Unit 2 — Globalisation Debates
Track E · Klasse 12 · Niveau E (Basisfach / Leistungsfach)
Learning objectives Link to heading
- I can read short pro and contra positions on globalisation and identify the empirical claim each side hangs on.
- I can use the vocabulary of contested-policy debate (supply chain, inequality, externality, comparative advantage, regulatory race).
- I can write a 350-word op-ed that holds two readings of globalisation in productive tension.
curriculum framework (“Bildungsplan”) alignment Link to heading
- 3.4.1 / 3.5.1 Soziokulturelles Orientierungswissen / Themen
- 3.4.2 / 3.5.2 Interkulturelle kommunikative Kompetenz
- 3.4.3.2 / 3.5.3.2 Leseverstehen
- 3.4.3.5 / 3.5.3.5 Schreiben
- 3.4.4 / 3.5.4 Text- und Medienkompetenz
(Sources: https://www.bildungsplaene-bw.de/,Lde/LS/BP2016BW/ALLG/GYM/E1/IK/11-12-LF / https://www.bildungsplaene-bw.de/,Lde/LS/BP2016BW/ALLG/GYM/E1/IK/11-12-BF)
Lead-in story Link to heading
The class read a 2025 review piece in The Economist summarising twenty years of globalisation debates. The piece opened with a number — world trade as a share of GDP rose from 39 % in 1990 to 60 % by 2008 — and a counter-number — and has plateaued since. The class spent the lesson learning to read those two numbers as the same fact.
1. Activate Link to heading
Position scan. With your partner, list 3 arguments for and 3 against globalisation that you would actually defend. Mark each as empirical / normative / both.
2. Input Link to heading
Reading — Twenty Years of Globalisation Link to heading
World trade as a share of GDP rose from 39 % in 1990 to 60 % by 2008. It has plateaued since. The supporters of the post-1990 trade order point to the lifting of approximately one billion people out of extreme poverty over the same period — predominantly in East and South Asia. Critics respond that intra-country inequality in advanced economies grew sharply, that supply-chain fragility was severely under-priced before 2020, and that environmental externalities were systematically exported. Both sides hang on empirical claims that are roughly correct.
Vocabulary — globalisation debate Link to heading
supply chain, comparative advantage, regulatory race / race to the bottom, externality, intra-country inequality, trade order, deindustrialisation, reshoring, near-shoring, friend-shoring, decoupling, fragmentation, geo-economic.
3. Practise Link to heading
Niveau E — controlled Link to heading
- Match: comparative advantage → trade theory; externality → unpriced cost; reshoring → moving production back home.
- T or F: world trade as a share of GDP rose from 39 % to 60 % between 1990 and 2008; intra-country inequality fell in advanced economies during the same period.
Niveau E — productive Link to heading
- Build 4 sentences using 4 globalisation-debate terms.
4. Produce Link to heading
Op-ed, 350 words. Hold two readings of globalisation in tension. Use 5 globalisation-debate terms + 2 academic hedges + 1 cleft + 1 despite / given that.
Sample Link to heading
The two strongest arguments about post-1990 globalisation are both empirical and both roughly correct, which makes the debate harder, not easier. It is precisely the simultaneous truth of one billion people lifted out of extreme poverty and intra-country inequality in advanced economies growing sharply that has produced the curiously polarised politics of the 2020s. The available evidence suggests that comparative advantage worked broadly as the textbooks promised: countries specialised, output grew, and aggregate welfare in many regions improved. By contrast, the distributional question — who, within a country, captured the gains — was systematically under-asked. Accordingly, supply-chain fragility was severely under-priced before 2020. Externalities were exported; the regulatory race to the bottom on labour and environmental standards was real. Given that the politics has now shifted toward reshoring, near-shoring, and friend-shoring, the more useful question is not was globalisation good or bad? but what would the next two decades have to look like to capture the aggregate gains without exporting the costs? The honest answer involves instruments that are not yet in place — carbon border adjustments, social-investment funds in regions hit by deindustrialisation, supply-chain redundancy buffers. Despite the loud debate, the interesting work is engineering, not slogans. Caution is warranted; complacency is not.
5. Reflect Link to heading
- I can identify the empirical claim each side hangs on.
- I can use 5+ globalisation-debate terms.
- I can write a 350-word op-ed holding two readings in tension.
One thing in your notebook: Write one sentence using something you learned in this Unit.
Exam example Link to heading
Inhalt / Sprache split. Basisfach (basic course): 50/50. Leistungsfach (advanced course): 40/60.
Part A — Comprehension (~24 BE) Link to heading
Listen / read twice.
“World trade as a share of GDP rose from 39 % in 1990 to 60 % by 2008. It has plateaued since. About one billion people were lifted out of extreme poverty in the same period, predominantly in East and South Asia. Intra-country inequality grew in advanced economies. Supply-chain fragility was under-priced.”
- Trade %: ___ . 2. Plateau: ___ . 3. Poverty reduction: ___ . 4. Hidden cost: ___ .
Part B — Analysis (~18 BE) Link to heading
Read the Twenty Years of Globalisation extract.
- The two simultaneous facts: ___ . 2. Where the poverty reduction happened: ___ . 3. Three critics’ claims: ___ . 4. The author’s neutral move: ___ .
Part C — Composition (~18 BE) Link to heading
Composition prompt: Choose one of the three critics’ claims. Defend or refute it in 250 words using 2 academic hedges + 3 markers.
Mediation (~30 BE) Link to heading
Mediation prompt: A 250-word German economic-policy paper on Lieferkettenresilienz (supply-chain resilience). Mediate for a English-speaking trade-policy reader. (Source provided in class.)
Downloads Link to heading
Differentiation — support (below Niveau E).
Use these frames to build your op-ed one move at a time — fill each blank with a globalisation-debate term:
- One thing seems clearly true: globalisation ____ . But at the same time, ____ .
- The evidence suggests that ____ , yet it is arguably too simple to say only that.
- It is ____ that best explains why the debate stays so heated. (cleft)
- Despite ____ , the more useful question is not “good or bad?” but “____?”
Extension (above Niveau E / Oberstufe).
Rather than holding the two readings in tension, take a position: argue whether the “both sides are roughly correct” framing is an honest analytical move or a way of dodging the distributional question of who, within a country, actually captured the gains. Then test your claim against a real policy instrument — a carbon border adjustment or a reshoring subsidy — and show precisely where it would succeed and where it would merely export the costs somewhere new. Sustain the argument in roughly 400 words with integrated evidence and at least one concession you genuinely take seriously.
Common pitfalls Link to heading
- Don’t reduce globalisation to one number.
- Race to the bottom is contested as a description — flag it.
- Both-sidesing without a stake is weak.
Further reading / listening Link to heading
- Dani Rodrik, Straight Talk on Trade (accessible chapters).
- The Economist — globalisation special reports.
Downloads
Listen
The vocabulary, dialogues and reading texts of this unit as audio, spoken by a native voice. The spoken text is shown beneath each clip.
Show text
"World trade as a share of GDP rose from 39 % in 1990 to 60 % by 2008. It has plateaued since. About one billion people were lifted out of extreme poverty in the same period, predominantly in East and South Asia. Intra-country inequality grew in advanced economies. Supply-chain fragility was under-priced."