GEOG 3331 is also offered in Fall 2024
GEOG 3331 is also offered in Fall 2023
GEOG 3331 is also offered in Fall 2021
Fall 2024 | GEOG 3331 Section 001: Geography of the World Economy (21021)
- Instructor(s)
- Class Component:
- Lecture
- Credits:
- 3 Credits
- Grading Basis:
- Student Option
- Instructor Consent:
- No Special Consent Required
- Instruction Mode:
- In Person
- Class Attributes:
- UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
- Meets With:
- GLOS 3231 Section 001
- Times and Locations:
- Regular Academic Session09/03/2024 - 12/11/2024Mon, Wed 09:45AM - 11:00AMUMTC, West Bank
- Enrollment Status:
- Open (17 of 50 seats filled)
- Also Offered:
- Course Catalog Description:
- An invisible, not-quite-dead, not-quite-alive entity - the coronavirus - forced us, rudely and tragically, to reckon with space. As we try and maintain social distance from other bodies, wear masks to disrupt the virus' pathways of diffusion, confront shortages in grocery stores, home supply outlets, and car dealerships, adjust to interruptions in many services, and either choose to, or are forced to stay at home, in our cities, in our countries, we are thinking and acting spatially. And we are reminded that "stuff" - food, medicines, toilet paper - reaches us often through geographically extensive and logistically intricate webs of economic production and distribution. We will learn what it means to think geographically about the capitalist economy as a spatial, relational formation. In doing so, we will challenge dominant ways of understanding and analyzing the economy, and of what counts as economic. We will also examine two simultaneous aspects of the world economy - fixity and flow. On the one hand, the economy propels and is propelled by flows - of goods, of services, of people, of labor, and of finance. On the other hand, physical infrastructures are rooted in place on the earth. After all, even the digital worlds of Facebook, Google, and Amazon are enabled by vast server farms. The course will also highlight the production and proliferation of inequalities - between social groups, states, countries, and regions - in and by the world economy. In fact, we will ask: Is economic unevenness a mere byproduct of capitalist economic growth, or the condition of possibility for it? Finally, we will discuss the relationships between global phenomena and local events. Crises like global climate change, overflows of waste matter, COVID19, and the 2008 financial meltdown make it clear that the global and the local are intimately entangled. Not only do global events impact individual livelihoods, including yours and mine, but economic jitters in one place can escalate, sending shockwaves
- Class Description:
- This course studies the historical and spatial dynamics of the global economy from the vantage point of economic geography. It traces ongoing transformations in the global economic map by exploring how differences in place, space, scale and networks affect the institutional forms, regional patterns, and world dynamics of economic activity. Why do we see the sectoral agglomeration of economic activity (for instance, high-tech in Silicon Valley or finance on Wall Street)? What forces inform Nike's decision to manufacture shoes in Indonesia or GM's decision to assemble cars in Mexico? Why does capital flow to some places and not to others? How does this affect workers and their livelihoods, both within the US and abroad? What are the changing patterns of finance, foreign investment and trade? What are the dynamics of international migration? Why do some policymakers think that international flows of capital should be taxed? How are environmental issues linked to global trade? Why is agroforestry a more efficient form of agriculture in some places than monocrop agriculture? How are new information technologies reshaping the geography of the world economy? These questions of the local, regional and global location of economic activity, the new forms of production, commerce and inequality that accompany economic diversification or concentration in space, and the spatial interconnectedness of resource flows are all aspects of the dynamic and exciting field of economic geography.
- Grading:
- 20% Midterm Exam
30% Final Exam
30% Reports/Papers
10% Quizzes
10% Class Participation - Exam Format:
- Short definitions and short essays
- Class Format:
- 70% Lecture
15% Discussion
15% Other Style Audio-visual media (film and documentary clips) - Workload:
- 50-60 Pages Reading Per Week
12 Pages Writing Per Term
2 Exam(s)
1 Paper(s) - Textbooks:
- https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/21021/1249
- Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
- 21 May 2007
ClassInfo Links - Fall 2024 Geography Classes
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