Globalisation challenges our ability to conceptualise and respond to change and increasing levels of integration. This unit focuses on the changing relationship between nation states, international organisations and globalising markets. It provides (a) an historical perspective on this process; (b) an introduction to the concepts needed to describe these different levels of organisation; (c) a case based approach to the conflicts that arise, the way they are being addressed and the systemic challenges of inequality and sustainability.

In this unit we examine cultural difference and civil society as integral aspects of the politics and functioning of globalisation, challenging its assumed homogenising trend. We consider the ways in which people make and defend distinctive modes of livelihood and value that increasingly build on universalist frameworks such as that of human rights. Identity, a rights framework and sustainability are treated as key sites in struggles that link local politics to international networks of governance and civil society.

In this unit you will examine language, culture and communication as perspectives from which the characteristic tension of globalisation between difference and connection can be understood. We consider the relationship between a transnational public sphere and the politics of place and space, revealed, among other things, in area and diaspora studies. We ask: who are "global actors" and how, through their (self) representations, do they shape this relationship?

In this capstone unit groups of students will track particular cases to analyse interactions between social, cultural, political and economic institutions (including governments, aid agencies, the United Nations and others) and informal networks at the domestic, regional and international levels. The lecture program will support these projects with a focus on the methodologies and ethics informing interdisciplinary, team-based assessments of global issues.