Analyzing Alt-Profits and Gendered Globalization

Abstract

This learning activity invites students to reflect on gender and globalization, consumption and consumerism, global capitalism and McDonaldization. Students will identify businesses that present global capitalism as a field of economic opportunities and emotional enrichment through “compassionate production and consumption.” Websites of these...

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Details

Subject Area(s):

Communication and Information Technologies, Cultural Sociology, Political Economy, Race, Class and Gender, Sex and Gender, Theory, Work and Labor Markets

Resource Type(s):

Class Activity

Class Level(s):

College 300, College 400

Class Size(s):

Medium, Small

Usage Notes

This activity is best done over two or three class sessions where instructor lectures on a theorist (e.g., Moghadam, Ritzer, or Sassen) and students do this activity in parts, e.g., group formation, identifying alt-profits online, identifying relevant text, doing some content analysis and filling out worksheets in the first class; finishing the...

Learning Goals and Assessments

Learning Goal(s):

1. Students will be able to understand and apply Marx’s theories of labor and value (e.g., concepts of use value and alienation) theories of globalization (e.g., Ritzer’s “McDonaldization” and “grobalization”), theories of media and mediatization (e.g., Manuel Castells’ “network society”), and theories of gender (e.g., Moghadam’s transnational feminist...
2. Students will be able to identify how compelling digital storytelling and stereotypical gender narratives are used to push gentle, feel-good, equitable ideologies of consumerism where the act of consumption is equated with well-being, cultural appreciation, and social justice.
3. Students will be able to examine the characteristics of global capitalism and economic/cultural globalization and understand how these processes are enabled by widespread digital media.

Goal Assessment(s):

1. A worksheet students fill out as a group that demonstrates their engagement with the topics on hand (gender and globalization embodied in alt-profits) and knowledge of classical (e.g., Marxist theories of labor and value) and contemporary (e.g., Ritzer’s McDonaldization) sociological theories.
2. A brief reflection students write on their insights related to the topics and their experience of working collaboratively with classmates.
3. An optional group presentation where students present new knowledge gained and application of theory.