[ Wesleyan Home Page ] [ WesMaps Home Page ] [ WesMaps Archive ] [ Course Search ] [ Course Search by CID ]
Academic Year 2002/2003

The Sociology of the Capitalist World-System
SOC 264 SP

This course is an introduction to competing theories of the capitalist world-system. Its basic premise is that the world we live in today is a capitalist world-system and that it originated in western Europe circa 1600. The course will focus on theories of the causes of its emergence in western Europe; the characteristics of the global division of labor between core, semi-peripheral, and peripheral nation-states; the role of the state; nationalism and racism in the global division of labor, and the contradictory tendencies of this world system.

MAJOR READINGS

J.M. Blaut, THE COLONIZER'S MODEL OF THE WORLD
Karl Marx, SELECTED WRITINGS
Adam Smith, AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF WEALTH OF NATIONS
Eric Wolf, EUROPE AND THE PEOPLE WITHOUT HISTORY
Eric Hobsbawn, THE AGE OF CAPITAL
Benedict Anderson, IMAGINED COMMUNITIES
Immanuel Wallerstein, HISTORICAL CAPITALISM
David Korten, WHEN CORPORATIONS RULE THE WORLD
Max Weber, THE PROTESTANT ETHIC AND THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM
Saskie Sessen, GLOBALIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENT

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Three take-home essays (7-10 pages each).

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS SOC    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: SOC151 Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-18-2003

Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email

Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459