Global Studies 300
Local Responses to Global Issues: Case Studies from Around the World
M,W 4:00-5:15 Stevenson 3036
Professor Tom Shaw
Fall 2011

 

Global issues cross national borders. They are not isolated within single societies or cultures. Still, our understanding of global human issues is greatly enhanced by a careful analysis of how they affect particular people in particular places. In this course we will examine a handful of important global issues in the context of they impact individuals in a particular place and culture, at a particular time. In keeping with the GE, Area D1 requirement, this class focuses on how people respond to issues as these are filtered through a prism that combines culture, social structure, institutions, ideologies and customary practices. Human responses to global issues will be the focus and primary point of interest in this course. Not all global issues will be dealt with each semester this course is offered. Candidates for coverage include health pandemics, human trafficking, refugees, poverty, hunger and the politics of food and water, human rights, a spectrum of environmental issues, inequality, racism and other fundamentalist ideologies. Determination of the issues covered in any given semester will be made by the professor before the start of the class. This semester we will visit Chinese, Brazilian, South African and American cultures through the eyes and experiences of people 'on the ground.'

Course readings will highlight the diverse ways humans adapt to global challenges at the local level. Case studies will mostly feature the aubiographies of individuals who have made a significant impact locally as they dealt with a global issue. Cases will illustrate how these persons have had to interact with social systems and institutions as they responded to challenges. Students will spend three or four weeks on each case study, focusing first on prevailing political and cultural institutions, and secondly on the specific actions of individuals who have (more or less) successfully navigated those institutions to meet the challenge. Students will discover how institutions and cultural frameworks impact a person’s or group’s responses to global challenges, and they will learn how people often “bend” forces to meet challenges. They will see how in some instances individuals creatively negotiate solutions that oppose society. At the same time, they will learn how human responses are impacted by social structures that distribute resources and life chances unequally and, some would argue, unfairly.

Course Objectives

1. Students will explore global human issues and people’s responses in a variety of cultures and settings.
2. Students will gain an understanding that people respond to global challenges in their environment using the tools at their disposal: cultural frameworks, social institutions, ethnic politics, religious and other ideological narratives, including artistic media.
3. Students will better understand the systemic causes of global social problems including political and social oppression, poverty, resource shortages and so on.
4. Students will explore how social structures and institutions change as problems are challenged and addressed.
5. Students will learn how responses to global issues are impacted by social structures that distribute resources unequally.
6. Students will learn how different people creatively resist oppressive social structures and institutions.

Course Readings

Autobiography:

Fight for the Forest, by Chico Mendes
Witness to AIDS, by Edwin Cameron
The Islamist
, by Ed Husain

Documentary (non-fiction): Fanshen, by William Hinton

*all books available at SSU bookstore
Also available online, through the SSU Library:

Book: Fanshen.
Book: Witness to AIDS

Also, some articles may be provided in class to give students some historical background and current context to each of the issues discussed in class.

Evaluation Criteria

The class will use a combination of assessments, including a final project. Final grades will consist of:

Attendance & Participation 10%
Exams (2) 30%
Presentation 20%
Final Paper 40%

Thesis statement 15%
Annotated outline 25%
Paper 60%

*Description of Final Paper:
Students will, over the course of the semester, research a specific global issue and study the responses of people in the context of their unique culture, social system and ideology. 8-10 pgs.

Class Schedule

DATES

TOPICS

READING

Weds, Aug 24: Class 1: Introduction to course  
 

I. Inequality: Understanding the revolution in China & the roots of Chinese communism

Mon, Aug 28

Marxist ideology, capital and commodity fetishism
Land re-distribution and collectivization

Book: Start reading Fanshen. By 9/19 read Chaps. 1,2,3,8-11,13-16, 20-24,29-34. (186 pgs total)
Article: Modules on Marx; Read Marx I, III, and IV. (on ideology, capital and fetishism)

Wed, Aug 31
Mon, Sep 5 Labor Day  
Wed, Sep 7 Identifying the class enemy  
Mon, Sep 12 Current Political Economic Structures and Human Rights Issues in China

Film: China: A Century of Revolution (DVD 702)
Finish Fanshen

Wed, Sep 14
Mon, Sep 19

Student Presentations: Current Political Struggles by Individuals in China

Marxist analysis of the Family
Wed, Sep 21
 

II. Economic Development, the environment and its people: Brazilian rainforest

Mon, Sep 26 The economic imperative. One man’s quest to level the playing field. Book: finish by October 10 Fight for the Forest
Movie: Voice of the Amazon
Due: Thesis statement for final paper
Wed, Sep 28
Mon, Oct 3

Fighting the capitalist juggernaut

Movie: Up the Yangtze
Wed, Oct. 5
Mon, Oct 10 Student presentations: fighting the capitalist juggernaut  
Wed, Oct 12
Mon, Oct 17

EXAM: Inequality in China; Development and the rainforest

 

III. Health and Social Justice: AIDS

Wed, Oct 19 Health policy and the poor

Read Book: Witness to AIDS, Chaps 1-2.
Also read: HIV/AIDS and Sorcery

Mon, Oct 24 AIDS, social stigma and public policy Read Book: Witness to AIDS, Chaps 3-8
Wed, Oct 26
Mon, Oct 31
Wed, Nov 2 Student presentations: health and social justice
Mon, Nov 7
 

IV. Racism, and other fundamentalist ideologies

Wed, Nov 9 Fundamentalism on the rise Read Book: The Islamist
Mon, Nov 14

Due Monday 11/14: Annotated Outline
Film. The Believer

Wed, Nov 16
Nov. 21-Nov. 25 Thanksgiving
Mon, Nov 28 The Islamist
Wed, Nov 30 Student Presentations: Fundamentalist Ideologies
Mon, Dec 5 Student Presentations: Fundamentalist Ideologies
Wed, Dec 7

EXAM: Health & Social Justice (AIDS) and fundamentalist ideologies

Final Papers Due
(for a relatively brief guide to writing a paper that argues a point, check this out)

(for a more extensive look at the ins and outs of making an argument in an academic paper, check this out)


Class Policies

There are important University policies that you should be aware of, such as the add/drop policy; cheating and plagiarism policy, grade appeal procedures; accommodations for students with disabilities and the diversity vision statement. (Go to this URL to find them: http://www.sonoma.edu/uaffairs/policies/studentinfo.shtml)