Robert and all interested in this topic -- I highly recommend The Sushi
Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy, by Sasha
Issenberg. He was also intereviewed on NPR -- the interview might be good
for use in class.
Best,
Leslie
From: "Robert Darst" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: "Robert Darst" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "GEP-Ed" <[email protected]>
Subject: "The Global Politics of Everyday Things"
Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:32:24 -0400
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
