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Academic Year 2005/2006

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).

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

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

Prerequisites: SOC151 OR SOC152 Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-30-2006

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