Economics in the Global Age
Driving Question: How have our economic networks and systems of production and distribution been affected by the era of intense globalization?
Globalization has knitted our world together into a single global economy. Many of the things we use or eat are made and grown in totally different parts of the world, by people we will never meet. Does this global supply chain and interconnected economy create a world of economic opportunity or inequality? In this lesson, you’ll explore this question as you follow goods across the world.
Learning Objectives
- Explain the continuities and changes in the global economy from 1900 to the present.
- Use graphic biographies to support, extend, or challenge the overarching narratives from this period.
In addition to thinking about the upsides and downsides of globalization, you might also want to consider sharing this blog post about the future of globalization with them.
There are a lot of positives that can come from globalization. But what are the downsides? Find out in this opener activity.
Want to mix up students’ reading strategies? Divide the class into groups and assign students roles, such as vocabulary master, claim cruncher, evidence gatherer, content connector. While they’re reading, each student looks for and writes down the specific thing their role is responsible for. When they’re finished, students meet in their homogenous groups and share, and then meet with their heterogenous groups and discuss the reading.
You’ve seen how globalization’s impact has been uneven. Now explore the concept of a “flat” vs. “spiky” world—which do you think we live in?
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Guiding Questions
Explore sources that examine economic changes during the late twentieth century around the world: from China to Chile, from Western Europe and the United States, to Southeast Asia. We recommend using the Quick-Sourcing Tool to help you analyze these sources.
Practice your claim- and counterclaim-making skills while also exploring the complex topic of the environmental impact of globalization.
China took an economic “great leap forward” during the twentieth century—but has new wealth created new problems?
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Guiding Questions
Set context prior to watching a video with students: Why are we watching this video? What do we hope to learn from it? How does the information in this video align with or go against what we’ve learned in class thus far? Make sure students have enough background knowledge for the video to make sense.
There is no doubt that China is a modern superpower and a hub of globalization, under the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Communist Party. But what does that actually mean for the Chinese people?
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Guiding Questions
Was the former Chinese Premier Hua Guofeng responsible for massive economic change in China? Or was he perhaps just lucky to govern in a period when global and national trends were shifting? Explore those questions in the graphic biography below.
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Guiding Questions
Dollar Street imagines a world where everyone lives on the same street and the houses are ordered by income: the poorest people live at one end, and the richest live at the other end. Explore this world and consider the differing impacts of globalization.
This article provides students with an illustrative example to help them understand the continuities and changes in the global economy.
Bangalore in India is a city that encompasses both the positive and negative aspects of globalization.
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Guiding Questions
