Advanced Seminar on Global Studies
Cod: 43016
Department: DCSG
ECTS: 10
Scientific area: Social Sciences
Total working hours: 260
Total contact time: 40

This Seminar takes the form of a multimodal web-seminar for the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary study of the phenomenon of globalization, which seeks to identify, characterize and understand the major technological, economic, social, environmental and political changes, as well as the processes of cultural exchange and intersection, of which globalization takes place at our times.
In particular, we seek to understand globalization through the multi-mode interconnectedness resulting from the approximation of peoples, cultures, rules of social coexistence and religions and the use of the most advanced means of transport, communication and information.
We will therefore seek to overcome the tight logic of building a vision of the world and the cosmos from a national or regional centre. The supervening worldview of these studies will result in a more complex approach, based on a multipolar perspective that underlies the so-called “complex thinking”, which results from the promotion of complexity sciences, in line with what Edgar Morin proposes in his work Thinking Global.
The Global Studies Seminar aims to train students for a critical gnosiological perspective on the origins of globalization in the process of broadening the knowledge of the world in the modern era in relation to the processes of construction of the proto-globalization, or first globalization, which led, in the long run, to the full bloom of globalization in today's world.
Students will be trained to understand how the creation of global circulation and communication instruments has generated a movement of interactions and exchanges that underlie the building of the consciousness and a global vision of the world, in which Portugal and Spain played a pioneering role, making known “the world to the same world”, in the words of Vieira, in History of the Future. The problematization of concepts and the knowledge of the movement of ideas, both political and social, as well as the knowledge of the scientific innovations and the new instruments and institutions that led to the creation of the first database of global knowledge, within the framework of the modern process of decompartmentalization of the world, will open windows to the understanding and characterization of today's information society, and will provide the basis for a critical reflection on the challenges and problems that human beings and societies face in our times, in view of the urgent need to make commitments and to draw safe ways to build a sustainable future in which humanity can have a more harmonious relationship with the natural environment.
By comparing different societies and political systems and understanding their compatibilities in space, we will seek to uncover the role of politics in a rapidly changing world, as well as the possibilities for sharing responsibilities between political actors and citizens in order to manage and solve transnational problems.
 

KeywordsGlobalization
Complexity
Science
Technology and Culture

With this Curricular Unit (CU), in multimodal web seminar format (online seminars) for the study of globalization, students are expected to be able to:
• Identify, characterize and understand, in dialogue with researchers from various scientific areas and other people, the technological, economic, social, environmental and political changes, as well as the processes of cultural exchange that form the basis of globalization;
• Problematize and define chronological frameworks and operational concepts for the scientific study of globalization, in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspective;
• Understand the implications of globalization for the organization of power, economy and societies, as well as the enactment of public policies;
• Reflect about the role of political and social agents in building globalization;
• Problematize how the process of globalization generates new discourses on identity;
• Critically analyse the role of education and science in a digital society.
 

This CU is divided into modules and conferences, corresponding to different research topics, taught by experts and supervised by the teachers in charge. The modules and topics of the lectures that structure this CU are diverse, such as:
• Globalization and information society;
• Myths of total communication and information manipulation;
• (Proto)globalization and utopias;
• Global history, politics and theory;
• Politics, religion, terrorism and new forms of legitimization of war and peace;
• How to govern a global economy?
• Human capital, labour and global economy;
• Global environmental problems;
• International migration;
• Human rights and global justice;
• Arts and globalization;
• Portugal and the construction of globalization;
• Modernity, hipermodernity, secularization, and post-secularization;
• Education and science in the era of globalization;
• Globalization and glocalization.
• Globalization through digital technologies.
 

CONRAD, Sebastian (2017). Historia global. Una nueva visión para el mundo actual, Barcelona, Editorial Planeta.

CURTO, Diogo Ramada  (org.) (2016). Estudos sobre a Globalização, Lisboa, Edições 70.

ECO, Umberto (2007). A passo de caranguejo. Guerras quentes e populismo mediático, Lisboa, Difel.

CAETANO, João Relvão e MARTINS, Alexandra (2017). “Politician-Public Group Dynamics”. In GILES, Howie & HARWOOD, Jacob (Eds.) – Oxford Encyclopedia of Intergroup Communication, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

CAETANO, João Relvão e JACQUINET, Marc (2010). “Complexité”. In ARNAUD, André-Jean (Dir) – Dictionnaire de la Globalisation. Droit, science politique, sciences sociales. Paris, LGDJ, Lextenso édition, pp. 72-76.

CAETANO, João Relvão e JACQUINET, Marc (2010). “Complexité (Modélisation de la)”. In ARNAUD, André-Jean (Dir) – Dictionnaire de la Globalisation. Droit, science politique, sciences sociales. Paris, LGDJ, Lextenso édition, pp. 76-77.

FRANCO, José Eduardo (2015). “Lusofonia e globalização: A possibilidade de refazer utopias”. In Moisés Lemos Martins (coord.), Lusofonia e interculturalidade: Promessa e travessia, Famalicão, Húmus, pp. 313-331.

FRANCO, José Eduardo (2016). “Da globalização à glocalização – Educar para uma globalização de rosto humano. Proposta de sete princípios para a utopia do mundo unido”. In Brotéria, vol. 182, n.º 3, março, pp. 271-282.

MORIN, Edgar (2015). Penser global: L’humain et son universo, Paris, Editions Robert Laffont e Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’homme.

 

Continuous evaluation will be used, based on the capacity demonstrated by the students in understanding the problematic, theories and fundamental concepts of the theme of Global Studies; the quality of the questions posed by the students to the teachers and to the group; the quality of individual discussion in virtual class; the capacity for critical analysis of reality, collaborative work and problem solving.

The CU is transdisciplinary, common to the four scientific areas of the Doctoral Program, and consists of seminars that include the participation of external experts. The CU is annual and mandatory for students. The ECTS are equally divided between the two semesters of the 1st year.