Globalization is not just a contemporary phenomenon, nor is it to be understood simply in the singular. Ideas, institutions, goods, and people have always travelled, only at times more so. This course presents various trajectories, and politico-economic configurations of globalizations throughout history, engaging critically with the genealogy of ideas such as universal values, free trade, global governance, cosmopolitanism, and multiculturalism. From Marxist, postcolonial, and ecological perspectives, we furthermore evaluate the effects globalizations has had on people, communities, and the environment. The underlying questions put to the various historical examples concerns what is good and bad in globalization, all in order to understand better our own responsibilities, possibilities, and positions in an increasingly connected world.

The course aims to (1) help students understand the historical continuities and discontinuities in globalization; (2) help students identify how the circulation of commodities, people, ideas, and capital forms global networks, and institutions; and (3) help students develop a more comprehensive view on the concepts and discussions related to globalization.