ABSTRACT
Look around the city or town where you live. Think about the forces that structure your world and everyday life. What processes yielded the built environment? Why are companies and jobs located where they are? Why are skyscrapers, filled with banks and insurance companies, clustered downtown? Where did the steel or automobile factories go? Why is your shirt likely to be made in China? Go to the grocery store: where did all of these goods come from? What types of jobs do your parents have? How are they different from the ones their parents had? How will your job future resemble or differ from theirs? Why are you likely to work in the service sector? Do you know anyone who works for a foreign company? Why is it here? Why do television networks and newspapers give so much attention to matters like the European Union or the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)? How will these international communities affect you?
