ANT 323: Globalization

This course examines historical and contemporary studies of ‘globalization,’ a term that has become commonplace in popular and academic discourse. We consider globalization in terms of an apparently increasing velocity in the spread of ideas, commodities, laborers and capital around the world, but we take an anthropological approach to understanding this, meaning that we couple top-down or macro- level theory with deep attention to local experience through ethnographic research. The first part of the course focuses on what is meant by social scientists when we use terms like globalization, the second is devoted to 20th century histories, particularly development ideology, and the last third examines commodification and the global and local natures of consumption.