PIR-10058 - Module Specification
School of Social Sciences
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Programme/Approved Electives for 2024/25

Available as a Free Standing Elective

Co-requisites

None

Prerequisites

None

Barred Combinations

None

Description for 2024/25

Introduction to Global Political Economy
This course will provide you with an introduction to the key issues, history, and perspectives in the field of Global Political Economy [GPE]. This module is about the structure, it is a żbig pictureż module that serves as an introduction to the study of GPE.
GPE is a relatively new area of inquiry for analysing International Relations in combination with Political Economy. GPE goes beyond the study of the major global financial and economic actors such as the G-20, IMF and the World Bank to look also at transnational processes such as drug trafficking, illegal arms trade, smuggling goods and people, and laundering the money made from them, their financial products, which are estimated to amount to a trillion dollars annually. It is hard to imagine a world without GPE because the mutual interaction of International Politics and the global economy is today widely appreciated and the subject of much academic research and applied policy analysis. This module includes both mainstream and radical approaches to analysing the global political economy. It is organized in several key parts corresponding to the different kinds of languages/ discourses with which you need to become familiar. In the first part, the module introduces some historical background on the development and elements in the global economy and the perspectives used to makes sense of things. It looks at the world system as a whole, examining the assumptions of different perspectives on political economy. In the second part, we will examine key perspectives and related concepts, models, and empirical evidence. Here we will explain terms such as the balance of payments and comparative advantage and study the discourse of mainstream political economy. The third part of the module builds on the first two as we turn to a critical assessment of the spread of global political economy relationships as experienced in key issue areas. In other words, the module will move from more abstract and broad themes to specific issues.
As this module is designed as an introduction to studying the global political economy, we assume that students do not already have any background in political economy. The module aims to demonstrate how an understanding of GPE can help students to make sense of the current global financial crisis, global news, business investments, and government policies żby presenting the theories, institutions, and relationships found in GPE in simple ways that still capture the complexity of the global issues and intellectual problems addressed.

1. to provide students with an introduction to thinking critically about the essential linkages between economics and politics globally by studying a number of contemporary case studies and approaches; 2. to offer an in-depth analysis of the global political economy since the WWII; 3. to enable students to develop a critical perspective on the scholarly debates in the current literature on the GPE and to develop their own perspectives on the linkages between the global economy and international politics.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Recognise and distinguish between the main theories and concepts employed in the study of global political economy: 1,2
Critically assess the analyses of a range of issues in the global economy offered by the different approaches in the field of global political economy
: 1,2
Identify and explain patterns of development in the global political economy since the end of the WWII: 1,2

Study hours

20 hours: contact time in ten one-hour seminars and ten one-hour lectures
60 hours: preparation for ten tutorials, including for oral presentation
70 hours preparation and completion of assessments

School Rules

None

Description of Module Assessment