Changes in global production effect jobs in the U.S. _Tags: economic sociology, globalization, inequality, marx/marxism, organizations/occupations/work, global value chains, jobs, mobility, outsourcing, supply chains, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2012 Length: 4:36 Access: New York Times Summary: This animated NYT video examines the shifting nature of global production and its effect on the distribution of jobs in the US economy. It begins by showing how the components of the iPhone are produced around the world (social scientists refer to this as a global value chain). As most viewers know, this means that low-skilled jobs are then outsourced and sent overseas. But as time passes, it creates a "vacuum" that pulls other higher skilled/higher pay jobs overseas. The video introduces the idea of a "job multiplier" where one job actually creates a higher number of total jobs because of related services that accompany it and tend to be physically located nearby. However, some jobs (e.g. auto manufacturing) have higher multipliers than others (e.g. hospital services). Over time, the US economy has lost jobs that demand higher skills and have higher job multipliers, and these have been replaced by jobs with lower job multipliers and lower skills (and therefore, lower incomes). Jobs at the top and bottom of the hierarchy (e.g. software engineers and service jobs) have grown, but jobs in the middle of the hierarchy (e.g. office assistants, manufacturers) have declined. The video concludes by noting that this is why our economic problems are so hard to solve, arguing that "we've become a nation with fewer chances for people to climb into the middle class." Possible discussion questions for this video are: How has the structure of the American economy changed over time? How does economic globalization alter job structures and mobility opportunities in the US? What impact does this have on economic inequality? Thank you to Michael Miller for suggesting this clip! Submitted By: Paul Dean
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_Tags: capitalism, economic sociology, globalization, marx/marxism, political economy, theory, financial collapse, global recession, power elite, wall street, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 0:55 (entire film is 120 mins; trailer here) Access: YouTube Summary: This is a brief excerpt from Inside Job, an excellent documentary that explores the 2008 global financial collapse. The films draws upon in-depth research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians, and journalists. By breaking down complex financial transactions in understandable terms, it traces the rise of the "rogue" financial industry and "unveils the corrosive relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation, and academia." This brief clip focuses on Obama's lack of action on regulating Wall Street because of the relationship between Washington and Wall Street. It notes that Obama, who was elected President the year of the financial collapse, was quoted as saying that "a lack of oversight in Washington and on Wall Street is exactly what got us into this mess," arguing for the need to reform the industry. But after years in the presidency, Obama's administration had not enacted a single major financial reform. When Robert Gnaizda (former director of the Greenlining Institute) is asked why, the clip ends provocatively with his quote "It's a Wall Street Government." Viewers can be encouraged to reflect on what Gnaizda means by the quote? This might be useful for illustrating Mills' concept of the power elite or Marx's concept of a ruling class. If using the entire film, you can have students complete exercise #4 (in the film's Study Guide) to examine the revolving door between government regulators and corporate executives. It can also be a good discussion starter about the cause of the financial collapse, the social construction of markets, the role of improper incentives, and economic ideologies. Submitted By: Paul Dean As atomspheric carbon rises, so does the earth's temperature Tags: environment, globalization, science/technology, data visualization, global climate change, global warming, sustainability, 06 to 10 mins Year: 2006 Length: 9:42 Access: no online access Summary: This clip from Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth uses visual displays of scientific data to demonstrate that global temperatures and levels of carbon dioxide are higher than ever before, showing that this urgent problem is caused by human activity (start film at 13:25; end at 23:07). He documents several impacts in the real world, including receding glaciers, noting that 40% of the people on Earth receive their drinking water from glaciers and that they will face a shortage in the future. A reasonable and skeptical viewer may note that ice ages are cyclical, which is correct. But using core drills of ice, scientists are able to measure carbon dioxide levels and surface temperatures going back 650,000 years. This allows the viewer to see cycles from the past 7 ice ages. The data shows that in those 650,000 years, carbon dioxide levels never went above 300 parts per million--until recently. By visualizing the data, we can see that the CO2 level today is far above the level that it has ever been in that time frame. Gore compares the CO2 levels and temperature levels (as shown in the graphic here) and argues this scientific fact: "when there is more carbon dioxide, the temperature gets warmer because it traps more heat from the sun inside." He then shows the projected level that CO2 is expected to rise to in 50 years. In short, CO2 levels are higher than ever before; when CO2 rises, temperatures rise. Therefore, the Earth's temperature will continue to rise. Because CO2 levels are outside of any natural cycle, it is human activity that has caused it, and the consequences will continue to worsen. There are also a variety of sites online that have additional data and evidence, which may be useful in discussing global climate change in the classroom (e.g. ClimateCrisis.net; EPA). Submitted By: Paul Dean _Tags: globalization, media, nationalism, religion, social mvmts/social change/resistance, violence, war/military, arab spring, bahraini uprising, moral resources, organizational resources, pearls revolution, propaganda, social revolution, 21 to 60 mins Year: 2011 Length: 50:56 Access: YouTube Summary: [Trigger warning: there are graphic scenes of violence throughout this clip. Two scenes are especially noteworthy. At the 7:38 mark, there is footage of protesters being shot by the Bahraini Army, and at the 8:30 mark a man is shown bleeding in a hospital bed after he was reportedly shot in the head.] This documentary from Al Jazeera English recounts the fight for democracy among Shi'a and Sunni Muslims in Bahrain. An island kingdom on the western shore of the Persian Gulf, Bahrain is formally ruled by the Al Khalifa family as a constitutional monarchy. The film chronicles the early moments of the spread of the Arab Spring to Bahrain where protestors converged on Pearl Roundabout, which lies in the financial district at the heart of Manama. Chief among their demands was for the emergence of a secular democratic government, and more pointedly, protesters called for the majority Shi'a Muslims to be included in the formal political system, which was dominated by a Sunni family. The documentary begins on February 16, 2011, the first day protesters occupied the roundabout. It documents the collaboration between the nations of the Arabian Peninsula under the auspices of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to stop the spread of these revolutionary protests, and Al Jazeera offers exclusive footage from inside both the opposition encampment at Pearl Roundabout and Salmaniyya Hospital, which was not only a place to treat the injured but also initially a place of refuge from state violence. The documentary works well as a means of introducing students to the study of social movements. Among other concepts, the film is useful for exploring the evolution and consequences of state tactics aimed at quelling the protests—both violent and non-violent. Analysts of social movements often point to the significance of a nascent movement's moral and organizational resources, and this film illustrates the importance of both. For example, one can easily use the film to engage students in a discussion about the significance of Pearl Roundabout and Salmaniyya Hospital as practical locations for organizing protests and disseminating information (i.e., organizational resources). At the same time, one could also lead a discussion about how these were effective sites for protesters to imbue their struggle with meaning and legitimacy (i.e., moral resources). Submitted By: Lester Andrist Tags: commodification, consumption/consumerism, globalization, marketing/brands, social mvmts/social change/resistance, coffee, commodity fetishism, conspicuous consumption, consumer culture, ethical consumption, fair trade, sustainability, 06 to 10 mins Year: 2008 Length: 8:41 Access: YouTube Summary: Our consumer culture has been linked to many social problems (e.g. see this documentary on consumerism). As discussed in Marx's theory of commodity fetishism, the social relations of capitalism are obscured in the commodity, and we are largely blind to the sweatshop labor, environmental degradation, and related social problems inherent in the commodity's production and consumption. Ethical and sustainable consumption (e.g. Fair Trade) seeks to address these problems and can be a way to encourage students to think about how their own consumption relates to these problems. This video discusses Fair Trade (FT) through the perspectives of small-scale farmers/producers (how FT has benefited them personally), retailers, the certifier (i.e. Fair Trade USA), and consumers (by focusing on campus groups promoting FT). It can also be used to better understand Marx's concept of commodity fetishism by juxtaposing the "Free Trade" and Fair Trade models (although this video is particularly great to discuss commodity fetishism because it emphasizes the social relationship between producer and consumer). This video emphasizes the power of the consumer to effect change through the products they buy every day, but I also encourage students to think critically about whether we can adequately address these social and environmental issues through consumer activism alone. I also have students explore their consumption using GoodGuide's smartphone app and paired this video with a good introductory chapter on Fair Trade: Kimberly Grimes' (2005) "Changing the Rules of Trade with Global Partnerships: The Fair Trade Movement" in this book (see more readings on FT here). You can also access other Fair Trade films at the Fair Trade Resource Network. Submitted By: Paul Dean Tags: discourse/language, globalization, methodology/statistics, ethnography, principle of linguistic relativity, sapir-whorf hypothesis, sociological pedagogy, whorfianism, 06 to 10 mins Year: 2010 Length: 9:07 Access: Vimeo Summary: [Note: If you do not use headphones to listen to this you may miss the opening narration spoken over the opening credits by literary critic and novelist Amitava Kumar and composer and musician David Amram.] I'm Happy To Be Here is a short ethnographic film about the global presence and rhetorical power of the English language. The video was shot entirely on point and shoot cameras and produced from start to finish in the field on a borrowed lap top computer in Japan, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana and Brazil during the winter and spring of 2010 while I was working as Faculty for the University of Virginia's Semester At Sea Program. Co-produced by one of my students at the time, Adam Friendshuh, (of the University of Minnesota), it is the pilot for an on-going film project I am working on with students who take any of courses I teach, which are set outside of a traditional university classroom, (i.e., see some of my Travel or place-based courses). Called, I'm Happy To Be Here, students participating in this project are assigned two tasks to complete over the duration of the semester: First, to learn how to say the phrase I'm happy to be here in any language they encounter that is different than the language they speak at home or at school or work. And then second, to document themselves actually learning and using this phrase on digital video tape. Submitted By: Audrey Sprenger What if the world were a village of 100 people? Tags: community, demography/population, globalization, inequality, methodology/statistics, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 3:15 Access: YouTube Summary: Updated for 2010, this short clip paints a portrait of the earth based on if the world were comprised of a 100-person community. Given that large numbers can be difficult to put into perspective (and thus important information about the world runs the risk of becoming meaningless or unremarkable), this video illustrates for students how the global community fares on such indicators as hunger, religious affiliation, literacy, wealth, education, government expenditures, among many others. The clip is not only useful for helping students understand global inequality and differences, but it also reminds students of the enormity of their own social privilege relative to the majority of the world. Submitted By: Valerie Chepp Tags: demography/population, globalization, health/medicine, inequality, methodology/statistics, political economy, data visualization, global development, income, life expectancy, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 4:48 Access: YouTube Summary: This clip plots the health and wealth of 200 countries over 200 years. Animating data in real space, Hans Rosling explains how global health and wealth trends have changed since 1810. Despite persistent and extreme inequalities (both across countries and within countries), Rosling's data point to a closing gap between Western and non-Western countries, fostering a "converging world" perspective. He projects that, in the future, everyone can "make it" to the healthy and wealthy plots on the graph. This clip might be useful in a statistics, demography, globalization, or health/medical sociology class, as it helps students (particularly the novice statistician) to visualize data trends and illustrates for students the very cool things that can be done with statistical data. Instructors of medical sociology, health, and inequality might also facilitate a discussion about social factors that might inhibit or foster Rosling's optimistic portrait of the future. This clip might work well with another Hans Rosling's clip, in which he uses data visualization to illustrate global changes since the 1960s related to fertility, life expectancy, child survival and poverty by nation (and region). Submitted By: Valerie Chepp Tags: globalization, social mvmts/social change/resistance, political economy, global justice movement, mobilization, neoliberalism, power elite, global trade, wto, 21 to 60 mins Year: 2009 Length: 26:14 Access: pbs Summary: This is a PBS special on the 1999 Seattle Protests against the WTO. Drawing on interviews from local police,trade representatives, protestors, the mayor, and journalists present during the protests, this video analyzes the political and economic context of the WTO meetings and the actual conflicts in the street that ultimately shut down the meetings. It is a great example of the struggle over shaping globalization, including neoliberal globalization and the alter-globalization movement, and state repression of protestors. It offers a great way to discuss Kellner's concepts of globalization from above vs. globalization from below (discussed in "Theorizing Globalization"). Showing coalitions of labor groups, religious organizations, and social justice advocates, it is also a great illustration of social movement concepts, including moblization, framing, and opportunity structures. Submitted By: Paul Dean Tags: commodification, globalization, marx/marxism, coffee, commodity fetishism, ethical consumption, fair trade, 06 to 10 mins Year: 2007 Length: 8:17 Access: YouTube Summary: This short video is made by a Sustainable Harvest, a large Fair Trade coffee importer. The video is a marketing piece for Fair Trade and what the company calls "Relationship Coffee." These are excellent concepts to juxtapose with Marx's concept of commodity fetishism, but this video is particularly helpful (in comparison to other videos I found) because it focuses on telling "the story behind the beans" as a means of showing consumers where their commodity came from, how it was produced, and building a relationship between coffee buyers and sellers. Submitted By: Paul Dean |
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