Introduction to Globalization: Linking Local and Global

Federal Law Academy, Mai Ja Yang

August 2014
By- Maran Ja Htoi Pan, M.A

I. Description
Introduction: This course is designed to introduce upper and mid-level college students with
the problems and issues the world is facing at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In
todays intensely globalized world, no society could live isolating with the global events. The
Kachin society has been afflicted with conflict and civil war in the recent years. While happened
in the Kachin region, the precursors, events, repercussions surrounding this conflict cant be
isolated with the flow of the national and international conditions. This course not only
introduces the international perspectives on the discourse of globalization but it aims to explain
how local events are interconnected with international phenomena. It ultimately aims students
to achieve basic literacy in contemporary issues with regard to local knowledge.
Course Manner: The course introduces concepts, generalizations, and debates about global
issues in a shortened, easy-to-understand bullet points. It is an integrated course drawing from
a wide range of resources but rooted on the philosophy of anthropology which greatly
promotes prism for one to see globalization as not a one-way phenomenon where local
communities are passively influenced by global events, rather about how local events are
contributing in forming the condition of globalization.
Class manner: Each class session includes a power point lecture followed by class discussion.
This class requires students participation by means of reading the assigned texts and
contributing in class discussions. If required, the lecture will allocate some extra hours for the
translation of the texts and studying key vocabularies before giving lectures.
II. Course Syllabus
The course is divided into three sections as followed;
Section 1.
Introduction to the Modern World; map reading, news reading (world, regional, local),
Ethnicity and global diversity, Definition of the modern state, Trends in the post-World War
II
Section 2.
Kachin Political Culture (political history, political systems, nationalism)
Section 3. Globalization, (basic concepts, global economy, environmental issues, international
governmental organization, international non-governmental contacts, Ethnic conflict and
development, displacement and IDP issues)
III. Course Materials
This course includes power point lectures, assignment readings, and video showings. Excerpts
from the following books will be selected and distributed as reading assignments both in
English and Burmese.
1. Global Perspective: A Handbook for Understanding Global Issues (Ann Kelleher& Laura
Klein, 3
rd
ed. 2009, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall)
2. Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (James People & Garrick Bailey, 9
th

ed, 2012, Belmont, CA: Wadsword Carnage Learning)
3. The Anthropology of Globalization: Cultural Anthropology Enters the 21
st
Century (Ted.C.
Lewellen, Westport: Bergin & Garvey, 2002)
4. Blackwells New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society (Tony Bennett
et.al (Ed) 2005, Malden: Blackwell Publishing)
5. Burma Focus I-VII (Collections of international articles on Burma 2013-2014)
6. Reports on Kachin and Burma (2011-2014), and other relevant materials.