GS 120 – Global Transport and Logistics

NOTE: The following is an archive of the class material I offered as a Professor at Hofstra University (1999-2024).

This interdisciplinary course introduces the major components of the rapidly evolving global transport and communication systems, showing how this evolution has enabled the spread of global production networks and has facilitated greater access to new modes of data and information.

Drawing from a wide range of disciplines and perspectives, the course highlights how transportation and the management of distribution are fundamental to understanding globalization, trade, and the use of logistics by corporations. The course also shows how the new modes of communication have transformed trade and culture, altering how we buy, sell, and produce commodities and the social organization of place and space.

The general goals of the course are:

• Students will be provided with an introduction to theoretical and practical concepts of transportation and logistics.
• Students will understand the role of transport infrastructures, modes, and policies in the organization of space at the international and regional scales.
• Students will be able to understand economic processes such as globalization, trade, and transportation and their impacts on economic, cultural, and social activities.
• Students will understand the fundamental concepts of spatial interaction and diffusion, which explain how human activities are influenced by the concept of distance.

PowerPoint Slides

• Topic 1 – Global Transport and Logistics: Moving the Things We Buy
• Topic 2 – Global Markets, Global Products, Global Firms
• Topic 3 – Trade and the Global Economy
• Topic 4 – Air Transportation
• Topic 5 – Maritime Transportation
• Topic 6 – Intermodal Transportation and the Container
• Topic 7 – Logistics and Supply Chain Management
• Topic 8 – Freight Distribution Systems

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