Courses

INTL260 – Culture, Capitalism and Globalization

Course Description

 Over the last several centuries a specific culture or “way of life” centering on the expansion of trade and markets, the escalation of mass consumption and the growing belief that material features are the key indicators of well-being has emerged in the West and spread wildly across the globe. As is widely acknowledged and celebrated, this “culture of capitalism” has seen a great many successes and witnessed scores of amazing achievements. Tremendous technological advances have been made, exceptional riches have been acquired, and breakthroughs in science and the arts have been truly remarkable. At the same time, however, the growth of the culture of capitalism has been accompanied by the appearance and expansion of some of the most disturbing problems facing the global community. Alongside its many accomplishments, the culture of capitalism has been associated with unprecedented scales of social and economic inequality, environmental degradation, human rights abuses, deadly disease, poverty and conflict. However, as insiders within this “way of life,” we typically have a hard time seeing and appreciating the significance of these less successful elements of our shared culture.

In this class we will draw on key lessons of the anthropological and historical traditions in order to develop an outsider’s perspective on the culture of capitalism. Using a combined cultural and historical approach this course explores the development of the culture of capitalism and explores the connections between this culture and a suite of contemporary global problems. By adopting a critical perspective that approaches capitalism as a cultural phenomenon with a particular place in the span of human history we will be better able to appreciate its uniqueness.

Learning Outcomes

• A historical understanding of the unique nature of capitalism as a socio-economic form of organization in economic, social and cultural terms
• A historical and empirically based understanding of the mutual interaction between culture and capitalism
• An understanding of key concepts pertaining to the understanding of the dynamics of capitalist development
• An historical understanding of how capitalism has changed fundamental aspects of modern culture, including conceptions of property, citizenship, money and debt, labor, the environment and food

Lectures

Week 1: Conceptualizing the Market

Week 2: Embedded Markets and Social Relations

Week 3: The Culture of Accumulation: ‘Improvement’ and the ‘Spirit’ of Capitalism

Week 4: Time, Labour and Work Discipline

Week 5: From Citizen to Consumer: Capitalism, Rationality, and the Making of Homo Economicus

Week 6: Global Capitalism and the Culture of Work

Week 7: Financialization: Wealth, Value, Risk and … Debt

Week 8: The Nature of Commodification and the Commodification of Nature

Week 9: The Political Economy and Culture of Food

Week 10: Review

INTL407/507 – Development and Social Change in Europe

Course Description

Europe has rarely been the subject of ‘development’ studies. At best, Europe serves as a model of normality against which processes of socio-economic development in the so-called ‘Third World’ are assessed. It is on this basis that countries of the Global South are encouraged to replicate the European path of modernization. While it has become increasingly common to question the appropriateness of the policy prescriptions that have resulted from the dominant interpretations of European development given the significant differences between the historical contexts in which development is occurring between the European ‘core’ and the ‘periphery’ in the Global South, this course seeks to problematize the conceptual and historical limitations embedded in prevailing interpretations of European development and social change.

The course is divided into three sections. The first section looks at an array of conceptual approaches to the study of European development and social change, and examines European development between the French Revolution and World War II. The second section examines the diversity of developmental processes underway in the various regions of Europe over the course of the post-war period: liberal capitalism in the West, dictatorship and underdevelopment in the South, and socialism in the East. The third section looks at the processes of neoliberal convergence and crisis in the context of European integration.

Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this course, students will have acquired the following:

• A comprehensive understanding of relevant theories and concepts related to development and social change in Europe
• Comprehensive knowledge of comparative case studies of European development and social change over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
• An understanding of the broader historical context in which contemporary social struggles regarding economic development in Europe are being waged
• Effective oral communication skills
• Independent research skills and practice in research design

Seminar Schedule

I. Myths of Modernization: Disaggregating European Development

Week 1: Theories of Development and Social Change in Europe

Week 2: Industrialization and Democratization in Nineteenth Century Europe

Week 3: Late Development and the ‘Total State’: War and Social Change in the Early Twentieth Century

II. The Many Faces of Post-War European Development

Week 4: The Rise and Fall of the Post-War Consensus in Western Europe: From Prosperity to Crisis

Week 5: Capitalism on the European Periphery: Dictatorship and Dependent Development

Week 6: From Communism to Post-Communism in Eastern Europe

III. Neoliberalism, Development and Social Change in the European Union

Week 7: Neoliberalism, European Integration and the Dismantling of the European Social Model, I: Varieties of Capitalism?

Week 8: Neoliberalism, European Integration and the Dismantling of the European Social Model, II: The End of the Welfare State?

Week 9: Crisis in the Eurozone, I: Structural Adjustment Comes to Europe

Week 10: Crisis in the Eurozone, II: Resilient Neoliberalism and Social Unrest

PS321 – Introduction to Political Economy

Course Description:

This course introduces students to the study of the political economy of advanced capitalist economies. The course is divided into three sections. The first section examines contemporary political economy’s roots in the tradition of classical political economy, associated with theorists such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx, and assesses the ways in which political economy is distinct from both economics and international political economy. The second section explores the various conceptual approaches to the study of political economy and examines the various ways in which they approach some of the key conceptual problematics of political economy: namely, the relationship between material interests, political institutions and economic ideas. The course concludes with a comprehensive examination of a number of significant political economy themes: the evolution of the political economy of the state; the development of ‘varieties of capitalism’; the rise of finance capital and the changes in corporate governance; and the construction and restructuring of the welfare state. Students are not required to have any prior background in economics for this course.

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Knowledge

• The fundamentals of Political Economy as an academic discipline distinct from economics
• Understanding of the core insights of Political Economy
• Understanding of the links between Political Economy and Classical Political Economy
• Understanding of the links between Political Economy and Political Science
• Contributions of key thinkers to the development of Political Economy
• Understanding of different conceptual and methodological issues within Political Economy
• Understanding of different analytical traditions within Political Economy
• Understanding of key debates regarding the political economy of Advanced Capitalist Economies

Subject Specific Skills

• Ability to conceptualize the links between politics, economics and sociology
• Identify the different units of analysis that distinguish competing analytical traditions within Comparative Political Economy
• Conceptualize the links between abstract concepts and methods of analysis
• Ability to operationalize relevant concepts and methods of analysis for the purposes of independent research

I. The Origins of Political Economy

Week 1: Introduction: Capitalism and Classical Political Economy

Week 2: Comparative Political Economy: Disciplinary Boundaries & Questions of Method

II. Conceptual Orientations and Units of Analysis

Week 3: ‘Cui bono?’ Interest-Based Analysis and Political Economy

Week 4: Institutional Analysis and Political Economy

Week 5: Ideational Analysis and Political Economy

III. Understanding Advanced Capitalist Economies

Week 6: The Political Economy of the State

­Week 7: The Political Economy of Finance and Corporate Governance

Week 8: The Political Economy of Welfare

Week 9: Comparative Capitalisms

IV. Conclusions

Week 10: Conclusion and Review