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Mount Ida College
SO 355 Social Issues in Global Perspective
Spring, 2010
(For printable
version click here.)
Instructor: Dr. Madeleine Cousineau
Office Hours: Monday 12;
Tuesday, 13
p.m.
(other times by
appointment) |
Office: Academic Tech
Center 232
Telephone: 617-928-7304 |
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Email: |
mcousineau(at)mountida.edu
mrcousineau(at)comcast.net |
PURPOSE, STRUCTURE, AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES
This
course examines the human consequences of economic
globalization. Its goal is to deepen students' understanding of
the effects of large scale societal
changes on the lives of individuals and the actions of people all over the world
in response to
those changes, with particular attention to issues of
democracy, equality, and culture. The structure of includes
lectures, videos and discussions, and students' participation is
welcomed in all of these formats. By the end of the course each
student should be able to:
*The first three objectives relate to the Social World area of
the All College Curriculum (ACC)
| COURSE
REQUIREMENTS
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Readings
Due dates for the readings are in the outline at the
end of this syllabus. Assignments include two items on
library reserve, a handout, and the following two books:
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Debi Barker
and Jerry Mander, Invisible
Government.
D. Stanley Eitzen and Maxine Baca Zinn (editors), Globalization:
The Transformation of Social Worlds (second
edition)
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Each
student must purchase the Eitzen/Zinn book in oder to pass this
course.
The Barker and Mander booklet may be downloaded without charge from the
following website: http://www.ifg.org/store.htm. Study guides
with questions on the readings, which will be the basis for
written assignments and class discussions, are on the Angel
Learning Network.
(If you are unable to access Angel, please use the links at the
top of this page.)
Written
Work and Oral Report
This course fulfills requirements of
the All College Curriculum for both writing intensive (W) and
oral communications (O) courses. Each student will write weekly
critical commentaries on the readings, based on the
above-mentioned study guides, as well as a paper. You may skip
one commentary in February and one in March or April.
Instructions for the paper will be handed out in class. This
paper will form the basis for an oral presentation to be given
between April 28 and May 5. Students will work together in teams
on a general topic, such as
U.S.
and Global Poverty, Environmental Issues, Food and
Agriculture, the Global Gender Order, Racism and Immigration, or
Global Social Movements. All members of one team will give their
presentations on the same day, but each student will write a
separate paper.
Exams
There will be a midterm exam on October 15 and
a final during the exam period. Each exam will have both short
answers and written sections, and will be based on the readings
and on concepts related to those readings.
Preparation
for the exams begins in the first week of class. The study guide
mentioned in the previous section provides, in addition to
discussion questions, the concepts that you need to learn for
each week. The consistent use of the study guide every week is
essential for passing this course.
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COURSE POLICIES
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Attendance
Your contribution is valuable, both for yourself and for other
students. For this reason attendance is required. More than six
absences will result in an automatic F for the course. Frequent late arrival will count
as one-third of an absence each time. If there are special circumstances affecting your
attendance, please let me know. Students who wish to be excused for a religious
holiday must submit a statement of one full page, typewritten,
explaining the meaning of the holiday. This statement must be
handed in one week before the proposed absence. PLEASE
NOTE: Class cancellations will be posted on Angel.
There is no ten-minute rule in this course. If class is
not cancelled, students who leave after ten minutes will be
marked absent.
Individual Needs
If you have a documented learning disability, please let me
know by January 25, in case you may later need alternative
testing or other accommodations.
Communication
You
are welcomed to drop in during my office hours, to talk with me
after class, or to make an appointment. At other times the
best way to reach me is by email. If a message is important
or urgent, please send it to both of my addresses,
mcousineau(at)mountida.edu and mrcousineau(at)comcast.net. Announcements
will be posted on Angel.
Barks, Beeps, and Tweets
Seeing
eye dogs are welcomed in the classroom, but all other non-human
companions will be asked to stay outside.
A class is a community of learners, and conversations
among students before and after class help to build that community.
So please turn off your cell phone, iPod, and any other electronics
before you
enter the classroom.
Learning Environment
We all have a right to be respected. In this class each
person is expected to treat others with courtesy and respect, to listen when others
speak, and to refrain from private conversations and other
distracting behavior. In addition, in order to ensure that
everyone feels accepted and supported, it needs to be understood
that negative comments related
to race, ethnicity, religion, age, sex, sexual
orientation, or disability are not acceptable. Students who disregard any of
these principles will be
suspended from the course until they have a meeting with the instructor. The intent of this policy is to create an
environment in which all students may maximize their learning
potential.
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ACADEMIC HONESTY
Honesty is an absolute requirement in this course. Cheating is harmful to the student who does it,
since that student is not learning as much as he or she could
learn by studying. It is also unfair to other students, who may
study hard for a test and get lower grades than those who cheat.
For these reasons there is a policy of ZERO TOLERANCE for
cheating on exams or plagiarism in relation to the essays. Students who are caught plagiarizing on
essays, cheating on
exams, or encouraging others to cheat will be dismissed from the
course with a grade of F for the entire course.
Plagiarism is using someone else's ideas without
giving credit to the original author. This includes:
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Copying
another student's assignment and handing it in as though it
were your own;
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Copying
any part of someone else's work;
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Copying
words directly out of a book or article for a paper,
essay, or other written assignment without using quotation marks
around the words copied;
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Taking ideas out of a book
or articleeven if not using
the exact wordswithout showing in a
footnote or other form of citation where those ideas
came from;
- Copying material from the Internet.
How
can you keep your work free from plagiarism?
Besides the common-sense answer of not doing things that
you already know are dishonest,
remember:
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Always
write a citation to show where an idea came from, unless
you came up with it completely on your own. If you do
not know how to do citations, ask one of your
professors.
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Whenever
you use the exact words that are written in a book, put
quotation marks around those words; the only time you
don't need quotation marks is when a professor wants you
to memorize something word-for-word, such as definitions
of terms,
Don't
be afraid to express your own ideas about something you
read in a book, article, or website. Sometimes students are afraid that they
might not have understood a reading assignment, and that
if they copy the words of the author they will be sure
to get it right. These students need to realize that the
professor knows what is in the reading assignment, and
will recognize the words that the students copied.
DO
NOT COPY FROM THE INTERNET ! ! ! It is
extremely easy for
a professor to find evidence of Internet plagiarism. So don't
even think about doing this.
Final Grade Calculation
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Distribution: |
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Points
to Grade: |
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Commentaries
on Readings...................
Paper...................................................
Presentation.........................................
Midterm Exam.....................................
Final Exam..........................................
Total ..................................................
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20%
25%
15%
20%
20%
100% |
93-100
points
90-92 points
87-89 points
83-86 points
80-82 points
77-79 points
73-76 points |
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C |
70-72
points
67-69 points
63-66 points
60-62 points
Below 60 |
C-
D+
D
D-
F |
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of C-minus or lower will be reported as midterm warnings. |
Extra Credit
You may earn extra credit by answering the bonus questions
in the weekly written assignment, by bringing in a news item
related to the course, or by coming to my office for help in
understanding the readings or writing responses to the study
questions, or for help with your paper or presentation. For each
of these, up to ten points per week will be added to the grade
for the written assignment.
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CALENDAR/OUTLINE
(Except for the booklet by Barker and Mander and the
items on library reserve, all of the reading assignments are from Globalization:
the Transformation of Social Worlds, by Eitzen and Zinn.)
| I.
Introduction to Globalization (January 2029) |
| Read by
January
22:
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Adler, excerpt from Molly's
Job (library reserve). |
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January 27:
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Eitzen and Zinn, Introduction, pp. 17;
Giddens, "Globalisation," pp. 1117;
Eitzen, "Dimensions of Globalization," pp. 3440. |
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II. Economics and Poverty (February 110)
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| Read
by February 3:
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Barker
and Mander, Invisible Government, pp. 110;
Brecher et al., "Globalization and its
Specter," pp. 2329;
Weller and Hirsch, Free Markets and Poverty, pp.
5963
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February 10: |
Moberg, "Maytag Moves to Mexico," pp. 8185;
Gordon, "The Sweat Behind the Shirt: The Labor
History of a Gap Sweatshirt," p. 86;
Ferus-Comelo, "Double Jeopardy: Gender and
Migration in Electronics Manufacturing,"
pp. 8797. |
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III. The Globalization of Culture (February 1217) |
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Read by February 17:
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Barker and Mander, Invisible Government, pp. 2830.
Steger, "Global Culture: Sameness or
Difference?" pp. 147150;
Fink, "The Place of Community in
Globalization," pp. 151155;
Ainger, "Empires of the Senseless," pp.
156162.
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| IV.
Environment, Food, and Agriculture (February 19March 5)
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| Read
by
February 24:
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Barker and
Mander, Invisible Government, pp. 1319;
Batten et al., "Climate Refugees: Global Warming
Will Spur Migration," pp. 289290;
Roberts, "What Will Become of Tuvalu's Climate
Refugees?" (on library reserve)
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P R O P O S A L S
F O R P A P E R S D
U E O N M A R C
H 1 |
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by
March
5:
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Barker and
Mander, Invisible Government, pp. 2027;
Rosenberg,
"Why Mexico's Small Corn Farmers Go Hungry,"
pp. 137138;
Halweil, "The Rise of food Democracy," pp. 334337.
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M I D T E R M E X A
M M A R C H 8
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P L A N N I N
G F O R P A P E R
S A N D P R E S E N
T A T I O N S :
M A R C H 1 0
1 2
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| V.
Global Racism, Migration and Present-Day Slavery
(March 2231) |
| Read by
March 24:
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Marable,
"Globalization and Racialization," pp. 317322;
Robinson, "Globalization and Immigrant
Rights," pp. 99105;
Immigrant Fact Sheet (hand-out); |
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B
I B L I O G R A P H Y F O R M
S D U E O
N M A R C H 2 4 |
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March
31:
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Stein, "No Way Out," pp. 275280;
Cockburn, "21st Century Slaves,"
pp. 281288.
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VI. The World Gender Order (April 27)
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| Read by
April 7:
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Connell, "Masculinities and Globalization," pp.
209219;
Ehrenreich
and Hochschild, "Global Woman," pp. 165174.
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P A P E R D U E
O N A P R I L 1 4
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VII.
Globalization, Politics, and Change
(April 926)
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April 21:
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Chua, "Globalizing Hate," pp. 226230;
Brecher et al., "Globalization and Social
Movements," pp. 298312.
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S T U D E N T P R
E S E N T A T I O N S : A P R I
L 2 8 M A
Y 5
R E V I S I O N S
O F P A P E R S D U
E O N M A
Y 7
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VIII.
Summing Up (May 710)
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F I N
A L E X A M P E R I O D :
M A Y 1 1
1 5
Please do not arrange to travel before May 15
The final exam will be given only on the day and time designated
by the Registrar.
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