Learning Outcomes:
The course is an introduction to the politics of advanced capitalism in a globalised world. it focuses on how social scientists have tried to understand and explain cross national variation in distributional outcomes. Each lecture is constructed around a core reading in the prescribed textbook, which you must complete before coming to class. All lectures are participatory with each student expected to contribute toward discussions. It is both conceptual and empirical. Learning outcomes include research, professional and personal skills enhancement.
The course will improve your capacity for:
Critical thinking
Self management
Problem solving
Dataset awareness
Conceptual rigor
Analytic argumentation
Comparative case study knowledge
The book that we will use is Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the 21st Century" (2014). You are strongly advised to purchase the book, and start reading it in advance of the lectures.
We will also use an edited volume called "The Politics of Advanced Capitalism" (2015).
An active blog, facebook page and twitter hashtag will be used to encourage regular deliberation among students. #CapitalUCD