Homework answers / question archive / The essay titles are: "Technology went hand-in-hand with the rise of globalisation – but today’s innovations risk something worse" and "Ignore the pessimists – technology is still creating a more open and interconnected world economy" Marking criteria for Summative Assessment Knowledge and understanding Does the essay demonstrate comprehension and application of knowledge and concepts delivered and discussed in the unit? Does the essay convey the results of independent research and reading? Does the essay apply issues and debates raised by wider global challenges (political, economic, social) to the practical concerns faced by businesses in the global business environment? Argument and analysis Does the essay present a coherent and logical analysis deploying themes and concepts from broader academic and policy debates? Does the analysis show evidence of a strong underpinning argument? Is the argument reinforced with reference to ideas and material covered in lectures, podcasts and readings? Structure and style Is the essay well written, with minimal mistakes in language, grammar and syntax? Does the essay show signs of effective planning and organisation, with a clear structure and argumentative/analytical flow between and within paragraphs? Is due credit given to the sources of ideas and evidence? Formatting, referencing and deadline Formatting Assignments should be formatted using Arial or Times New Roman font in size 12, double-spaced with normal margins

The essay titles are: "Technology went hand-in-hand with the rise of globalisation – but today’s innovations risk something worse" and "Ignore the pessimists – technology is still creating a more open and interconnected world economy" Marking criteria for Summative Assessment Knowledge and understanding Does the essay demonstrate comprehension and application of knowledge and concepts delivered and discussed in the unit? Does the essay convey the results of independent research and reading? Does the essay apply issues and debates raised by wider global challenges (political, economic, social) to the practical concerns faced by businesses in the global business environment? Argument and analysis Does the essay present a coherent and logical analysis deploying themes and concepts from broader academic and policy debates? Does the analysis show evidence of a strong underpinning argument? Is the argument reinforced with reference to ideas and material covered in lectures, podcasts and readings? Structure and style Is the essay well written, with minimal mistakes in language, grammar and syntax? Does the essay show signs of effective planning and organisation, with a clear structure and argumentative/analytical flow between and within paragraphs? Is due credit given to the sources of ideas and evidence? Formatting, referencing and deadline Formatting Assignments should be formatted using Arial or Times New Roman font in size 12, double-spaced with normal margins

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The essay titles are: "Technology went hand-in-hand with the rise of globalisation – but today’s innovations risk something worse" and "Ignore the pessimists – technology is still creating a more open and interconnected world economy"

Marking criteria for Summative Assessment

Knowledge and understanding

Does the essay demonstrate comprehension and application of knowledge and concepts delivered and discussed in the unit? Does the essay convey the results of independent research and reading? Does the essay apply issues and debates raised by wider global challenges (political, economic, social) to the practical concerns faced by businesses in the global business environment?

Argument and analysis

Does the essay present a coherent and logical analysis deploying themes and concepts from broader academic and policy debates? Does the analysis show evidence of a strong underpinning argument? Is the argument reinforced with reference to ideas and material covered in lectures, podcasts and readings?

Structure and style

Is the essay well written, with minimal mistakes in language, grammar and syntax? Does the essay show signs of effective planning and organisation, with a clear structure and argumentative/analytical flow between and within paragraphs? Is due credit given to the sources of ideas and evidence?

Formatting, referencing and deadline

Formatting

Assignments should be formatted using Arial or Times New Roman font in size 12, double-spaced with normal margins.

Word limits

Each part of the assignment should be around 1500 words. There is no direct marks penalty for going below or above the recommended word count, but a failure to stick to the recommended word length may indicate the essay is overly concise or long-winded and may thus merit a lower mark.

References and bibliography

You will not be assessed on the presence or quantity of references and citations, but in order to avoid plagiarism, you must ensure that you give credit where elements of the argument are not your own. As such, just as in any Economist article, you should refer to a lecturer or author by name where you are drawing upon ideas or information from a lecture or text – e.g. ‘as Jon Beaverstock has argued…’, ‘as Jeremy Green writes in his book Is Globalization Over?...’, ‘as Pankaj Mishra has written…’.

The summative assignment for this unit explores the power of argument in comprehending and crafting the global business environment. The assignment asks you to write two 1500-word newspaper editorials, each arguing a different side of a key debate in contemporary global political economy and relating that debate to issues and challenges faced by businesses, workers, managers and governmental organisations. The two 1500-word pieces will emulate the style of an Economist leader column (i.e. the opening editorials of each weekly edition). The Economist's famous leader columns, a selection of which we will read in each part of this unit, condense global political, social and economic events to spell out their significance for the business environment and the people who inhabit it. Expressing a broadly liberal position on the global economy, these columns influence business leaders, investors, regulators and governments, in so doing helping to shape the reality of global capitalism. To understand the point of view expressed in the Economist's leader columns, you can read this piece penned by the Economist itself on its 175th birthday, or the more critical version given by Alexander Zevin in his recent book Liberalism at Large: The World According to the Economist, the Introduction of which is freely available to read here or here. Bearing an anonymous and collective authorship, the leader columns follow a strict set of style guidelines which are publicly available in the Economist Style Guide, two essential chapters of which you can read here and here. Following this style advice, the assignment asks you relate some of the key global challenges and debates considered in the podcasts with the specific empirical issues and aspects of the global business environment explained in the main synchronous guest lectures, as well as the topics and issues covered in the main reading for the unit, Jeremy Green's Is Globalization Over. You can bring in contemporary events – the COVID-19 pandemic, the election of Joe Biden and the rise and fall of Donald Trump, the UK's exit from the European Union, etc. – to support your argument. There is a twist to the basic format of an Economist leader, however. On the eve of the commencement of the Brexit referendum campaign, the future British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, notoriously penned two newspaper columns voicing two different views on whether the UK should leave the EU. In the first, he argued for remaining in the EU. In the second, he argued for leaving. His career rested on backing the right option – falling into line behind his then party leader, David Cameron, or backing an insurgent populist campaign to overturn Britain's membership of the world's biggest trading bloc and political union. He chose the latter, publishing a column calling for a ‘Leave' vote in the upcoming referendum. The rest is history - Johnson found himself on the right side of the referendum result and eventually found his way to Number 10 Downing Street. Like Johnson, you will also write two leader columns each arguing a different – although not necessarily diametrically opposed – side of a single debate or issue covered in the unit (although you will submit both rather than only one). In each column you should refer to specific issues raised in at least two of the main synchronous guest lectures from the unit (e.g. Weeks 2-8), aswell as debates from at least one of the podcasts. There should also be mention or quotation of evidence and ideas from Green's book Is Globalization Over. The aim is to relate wider political, economic and social shifts to the decisions and conditions faced by businesses on the ground. Below are a series of ten pairs of possible titles from which you should select one duo. In each part of the assignment you should take the corresponding titles and, for each, craft a supporting argument with all the elegance and sophistication of an Economist leader column.