| Unit name | Rethinking the State in Global Politics |
|---|---|
| Unit code | SPAI30004 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Reverend. Martin Gainsborough |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies |
| Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
We live in a world which makes many claims about the supposed character of the state and how it is thought to be changing – not least because of so-called globalisation. However, across large swathes of the academic literature and certainly the policy literature, the state is never theorised. Instead, it is assumed – erroneously – that we know what the state is. However, the state is not a straightforward entity and many have argued that as a historically contingent form of rule the state is in fact so designed to prevent us from seeing it clearly. The unit aims to move the student towards a theoretically sophisticated understanding of the state. After setting out the rationale for ‘rethinking the state’, the unit will work through eight different approaches to thinking about the state (pluralism, elitism, Marxist, feminism, neo-Weberian, historical institutional, post-structuralist, globalisation and the state) before taking stock of what we have learnt. The unit will be taught by lectures and seminars and will always seek to ground the theoretical debates in exciting, real world examples.
• To consider and critique the different ways in which the state is talked about in contemporary academic and policy literature, particularly in the context of so-called globalisation • To consider some of the difficulties associated with studying the state and why they arise • To explore a wide variety of different approaches to thinking about the state, considering their strengths and weaknesses, including their applicability in different empirical contexts
After taking this unit, students should have: • An understanding of some of the difficulties associated with studying the state and why they arise • An understanding of a range of different approaches to thinking about the state, including being able to talk confidently about their strengths and weaknesses, and which approaches students individually favour • An understanding of the assumptions implicit in much mainstream discussion of the state as reflected in the academic and policy literature and where this fits in relation to more theoretically informed approaches to thinking about the state
Ten one-hour lectures, ten one-hour seminars
Essay (3500-4000) - 100%
Aradhana Sharma and Akhil Gupta (eds) (2006) The Anthropology of the State: A Reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Cameron, Angus and Ronen Palan (2004) The Imagined Economies of Globalisation. London: Sage. Hay, Colin, Michael Lister and David Marsh (2006) The State: Theories and Issues. Hampshire: Palgrave and Macmillan. Hibou, Beatrice (ed.) (2004) Privatising the State. London: C. Hurst and Co. Translated from the French by Jonathan Derrick. Mitchell, Timothy (1991) ‘The Limits of the State: Beyond Statist Approaches and Their Critics,’ The American Political Science Review vol. 85, no. 1: 77-96. Phillips, Nicola (2005) ‘Bridging the Comparative/International Divide in the Study of States’, New Political Economy, vol. 10. no. 3: 335-343.
Library – the unit will make use of existing journals, electronic source and books. A limited range of new texts for this unit will be purchased from the existing budget for library provision. IT – no specialist equipment or software is required for this unit.
