SOCIOLOGY

Dear globalizers and anti-globalizers (i.e. students), The second Global Society midterm exam has been moved to Thursday, March 27, in class. It had been previously scheduled for Tuesday. The topic will be only economic globalization / neoliberalism, so I will ask more thought questions, and more questions from the readings and films (Geraldo, No Logo, and so on). GI

Review Sheet for Global Society Midterm II Economic Liberalism Laissez-faire capitalism “invisible hand” Adam Smith Economic freedom Economic equality Communism Socialism Liberal capitalism British Empire Crises of liberal capitalism The welfare state Social security Pensions “Keynesianism” Crises of the welfare state Stagflation Oil embargo Neo-classical economics Think tanks Neoliberalism Anti-globalization social movements The “Washington Consensus” Left-wing critics of globalization Right-wing critics of globalization Southeast Asia Peter Martin Martin Wolfe Xenophobia Racism Hatred of markets “race to the bottom” Inequality within nations Inequality between nations GINI index Neo-colonialism The “global North” The “global South” Kenichi Ohmae Nation-states Region-states “Global logic” “extortionate demands” Foreign investment Foreign ownership Foreign products “civil minimum” ...

Neoliberalism / Economic Globalization 1. “Economic Liberalism” This is not an economics course, but we can discuss the basic principles of what is sometimes known as “Anglo-Saxon” or “Anglo-American ” or “laissez-faire ” capitalism , and its transformation. Adam Smith: the “invisible hand” of the market provides goods and services for all of us. Free trade is good because, since individuals are rational and self-interested , and tend to negotiate and trade and bargain, and because whenever people trade or buy goods or services both parties must gain (most of the time), governments should allow free trade. Governments should not interfere in the market. Economic liberalism thus gave priority to economic freedom over economic equality Liberal capitalism was the official economic system, and the economic backbone, of the British Empire, and it was the dominant global system until the early 20 th cen...

Cultural Theory We have mentioned culture a few times already. Along with functionalist theory and conflict theory , cultural theory is one of the big theoretical perspectives in sociology. Also, the textbook’s definition of society itself includes the concept of culture. And in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism , Max Weber argued that Calvinists’ culture, and not only technology, economics, or power, contributed to the success of capitalism. When we talked about differences between different countries, students said that different countries have different cultures. But What is Culture? What does the word Culture mean? One definition is that it is different from economic and political processes . This might help, but it’s not a very good definition. Most discussions of Culture start with the idea that people are different from animals because people have culture . Some animals use tools and some teach each other how to ...