Courses

Globalization: Empirical and Theoretical Elements

Transnational processes such as economic globalization and cross-border migrations confront the social sciences with a series of theoretical and methodological challenges. This course examines these challenges through a focus on both macro level cross-border flows and micro processes which might take place at a global or at a sub-national level. Thus we go beyond the types of international economic analyses that characterize much globalization research and we ask what it means to study globalization at multiple scales of analysis, down to the most detailed approaches requiring fieldwork. To this end, the course will examine how different processes of globalization a) are actually constituted at different scales and in a range of institutional settings; b) transform key aspects of major institutions, such as sovereignty and citizenship, and major processes, such as urbanization, immigration, and digitization; and c) are in turn shaped by these institutions and processes. Particular attention will go to analyzing the challenges for theorization and empirical specification.