LECON6217 Political Economy in Action Course Descriptor

Course Overview

The course focuses on relatively recent economic events, starting with the Global Financial Crisis and its aftermath, and including key political economy forces such as environmental sustainability, global value chains, and the decision-making of multinational corporations in the global economy. Students are given material about a variety of regional and country contexts across the world, and encouraged to explore case studies of their choice.

Students are also invited to reflect on their own prior knowledge from, for example, mass media or social media, and how this knowledge affects their ability to analyse recent events in an academic way. They will develop skills in self-critique and critical analysis, and apply these skills in the portfolio assessment.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Employability Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students  in their  studies.

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Lectures/seminars/workshops

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

• Version 1:all sessions in the same sized group

OR

• Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups

OR

Directed study

4-12 scheduled hours, the exact number varying according to the balance of 1:1s, 2:1s, or small groups. The plan will be confirmed by the start of the course, taking into account student numbers and the proposed topics, readings, and specific tasks.

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE.

Summative Assessments

Students will learn to write a first draft, then use feedback to incorporate new learning into their portfolio work, identify and select academic sources, and use the sources to produce critical analysis. Students will also be asked to, to reflect on how their own prior knowledge or lived experience of an economic event may affect the challenges of writing about said event.

The portfolio should include a number of pieces of 400-800 words each, of which at least one should be a purely reflective piece about personal biases and their effect on one’s ability to analyse an economic event in an academic manner. This will enable students to practice the skills they can use in policy-related job roles.

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours).

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Ravenhill, J. (2020) Global Political Economy. Oxford University Press.
• Gilpin, R. (2001) Global Political Economy. Princeton University Press.
• Ho, K. (2009) Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street. Duke University Press. Chapter 4: “The Neoclassical Roots and Origin Narratives of Shareholder Value”.

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below is used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Environmental sustainability
• Global Value Chains
• Investment and multinational companies