In the last three decades, “globalization” has become a universal buzzword. To some, it constitutes the key to prosperity, peace and progress. To others, globalization is a major scourge of the 21st century and the culprit of global warming, financial crises and inequality.
A series of events in the last years including, inter alia, the rise of populism, the climate strike movement and COVID-19 can both be explained by globalization and in themselves bear the potential to change the course of globalization. Furthermore, the rapid progress of digitalization questions our traditional views on how global supply chains work and on what the advantages and drawbacks of globalization are.
This reading group will adopt an interdisciplinary view drawing on insights from law, economics, sociology and politics. The readings, all written by prominent scholars in the field, will cover a wide array of views, stretching from fierce criticism of globalization to fervent cases in favor globalization. A particular emphasis will lie on the question how the perception of globalization changed in the last two decades.
Organisation: Cyrill Chevalley
Coordination: Stefano Aloise
Administration: Michelle Hug
Sessions and reading list (provisional):
Session 1: Understanding globalization – economic and legal perspectives
Bhagwati, Jagdish: In Defense of Globalization (2007), ISBN 9780195330939
Pistor, Katharina: The Code of Capital – How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality (2020), ISBN 9780691208602
Session 2: Global institutions and the rise of anti-globalization
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents Revisited: Anti-Globalization in the Age of Trump (2017), ISBN 9780393355161
(Additional reading for interested participants: Rodrik, Dani: The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy (2011), ISBN 9780393080803)
Session 3: Charting the divide between the “winners” and “losers” of globalization
de Soto, Hernando: The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere else (2001), ISBN 9780552999236
(Additional reading for interested participants: Rubin, Jeff: The Expendables, How the Middle Class Got Screwed By Globalization (2020), ISBN 9780735279414)
Session 4: The promises of globalization from a developing country’s perspective
Rifkin, Jeremy: The Zero Marginal Cost Society. The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism (2015), ISBN 9781137280114
Place: –
Language: English
Provisional location: University of Basel, Faculty of Law, Peter Merian-Weg 8, 4052 Basel (7 mins. from Basel SBB railway station). Meetings in other areas are possible by arrangement. If in-person meetings were no longer possible due to an aggravation of the pandemic situation, the meetings would be held online via Zoom.
Duration: autumn semester 2022
Number and duration of the events: 4 sessions, approx. 2-3 hours each (depending on how the discussion goes)
Participants: Max. 10
