Globalization: Class Disscusion Questions - Lead by Andrew, Jessica, and Carlos

Friedman, "While I Was Sleeping" reading questions:

1. What does the phrase "the world is flat" mean in the context of this reading and does globalization have to do with the meaning of this phrase?

2. What are some examples the author provides to explain and to prove the world we now live in has become flattened?

3. What are the positive and negative aspects of having an interconnected and globalized society and economy?

4. Why is the main reason behind outsourcing jobs to places like Bangalore in India? What do multinational corporations gain in return?

5. Do you agree that the playing field is being leveled when it comes to competing between big American and European multinational corporations and companies such as Infosys and Mphasis?

Jackson, Chapter 6 Reading Questions:

1. Do you agree with Jackson that the globalization thesis does not pose a threat to the sovereign state system? Why or why not?

2. Is the state evolving in response to scientific, technological, economic and social changes?

3. Does the EU (imagine it fully integrated, like a United States of Europe) provide a new model for state sovereignty?

4. Do you think in the future we will see the number of sovereign states decline, only to create new super, regional states?

Korbin, "The Architecture of Globalization" Reading Questions:

1. How does today's integrated “global” economy compare to that of the Golden Age's “global”

economy: Differences, Similarities, or Incomparable?

2a. Based on Korbin's thesis and what we have learned in class, is Guehenno right when she says

emerging global networks are the death of the nation-state? p146

2b. Wolf thinks instead thinks that it is only the Cold War era's false belief in the state being all m

powerful that has ended, leading others (Hobsbawn, Freedman and the Federal Reserve's Vice

-Chair) to say that, having left the “age of extremes,” the world is seeking to return to the

interconnected normalcy of the Golden Age; is this true, or is it a red herring? p147

3. What then are the major qualitative structural differences of today's global network, from that

of the Golden Age's global economy? p147 [Only ask if there are major differing answers to the

last set of questions than there were to the first question]

4a. [Only ask if it seems unclear, or was not already stated] Can anyone quickly define 'globalization'

as laid out by Korbin? Others: International, World Wide Economies, Multinational Economies?

4b. What are the major substantive causes and parts of globalization? P148, 152-3

4c. How does technology contribute to globalization? P149, most of article

4d. How do Transnational Alliances contribute to globalization? P150, 160-1

4e. How has the Emerging Global Economy become integrated into globalization? P151-4

4f. Does globalization compromise the balance/symmetry of political and economic organization of

nation state and national markets? p155-61

5a. Is Geographic Space losing meaning as a basis for organized markets to Electronic Global Markets?

p159-60

5b. If the Will the state system survive globalization, and if so in what form; a world order, private armies and citizens unrestricted by boundaries, or some sort of holodeck/matrixesc virtual state confined to the network, while humans are confined to their cybernetic controlled pod prison? p161-3

Sasken, Chapter 7 and 8 Reading Questions:

1. What role does the Internet play in challenging or enhancing sovereignty?

2. Sasken thinks that the Internet can be used as a tool for further decentralization. Although there are limitations, such as private ownership of certain networks, in what ways do you think the internet enhances decentralization? Is this a good thing?

3a. In what areas and ways does digital media encompass a portion of social life and society that the

nation-state, cannot and does not?

3b. In what ways can one imagine digital media making up for its short comings, and strengthening

the areas that it is currently superior in?

4a. In what areas and ways does the nation-state encompass a portion of social life and society that

digital media cannot and does not?

4b. In the current age of fast moving digital media, how does the nation-state adapt to keep up?

5. In what areas of everyday life and in the world, do we see Sasken's, “Analytical Border Lands”

of intersecting parts, from both sides of the pie, made up of various speeds, intersecting and

interacting on a regular basis? p384