This interdisciplinary course explores the contemporary character of globalization. The world is shrinking as money, goods, people, ideas, weapons, and information flow across national boundaries. Some commentators assert that a more tightly interconnected world can exacerbate financial disruptions, worsen the gap between rich and poor nations, undermine democracy, imperil national cultures, harm the environment, and give unconstrained freedom to predatory corporations. Others proclaim that globalization - understood as capitalism and free markets - fosters economic growth, encourages creative collaboration, inspires technological breakthroughs, and enhances human prospects for a better life, in rich and poor countries alike, in unprecedented ways. Our task is to evaluate the evidence and draw our own conclusions. A corollary of this is that our lives lack any necessary purpose or meaning. Our readings will be directed to the question of what it means to lack ‘Meaning’. A cross-disciplinary discussion class drawing on a wide variety of examples from ordinary life, fantasy, and culture. We situate the apparently innocuous within larger patterns of social relations and social change.
This interdisciplinary course explores the contemporary character of globalization. The world is shrinking as money, goods, people, ideas, weapons, and information flow across national boundaries. Some commentators assert that a more tightly interconnected world can exacerbate financial disruptions, worsen the gap between rich and poor nations, undermine democracy, imperil national cultures, harm the environment, and give unconstrained freedom to predatory corporations. Others proclaim that globalization - understood as capitalism and free markets - fosters economic growth, encourages creative collaboration, inspires technological breakthroughs, and enhances human prospects for a better life, in rich and poor countries alike, in unprecedented ways. Our task is to evaluate the evidence and draw our own conclusions. A corollary of this is that our lives lack any necessary purpose or meaning. Our readings will be directed to the question of what it means to lack ‘Meaning’. A cross-disciplinary discussion class drawing on a wide variety of examples from ordinary life, fantasy, and culture. We situate the apparently innocuous within larger patterns of social relations and social change.
