Certificate in Intercultural Communication - Going Global; Geography, Economy, and Work in the 21st Century SOSA 2140   Going Global; Geography, Economy, and Work in the 21st Century
CREDIT HOURS: 3
This course will explore the economic, industrial and organizational transformations which have affected world economies since the 1980s. The spatial reorganization of the international division of labour has led to "world cities", and rural concentration and depopulation, as well as exploitative economic enclaves as endpoints in global commodity chains. The emergence of an increasingly integrated international economic order are associated, in the advanced economies, with a shift from manufacturing, for which automobile production has been the standard example, to a service-dominated economy, ranging from financial services, internet development and movie and music creation, to fast food chains and mass tourism. This industrial transformation has been accompanied by shifts in organizational structures, whether the emphasis has been on increased operational flexibility, or downsizing, one is continuously faced with the impact of new information technologies on the workplace. Does the electronic storage and transmission of information create acceptable efficiencies, or do they represent new methods for controlling and exploiting an increasingly vulnerable workforce, particularly lower-class women and/or immigrants? This course will employ the relevant portions of a standard Canadian sociological text to evaluate main tendencies, while selected anthropological case studies from different places will help understand the specific dynamics of a new, world economy.
FORMAT: Lecture
PREREQUISITES: One SOSA course at the 1000 level or FYP