Handbook

The period from the early 1970s is often noted as a particularly volatile one for the global political economy (GPE). This volatility has significant implications for the ways in which we are able, or not, to live our lives today and for the future sustainability of political-economic practice. You will be asked in this course to work out what these implications are, and how they have arisen, by examining the global political economy in a variety of forms, and through multiple perspectives. You will be encouraged to think reflectively and imaginatively about questions in the GPE for which there are no easy answers, including questions of power, privilege, common sense, instability and the ongoing role of crisis-driven capitalist growth. You will be asked to make decisions about your views on the apparently systemic nature of capitalist instability. Together, we will decide to what extent, and why, the global political economy has been dominated by crisis, developing an understanding of the structure and practices of global political-economic relations, in historical and contemporary perspective.