Singapore University of Social Sciences

This course invites students to think critically about the interaction between technological change and the globalisation cycle. This is a crucial dynamic that has and will continue to shape Singapore, Southeast Asia, and the world. Technological change in the digital age has played a key role in deepening the integration of global markets and in quickening the diffusion of ideas, knowledge, and technologies. Ironically, these processes have also unleashed forces that have blunted or even reversed the momentum for further economic integration and political cooperation on a global basis. The impact of the digital age on the globalisation cycle has also raised questions on a host of issues, including the resurgence of great power competition, the ability of the global economy to accommodate distinctive (and sometimes opposing) economic systems, the use of global technology supply chains as geopolitical weapons, the nationalistic pursuit of technological might, and the integrity of the nation state. These questions are not new and are merely the current form of prior debates concerning the impact of technological change in earlier globalisation cycles. In short, globalisation is neither irreversible nor inevitable. This course will impart this central lesson to students by placing globalisation and de-globalisation in the digital age within the context of historical globalisation cycles and by helping them to become cognizant of how technologically deterministic attitudes often shape our understanding and expectations of globalisation and technology.