Admission requirements
In addition to LIAS and LUCSoR PhD students, this course is open to students of the MA Middle Eastern Studies (research), the MA Asian Studies (research), and the MA Classical and Ancient Civilizations (research). Interested students from other relevant Research MA programmes are kindly advised to contact the co-ordinator of studies, Dr. Nicole van Os, before registering for this course.
Description
What is the tension between states and markets in the history, production, and reproduction of capitalism in the global political economy? This seminar emphasises the complexity of capitalism and its development in contrast to the usual tidy narratives. Through critical engagement with core literature, seminar participants will be able to re-evaluate popular and scholarly assumptions on political economy. The seminar facilitates deeper analysis of themes relevant to GPE analysis: including trade and investment, inequality, commodities, migration, labour, gender, consumption, finance, energy, global economic governance, imperialism, and the environment, among others. By looking at capitalism through a global lens, the course helps students build theoretical and methodological preparedness to investigate multiple explanations, outcomes, and impacts on local, national, regional, and global levels.
Offering an intensive reading program in GPE, the seminar’s central point of departure are histories and approaches to scholarship around the nature, evolution, and legacies of capitalist economic systems and development trajectories. With a view of the intellectual history of GPE as a field of scholarly inquiry, the course assesses how scholarship engages with questions around capitalism. Applying a critical lens, each of six weekly sessions delves into a core text and reads this in conversation with major debates and questions in the field.
Course Objectives
Improved understanding of key theoretical texts that comprise the canon of literature on global political economy.
Further development of a methodological skill set.
Enhancement of oral presentation skills and the ability to engage and synthesize arguments orally in debate and workshop settings.
Timetable
Visit MyTimetable.
Mode of instruction
- Seminar
Attendance and active participation are obligatory for seminars. Students are required to prepare for and attend all sessions. The convenor needs to be informed without delay of any classes missed because of illness or misadventure. In these cases it is up to the discretion of the convener(s) of the course whether or not the missed class will have to be made up with an extra assignment. The maximum of such absences during a semester is two. Being absent without notification and/or more than two times can result in exclusion from the term end exams and a failing grade for the course.
Course Load
| Total course load: 5 EC x 28 hours | 140 hours |
|---|---|
| Preparation (c. 10 hrs/wk), attendance (2 hrs/wk), assignments | 70 hours |
| If the course is taken for credit (ResMA students only): a research paper | 70 hours |
Assignments may include presentations and moderating the discussion.
Deadlines for paper submission are set by the convener, after consultation of the students. Papers must be submitted at a date that enables marking and administrative processing within maximally six weeks after the Seminar’s final session.
Assessment method
(ResMA students only)
ResMA students can take the course for credit, in which case they will write a paper worth about 70 hours of work. Information on the requirements for the paper will be provided by the instructor at the start of the course.
Academic Integrity
Students should familiarize themselves with the notion of academic integrity and the ways in which this plays out in their own work. A good place to start is this page. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students may not substantially reuse texts they have previously submitted in this or other courses. Minor overlap with previous work is allowed as long as it is duly noted in citation.
Students must submit their assignment(s) through Brightspace, so they can be checked for plagiarism. Submission via email is not accepted.
Assessment and weighing
| Partial Assessment | Weighing |
|---|---|
| Contributions to in-class discussion | 40% |
| A research paper of 3,000–4,000 words | 60% |
In order to pass the course, students need a pass mark (“voldoende”, i.e. “5.50” or higher) for the research paper and for the course as a whole.
The research paper is written in two stages: a first version, on which the convener will offer feedback, and a final version. Feedback on the first version is conditional on this being handed in before the deadline. The grade will be determined on the basis of the final version only. (The paper deadline mentioned in uSis is for administrative purposes only. The actual date will be communicated by the convener.)
All categories of assessment must be completed in the same academic year. No partial marks can be carried over into following years.
Resit
Only if the total weighted average is 5.49 or lower and this is the result of a paper graded 5.49 or lower, a re-sit of the paper is possible (60%). In that case the convenor of the course may decide to assign a (new) topic. The deadline for this version will be determined by the course convenor, after consultation with the student. A re-sit for other course components is not possible.
Inspection and feedback
If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will be organized.
Reading list
T.b.a.
Registration
ResMA students taking the course for credit are required to register through uSis. To avoid mistakes and problems, students are strongly advised to register in uSis through the activity number which can be found in the timetable in the column under the heading “USIS-Actnbr.”. More information on uSis is available in Dutch and English. You can also have a look at the FAQ.