Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 31st, 2009 No Comments »
Global Economic Integration through the WTO:
This evening we were given the second debate topic “China’s entry into the WTO has bought no economc benefits to the majority of the Chinese people” on the negative side.
The reading by Guo this week spoke about the political reforms which came about as a result of China joining the [...]
Posted in Foundations in International Studies, Uncategorized on Mar 28th, 2009 Comments Off
Europeanization, Nationalism and Technology Transfers in Historical Perspective
This week’s readings presented a real intellectual outlook on technology’s influence on nationalism and global transfer of technology on economic nationalism. McQuire (2006) links modernity to the technological achievements of ‘the West’ especially given technology’s instrumental involvement in colonial expansion. A sophisticated society has been made synonomous with [...]
Posted in Foundations in International Studies on Mar 18th, 2009 No Comments »
Europe: Out with the Old and in with the New
What is Europe? Indeed as this week’s readings suggest, Europe is a region and a continent. Though as our class debaters realised what exactly is Europe, what are its geographical borders, what is its culture, what are its ideals?
A simple search on Google of “What is [...]
Posted in Foundations in International Studies, Uncategorized on Mar 13th, 2009 No Comments »
Multiculturalism vs Pluralism and Identity Politics in between
Calhoun (2002) speaks of identity politics as political activity “organised on the basis of cultural, racial, gender, ethnic or other claims that prioritise a particular group identity and experience.” He alludes this concept to the traditional context of Black activism though more contemporarily we can see its value [...]
Posted in Foundations in International Studies, Uncategorized on Mar 5th, 2009 No Comments »
France’s Fight Against Linguistic Oppression
Ms Angela Giovanageli spoke this week of French language’s assertiveness to survive the overpowering English language which Nunan (2007) believes will remain the dominant global language for “at least the next fifty years” because of its “pre-eminent position as the language of science, technology, tourism, entertainment and the media.” Agreeing with [...]
