Political Economy of Labour and Work

Course Type	Course Code	No. Of Credits
Foundation Core	SGA1GS301	4

Course Coordinator and Team: Sunalini Kumar/Adjunct Faculty

Email of course coordinator: sunalini@aud.ac.in

Pre-requisites: None

Aim: The course will be offered to BA fifth Semester students in Global studies as part of the thematic on global political economy. It introduces students to the basics of international political economy, and in particular how to use the methodology of political economy to understand global political institutions. It is proposed to be an essential course in understanding the political and institutional aspects of the world order of the twentieth century. The course connects to the larger vision of the SGA to address the concerns of our globalizing times.

Course Outcomes:

To familiarise students with fundamental philosophical concepts and debates in the twentieth century as these pertain to theorizing global politics and economics.
To introduce students to key global institutions and their role in the global order, as well as the manner in which these institutions may be connected to each other.
To help students evolve a critique of mainstream understandings of institutions.
To encourage students to engage with diverse source material and learning methods and gain skills in writing, analysis and articulation.

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

Module 1: What is political economy?: The discipline of political economy remains overshadowed by the mainstream neoclassical school of economics. However, this discipline has enjoyed something of a revival in recent decades, with economists as well as political scientists bringing back the classical methods and adding new approaches to understand our complex, globalising world. This first module will introduce students to these newer writings on political economy.

Module 2: Critical Perspectives on political economy (1 Week): The contributions of feminist and development studies scholars to the discipline of political economy cannot be overstated. The module below composes of some exemplary work in this field; preparing students to understand some of the latter modules on cultural institutions and critiques of the new international economic order as well.

Module 3: Nation-States as Actors in Global Politics: Soon after the postwar order and the long decolonisation was achieved, necolonial relationships of dependency and uneven development came to replace colonialism. This module will understand the nature and role of the state in the contemporary world, including during the period of so-called globalisation. It will offer a sample of multiple perspectives on this question, from those theorists predicting the end of the nation-state to those offering a more nuanced perspective.

Module 4: The Bretton Woods System – World Bank, IMF, and the UN: The Bretton Woods institutions have been heavyweights in global politics and the international economic order. The following module offers a simple introduction to the institutions of Bretton Woods, including the UN that was not formally inside the system, but was meant to function as the parent body of these institutions. The module will end with critical perspectives on the institutions in terms of their multiple failures in establishing a more equitable, just and democratic world.

Module 5: Regional Actors, Formations and Organisations: The postwar order has remained stubbornly unequal in both geopolitical and economic senses. While some of the earlier hegemons have banded together as the European Union, it is a still-shaky political project. What has been the intention and impact of these hegemonic and counter-hegemonic regional actors? This module will critically examine the EU, Southern institutions like the Non Aligned Movement, and the Organisation of African Unity in this context.

Module 6: Non-Governmental Actors: As neoliberalism pushes for ‘more governance, less government’, Non-Governmental Organisations have stepped into the vacuum created by a weakened state, being lionized for this role in some literature. However, public accountability and transparency in funding and political investments remain challenges. On the other side are another type of powerful and non-accountable institution with undue influence in world and national politics – Multinational Corporations or MNCs. This module casts a critical gaze on NGOs and MNCs operating at different scales in the globalizing world.

Module 7: Cultural Institutions – Marriage, Gender and Family: This module looks at familiar, intimate, domestic and cultural practices through a political economy lens. This is in keeping with the course objective of adopting a broad rather than narrow definition of institutions, cutting across the usual divides of global and local institutions; public and private; as well as economics, politics and culture.

Assessment Details with weights:

The course will have three types of assessment situations.

Students will be assessed in continuous assessment through shorter written pieces (35%)
Second assessment will be project-based submission (25%)
Third assessment will be a final examination (40%).

Indicative reading list:

Hahnel, R 2002 “Economics and Liberating Theory” from Robin Hahnel ABCs of Political Economy: A Modern Primer London, Pluto Press, pp. 1-19.

Alejandro Colás 2003 “Exploitation and solidarity: Putting the political back into IPE” from Tetreault, M. et al. Rethinking Global Political Economy: Emerging Issues, Unfolding Odysseys London, Routledge, pp. 195-210.

Gilpin, R. 2003 “The Nature of Political Economy” from Robert Gilpin Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order Hyderabad: Orient Longman, pp. 25-45.

Bedford, K. and Shirin Rai. 2010 “Feminists Theorise International Political Economy” Signs , Vol. 36, No. 1, Special Issue (Autumn 2010), pp. 1-18.

Enlow, C. (2014) “Gender Makes the World Go Round” from Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics Berkeley, University of California Press, pp. 1-36.

Mann, M. 2001 “Has Globalization Ended the Rise and Rise of the Nation-State?” from David Held and Anthony McGrew The Global Transformations Reader Cambridge, Polity Press, pp. 135-146

Heywood, A. “Historical Context” from Andrew Heywood Global Politics Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 25-52.

Frey, Kunkel and Unger 2014 “Introduction: International Organizations, Global Development, and the Making of the Contemporary World” from Marc Frey, Sönke Kunkel and Corinna R. Unger International Organisations and Development: 1945-1990 Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-22.

Makinda, S.M and F. Wafula Ofumu 2008 “The Organization of African Unity and mutual preservation” from The African Union: Challenges of Globalisation, Security and Governance” Oxford, Routlegde, pp. 11-27.

Mathur, P. 2016 “The Non-Aligned Movement And The United Nations” World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues, Vol. 20, No. 2 (SUMMER (APRIL-JUNE) 2016), pp. 10-23.

Heywood, A. 2011 “European Integration” from Andrew Heywood, Global Politics Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 494-501.

Gilpin, R. 2003 “The State and the Multinationals” from Robert Gilpin Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order Hyderabad: pp. 278- 304.

Fisher, J. 2003 Non-governments – NGOs and Political Development in the Third World. Jaipur: Rawat, ch. 1, 4, 6.

Constable, N. 2009. “The Commodification of Intimacy: Marriage, Sex, and Reproductive Labor” Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 38 (2009), pp. 49-64.

Settles, B.H. 2001. “Conflicts between Family Strategies and State Policy in a Global Society” Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Vol. 32, No. 2 (SPRING 2001), pp. 147-166