One World Ready or Not: Oregon and the Global Society
Learning Through Listening
Sociology 499H
Honors College Summer Field Course June 13-18 1999
Background

From June 13 to 18, 1999 seventeen students from Oregon State University set out to take a non-traditional approach to understanding the issue of globalization. The students spent five days visiting fishing, logging, farming and high tech communities in Oregon in an attempt to listen and learn from stakeholders more about what the social impact of globalization has been. The course embodied a non-traditional action learning approach which blurred the boundaries between  teacher/ student/ community/ researcher. Stakeholders with vested interests in globalization were invited to tell their stories to the students who then had an opportunity to reflect upon this information in a collective setting. Shared reflection of the information obtained through intense listening experiences contributed to the students better understanding of  globalization issues as presented from different social positions and perspectives. The following web links are the students attempts to capture what they learned in this course.

Course Directors:  Dwaine Plaza, Department of Sociology dplaza@orst.edu

                             Kathleen Stanley, Department of Sociology kstanley@orst.edu
Course Facilitator: Sriyanthi Gunewardena  gunewars@ucs.orst.edu

Course Syllabi

Course Photo Album
The teaching team hard at work preparing for
the course (Kathleen, Dwaine and Sriyanthi)
The class posing after lunch in Sweet Home (day 5)
Members of the class enjoying some free time
at South Beach Newport (day 4)
Students on a picnic before heading out to
Stahlbush Island farms (day 2)
Students "enjoying" the early van rides out to
meet stakeholders
A group of students doing brainstorming at
Silver Falls
Carla Chambers from Stahlbush Island farms
talking with the students (day 2)
Students listening to Carla Chambers discuss the
day to day operations at Stahlbush Island farms
Students met at Silver Falls with Eben Pullman from
Jobs with Justice (day 2)
Students spent long evenings working to process
what they had heard from stakehholders
Students meet with Michelle Eder, Connie Kennedy
and Ginny Goblirsch who are all part of fishing families
(day 4)
Students meet with Keith Matteson a fish biologist
based in Newport (day 4)
Students meet with Tom Keffer (President) and Mark Betz
of Rogue Wave Software Company in Corvallis (day 3)
Holley and Robert facilitate the meeting with Richard Read
(International Business writer for the Oregonian newspaper)
(day 5)
Meredith and Kevin facilitate the meeting with Steve Killgore
a representative from (Willamette Industries) (day 5)
Jason and Chris facilitate the meeting with Jim Gouriley a union
official and past Mayor of Sweet Home (day 5)
Students meet with Craig Martin the Sweet Home City Manager
(day 5)
Students meet with Bill Ford and Alan Holcombe from White's
Electronics a company based in Sweet Home (day 5)
Suzie and Tim facilitate the meeting with Jim Dipple from
InvesTIcast a mid-size company based in Sweet Home (day 5)
Daniel and Lonnie facilitate the meeting with Elena Pena who
discussed issues pertaining to migrant workers in Independence
(day 6)
Barb, Suzie and Andrew doing their final public presentation of
the issues pertaining to globalization from a high tech perspective
Joel, Chris and Lonnie doing their final public presentation of
the issues pertaining to globalization from a fishing perspective
Robert, Patrick and Kevin doing their final public presentation
of the issues pertaining to globalization from an agricultural
perspective
Tim, Jed and Jason doing their final public presentation
of the issues pertaining to globalization from a timber
perspective
Student Web Pages
 
General Issues
 
Industry