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SMITHA RADHAKRISHNAN: Hi.
I'm Smith Radhakrishnan, and I teach sociology at Wellesley College.
I'm here at the Wellesley book store, and I
am about to buy a sweatshirt, something that many of you
probably do on a regular basis.
But have you ever thought about the story of that sweatshirt?
The fact that this sweatshirt is available to me
at this store at this moment in history tells us
a great deal about how many parts of the global economy
fit together to provide me with this particular consumer
experience-- the global market conditions that
made it possible for the US to import cheap clothes from the global south,
the national conditions in Honduras that promoted
the widespread introduction of garment factories employing poor women,
the 2004 Central American Trade Agreement that accelerated trade
between Honduras and the United States, and the personal stories of women
like Cristela, who, like many women all over Honduras,
started making sweatshirts in US funded factories for the US market after 2004.
I haven't seen too many garment factories in suburban Boston
these days, although in the 19th century,
Massachusetts was the center of the global garment trade.
Today, the US is a retail economy.
The fact that we're a retail industry reflects powerful interrelated changes
that have taken place in the global economy in general and in the US
in particular.
Sociology offers us a powerful set of tools
for thinking about how individuals and objects are
interconnected in a global economy.
When you start to be able to see sociologically,
your everyday life becomes laden with meanings and stories.
In this class, we're going to be developing
your sociological imagination.
I like to think of it as developing a mesh for observing in great detail
those things that would otherwise slip out of the filter of our perceptions
because they're too commonplace.
To do that, you need some fact-based knowledge
about the economy, about various societies,
and maybe something about history at large.
But you also need some theoretical knowledge,
a way to observe in analytical detail and articulate the inequalities
and opportunities that you see around you.
So come with me and let's peel back the layers that
constitute your everyday life.
Welcome to Global Sociology.