Aims

The aim of the course is to enable students to acquire theoretical, methodological and empirical tools with which to analyse, interpret and explain the many facets of present-day processes of globalisation, and to position themselves vis-à-vis these processes.

Content and teaching methods

The first part of the course is devoted to analysis of the process of globalisation and the theories that have accompanied it. It will highlight the dominance of economic variables in present-day theorisation of phenomena described by the concept of globalisation.
The second part will focus on the main characteristics of modern globalisation at an ideological, political, economic and socio-economic level.
Globalisation is a corpus of observable facts, but it is also - perhaps, above all - an ideological narrative of contemporary societies. It presents itself as the present-day meaning of history under construction.
The third part will, again in the framework of a number of prospective scenarios, analyse the exceptionally devastating consequences of current globalisation on politics, the state, the economy, the effectiveness and efficiency of technical systems, social relations, international relations, democracy, justice, peace, development, and towns and cities.
The fourth part will analyse trends and the reasons for them, and alternatives to present-day globalisation, and will make a detailed examination of postulates, writers, and the feasibility of a social contract.

Other credits in programs