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Prof Paul Apostolidis

This course is available on the BA in Social Anthropology, BSc in Environment and Sustainable Development with Economics, BSc in Environmental Policy with Economics, BSc in History and Politics, BSc in International Relations, BSc in International Social and Public Policy with Politics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, BSc in Politics, BSc in Politics and Data Science, BSc in Politics and Economics, BSc in Politics and History, BSc in Politics and International Relations, BSc in Politics and Philosophy and BSc in Social Anthropology. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

Introduction to Political Theory or equivalent.

This course engages the study of contemporary political theory by examining 20th and 21st century texts while also considering concrete, practical political and social problems. Throughout the AT, we highlight theoretical analyses of questions that concern politics and economic life. Such questions include normative issues about how to define a just distribution of social goods and the relation between economic justice and freedom, as well as critical-theoretical questions about how to understand oppression and popular mobilisation in historical contexts defined by capitalist, colonial, racial and gender power. During the WT, we explore various theoretical problems regarding immigration, environmental politics and global justice in the wake of colonisation. GV262 challenges students to consider a wide range of approaches to writing political theory and diverse perspectives on the basic question of what ‘political theory’ is. The course offers a WT option to participate in a public-oriented group research activity in partnership with an external organisation, and the course also qualifies as a CIVICA Engage Course for students who pursue the CIVICA Engage Track.

This course is delivered through a combination of classes and lectures totalling a minimum of 50 hours across Autumn Term and Winter Term. There will be reading weeks in AT Week 6 and WT Week 6.

Students are expected to submit one formative essay and one formative blog in AT.

The course requires students to organize their workloads, to complete readings in advance of lectures, and to prepare to participate actively in seminars. The course thus emphasizes the development of verbal and written communication abilities. Students also should expect to tackle basic questions about what it means to write political theory by exploring tensions and affinities between normative/ethical and critical-theoretical approaches.

John Rawls, “A Theory of Justice”; Robert Nozick, “Anarchy, State, and Utopia”; Jacques Rancière, “Disagreement”; Joseph Carens, “The Ethics of Immigration”; Michel Foucault, “Two Lectures”; Mohandas K. Gandhi, “Hind Swaraj”; James Baldwin, “The Fire Next Time”; Rosa Luxemburg, "The Mass Strike"; V. I. Lenin, “What Is To Be Done?"; C. L. R. James, “The Black Jacobins”; Susan Moller Okin, “Justice, Gender, and the Family”; Friedrich A. von Hayek, “The Constitution of Liberty”; Herbert Marcuse, “One-Dimensional Man”; Ingolfur Blühdorn, “Sustainability - Post-Sustainability - Unsustainability".

Exam (50%, duration: 2 hours) in the spring exam period.
Essay (30%, 1500 words) and blog post (20%) in the WT.

GENERAL COURSE STUDENTS ONLY:

The Class Summary Grade for General Course students will be calculated as follows: 15% class participation, 80% formative coursework (40% per assignment), and 5% attendance.