China and the Dynamics of Globalization

The aim of the course ‘China and The Dynamics of Globalization’ is twofold. First, to give a multilevel analysis of globalization, connecting the economic to the political and cultural, and interrelating different local, regional, and global arenas, with China as the fascinating case study. The course will be focused on the global division of labor and power (migration, multiple diasporas), and the way people cope with globalization by researching globalization from below. Our emphasis will fall on the interaction between global structures and local outcomes and realities. An anthropological understanding of the dynamics of globalization is that what is often lacking in other disciplines, that is a concrete attentiveness to human agency, to the practices of everyday life, in short to myriad ways in which subjects mediate the process of globalization. This is stressed in the reader students have to study. Lectures will supplement the readings and focus on wider processes and theories of globalization.

This course discusses different theories and perspectives of globalization and its dynamics from an economic, social and cultural perspective. Students learn to understand that globalization is not a single unified phenomenon but a syndrome of processes, and will attempt to capture its ontology. Manifestations of globalization include the reorganization of production and cultural consumption.

Course leader

Dr. Herman Tak

Target group

Students of social sciences (incl. law, economics, business), sciences and engineering at senior undergraduate or graduate level with an interest in politics, governance, commerce and sustainability. A general background in business or the social sciences is desirable, but no specific expertise is required.