BBC World Service recently did a mini-series tracing the production
chains of the ordinary white t-shirt and of coffee.
Quoting Robert Darst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
Hi all,
At the suggestion of a colleague in the English Department, I
foolishly agreed earlier this year to develop a new course for our
embryonic Sustainability Studies minor, "The Global Politics of
Everyday Things." The basic idea is to present the students with
innocuous items that they use every day, and then to trace the
commodity chains backwards and forwards to illustrate various aspects
of global politics, such as human/children's/women's/labor rights,
trade and outsourcing, violent conflict, property rights,
environmental protection, functional cooperation, etc. I doubt that
there is any aspect of international relations that cannot be
approached in this way. Now I only have to prep the course, which
brings me to you!
Questions:
(1) Have any of you ever taught a course along these lines, and if so
could you share your syllabus and lessons learned?
(2) Do any of you know of good websites where my students (and their
instructor) could trace the commodity chains of multiple products?
(3) Any suggestions for really surprising "everyday things"--that is,
items that no one would ever associate with global politics, but
which in fact have quite striking connections?
Many thanks! I will certainly share the syllabus when I'm ready to roll.
Best,
Rob
Associate Professor of Political Science
Associate Director of the Honors Program
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
****************************************
P.G. Harris
International & Environmental Studies
Department of Political Science
Lingnan University
Tuen Mun, HONG KONG
Tel: +852-2616-7199
Fax: +852-2891-7940
Email: pharris [at] LN.edu.hk
http://www.ln.edu.hk/psd/
http://www.ln.edu.hk/projects/ecfp/Home
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