Globalisation: History, Politics, Culture

Globalisation is not a single process but a contested set of changes that has reshaped economies, politics, and everyday life across centuries and continents. Understanding it well requires tools from history, political theory, and cultural analysis working together, which is exactly what this programme at the University of Brighton brings into dialogue.

You will study how the world has become progressively interconnected through trade, migration, colonialism, technology, and ideas, and you will examine the very real inequalities and tensions that these connections have produced. History gives you a grounded sense of how the present emerged from specific decisions and struggles rather than inevitable trends. Political analysis equips you to assess how power operates across borders, from international institutions to transnational social movements.

Cultural perspectives invite you to think about identity, representation, and resistance in a world where meanings cross borders as readily as goods. Across all three strands you will develop habits of close reading, source evaluation, and argument construction that are central to thinking rigorously about complex problems.

This is a three-year full-time degree with an optional sandwich year, giving you the chance to gain substantial work experience before you graduate. The programme also includes a work placement, which means you can test and develop your skills in a professional environment and build networks that are genuinely useful at the start of a career.

Graduates are well prepared for careers in international organisations, think tanks, public policy, journalism, development work, and the charity sector. The combination of historical depth, political literacy, and cultural fluency is also excellent preparation for postgraduate study in fields such as international relations, development studies, social anthropology, and area studies. Whatever direction you take, the ability to situate contemporary events in longer and wider contexts is a rare and valued skill.