TEMPLATE FOR FOUNDATIONS COURSE OUTLINES

AP/SOSC 2340 6.0/2349 6.0 INTERMEDIATE BUSINESS AND SOCIETY (2013-14)

              

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is compulsory for students of Business & Society. The first term will focus on ethical issues and teach students how to reason normatively, that is, how to justify judgements of value, of good and bad, and of right and wrong. The ethical analysis will be complemented in the winter term by social scientific analysis of the contemporary business and economic phenomena.

This course is not a ��business�� course; students looking to study classical business subjects (marketing, management, accounting, finance, etc.) are advised to stay away.   

COURSE DIRECTOR:  Mark Peacock  

Office:     767 South Ross

Office Hours:    Mondays, 10:30-11:30am

E-mail:     mpeacock{at}yorku.ca

Course Website   http://www.yorku.ca/mpeacock/courses/courses.html 

TUTORIALS AND TUTORIAL LEADERS

Names and contact information will be available on the course website

                   

LECTURES: Mondays 8:45-10:30am, Curtis Lecture Hall G

The first lecture is on Monday, Sept. 9^th. Tutorials begin on this date, too.  

COURSE MATERIALS: Students will need the following (both are available from the bookstore):

1. Michael Sandel: Justice: What's the Right Thing to do? (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009);
2. Course kit for SOSC 2340 Intermediate business & society.

 

COURSE WITHDRAWAL DATE FEB 14^th, 2014: If you have not dropped the course by Feb. 14^th, you will get a grade for this course. The only way in which a course can be dropped thereafter is if you petition for a ��late drop�� via the faculty��s petitions committee: http://www.yorku.ca/laps/council/students/petitions.html 

COURSE EVALUATION: There are 9 assignments for this course:

1. Reading questions I (questions on course homepage under ��Assignment 1��)
2. Reading questions II (questions on course homepage under ��Assignment 2��)
3. Reading questions III (questions on course homepage under ��Assignment 3��)
4. Reading questions IV (questions on course homepage under ��Assignment 4��)
5. Short essay (instructions on course homepage under ��Assignment 5��)
6. Textual comparison (instructions on course homepage under ��Assignment 6��)
7. In-class test (to be written in your final tutorial of the winter term)
8. Tutorial participation (fall)
9. Tutorial participation (winter)

 

Instructions and guidance for assignments are to be found on the course homepage. See the links to ��Assignment 1��, ��Assignment 2��, etc.

Assignments are to be handed to your TA in class unless your TA instructs you otherwise (see below).  
 

FALL SEMESTER (2012)

Assignment	%	Date due
Reading questions I	5	In tutorial: Sept. 30th or Oct. 1st
Reading questions II	10	In tutorial: 21st or 22nd October
Reading questions III	10	In tutorial: 4th or 5th November
Reading questions IV	10	In tutorial: 25th or 26th Nov.
Tutorial participation	10

 

WINTER SEMESTER (2013)

Assignment	%	Date due
Short essay	15	In tutorial: 10th or 11th February
Textual comparison	15	In tutorial: March 31st or 1st April
In-class test	15	In tutorial: March 31st or 1st April
Tutorial participation	10

 

GRADING SCALE

See "Grades Definitions" http://calendars.registrar.yorku.ca/2012-2013/academic/grades/

Final grades which end in .7, .8 or .9 (for example, 84.9 or 69.7) will be rounded up to the next integer.  

LECTURE SCHEDULE: FALL SEMESTER (2013) 

Lecture 1 (September 9^th)

Introduction – no reading 

Lecture 2 (September 16^th)

Michael Sandel: Justice: What's the Right Thing to do? Chapter 1, pp. 3-30. 

Lecture 3 (September 23^th)

Sandel: Justice, chapter 2, pp. 31-57. 

Lecture 4 (September 30^th)

Sandel: Justice, chapter 3, pp. 58-74. 

Lecture 5 (October 7^th)

Sandel: Justice, chapter 4, pp. 75-102. 

October 14^th: NO LECTURE (Thanksgiving) 

Lecture 6 (October 21^st)

Sandel: Justice, chapter 5, pp. 103-39. 

Lecture 7: (October 28^th)

Sandel: Justice, chapter 6, pp. 140-66. 

Lecture 8 (November 4^th)

Sandel: Justice, chapter 7, pp. 167-83. 

Lecture 9 (November 11^th)

Sandel: Justice, chapter 8, pp. 184-207. 

Lecture 10 (November 18^th)

Sandel: Justice, chapter 9, pp. 208-43. 

Lecture 11 (November 25^th): The current financial crisis: How the banking business wrecked society

Stiglitz, J. (2010) ��The making of a crisis��, idem. Freefall: America, Free Markets and the Sinking of the World Economy (New York: Norton), pp. 1-26. COURSE KIT 

December 2^nd: NO LECTURE  

LECTURE SCHEDULE: WINTER SEMESTER (2014) 

N.B. the three lectures marked with two asterisks (**) involve readings which are not in the course kit but which you should download and print from the internet.

All page numbers below refer to those in the original readings, not to those in the course kit. 

Lecture 1 (January 6^th): Globalization and the race to the bottom

Mosley, L. (2007). ��The political economy of globalization��, in D. Held and A. McGrew (eds.). Globalization Theory (Cambridge: Polity Press), pp. 106-112. COURSE KIT 

Lecture 2 (January 13^th): Global institutions: WTO, IMF, World Bank

Stiglitz, J. (2006). Making Globalization Work (New York: Norton), pp. 74-81, pp. 103-117. COURSE KIT 

**Lecture 3 (January 20^th): Free trade and development

Chang, H.-J. (2003). ��Kicking away the ladder: infant industry promotion in historical perspective��, Oxford Development Studies 31 (1), pp. 21-32.

This article should be downloaded via York library��s eResources 

Lecture 4 (January 27^th): Why do countries accept the ��Washington Consensus��?

Klein, N. (2007). ��Democracy born in chains: South Africa��s constricted freedom��, in idem. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (Toronto: Vintage), pp. 233-61. COURSE KIT 

Lecture 5 (February 3^rd): Drugs, patents and health

Schroeder, D., Pogge, T. and Singer, P. (2011). ��Access to life-saving medicines��, in M. Boylan (ed.). The Morality of Global Justice (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press), pp. 229-55. COURSE KIT 

**Lecture 6 (February 10^th): Civil disobedience and globalization protest

(i) Y.Trofimov and H. Cooper (2001). ��Antiglobalization activists are shifting focus to multinational corporations��, Wall Street Journal 23^rd July.

(ii) K. Brownlee – ��Civil disobedience��, section 1: ��Definitions��.

The Trofimov and Cooper article can be found by a Google search (search under ��Trofimov Cooper Antiglobalization��) or directly under the following link:

http://www.mindfully.org/WTO/Focus-On-MNCs.htm

The Brownlee article is in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The link is:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/civil-disobedience/ 

February 17^th: READING WEEK - NO LECTURE OR TUTORIALS THIS WEEK 

Lecture 7 (February 24^th): Economic injustice and our obligations from the past

Pogge, T. (2002). ��Eradicating systemic poverty: Brief for a global resources dividend��, in idem. World Poverty and Human Rights (Malden MA: Blackwell), pp. 196-215. COURSE KIT 

Lecture 8 (March 3^rd): Historical injustice: Which obligations do corporations have for past wrongs?

(i) Spiliotis, S. (2006). ��Corporate responsibility and historical injustice��, in J. Keane (ed.). Civil Society: Berlin Perspectives (New York: Berghahn books), pp. 51-69. COURSE KIT

(ii) Matthews, R. (2006). ��Ordinary business in Nazi Germany��, in R. Michalowski and R. Kramer (eds.). State-Corporate Crime: Wrongdoing at the Intersection of Business & Government (New Brunswick, New Jersey, London: Rutgers University Press), pp. 117-125. 

**Lecture 9 (March 10^th): Immigration I: How free should freedom of movement be?

(i) Kukathas, C. (2005). ��The case for open immigration��, in A. Cohen and C. Heath Wellman (eds.). Contemporary Readings in Applied Ethics (Oxford: Blackwell), pp. 207-220. COURSE KIT

(ii) Risse, M. (2008). ��On the morality of immigration��, Ethics and International Affairs 22 (1), pp. 25-33.

Text (ii) is available electronically via York library. 

**Lecture 10 (March 17^th): Immigration II: Who gets left behind? (Immigration and health)

(i)  Brock, G. (2011). ��Compatriot priority, health in developing countries, and our global responsibilities��, in A. Banai, M. Ronzoni and C. Schemmel (eds.) Social Justice, Global Dynamics (London: Routledge), pp. 17-26. COURSE KIT

(ii) Mills et al. (2008). ��Should active recruitment of health workers from sub-Saharan Africa be viewed as a crime?�� The Lancet vol. 371 (issue 9613), pp. 685-88. Available from the JSTOR catalogue via York��s library. 

**Lecture 11 (March 24^th): What we owe to others

P. Singer (1972) – ��Famine, affluence and morality��, Philosophy and Public Affairs vol. 1 (3), pp. 229-243.

The Singer article can be downloaded from the JSTOR catalogue and is also available under the links:

http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/by/1972----.htm

http://pages.uoregon.edu/koopman/courses_readings/singer_famine_affluence_morality.pdf 

Lecture 12 (March 31^st): Course review 

COURSE POLICIES  

a) Tutorials: You will meet in groups of 25 with your tutorial leader once a week for one hour.

b) Study groups: You should form such groups and discuss the readings each week before your class.

c) Lectures: Lectures sometimes contain material not covered by the readings. Familiarity with lecture material will increase the grades of your assignments. You will get more out of lectures if you have read the corresponding readings from the course kit prior to the lecture.

Always act considerately in lectures: 1. turn off cell phones; 2. don��t talk after the lecture starts; 3. if you must arrive late or leave early, do so quietly.

d) Supplementary reading: For those wishing to deepen their understanding of the material, the homepage for the course contains a link to ��supplementary readings��.

e) Library research roadmap and quiz: This online tutorial informs you about the research process in preparation for writing essays. Learning how to find information and to think critically about it, are essential skills which you will have to master during your time at university. The tutorial is interactive and takes about 20 minutes to complete. http://www.library.yorku.ca/roadmap/ 

TUTORIAL ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION

Tutorial participation represents 20% of the final grade. Your TA will grade your performance after each tutorial. To receive a good participation grade you should participate actively in class discussion. Opening your mouth is not enough; you must demonstrate that you have read and thought about the reading/lecture material in any given week. Come to each tutorial with questions and comments on the texts. As a guide, please note:

• If you are absent from a tutorial without legitimate excuse, your grade for that tutorial will be zero (F).
• If you attend a given tutorial but do not participate in it verbally, your grade will be E.

If you miss more than 3 tutorials in EITHER term without legitimate excuse, your total participation grade for that term will be zero (F). Only if you are excused by your TA will an absence not be counted. The conditions for being excused are:

1. Informing your TA on the same day as the tutorial that you wish to be excused;
2. Providing written documentation (e.g. an attending physician��s note) pertaining to your absence within 1 week of the missed tutorial. Job commitments are not a valid reason for absence.

Arriving late or leaving early may also be judged a partial or complete absence.

Do not negotiate about being excused and do not plead for special treatment. All cases of disagreement between students and TAs will be referred to the course director. 

HANDING IN ASSIGNMENTS

Hand hard copies of your assignments to your tutorial leader in class unless s/he instructs you otherwise. It is always your responsibility to ensure that the TA received your assignment. ALWAYS KEEP A COPY OF YOUR OWN ASSIGNMENTS 

4. PENALTIES FOR LATE ASSIGNMENTS

You will lose 5% per day for assignments submitted late. Hence, if your assignment is graded 72%, it will be lowered to 67% if handed in a day late, 62% if two days late, etc.

If you require an extension for an assignment, you must arrange for this as early as possible. Extensions will only be granted if the student has a legitimate excuse which s/he can document in writing. If the student is unable to do this, s/he must turn to the Arts Petitions Committee. 

5. REWRITE POLICY

If you submit an assignment, you do not have the option of re-writing it. 

6. ACADEMIC HONESTY

Plagiarism and other sorts of academic dishonesty are not tolerated at York University (see Senate guidelines: http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/policies/document.php?document=69).

It is your responsibility to know what academic dishonesty is.  To help you understand issues of academic honesty, you should complete an on-line tutorial on "Academic Integrity" (http://www.yorku.ca/tutorial/academic_integrity/)

If you are suspected of academic dishonesty, the course director will set up a Hearing of the Academic Honesty Committee of the Department of Social Science which you will be required to attend.

The MINIMUM penalty for academic dishonesty on any assignment for this course is ZERO on the relevant assignment. No opportunity for rewriting work is given in cases of academic dishonesty. 

7. GRADE REAPPRAISAL

See: http://www.yorku.ca/laps/students/reappraisal.html 

CAMPUS SERVICES: 

The Writing Department: http://www.yorku.ca/laps/writ/ 

English as a Second Language Open Learning Centre (ESL-OLC), 116 Atkinson College

Only students registered with the ESL-OLC may enrol in an ESL tutorial for this course (SOSC 2349 9.0).

Register at ESL_OLC or on the website: http://www.yorku.ca/eslolc/keele/default.asp 

Counselling and Disabilities Services [CDS], N110 Bennett Centre for Student Services

CDS offers a range of services to students including personal counselling, skill development workshops and support for those with psychiatric disabilities and learning disabilities. Link available on the course Website: http://www.yorku.ca/cds/

IF YOU HAVE A LONG-TERM CONDITION OR DISABILITY FOR WHICH YOU REQUIRE ACCOMMODATIONS IN THIS COURSE, YOU MUST HAVE THE SUPPORT OF THE CDS TO OBTAIN ACCOMMODATIONS. ONLY IF THE CDS ISSUES AN ACCOMMODAATION LETTER FOR A STUDENT WILL ACCOMMODATIONS BE GRANTED. THE LETTER MUST BE PRESENTED TO THE TUTORIAL ASSISTANT OR COURSE DIRECTOR AT THE BEGINNING OF TERM OR AS SOON AS IT IS ISSUED TO THE STUDENT.