Objective 1: To understand the role of countries and borders in a world with freedom of movement for goods, capital, labour and ideas.
What is a country? What is a nation? What is a nation state? These things are words we frequently use but they are surprisingly difficult to define and sometimes more difficult to agree on. In this unit we will investigate what it means to be a country and have a look at a few places that might be countries, but might not. You will make the decision if they are countries or not and justifying your answers based on the different criteria we think a place needs to be called a country.
Objective 2: To understand the extent to which the growth of TNC's represents a power shift away from nation states.
Once we have agreed on what a country might and might not be, we can start to look at the next question. In the 21st Century globalised world, does it matter any more? Are countries important in places that look more and more the same, where consumers can buy the same products and where the same few big companies have come to dominate whichever country we are in? To what extent might these companies themselves, be becoming more powerful than nations themselves.