Graduate Student Organization · Research Hub
The 2nd Annual Society for Global Scholars Conference
Alter-Globalizations: Another World is (Still) Possible
FRIDAY, MARCH 2--SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 2018
The University of California, Santa Barbara
Artist Credit
Rosa Huitzitzilin
Opening Keynote Address
“Human Rights and Globalization from Below: Making Other Worlds Possible”​
Dr. Jackie Smith, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh
This presentation discusses the recent global rise of locally-based initiatives defending and demanding basic human rights. As globalized capitalism has intensified pressures on workers and communities, the contradiction between economic growth and the basic needs and survival of more and more people has become more visible, even among more privileged groups. The talk reports on different locally based, translocalinitiatives to implement human rights norms in municipalities around the world, and examines some of the global-local flows of ideas, practices, and insights that are emerging from this work.
This presentation discusses the recent global rise of locally-based initiatives defending and demanding basic human rights. As globalized capitalism has intensified pressures on workers and communities, the contradiction between economic growth and the basic needs and survival of more and more people has become more visible, even among more privileged groups. The talk reports on different locally based, translocalinitiatives to implement human rights norms in municipalities around the world, and examines some of the global-local flows of ideas, practices, and insights that are emerging from this work.
Speaker Biography
Jackie Smith is professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh and editor of the Journal of World-Systems Research. She is a leading scholar of transnational social movements and her most recent books include Social Movements and World-System Transformation (co-edited with Michael Goodhart, Patrick Manning, and John Markoff), Social Movements in the World-System: The Politics of Crisis and Transformation (with Dawn West) and Global Democracy and the World Social Forums (with multiple collaborators). Smith’s work on the World Social Forum process has led her to examine how global analyses and models of action are “translated” to local settings. Her participant-observation research has included work with Pittsburgh’s Human Rights City Alliance.
Closing Keynote Address
"Digital Capitalism and Global Police State"
Dr. William I. Robinson, Professor of Sociology at University of California at Santa Barbara
This talk will explore the global police state that is emerging as world capitalism descends into a crisis that is unprecedented. The global police state refers to three interrelated developments: the ever-increasing omnipresence of systems of mass social control, repression, and warfare; militarized accumulation or the global economic exploitation of the systems in question; and the increasing move towards political systems that can be characterized as 21st century fascism, or, in an even broader sense, as totalitarianism. The technologies associated with the digital economy and the fourth industrial revolution appear to be revolutionizing warfare, systems of social control and state-organized accumulation, in particular over-accumulation, that are generating crisis in the first place.
Speaker Biography
William I. Robinson is professor of sociology, global and international studies, and Latin American studies, at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He worked for a decade prior to entering academia as an investigative journalist in Central America and has lectured widely at universities around the world on the topics of the global economy, international politics, and contemporary world affairs. He is active in several social justice movements, including for immigrant rights in the United States and for justice for Palestine. Among his many award-winning books are Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity, Latin America and Global Capitalism: A Critical Globalization Perspective, A Theory of Global Capitalism, and Promoting Polyarchy: Globalization, U.S. Intervention, and Hegemony. His most recent book, Into The Tempest: Essays on the New Global Capitalism, will be released later in 2018. He writes as well for a variety of academic and global justice news outlets, among themTruthout and Al Jazeera English.