "Origins and development of the NE Asian political economy" (R)

Oct 21  China
James Mittelman, Chapter 7 (B)
Journalism from New York Times on China (R)
Andrew Walder, AChina=s Transitional Economy...@ (R)
Francis Lee, AEmerging Superpower@ (R)

Oct 23  Mozambique and Wrap-up on Modernization
Mittelman, Chapters 8-9 (B)

GUATEMALAN JOURNEY/INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Oct 26  Rigoberta Menchu, Preface to Chapter 14 (B)

Oct 28  Rigoberta Menchu, Chapters 15-28 (B)
Second paper due

Oct 30  Rigoberta Menchu, Chapters 29-34
Susanne Jonas, AThe Peace Accords...@ (R)
Alan Durning, ASupport Indigenous Peoples@ (R)

GLOBALIZATION

Nov 2,4 Definitions and periodization
Malcolm Waters, Chapters 1-3 (B)
David Harvey, "The time and space of the Enlightenment project" (R)
Benjamin Barber, Chapters 1-3 (B)

 Cultural Globalization

Nov 6  The Symbolic-Cultural Economy
Benjamin Barber, Chapters 4-5 (B)
Malcolm Waters, Chapters 4, 6 (B)

Nov 9,11,13 The Global Village and the Consumerism of McWorld
Benjamin Barber, Chapters 6-9 (B)
Marshall McLuhan, from Understanding Media (R)
James Petras, "The New Cultural Domination by the Media" (R)
  Leslie Sklair, "The culture-ideology of consumerism in the Third World" (R)
Zhao & Murdock, "Young Pioneers...the Making of Chinese Consumerism" (R)
Screen video: "Flight Over the Equator

 Nov 16  Global Disjuncture and Relativization
Arjun Appadurai, "Disjuncture and Difference..." (R)
Orlando Patterson, "Ecumenical America" (R)

Nov 18  Morning class cancelled for evening viewing of The Harder They Come

Nov 20  Rastafarianism
Discuss The Harder They Come
Horace Campbell, "Rasta, Reggae and Cultural Resistance" (R)
William F. Lewis, selections from "Soul Rebels" (R)

Political Globalization

Nov 23, 25 Whither the Nation-State? Supranationalism or New World Disorder?
Malcolm Waters, Chapter 5 (B)
Jessica Mathews, APower Shift@ (R)
Benjamin Barber, Chapters 10-15 (B)

Nov 26-29 Thanksgiving Break - NO CLASS

Nov30,Dec2 Democratization and the Former Socialist World
View video: AThe Fall of the Berlin Wall@
Barber, Chapters 16-18 (B)
Michael Kennedy, "The End of Soviet-Type Societies" (R)
Thomas Weisskopf, "Market Socialism in the East" (R)
Thomas Carothers, "Democracy Without Illusions" (R)

Dec 4, 7 Globalization and Democracy
Barber, Chapter 19 and Afterword (B)
Malcolm Waters, Chapter 7 (B)
Samuel Huntington, "The West Unique, Not Universal" (R)
Vaclev Havel, "The End of the Modern Era" (R)

Dec 14  Final Paper Due

Course Reader:  SOCIAL CHANGE/Sociology 365
Professor Jan Lin
Fall 1998

PART ONE
1. Marshall Sahlins, "The Original Affluent Society"
2. Teodor Shanin, "The Idea of Progress"
3. Piotr Sztompka, Chapters 1-3 and 5 from The Sociology of Social Change
4. Peter Hamilton, "The Enlightenment and the Birth of Social Science"
5. W.W. Rostow, "The Five Stages of Growth"
6. A.G. Frank, "The Development of Underdevelopment"
7. Fernando Cardoso, "Dependency and Development in Latin America"
8. Thomas Shannon, Chapters 1 and 4 from An Introduction to the World System Perspective
9. Immanuel Wallerstein, excerpts from The Modern World-System I
10. Harry Magdoff, "Imperialism: A Historical Survey"
11. Stephen Hymer, "The Multinational Corporation..."
12. Folker Frobel, "The new international division of labor..."
13. Gary Gereffi" Capitalism, Development and Global Commodity Chains"
14. Ehrenreich and Fuentes, "Life on the Global Assembly Line"
15. Helen Safa, "Runaway Shops and Female Employment..."
16. Rachael Grossman, "Women's Place in the Integrated Circuit"
17. Journalism on Nike Corporation
18. Adam Schwarz, "Growing Pains"
19. Cover articles on Indonesia from Far Eastern Economic Review
20. John Walton, "Urban Protest ... the IMF Riots"
21. Bruce Cumings, "Origins and development of the NE Asian political economy"
22. "The 21st Century Starts Here: China Booms. The World Holds Its Breath."
23. Andrew Walder, "China's Transitional Economy..."
24. Francis Lee, "Emerging Superpower"
25. Susanne Jonas, "The Peace Accords..."
26. Alan Durning, "Support Indigenous Peoples"

PART TWO
27. David Harvey, "The time and space of the Enlightenment project"
28. Marshall McLuhan, Chapters 1 and 10 from Understanding Media
29. Excerpts on global village from Forward Through the Rearview Mirror
30. James Petras, "The New Cultural Domination by the Media"
31. Leslie Sklair, "The Culture-Ideology of Consumerism in the Third World"
32. Bin Zhao/Graham Murdock, "Young Pioneers...the Making of Chinese Consumerism"
33. Arjun Appadurai, "Disjuncture and Difference..."
34. Orlando Patterson, "Ecumenical America"
35. William Lewis, Chapters 1 and 12 from Soul Rebels
36. Horace Campbell, "Rasta, Reggae and Cultural Resistance"
37. Jessica Matthews, "Power Shift"
38. Michael D. Kennedy, "The End of Soviet-Type Societies"
39. Thomas Weisskopf, "Market Socialism in the East"
40. Thomas Carothers, "Democracy Without Illusions"
41. Samuel Huntington, "The West Unique, Not Universal"
42. Vaclev Havel, "The End of the Modern Era"