Global Capitalism, Markets, and Social Inequality
Session 1: The Risk Society
Businesses operate within complex political, legal, and social contexts, relying on legitimacy as much as profitability. Ulrich Beck’s Risk Society highlights that modern threats are Manufactured Risks—such as climate change, AI, and surveillance—rather than natural disasters. This creates the Ambivalence of Modernity, where technological progress generates both prosperity and insecurity. As society becomes aware of these unintended consequences, it enters Reflexive Modernization. We now face a Polycrisis (Adam Tooze), characterized by VUCA and BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible) conditions. Nassim Taleb suggests Anti-fragility as a response, while Hans Jonas emphasizes the Responsibility Principle for future generations.
Session 2: Diverse Forms of Globalization
Globalization is a multidimensional process of integration driven by technology, economics, and political projects. It manifests as Internationalization, Liberalization, and Westernization. While neoliberal globalization promotes deregulation and free markets, critics point to Meritocratic Hubris (Sandel) and the Politics of Humiliation as drivers of populist backlash. Movements like Alter-globalization advocate for fairer systems that prioritize labor rights and social justice over pure market expansion.
Session 3: Expulsions, Intersectionality & Global Care
Kimberlé Crenshaw’s Intersectionality reveals how race, gender, and class overlap to create unique forms of discrimination. Saskia Sassen describes Expulsions as the extreme exclusion produced by neoliberalism. This is evident in Global Care Chains, where emotional labor is extracted from poorer nations to support wealthy ones, a process Arlie Hochschild calls the Global Care Drain. The Ethics of Care challenges economic systems that ignore unpaid reproductive labor.
Session 4: Racism, Power & Identity
Systemic Racism is embedded in institutional structures rather than just individual prejudice. Steven Lukes distinguishes between Visible Power and Invisible Power, where dominant groups shape perceptions to make inequality seem natural. Zygmunt Bauman describes those marginalized by these systems as Human Waste in a state of Liquid Modernity. The Social Change Triangle suggests that true progress requires simultaneous shifts in technology, institutions, and cultural values.
Session 5: Platform Capitalism & The Gig Economy
Platform capitalism extracts value by controlling networks and shifting risks onto workers. Algorithmically Managed Work lacks transparency and accountability, leading to Precarious Work. Giddens notes the resulting Ontological Insecurity, while Bourdieu argues that precarity prevents collective action. The Dan Martell Deliveroo case highlights the vulnerability of gig workers, reinforcing the need for regulation to protect labor rights and social welfare.
Session 6: Housing Crisis, Markets & Moral Limits
Markets are socially embedded institutions, not neutral forces. The Housing Crisis represents a conflict between housing as a commodity and housing as a Human Right. Michael Sandel warns of Market Creep, where market logic commodifies moral spheres, leading to Crowding Out of intrinsic values. Institutions—both formal laws and informal norms—are essential to regulate these exchanges and prevent systemic failure.
Session 7: Economic & Financial Globalization
Globalization has evolved through three phases: the First Era (1800–1914), the Bretton Woods Consensus (1945–1970s), and the Washington Consensus (1980–2000). We are now in a phase of Financialization, where speculative activities dominate the real economy. This shift has increased systemic risk, wage stagnation, and the power of global finance over state autonomy, necessitating a return to regulated, sustainable economic models.
Session 8: Corporate Globalization & Management Logic
Large MNCs exert power that often rivals states, leading to Corporate Gigantism and Market Concentration. The 2008 Financial Crisis exposed the dangers of Too Big to Fail institutions. Management logic, focused on Shareholder Value (Friedman), has expanded into public sectors like education and healthcare, often prioritizing efficiency over social welfare. This Marketization of public life creates tensions with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Session 9: Erosion of State Sovereignty & Global Governance
Globalization has weakened traditional state sovereignty, creating a Network Society (Castells) where power is distributed among TNCs, NGOs, and international organizations. Dani Rodrik’s Globalization Trilemma argues that we cannot simultaneously have hyper-globalization, national sovereignty, and democracy. Climate migration and environmental degradation further demonstrate that national states are often too small to solve global problems, requiring enhanced international cooperation.
Session 10: Social & Private Actors in Globalization
Social movements challenge dominant power structures through both institutional and non-institutional tactics, such as Civil Disobedience. Populism has emerged as a response to the Vacuum of Meaning left by technocratic, market-driven globalization. While some private actors are adopting Stakeholder Capitalism and ESG strategies to humanize the economy, genuine change requires addressing the systemic inequalities that fuel distrust and social fragmentation.