Under the guidance of President Anne Pearson, ALIROW is beginning to collect one page curriculum ideas from LIR's to share with other groups. Feel free to send your curriculum ideas to AnnieOC@aol.com or snail mail to ALIROW, CSU, Fullerton, RGC-7, P.O.Box 6870, Fullerton, CA 92834-6870. Here are the first two ideas.
Curriculum Ideas
ALIROW CURRICULUM IDEA No. 1
One World: Many Pieces
Understanding Globalization
Text: The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Freidman, Anchor Books, 1999
The “new world” (post-Cold War) order was born when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. Globalization has relentlessly integrated finance, technology and information across national borders, making this world a single global village. We cannot understand the morning news, know where to invest our money, or even think about the future unless we understand this new system.
This series uses Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman’s fascinating and best-selling book of 1999, The Lexus and the Olive Tree (available in paperback for about $15) to frame five sessions in which to explore and discuss what globalization is, how the system works, and how nations will respond to it. Participants are encouraged to read the relevant chapters before class in anticipation of a lively discussion among all attendees following each overview presentation.
Covers Chapters 1-4, where we learn about the concepts of globalization: global market economy, the Electronic Herd, Supermarkets, the information explosion, and how people are pulled between wanting the Lexus (symbol of global economic progress) and the Olive Tree (symbol of traditional values).
Chapters 5-7 explain the Microchip Immune Deficiency Syndrome (the disease that afflicts countries or companies that fail to adapt to the new economy), the Golden Straitjacket (accepting the rules of the global marketplace) and the Electronic Herd (international traders and bankers whose activities reward conformance and punish those economies that fail to follow the new economy’s accepted business practices).
Chapters 8-10 show how nations are plugging into the new system with DOS Capital 6.0 (capitalist vs. socialist economic systems), “globalution” (no more revolution), and how we can evaluate which countries are shaping, adapting to, or rejecting the challenge.
Chapters 11-14 identify factors that determine why some countries are better than others at globalizing, offer suggestions on how to minimize conflict and culture loss, and explain why, regardless of whether it is fair, winners take all.
Chapters 15-20 tell us about specific countries and cultures that lack skills and energy to enter the Fast World, but how the groundswell is pushing us inexorably faster and faster. At this point, we will have finished “Globalization 101.” But we hope participants will continue to explore current world affairs in other follow-on global-related courses.
Curriculum Idea No.1 submitted by CLE members Donna Wolffe and Hal Henry.
For further information contact Rachel Sweet at RachelASw@aol.com.
ALIROW CURRICULUM IDEA No. 2
One World, Ready or Not
A Critical Look at Globalization
Text: One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism by William Greider, Touchstone, 1997. (Available in paperback for about $15)
This is a continuation of the popular study/discussion course on globalization. In contrast to the Friedman book studied previously, Greider takes a critical look of the subject. This semester we will explore and discuss the first two parts of his four-part book. The second two parts are to be covered in the future. Participants are encouraged to read the relevant chapters before class in anticipation of a lively discussion among all attendees following each overview presentation.
Chapter 1 describes the economic revolution we call “globalization,” its dimensions of change, and the upheaval caused by this convergence of nations.
Chapters 2 and 3 describe the breakthroughs of the silicon chip and multinational financial expansion. Will the global system restart history along the same bloody path created by previous industrial revolutions, as inequalities of wealth and power grow ever wider worldwide?
Chapters 4 and 5 introduce a new twist to an old German phrase, Gleiche Arbeit, gleicher Lohn, ("same work, same pay" for the wage earner). No more—in a global economy the practice of wage arbitrage drives the price of human labor downward. When a multinational corporation seeks to shift production to a low-wage labor market, the political bargaining weighs heavily against governments competing for new factories.
Chapters 6 and 7. The Toyota Motor Corporation describes automation as investing machines with human-like intelligence. The race for technological improvement continuously reduces costs and improves the product but also generates an expanding surplus in the productive capacity of the world. What happens when there is a world surplus of 10, 15, or 20% in the manufacture of automobiles? Can the Chinese Government insist that the Boeing Company manufacture tail sections of the Boeing 737 in China as part of a package for future sales?
Chapters 8 and 9 discuss the impact of globalization on The People’s Republic of China, particularly describing the combination of a state-controlled economy blending into an international free market powerhouse with joint ventures with major manufacturers in the U.S., Japan and Europe. This concept is explored in greater detail in Chapter 9.
Chapter 10 is a wrap-up of the material to date. The basic topic for Chapter 10 is the absorption of the excess international manufacturing capacity by the consumer-driven U.S. economy and what happens when we cannot or will not provide a market for excess production worldwide. Our cumulative trade deficit, Greider argues, cannot continue indefinitely. “Then what?” he asks.
Curriculum Idea No. 2 submitted by CLE members Donna Wolffe and Hal Henry.
For further information contact Rachel Sweet at RachelASw@aol.com