Political Theory MA

Core modules:

Political Philosophy Research Seminar

This module is co-taught by lecturers from Philosophy and Politics. It is designed to develop your skills of close critical reading and philosophical discussion, and your ability to use political theorising to reflect on real world problems. Students will engage with a range of texts across active topics in the fields of Political Philosophy and Political Theory, discussing them together in a weekly two hour seminar. Each student will then be assessed on the basis of a writing project in Political Theory / Philosophy. Students will propose and develop their essay topics under the supervision of a lecturer in Philosophy or Politics.

30 credits

Dissertation

Contact department for more information.

60 credits

Please note, these modules change on a yearly basis.

Optional Philosophy modules may include the following:

Guided Reading

This module is intended to enable students to develop a research project of their own, in a flexible manner. Each student on the module will be assigned a supervisor, with whom they will meet for one hour every two weeks. They will also be encouraged to attend those reading groups run in the department (of which there are typically about 10 per semester) which fit with their project. The objectives of the module are (i) to identify a suitable research topic, in consultation with the supervisor (ii) to develop this project through supervisions and drafts (iii) to complete the project.

30 credits

Politics and Value

This module aims to introduce students to topics within political philosophy and ethics broadly conceived. Students will be encouraged to audit one of the following modules:

1. Political Resistance2. Global Justice

Teaching will then be by the way of weekly hour seminars [organised on the basis of the audited module] and supervision.

30 credits

Epistemology and Metaphysics

This module aims to introduce students to topics within epistemology and metaphysics broadly conceived. Students will be encourages to audit one of the following modules:

1. Ethics and Belief2. Bodies and Souls3. Freewill and Religion4. Memory and the Self



Teaching will then be by way of weekly hour seminars [organised on the basis of audited module) and supervision

30 credits

Ethics and Society

This module aims to introduce students to topics within ethics and social philosophy broadly conceived. Students will be encouraged to audit one of the following modules:

1. People, Organisations and Technology2. Moral Theory and Moral Psychology3. Feminist and Queer Studies

30 credits

History of Philosophy

This module aims to introduce students to topics within the history of philosophy broadly conceived. Students will be encouraged to audit one of the following modules:

1. Ancient Chinese Philosophy 2. Plato's Symposium

Teaching will then be by way of weekly hour seminars [organised on the basis of the audited module] and supervision

30 credits

Mind and Language

This module aims to introduce students to topics within the philosophies of mind and language broadly conceived. Students will be encouraged to audit one of the following modules:

1. Pain, Pleasure and the Emotions2. Language, Speakers and the World

Teaching will then be by the way of weekly hour seminars [organised on the basis of the audited module] and supervision

30 credits

PhD Proposal

To provide both general and subject-specific research training for those intending to pursue research in philosophy or political theory. There is a short course dealing with topics such as study and writing skills, choosing and planning a research project; conducting a literature search, delivering a seminar presentation and chairing a discussion. Students also meet with their research supervisor to plan and produce a detailed PhD proposal and annotated bibliography (6,000 to 8,000 words), outlining their proposed project and locating it in relation to established positions in the discipline.

30 credits

Politics optional modules:

Contemporary Global Security

You will explore the changing character of contemporary global (in)security. Throughout, you will examine the proliferation of discourses and practices of security and threat in contemporary society, to encompass issues as wide ranging as climate change, migration, technology and human rights. In doing so, you will trace the evolution of security studies from a narrow sub-discipline focused on inter-state war and the military security of the nation-state, to one increasingly willing to question and challenge its own assumptions. The module invites you to think critically about the function of 'security', and to reflect on the ethical and analytical assumptions that shape how security is thought about, theorised, and practiced in International Relations.

You will be introduced to a range of advanced theoretical lenses and debates about security, exploring key concepts in security studies and how they might help us to make sense of security politics. As part of this, we will apply these debates to understand and analyse real world problems that are or might be considered issues of security, through case studies on issues such as terrorism, nuclear weapons, energy security, climate change, technology and development. 

You practice your ability to think critically about how you make sense of contemporary global security politics, as well as how we might think and practice security differently, exploring both the possibilities for change and the limits of security.

30 credits

Policy-Making in the Real World

Policy making is an increasingly complex process, involving a range of 'wicked problems' and a growing set of options for addressing them. Given the multiple risks and crises they must deal with, how can policy makers come up with effective policy, learn from mistakes and deal with unexpected events? What tools can they employ to do so and how can we evaluate their success or failure?

You will take a theoretically informed but practice-focused approach to these questions. You will consider topics such as how technological innovation will inform policy making, looking at the impact of big data and AI, and considering the standards that should apply to such tools.  

Throughout the module, you will practice a range of practical skills through innovative group projects and visiting speakers from the policy world.

30 credits

Development and the State

You will explore and critically assess the political economy of development by focusing on the interplay between processes of economic transformation and the political strategies pursued by states in the name of national development. This is an interdisciplinary module, asking you to draw on development studies, the political economy of growth and transformation, and comparative capitalisms.

To begin, you will review the most salient theoretical themes in approaches to capitalist development. This will put you in a position to understand more specific theorisations of capitalist development as a state strategy in a world characterised by uneven and combined capitalist development. You will then shift your focus more specifically to the state, bringing the more generic issues reviewed at the start of the module into a focused 'developmental' framing. 

By the end of the module, you will be able to undertake ambitious evaluative work in which normative questions are asked and the prospects for capitalist development are considered.

30 credits

Democratic Governance in the 21st Century: Problems, Innovations and Solutions

Political systems around the world drive to be democratic, but what is meant by democracy and how can this be achieved?

During this module, you will consider the nature of the democratic crisis faced by countries around the world and map the latest innovations designed to address this challenge. You will study the tensions between new and old democratic arenas and consider the indicators of a thriving democracy.

Your work will be grounded in the tradition of engaged scholarship, will use real world examples and will culminate in a solution focused analysis. By the end, you will have developed keen professional and research skills by studying the theory and practice of democratic innovation.

30 credits

Global Health and Global Politics

Situated within contemporary approaches to International Relations and International Political Economy, this module will introduce you to the global politics of health, addressing health as both a global issue, and also as a quintessentially political one.

During this module, you will chart the recent rise of health as an issue of 'high politics', examine the relationship between individual and population health and the global political economy, explore the ways in which institutions by which health is governed at the global level, and analyse some of the key contemporary issues and challenges in contemporary global health governance. In doing so, we will be applying a variety of different 'lenses' (including feminist, decolonial and human rights-based approaches) to understand how these might affect what are seen as global health priorities - and what should be done about them.

Through the seminars and assessments, students on the module will further develop a variety of different skills including the analysis of issues from different perspectives, writing for policy and other non-academic audiences, presentation skills, and working as part of a team.

30 credits

Political Economy of Global Environmental change

Global environmental politics grapples with the key issues that shape the survival of life on Earth in the future.  Climate collapse, biodiversity loss, pandemics and pollution are just some of the problems that shape our everyday lives. Tackling them is an increasingly urgent agenda for international organisations, governments, NGOs and the wider public. To understand the origins of, the drivers of and the possible solutions to environmental degradation we need to examine them not just as matters of science, but also as wide ranging social, political, economic and cultural issues. 

In this course, you will be introduced to the major debates in the political economy of the environment. 

You will examine central debates around climate change, the Anthropocene, planetary boundaries, biodiversity loss, population, environment-conflict dynamics and human-animal relations. You will also discuss the potentials and pitfalls of different 'green' solutions such as degrowth, renewables, geoengineering, Nature Based Solutions, protected areas and green economy. You will explore these debates by analysing the different approaches to tackling global environmental change and use case studies to illuminate wider conceptual debates.

30 credits

Capitalism and Crisis

During this module, you will explore the relationship between capitalism and crisis through the prism of the causes of, and fallout from, the 2008 crash.

You will unpack the core concepts of the module - capitalism and crisis - and gain a brief historical overview of pre-2008 economic crises to contextualise and compare the main content of the module. You shall then go on to survey competing explanations of the 2008 crisis, by starting narrow (i.e. regulation of banking) and then broadening out (i.e. evolution of capitalism).

By the end of the module, you will have examined the economic and political fallout of  the 2008 crisis, be able to debate the extent to which the crisis was truly global, and discuss the variety of political responses to the crash.

30 credits

Freedom

Freedom is one of the most important political values, if not the most important one of all. During this module, you will investigate the political value of freedom by engaging with the literature in contemporary political theory.

To do so, you will focus on: competing theories of freedom (negative, positive, republican); the relationship between freedom and other values (autonomy, equality, security); and a number of applied issues (the harm principle, freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of movement). 

Taking a theoretical and philosophical approach, this module will encourage you to use the tools needed to analyse and evaluate political arguments which invoke the value of freedom.

30 credits

Terrorism and Political Violence

This module aims to provide an advanced level of understanding with reference to the topics of terrorism and political violence. It is organised around a framework of analysing both 'Terrorism' and political violence more broadly, both as events in the world, and as essentially political phenomena, whose effects have, in large part, to do with how they are politically defined and responded to.  

One way of thinking about this module is that it takes a critical theory approach to terrorism and political violence. Instead of a traditional, or 'problem solving' approach, which takes 'Terrorism' as a pre-defined problem in the world and our goal to develop solutions to it, this class begins by critically interrogating the way that 'terrorism' has been constructed as a way of understanding some types of political violence and not others. This critical approach then runs throughout the module and shapes our approach to the causes of terrorism and the forms of counterterrorism. Combining and applying Sociological and International Relations approaches, you will conduct a critical analysis on security and violence using a variety of cases ranging from 'macro-level' (war, including guerrilla warfare/insurgency, genocide and terrorism) through to 'micro-level' sites usually considered 'private' or 'intimate' ('domestic' violence, white supremacist bombings of historical Black churches, etc.). Moving beyond a narrow understanding of terrorism as limited to sub-state violence, you will also study the state as a perpetrator of political violence, both at home and abroad, and the role of gender, sexuality, and race in producing images of the terrorist. 

By the end of this module, you will therefore not only have dicussed critical understandings of terrorism, but also explored the ways in which it has effects in the world, which are often by shaping the ways that states and other actors respond to it as a threat, more so than through specific violent acts themselves.

30 credits

The Governance and Politics of the European Union

During this module, you will examine the history and development of the European Union, together with the institutions and decision-making processes of the community.

You will also investigate various theoretical perspectives on the process of bringing European countries closer together through economic, political, and social cooperation - a process known as European integration. When evaluating this process, you will focus on selected policy sectors, ranging from the single market and monetary union to budget and cohesion policy and foreign, security and defence policy.

This module will help you develop a range of skills. These include, but are not limited to, the skills to discover, understand and create academic work, engage in small group discussions in seminars, coherently analyse the ideas of others and critically engage with those ideas, and engage with key regional and global issues and contexts.

30 credits