SGIA1241: Political Economy Perspectives

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• The module aims to introduce students to the central concerns of political economy as an inter-disciplinary social science that focuses on the relationship between political and economic systems, agents and institutions.
• It aims to pursue an enquiry-based approach to political economy, accessing the field through topics which will be familiar to the students own lived experiences.
• It further aims to lay foundations for students to critically engage with relevant research materials and develop awareness of the major epistemological approaches used in political economy.

• The module will introduce students to some of the key issues and debates in political economy through their own (subjective) lived experiences. It will draw on current public debates around aspects of these lived experiences, to explore how the distribution and exercise of power interact with the material substance of economic life, thereby identifying the kind of questions that political economists seek to answer and the approaches they take to finding answers. Sample topics include how individuals relate to the carbon economy, student loans, the importance of place, corruption, and consumerism.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Through the module students will gain a broad initial knowledge basis and an introductory understanding of:
• The interdisciplinary nature of political economy and how this is reflected in the questions political economists ask.
• The key agents studied by political economy (the state, markets, the household, the individual and other non-governmental institutions).
• Some of the key debates in contemporary political economy and an initial appreciation of the main theoretical approaches which underpin their historic evolution.
• Their own subjective positionality relative to the field of political economy and the specific topics studied in the module.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Through the module students will be able to:
• Conceptualise questions of interest and relevance to political economy arising from the world around them.
• To accurately identify relevant economic and political determinants at play, and the relationship between them, in given contemporary scenarios.
• Develop investigative strategies to analyse and evaluate competing explanations of political economy, and produce defensible, evidence-based judgements using appropriate terminology.

Key Skills:

• Through the module students will be able to:
• Develop a self-critical and independent approach to learning within broad guidelines.
• Seek out and identify appropriate resources and assess their relevance and suitability for the purposes at hand with guidance.
• Place subjective lived experiences within the context of larger issues, debates and objective contexts.
• Communicate information and analysis clearly, producing written work to deadlines.
• Reflect on their own progress and improve through feedback.

• Teaching and learning are through a series of 1-hour lectures and an associated series of 1-hour seminars.
• Lectures introduce students to the parameters of academic debate around the topics listed, typically including identifying the key questions for political economists, the principal frameworks through which they are addressed, and establishing the intellectual traditions from which these frameworks derive.
• Seminars will provide an opportunity for students to review their own positionality , identifying when and how their own lived experiences reflect the larger aspects of political economy at play. Through discussion, they will be able to debate the primary frameworks deployed to explain or evaluate the relationship between political and economic systems. They offer students the opportunity to structure and communicate their ideas and knowledge in response to the dynamics of the class.
• Formative assessment in the form of a 1500-word essay offers students practice in developing the skills needed to formulate a coherent and logically consistent written argument, drawing on relevant sources and evidence.
• Summative assessment by a 3000-word essay allows the student to demonstrate this knowledge and understanding of the field, and the skills which communicate them in an effective way.

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