麻省理工学院“开放式课程网页” | 人类学 | 21A.336 2004春季课程：营销、微晶片和麦当劳：全球化的辩论

我们不仅日复一日受到“全球化”这个术语的轰炸，还得将全球化视为我们这个时代的完美转形；但是，“全球化”究竟是什么意思呢？在经济、社会和文化等各层面，它如何影响世界各地人们的生活？当代的变迁要如何与其它年代的变迁相比较？这些变迁是正面的、负面的，或仅仅是无法避免的？最后，“全球化”此一概念如何在帮助我们建立对当代世界了解的同时，又不知不觉地扭曲了这项认知？本课程以简介史上的“世界体系”（包括以亚洲和欧洲为世界中心的体系）揭开序幕，接着探索当代转型的本质，包括经济、媒体暨资讯技术、人口迁移，和消费习惯的转型，研究重点放在世界各地一般人的日常生活上，不是凭空臆测。研讨主题涵盖计算机对矽谷和西藏流亡者的日常影响、美国和爪哇乡村蓝领劳工的窘境、奈及利亚境内掀起的孟买电影热、日本的饶舌音乐制作、法国外来移民生活的文化复杂性。本课程不只要探求全球化发生的各种形态，还希望了解其对全世界的独特影响。

Everyday we are bombarded with the word "global" and encouraged to see globalization as the quintessential transformation of our age. But what exactly does "globalization" mean? How is it affecting the lives of people around the world, not only in economic, but social and cultural terms? How do contemporary changes compare with those from other historical periods? Are such changes positive, negative or simply inevitable? And, finally, how does the concept of the "global" itself shape our perceptions in ways that both help us understand the contemporary world and potentially distort it? This course begins by offering a brief overview of historical "world systems," including those centered in Asia as well as Europe. It explores the nature of contemporary transformations, including those in economics, media & information technologies, population flows, and consumer habits, not through abstractions but by focusing on the daily lives of people in various parts of the world. This course considers such topics as the day-to-day impact of computers in Silicon Valley and among Tibetan refugees; the dilemmas of factory workers in the US and rural Java; the attractions of Bombay cinema in Nigeria, the making of rap music in Japan, and the cultural complexities of immigrant life in France. This course seeks not only to understand the various forms globalization takes, but to understand its very different impacts world-wide.