Social and Political Sciences Seminar: Berch Berberoğlu

 

Sabancı University

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Social and Political Sciences Program

 

Presents

 

A Power Point Presentation

 

“The Dynamics of Globalization

and its Impact on Society

in the 21st Century”

 

by

 

Prof. Dr. Berch Berberoğlu

Professor of Sociology and

Director of Graduate Studies in Sociology

University of Nevada, Reno, USA

 

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

14:00, FASS 2034

 

In this presentation, Prof. Berberoğlu examines the nature and dynamics of globalization and outlines its economic, social, political, ideological, cultural, and environmental impact on society in the early twenty-first century. He argues that the globalization of capital and the restructuring of production by the transnational corporations on a world scale have brought about the transformation of the international division of labor. This transformation in the labor force structure of the world economy, he argues, has meant increasing unemploy-ment and outsourcing of manufacturing jobs from the advanced capitalist centers to the low-wage sweatshops of the third world where the cost of labor is lower and profits are higher for the transnational corporations that have come to dominate the global economy.  He contends that the expansion of the worldwide economic power of transnationals has translated into greater political power, resulting in control and domination of the state and public policy in countries in which they operate. Such unmitigated power of global capital, Prof. Berberoğlu concludes, has serious political implications for society, including questions of war and peace, economic well-being and the quality of life, as well as democratic governance and social justice – questions that are of great concern for the future course of society and societal development in the twenty-first century. 

 

Dr. Berch Berberoğlu is Professor of Sociology at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he has been teaching and conducting research for the past 30 years. He served as chair of the sociology department for eight years, from 1993 to 2001. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Oregon in 1977. Dr. Berberoğlu has published 25 books and many articles.  His most recent books include Labor and Capital in the Age of Globalization (2002), Globalization of Capital and the Nation-State (2003), Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict: Class, State, and Nation in the Age of Globalization (2004) and Globalization and Change: The Transformation of Global Capitalism (2005). His areas of specialization include political economy, globalization, third world development, political sociology, nationalism/ethno-national conflict, and comparative-historical sociology. His latest book, The State and Revolution in the Twentieth Century: Major Social Transformations of Our Time, was published by Rowman and Littlefield in January 2007. You can visit his web site at www.unr.edu/cla/soc/berchb.htm or e-mail him at berchb@unr.edu