UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
GLOBALIZATION: SOCIAL THEORY AND PRACTICE
Frank Thompson
This course serves to satisfy the gateway requirement for the Social Theory and Practice concentration and for the Peace and Social Justice minor.
The course meets 11-12 MWF in 126 East Quad. Office hours after class at the Rendezvous (before the break) and at Dominick’s (after the break), and by appointment schedulable via 647 4364 or clmurph@umich.ed, or
https://www-a1.lsa.umich.edu/AdvAppts/AA_StuSelfSvc1.aspx?ctgy=ECON.
Reading:
Two books are required and are available commercially as well as in the University Reserves:
Globalization: A Very Short Introduction (Second Edition), by Manfred Steger (Oxford University Press, 2009.
The Law of Peoples, by John Rawls (Harvard University Press, 2001).
All other course reading is available on the CTools coursesite.
Writing:
The midterm paper (10% of course grade) will be due on Friday, 25 February. (Topic suggestions will be available on Friday, 11 February.) The term paper (30% of course grade) will be due on the last day of class, Monday, 18 April.
The midterm exam (20% of course grade) will be given in class on Wednesday, 23 February. The final exam (40% of course grade) will be given 4:00-6:00 on Monday, 25 April.
Extra credit or discredit may be due via surprise quizzes in class.
Because of the substantial amount of interactive evaluation involved in the course, there will be no make-up exams and late papers will not be accepted. (The midterm and term papers are to be uploaded to the Drop Box on our CTools coursesite by 11 am on their due dates.)
Some aspects of the course can be modified to facilitate full participation and fair evaluation of students with SSD recognized disabilities. Students needing such an accommodation should make this known at the beginning of the course. (Such information will be treated as private and confidential.)
Discussion:
Discussion in class and beyond is strongly encouraged. In particular students are urged to participate via rcssci_226_globalization@ctools.umich.edu.
Outline Schedule of Assignments:
5-7 January: Introduction.
Reading:
“On a Supposed Antinomy,” by Willard Van Orman Quine. The Ways of Paradox and Other Essays by Willard Van Orman Quine, Harvard, 1966, Chapter 2.
Peter Singer, "Famine, Affluence, and Morality," Philosophy & Public Affairs 1 (1972): 229-243.
World Bank, Equity and Development: World Development Report 2006, Chapter 3.
7 January: Film: Boca de Lixo: The Scavengers (Eduardo Coutinho, 1993).
8-21 January: Fundamentals of Human Development Theory.
Reading:
Manfred Steger, Globalization: A Very Short Introduction, All.
David Weil, Economic Growth (Pearson/Addison Wesley, 2005), pp. 1-77.
Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom (New York: Knopf, 1999), Chapter 6.
Dan Morrell, “Who Is Poor?,” Harvard Magazine, January-February 2011, pp. 9-10.
United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report 2010, Tables 1 and 3.
22-28 January: Does Within-Country Inequality Matter?
Reading:
World Bank, Equity and Development: World Development Report 2006, Chapters. 4-6.
28 January: Film: Philosophy and Politics
29 January – 4 February: Do Rich Countries Have Duties of Justice to Poor Countries?
Reading:
Thomas Nagel, "The Problem of Global Justice," Philosophy & Public Affairs 33 (2005): 113-147.
Dani Rodrik, “New Rules for the Global Economy,” Project Syndicate, 11 January 2011.
Thomas Pogge, World Poverty and Human Rights (Polity Press, 2002), pp. 112-117.
Thomas Pogge, "Severe Poverty as a Human Rights Violation," in Thomas Pogge (ed.), Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right (Oxford University Press, 2007).
5-11 February: A Modest Theory of Positive Duties toward the Global Poor.
Reading:
John Rawls, The Law of Peoples, §§ 1-4, 7-8, 10-11, 15-16, 18.
Thomas Pogge, "Why Inequality Matters," in David Held and Ayse Kaya, eds., Global Inequality (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007), pp. 132-147.
10 February: Midterm paper topics distributed.
12-21 February: A Cosmopolitan Theory of Global Justice.
Reading:
Darrell Moellendorf, Cosmopolitan Justice, pp. 16-20, 30-38, 69-100.
23 February: Midterm examination.
25 February: Midterm paper due.
7-11 March: An Intermediate Theory of Global Justice.
Joshua Cohen and Charles Sabel, "Extra Rempublicam Nulla Justitia?"Philosophy & Public Affairs 34 (2006): 147-175.
7 March: Film: Doing the Right Thing (Hilary Sandison, 2001)
12-18 March: What Can Be Done to Promote Global Justice?
Reading:
World Bank, Equity and Development: World Development Report 2006, Chapters. 7, 9, 10.
19-25 March: Sweatshops and Justice
Reading:
Anton Foek, "Sweatshop Barbie: Exploitation of Third World Labor," The Humanist 57 (1997).
Joseph Kahn, "Chinese Girls' Toil Brings Pain, Not Riches," New York Times, 2 October 2003, A1.
Allen Myerson, "In Principle, a Case for More "Sweatshops"," New York Times, 22 June 1997, D5.
Ian Maitland, "The Great Non-debate Over International Sweatshops," British Academy of Management Annual Conference Proceedings, September 1997, reprinted in Ethical Theory and Business (6th ed.), ed. Tom Beauchamp and Norman Bowie (Prentice Hall, 2001), 603.
Meyers, Chris. "Wrongful Beneficence: Exploitation and Third World Sweatshops," Journal of Social Philosophy 35 (2004): 319-33.
26 March – 1 April: Immigration.
Reading:
David Miller, "Immigration: The Case for Limits,"Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005).
Chandran Kukathas, "The Case for Open Immigration," Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005).
Lant Pritchett, “Let Their People Come: Breaking the Deadlock on Global Labor Mobility,” Washington, D.C.: Center for Global Development, 2006).
Roger Lowenstein, "The Immigration Equation," New York Times, 9 July 2006.
2-8 April: Free Trade.
Reading:
Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman, "The Case for Free Trade," excerpted from Free to Choose (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980), excerpt reprinted in Hoover Digest 4 (1997).
Peter Singer, One World: The Ethics of Globalization (Yale University Press, 2004), Chapter 3.
Dean Baker, "Trade and Inequality: The Role of Economists," Real-world Economics Review 45, 15 March 2008, pp. 23-32.
Douglas Massey, "Caution: NAFTA at Work," Miller-McCune, April-May 2008.
John Audley, Demetrios Papademetriou, Sandra Polaski, and Scott Vaughan, NAFTA's Promise and Reality: Lessons from Mexico for the Hemisphere (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004), pp. 5-29.
9-18 April: Intellectual Property and Access to Medicine.
Reading:
Alex Rosenberg, "On the Priority of Intellectual Property Rights, Especially in Biotechnology," Politics, Philosophy, and Economics 3 (2004): pp. 77-95.
Thomas Pogge, "Medicines for the World: Boosting Innovation without Obstructing Free Access," Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 2008.
18 April: Term paper due.
25 April: Final examination (4:00-6:00)