Armin Rosencranz (armin@stanford.edu) Stanford Univ. Spring ‘06
Office hours: Mon/Wed 3-5, Rm. 102G Tel. 725-9704 or 324-3454
GLOBALIZATION, LABOR AND ENVIRONMENT (HB 143)
Tues. 3:15 – 6:05 in 160-315
A. Overview
This is a service-learning course based, in part, on am internship with a Bay Area NGO active on globalization issues. This course’s themes are the impacts of globalization on labor and environmental standards around the world. We’ll explore corporate accountability and how multinational extractive industries sometimes collude with repressive governments, and the resulting harm that befalls local people -- mostly in the South. We will examine the three primary institutions of globalization -- the World Bank, the Int’l Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. Following introductory readings, the class will read and discuss materials partly developed and assembled by class members on the sub-themes of corporate accountability, the institutions of globalization, and the labor and environment sides of globalization.
B. Course Responsibilities
Besides preparing and discussing the readings, class members will prepare a case study of 8 to 10 pages dealing with the impact of particular multinational corporate activity on local people. These case studies will be posted on the class website (Courework.Stanford.edu) and discussed in class and in breakout groups. The class may invite environmental or labor NGO leaders to share their experiences. There will be two showings of the film “The Corporation,” and viewing it is a class requirement. Thirty minutes of each Tuesday class will be devoted to small group discussion. These groups will also summarize portions of the two globalization books.
There will also be an internship with one of 12 Bay Area NGOs involved with globalization issues. Working in teams of at least two people on a project selected by the NGO, each class member will offer 20-24 hours of research on the project. There will probably be a site visit to the team’s NGO. Each team will share its internship experience and findings with the whole class. The internship research product will be evaluated by the NGO contact person and me.
C. Weekly Assignments
Week 2 (4/11): Martin Wolf, Why Globalization Works (2004) CLASS INPUT TO MODIFY COURSEWORK READINGS
Week 3 (4/18): Int’l Forum on Globalization, Alternatives to Economic Globalization (2004) MEETINGS WITH ARMIN TO ORGANIZE CASE STUDIES
Week 4 ((4/25): Corporate Responsibility and Accountability (posted on the Coursework website) CHOOSING OF INTERNSHIPS (all internship offers will be posted on Coursework)
Week 5 (5/2): Int’l Institutions of Globalization: WTO, World Bank, IMF (posted on the Coursework website)
Week 6 (5/9): Globalization and Labor (posted on the Coursework website) CASE STUDIES DUE
Week 7 (5/16): Globalization and Environment (posted on the Coursework website) CONFERENCES ON CASE STUDIES
Weeks 8 & 9 (5/23 & 30): reading and discussion of case studies
Week 10 (6/6): completion of internship, preparation of research product, and sharing of internship experiences and findings
D. Evaluation:
Students will be evaluated per the following elements:
Case study 1/3
Internship research product 1/3
Seminar and small group participation 1/3
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