Admission requirements
This course is only available for students in the BA International Studies programme.
The number of participants is limited to 24.
Please note that passing a Thematic Seminar (10 EC) in the second year, second semester, is an entry requirement for starting your thesis in academic year 2026-2027. You need to have passed a minimum of 100 curricular EC of the International Studies programme as well in order to start your thesis.
Description
This seminar course examines how global capitalism has taken shape historically and how it is being interpreted and challenged today. We are especially interested in the ways that capitalism is understood by its critics, and in what their arguments can tell us about inequality, democracy, empire, climate change, and the future of the global economy.
The course is organised in four parts:
- What is capitalism?
- The development of capitalism
- The long 20th century
- 21st century capitalism and democracy
In the first part, “What is capitalism?”, we take a deep dive into capitalism and develop a shared vocabulary and analytical toolkit. We consider different definitions of capitalism, the relationship between markets and capitalism and social rerproduction, and the role of wage labour, profit, and accumulation. We read classic texts and key critics (including Smith, Ricardo, Marx, and Polanyi) alongside contemporary syntheses to understand what distinguishes capitalism from other economic and social orders.
In the second part, “The development of capitalism," we place capitalism in the context of empire, slavery, colonial rule, and "the great divergence. We explore how capitalist development has been intertwined with the creation of vast wealth, technological advances, liberal ideas and practices as well as conquest, extraction, racialisation, and gendered divisions of labour. Here we juxtapose libretarian theory with social history.
In the third part, “The long 20th century”, we trace the transformations of capitalism through a century defined by crisis, war, and worldscale marketization. We examine the emergence and crisis of welfare capitalism and socialist alternatives, the post-war compromise in advanced economies, and the turn to neoliberalism and globalisation from the late 20th century onwards. Using John Cassidy’s Capitalism and its Critics, we follow how different critics – from Keynesians and Polanyians to feminist, dependency, and ecological perspectives – have analysed these shifts.
In the fourth part, “21st century capitalism and democracy”, we turn to the present. We ask how global capitalism has changed in the last generation, focusing on global inequality, the rebalancing of economic power, financialisation, digital and platform capitalism, and the climate crisis. Branko Milanović’s work on the “great global transformation” provides a framework for understanding the new global income distribution and the rise of “national market liberalism”, while recent research on the history and politics of economics helps us interrogate how economic concepts themselves have been shaped by power, empire, and exclusion. We also consider the political consequences of contemporary capitalism, including pressures on democracy, the rise of populist movements, and the specter of fascism.
Throughout the seminar, we progressively build research skills: formulating research questions, constructing analytical frameworks, and working with empirical and theoretical literature. In the final weeks, students apply these skills by designing and writing an individual research essay on a topic related to global capitalism and its critics.
Course objectives
The Thematic Seminars for International Studies are designed to teach students how to deal with state-of-the-art literature and research questions and enhance the students’ learning experience by building on the multidisciplinary perspectives they have developed so far, and introducing them further to the art of academic research. The Thematic Seminrs are characterised by an international or comparative approach.
Academic skills that are trained include:
Oral and written presentation skills:
1. To explain clear and substantiated research results.
2. To provide an answer to questions concerning (a subject) in the field covered by the course:
in the form of a clear and well-structured oral presentation;
in agreement with the appropriate disciplinary criteria;
using up-to-date presentation techniques;
using relevant illustration or multimedia techniques;
aimed at a specific audience.
3. To actively participate in a discussion
Collaboration skills:
1. To provide and receive constructive criticism, and incorporate justified criticism by revising one’s own position.
2. To adhere to agreed schedules and priorities.
Basic research skills, including heuristic skills:
1. To collect and select academic literature using traditional and digital methods and techniques.
2. To analyse and assess this literature with regard to quality and reliability.
3. To formulate on this basis a sound research question.
4. To design under supervision a research plan of limited scope, and implement it using the methods and techniques that are appropriate within the discipline involved.
5. To formulate a substantiated conclusion.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminars
Seminars are held every week, with the exception of the Midterm Exam week. This includes supervised research.
Students are expected to be present and participate in the course; failure to do so may result in disenrollment from the course.
Assessment method
Assessment and Weighing
| Partial grade | Weighing |
|---|---|
| 10 weekly commentaries submitted on time | 20% |
| Research question and research motivation | 10% |
| Literature review - analytical framework | 20% |
| Final Research Essay - 5,000 words (between 4,500 and 5,500) | 50% |
End Grade
To successfully complete the course, please take note that the End Grade of the course is established by determining the weighted average of all assessment components.
Resit
Students who score an overall insufficient grade for the course, are allowed resubmit a reworked version of the Final Essay. The deadline for resubmission is 10 working days after receiving the grade for the Final Research Essay and subsequent feedback.
In case of resubmission of the Final Research Essay the final grade for the Essay will be lowered as a consequence of the longer process of completion.
Students who fail to hand in their final essay on or before the original deadline, but still within 5 working days of that deadline, will receive a grade and feedback on their essay. This will be considered a first submission of the final essay, however, the grade will be lowered as a consequence of the longer process of completion.
Students who fail to hand in their final essay on or before the original deadline, and also fail to hand in their essay within 5 working days of that deadline, get 10 working days, counting from the original deadline, to hand in the first version of their final essay. However, this first version counts as a resubmitted essay with consequential lowering of the grade, and there will be no option of handing in a reworked version based on feedback from the lecturer.
Retaking a passing grade
Retaking a passing grade is not possible for this course.
Please consult the Course and Examination Regulations 2025 – 2026.
Exam review and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organised.
Reading list
Selected recent articles on global capitalism, inequality, democracy, and critical political economy. The complete list of articles will be announced in the first lecture.
Other indicative readings include
Adamczak, B., 2017. Communism for kids. MIT Press.
Beckert, Sven. Capitalism: A Global History. New York: Penguin Press, 2025.
John Cassidy, Capitalism and its Critics (selected chapters).
Fraser, N. and Jaeggi, R., 2018. Capitalism: A conversation in critical theory. John Wiley & Sons.
Branko Milanović, The Great Global Transformation (selected chapters).
Piketty, Thomas. Capital and Ideology. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020.
A set of readings on colonialism, race, and global political economy (including selections from Decolonizing Economics; full bibliographic details and specific chapters to be announced in the first lecture).
W.C. Booth et al., The Craft of Research, fourth edition, Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 2016.
Registration
Registration occurs via survey only. Registration opens 12 December 2025:
- On 12 December 2025 you will receive a message with a link to the survey.
- Indicate there which are your 5 preferred Thematic Seminars, in order of preference.
- Based on preferences indicated by 5 January 2026 the course Coordinator will assign you to one specific Thematic Seminar by 19 January 2026.
- Students will then be enrolled for the specific groups by the Administration Office.
Students cannot register in uSis for the Thematic Seminar courses, or be allowed into a Thematic Seminar course in any other way.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Student Affairs Office for BA International Studies
Remarks
The deadline for submission of the Final Essay is Friday 5 June 2026.