Understanding Globalization

This best-selling book examines the political, economic, and environmental changes that affect people's lives in the United States and around the world. Using an accessible, narrative approach Robert Schaeffer explains contemporary global processes and developments. Just as a storm that moves across an area has differing local, regional and even national and global impacts that are welcome to some and disastrous to others, global events can have very different consequences--good and bad--for people in different settings. Though many of the global changes that he examines are interconnected, the stories Schaeffer presents are told separately. The result is a text that provides readers with accounts of change that can be studied individually or read collectively. In this fourth edition Schaeffer offers a new chapter on global migration in which he examines the causes and consequences of contemporary economic, environmental, and gender-based migrations. He also looks at the economic problems of 2008 which plunged the United States into a recession and triggered a global economic downturn. Throughout Understanding Globalization Schaeffer examines developments in past years that shaped or resembled current global challenges, making this text an excellent primer for understanding current global developments.

About the Author :
Robert K. Schaeffer is professor of sociology at Kansas State University.

Review :
Schaeffer presents a balanced and geographically informed perspective on the uneven outcomes of globalization. In the new edition, he has astutely included a discussion of fair trade versus free trade, a new chapter on migration and provides the context for many of the most significant global changes that confront the North and South in the twenty-first century. The book is both accessible and substantial--a rare accomplishment. It has become my 'go-to' book on globalization.--Lisa Benton-Short, George Washington University Understanding Globalization is an exceptional book that thoroughly covers contemporary issues relating to globalization that students find extremely readable.--Ione DeOllos, associate professor of sociology, Ball State University Praise for previous editions: This clearly written and vastly comprehensive book is a valuable and fascinating read. . . . Schaeffer turns his gaze to topics as varied as inflation, debt crises at home and abroad, stock market booms and busts, hunger and agriculture, free trade agreements, global climate change, democratization, and the global drug trade. In nearly every case, the research is solid and the choice of details fascinating. . . . I would recommend this book for general readers . . . or mid-level courses wishing to incorporate a global perspective. --Contemporary Sociology