Re: reference suggestion -- 2nd try

For #1, how about using primary sources such as George Soros' new little
book, "On Globalization"? 

Also, in Barnes and Noble recently, I saw a copy of a textbooky book/
(?)reader (?)/ called something like "Global Sociology".

John Till

-----Original Message-----
From: Elson Boles [mailto:boles@svsu.edu] 
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2002 9:11 AM
To: 'WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK'
Subject: reference suggestion -- 2nd try

I'm reposting this for your help.  Surely there's some intelligent and
well-read person out there who has run across something that approaches
what I'm looking for.

(Steve sent one recommendation which comes close to fitting the bill --
Meyers et al article 'the nation-state and world society' in The
Globalization Reader (eds. Boli and Lechner) -- but it's a little too
difficult for intro students as he noted).

I'm looking for two articles for an introductory level Global Cultures
course.

1.  an article on the modern interstate system / political institutions
is a cultural formation or process, that is, how people across the
planet have become socially organized and interact through the modern
political institutions (sovereign states, diplomacy, international law,
etc.) and ideology (e.g. sovereignty, national development, modern
"civilization," the rule of law, diplomacy, etc.).  That is, a
not-too-long article which sums up and introduces students to the basic
idea that the interstate system is a global and globalizing cultural
institution.

2.  an article with similar intentions but focused on modern business
forms as cultural forms, including such aspects as the spread of the
modern business suit, the cultural of office buildings and factories as
common cultural-architectural forms, profit and wealth accumulation as a
creed, rationalization of work organization, impersonal bureaucratic
organization, the port city, industrial, and corporate cities and their
environs.  (On business time, I'm considering EP Thompson, but that
doesn't cover the 20th century).

If you know of articles that speak to these issues and can be understood
by undergraduate students, I'd very much appreciate hearing from you.

Elson Boles
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Sociology
Saginaw Valley State University
University Center
Saginaw MI, 48710