Business, Society, and Culture

Overview

The Business, Society, & Culture minor is designed to provide Drew students with an understanding of business which is firmly rooted in the liberal arts tradition. Therefore, BSC courses focus on the links between business and the larger world. They raise critical questions about the economy, society and culture in an effort to sharpen students thinking.

The BSC minor is comprised of core/required courses, elective courses, and a capstone seminar. The core courses provide students with an introduction to a rich, varied and interrelated body of scholarship on business enterprise drawn from the liberal arts disciplines. Students study the history, structure and governance of business enterprises (corporate, entrepreneurial, for profit, and not-for-profit). They explore the relationships and interactions between employers, employees, customers, investors, patrons, clients and other stakeholders (including citizens' groups, civic and religious organizations, government regulatory authorities, trade and employer associations, consumer, labor, and environmental organizations). Students investigate the interrelationships among the marketing, management and competitive strategies of business firms, their technological and organizational capabilities, and the social, ethical, scientific, humanistic, ecological, and legal traditions, contexts and norms within which they operate. In short, we study the whole of business as a social and culture enterprise.

BSC minors will choose elective courses from one of two tracks. The Communication, Culture, Commerce and Ideology Track (Track A) introduces students to scholarship from the fields of literature, rhetoric, theater, art, sociology and anthropology on commercial forms of communication and on the cultural representations (self-representations and public perceptions) of business enterprise. The Business, Society and Polity Track (Track B) lets students explore scholarship in the fields of political science, psychology, sociology and history on the nature, influence and limits of business power and authority in liberal democracies.

The capstone seminar is required of all minors, and is usually taken after all core courses have been successfully completed in the junior or senior year. It seeks to synthesize the knowledge acquired in the core and elective courses and through a combination of a colloquium (featuring guest speakers), field trips, and student research projects students apply their knowledge to real world problems. The seminar is designed to provide a rigorous practicum experience ("the liberal arts in action") for BSC students. The capstone course is taught by the BSC Director and draws on the resources of the career center, development office and other appropriate staff to identify guest speakers and provide logistical support for field trips. The course will be offered every term.

The BSC is part of Drew's business education program, which includes our internship program in business, the Wall Street Semester Program, the Economics Major with a concentration in the economics of business, money and finance, and Drew's Arts Administration and Museology Program.

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Contact

Richard A. Greenwald, Director & Associate Professor of History

Campus Office: BC 214 Phone: 973/408-3958 Email

Off Campus Mailing Address: BCS-Gilbert House Drew University Madison, NJ 07940

Richard Greenwald's Homepage