How do people form globally interconnected communities? What are the reasons that in some organizations labor practices look increasingly the same across the world in spite of major cultural and historical differences that otherwise mark different countries? What are the conditions under which objects, technologies, ideas and human bodies travel from place to place? And what social effects do they produce in new environments? This course introduces students to sociological theories, approaches and empirical studies on globalization. We will specifically focus on questions of cultural globalization in the fields of medicine, humanitarianism and Global Health. Global Health is a paradigmatic phenomenon of global studies. As a field of transnational practice, it is concerned with the social, political, economic, and cultural forces that shape people´s health and access to health care. We explore how globalization changes the ways in which people conceptualize human bodies and their capacities.

Semester: WT 2023/24