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Global Cultures and Social Change
The global flow of commercial goods and ideas diminishes certain cultural differences, but gives rise to others. Students and professors in this learning circle explore global change and how globalization, far from being a simple homogenizing process, affects cultures down to the local levels, creating social change in everything from power relations to artistic expression.
Furthermore, academic field study during port calls provides an invaluable learning opportunity for students to reflect outside the classroom, in a context that resonates long after their voyage concludes.
Subjects
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Themes
The following themes play a prominent role in the subjects offered:
- Globalization of cultural forms and local response
- Globalization of social and rights movements
- Changing ethnic identity and new forms of nationalism
- Migration and transnationalism
- Changing forms of consumption
Learning Outcomes
The core learning outcomes for this learning circle are to enhance students’ ability to:
- Discern and analyze the multifarious and often contradictory effects of globalization on local cultures, including social movements, popular culture, the arts, consumption, and tourism
- Understand the local responses to the effects of globalization
- Empathize with the behavior of critical reflection on judgments about both the value and authenticity of global cultural practices and the effects of globalization
- Unpack power relations – such as gender, majority/minority, center/periphery, colonialist/colonized, both within and across groups - behind culture claims
Fields of study commonly associated with the Global Cultures and Social Change Learning Circle
- Aboriginal Studies
- African Studies
- Asian Studies
- Intercultural Studies
- International Relations
- International Studies
- Latin American Studies
- Political Science
- Public Policy
- Social Anthropology
- Social Sciences
- Sociology