Economy and Society Curriculum

The Approaches seminars in Economy & Society cover authors, texts and concepts that are foundational for a theoretical and methodical understanding of socio-economic phenomena. The course material covers an interdisciplinary range of scholarly approaches and intellectual frameworks for understanding economic interactions and social coordination problems in a global frame of reference.

The Approaches seminars provide the foundation for subsequent work in the concentration and are the first step in the students’ academic trajectory towards the senior thesis. Students practice setting the agenda for inquiry, whether through group or individual presentations, formulating and refining a research project, through writing and other assignments, as well as identifying the appropriate means and resources to conduct research.

Political Economy of Growth and Development

This course introduces students in the Politics, Rights and Development concentration of Global Liberal Studies to approaches in the field of political economy. The course consists of three parts. First, the course highlights the intellectual origins of this line of inquiry with reference to classical political economy. These thinkers confront us with a rich tradition of competing visions of how capitalism functions. Contemporary socio-economic discussions continue to be shaped by the arguments and positions first put forward by writers such as Adam Smith, David Ricard, Thomas Malthus and Karl Marx.

Second, the course provides a critical introduction to the foundational concepts of conventional economic analysis. Textbook models of supply, demand, and market equilibrium are at the center of numerous discussions concerning public policy. Concepts such as opportunity costs and comparative advantage, while seemingly technical in their definition, convey particular implications when applied to questions of economic development.

Third, the course provides an introduction to contemporary approaches in global political economy. This set of interdisciplinary frameworks combines elements from political science, sociological and historical investigation, as well as economic analysis. The common thread running through the classical and contemporary literature on political economy is a deep, systemic preoccupation with the capitalist mode of production.

The Global Economy: Growth, Sustainability and the Environment

Global environmental threats such as climate change and fresh water constraints have gradually gained recognition as fundamental challenges to the sustainability of past and current rates of economic growth and improvements in living standards. The concept of sustainability has entered a prominent position in both global and local discourses and has taken a center stage in the development of new policies and theories that examine the relationships between human economic affairs and the planet’s biophysical limits. This course will introduce students to a set of interdisciplinary literature that addresses theoretical perspectives on the sustainability paradigm and the interrelationships between economic growth, human populations and the global environment, as well as their related policies. A considerable part of the course is dedicated to critically study the sustainable development approach as it has emerged as a leading intellectual framework used to investigate human-environment interactions as well as a normative outlook to recommend policies for a socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable world.

Critiques of Capitalism

This course introduces students to a wide range of writings from different philosophical and economic schools of thought, all of which have one central theme in common: they have a bone to pick with capitalism. Based on a close reading of primary texts, the course investigates the following questions. How do different authors characterize the fundamental features of the social system that we refer to as capitalism? Which, if any, aspects of this system do they appreciate and which do they reject? How are different critiques informed by historical events and, in turn, how do they shape the political dynamics of different eras? Finally, how is the critique of capitalism informed by perspectives outside the main power structures and intellectual centers of the enlightenment and beyond?

The first part of the course covers criticisms formulated by moral philosophers and classical political economists during the emergence of industrial capitalism in the 18th and 19th century. Readings demonstrate the linkage between theories of value and emergent disciplines in the social sciences. The second part, 1914 to 1945, focuses on analyses and arguments put forward during the chaotic pre- and interwar period. Critics and theorists in this period help to display the difficulty of thinking through the challenges to capitalism from fascist and communist movements. The third part presents of a range of critical commentaries on postwar capitalism up to the present drawing from religious, environmental, feminist, and postcolonial perspectives. The course concludes with a comparative reading of defenses and radical critiques of neoliberalism. 

Economic Development and Historical Patterns of Industrialization

The course will explore the historical determinants of economic transformations and industrialization patterns on a global scale. We will pay special attention to the roots of industrialization in changing social relations and the role played by new inventions and international trade in the widening of the market and the division of labor. The social and political institutions that constitute the background of industrialization will be highlighted. The transformation of the labor force from peasantry to industrial labor and the attendant hardships endured by the new industrial workers as a result will be considered. 

The Political Economy of the Global Food System

The enduring paradox of regional hunger and malnutrition amid global food abundance has arguably worsened in the early years of the 21st century: a rise in food deficits in the global South along with an increase of surpluses in the industrial North, a reversal in the downward trend of world food prices and increased environmental degradation of the agricultural resource base are indicators that the system is at a vulnerable state. This course will critically analyze the major economic and political forces behind these trends, namely the rise of global food corporations and the establishment of world trade policies that have shaped the ways of production and consumption – and associated livelihoods - along with the global relations of exchange. The course will also examine current issues related to the state of the problem, such as the debate on genetically modified food and the controversies surrounding food aid. Case studies from juniors’ global sites of study– such as the establishment of Argentina’s grain-livestock complex, the changing size and composition of China’s food demand, and the effects of agricultural price support policies in Europe – will be used to understand the regional and local manifestations of the global trends.