EdX

Global Social Change (edX)

Offered by Wellesley College, WellesleyX,

Learn how everyday people in China, Bangladesh, Mexico, and the U.S. transform the world around them and advocate for social change. What possibilities exist for a fairer world? Can one person truly make a difference? In this social sciences course, we sample the possibilities and limits of social change in an interconnected, inequitable global landscape.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see EdX's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

This course features in-depth examinations of the rise of garment work for Bangladeshi women, a labor strike in a Mexican suit factory, anti-sweatshop activism in China, and a chat with the president of one of the oldest textile manufacturers in the U.S.

Global Sociology is recommended but not required. Let’s start to understand how social change really works.

What you'll learn:

How globalization transforms local communities
How the conditions of labor exploitation vary across countries and times
How activism and protest fit into the study of global sociology

Go to Class

MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

EdX

Chalmers University of Technology,ChalmersX

Sustainability in Everyday Life (edX)

Sci: Environment Science

This course will arm you with the information and skills required to make more sustainable choices everyday! Daily headlines warn of new chemical dangers, species on the edge of extinction, global warming-- framing our planet as “at risk.” Some people stop listening, others get alarmed, while some others want to learn more in hopes of making a difference in the world.

No sessions available

5-12 Weeks

Sustainability Food Energy

EdX

ZHAWx,ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences

Global Business and Human Rights (edX)

Social Sciences Business

Explore how companies can understand, address and manage their human rights impacts. Discover links of business activities, global supply chains and human rights from different perspectives. Globalization includes the promise of economic development and wellbeing for all. However, from the early days of international trade until today this scarcely came without unfavorable, sometimes dreadful consequences for humans, be it slavery in colonial crop plantations, health and safety risks for coal miners throughout industrialization or, more recently, discrimination of factory workers in sweatshops.

Self Paced

Self-Paced

Human Rights Globalization Global Business

Coursera

University of New Mexico

Negocios Internacionales I (Coursera)

Management & Leadership

Vivimos en un mundo cada vez mas globalizado, en el cual el éxito en los negocios internacionales se ha convertido en el factor determinante del desarrollo económico y la prosperidad. Esta materia, Entorno Global de Negocios, Parte I, introduce al alumno a una comprensión fundamental del entorno político, cultural, lingüística y socio-económico en el cual opera una empresa internacional.

Sep 14th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Business Globalization International Business

Coursera

University of California, Irvine

Chemerinsky on Constitutional Law - The Structure of Government (Coursera)

Law Social Sciences

This course will highlight the construction and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution through the centuries. You'll learn the history behind the Constitution, cases that formed important precedent, and how changes in interpretation have been dependent on shifts in cultural and political climate as well as the composition of the Supreme Court.

Sep 14th 2026

5-12 Weeks

Law Government Federalism

EdX

University of California, Berkeley,BerkeleyX

Bridging Differences (edX)

Social Sciences

Learn research-based strategies for better relationships, dialogue, and understanding across divides. Relevant to anyone navigating conflicts and differences, especially geared toward college campuses. We encounter differences every day—differences in race, politics, gender, faith, and more. How can we connect across these differences, especially at a time of deep social polarization?

Self Paced

Self-Paced

Social Sciences Relationships Social Communities

EdX

HarvardX,Harvard University

Managing Happiness (edX)

Social Sciences

Managing Happiness encourages you to explore the science of happiness, allowing you to find your truest self. Through cutting-edge survey tools, the best research, and trends in social science, neuroscience, and philosophy to help learners unlock the strategies to create a more purposeful life, full of long-lasting enjoyment and satisfaction.

Self Paced

Self-Paced

Neuroscience Mind Social Sciences

Freedom of Expression and Information in the Time of Globalization: Advanced Course (edX)

EdX

Columbia University,ColumbiaX

Freedom of Expression and Information in the Time of Globalization: Advanced Course (edX)

Law Social Sciences

Learn about the diverse challenges to freedom of expression and access to information brought about by the technology revolution of the last two decades. This course will focus on the multiple challenges to freedom of expression brought about by the technology revolution of the last two decades.

No sessions available

4 Weeks

Globalization Freedom Digital Age

EdX

University of Hong Kong,HKUx

Doing Gender and Why it Matters (edX)

Humanities Social Sciences

Understand gendered realities through an in-depth consideration of "sex" and "gender" as cultural, social and legal phenomena impacting society and how they interact with structures of power and violence using an interdisciplinary lens. The course is a comparative, interdisciplinary and cross-sector conversation which encourages reflective thinking about practices of gender. It courts and questions the fixity of language, traditions, laws, and practices as well as the resilience of stereotypes, biases, and structures which perpetuate myths, hierarchies and discrimination.

Self Paced

Self-Paced

Gender Social Sciences Identity

EdX

University of Texas at Austin,UTAustinX

Age of Globalization (edX)

Business

Identify the historical and cultural systems driving globalization and changing societies around the world. Globalization is a fascinating spectacle that can be understood as global systems of competition and connectivity. These man-made systems provide transport, communication, governance, and entertainment on a global scale. International crime networks are outgrowths of the same systems.

No sessions available

4 Weeks

World Society Cultural

EdX

University of Michigan,MichiganX

Storytelling for Social Change (edX)

Marketing & Communication

Use stories to deliver messages that affect people. Learn how to craft a story that develops empathy and delivers impact. How can storytelling promote social change? This course develops skills for using stories to deliver messages that affect audiences and shape attitudes for social change. Learn how building empathy and developing characters can offer multiple perspectives on complex problems.

Self Paced

Self-Paced

Marketing Communication Social Change

Global Markets and Personal Impacts (edX)

EdX

University of Washington,UWashingtonX

Global Markets and Personal Impacts (edX)

Social Sciences Marketing & Communication

This globalization course focuses on the ways market-led macro-economic reforms associated with globalization (such as free trade agreements and privatization initiatives) have come together with much more micro innovations in how personal behavior is organized by market forces (rethinking education as a personal investment practice, for example, or outsourcing dating to for-profit companies).

No sessions available

5-12 Weeks

Globalization Global Market

EdX

Amnesty International,AmnestyInternationalX

The Right to Protest (edX)

Law Social Sciences

Learn why protest is protected by human rights, how the freedom to protest is under threat throughout the world, and how you can defend your right to protest. The freedom to call for change, and to amplify that call through mass mobilization, is vital for open and rights-respecting societies. Protests enable people to air grievances, express opinions, petition for remedies for wrongdoing, and to publicly demand accountability. Through protest, those who have been silenced, disempowered or disenfranchised can claim their voice, their strength and their political power.

No sessions available

3 Weeks

Law Human Rights Social Sciences