Deliberating Controversies in Globalization Theory, Methodology, and Ethics

This PhD research course will critically examine some selected theoretical, methodological, and ethical issues related to globalization. These include: the debate about modern versus postmodern approaches to social scientific investigation of globalization, research issues in global justice, democracy and ethics, and the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in globalization.

The candidate has knowledge of:
1. The main concepts and theories of globalization, including ways of defining, explaining, assessing and enacting globalization.
2. Naturalist and constructivist approaches to globalization research, including how qualitative and quantitative methods are used in investigating research problems in globalization.
3. Key issues in global justice and global democracy, including contending normative theories about obligations across national borders and debates about global governance.
4. Some issues related to the rise of fundamentalisms in relation to global forms of communication and how democracies should respond to the phenomena.
5. General obligations in conducting international research as applied to particular cases of globalization research.

40 hours of lectures and discussions
30 hours for independently completing the reading requirement before the course
24 equivalent hours of doing research and writing a paper of 4 800 – 6 000 words