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Topics in Sociological Analysis (476-0-20)

Topic

Global Capitalism and Law

Instructors

Bruce Greenhow Carruthers
847/467-1251
1808 Chicago Avenue, room 203.
Bruce Carruthers is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University and a Long-term Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. He works in the areas of economic sociology, comparative-historical sociology, and the sociology of law, with research funding coming from the National Science Foundation, the American Bar Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Institute for New Economic Thinking, and the Tobin Project. His most recent book, published in 2022 by Princeton University Press, is entitled The Economy of Promises: Trust, Power, and Credit in America.

Meeting Info

Parkes Hall 222: Wed 2:00PM - 4:50PM

Overview of class

"Global Capitalism and Law"

Globalization entails greater interdependence and less national autonomy. It occurs as international flows of capital, goods, services, and people increase. Transactions, interactions and relationships that formerly occurred within national boundaries now occur across them. As part of globalization, legal forms and institutions are also spreading throughout the world. Transactions involving capital, goods, services and people are not self-sustaining; rather, they are supported and regulated by an institutional foundation that typically centers on the legal system. Because the frameworks that support these transactions exist primarily at the level of the nation-state, a governance mismatch has emerged. Globalization means that more is going on between national jurisdictions than within them, and tensions arise between competing institutional models. The substantive focus of this seminar is this intersection between globalizing markets and (predominately, but not exclusively) national legal forms and institutions. We will read work by sociologists, political scientists, economists, and lawyers addressing a range of issues related to the interaction between markets and legal systems, and with a particular focus on financial markets.

Registration Requirements

Course is open to Sociology graduate students. Anyone who falls outside of this description should contact the instructor for consent to enroll.

Teaching Method

Seminar discussion

Evaluation Method

Participation, two memos, and a final paper are required and evaluated

Class Materials (Required)

This course will have required books/other materials.

Dani Rodrik, The Globalization Paradox (New York: W.W. Norton, 2011), ISBN: 978-0-393-34128-7

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Sociology/MORS PhD Students