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An introduction to political thinking, focusing on major thinkers and themes and exploring how to engage in political theorising.

Pre-requisite for PAIR3015

An introduction to political thinking, focusing on major thinkers and themes and exploring how to engage in political theorising.

Pre-requisite for PAIR3015

Politics is often about conflict, but sometimes that conflict takes place within legislative bodies and other times in the streets. Most of what we study in political science courses focuses on conflict within the electoral framework, but this course asks what happens when citizens take conflict into their own hands. It asks : How are people mobilised into potentially dangerous activism and how do state responses (such as heavy-handed policing) affect them? What role do social movements play in political protests and how are they affected by long-term structural changes?
This module will examine the conditions that prompt people to organize on behalf of their collective interests, how protest movements evolve and under what conditions they succeed. The goal is to use the scientific method to move beyond specific examples and, ultimately, understand the broader causes, strategies, and consequences of protests. Following the module, students will be able to see protests through an analytical lens that allows them to look past the noise and media frenzy.

Politics is often about conflict, but sometimes that conflict takes place within legislative bodies and other times in the streets. Most of what we study in political science courses focuses on conflict within the electoral framework, but this course asks what happens when citizens take conflict into their own hands. It asks : How are people mobilised into potentially dangerous activism and how do state responses (such as heavy-handed policing) affect them? What role do social movements play in political protests and how are they affected by long-term structural changes?
This module will examine the conditions that prompt people to organize on behalf of their collective interests, how protest movements evolve and under what conditions they succeed. The goal is to use the scientific method to move beyond specific examples and, ultimately, understand the broader causes, strategies, and consequences of protests. Following the module, students will be able to see protests through an analytical lens that allows them to look past the noise and media frenzy.

Politics is often about conflict, but sometimes that conflict takes place within legislative bodies and other times in the streets. Most of what we study in political science courses focuses on conflict within the electoral framework, but this course asks what happens when citizens take conflict into their own hands. It asks : How are people mobilised into potentially dangerous activism and how do state responses (such as heavy-handed policing) affect them? What role do social movements play in political protests and how are they affected by long-term structural changes?
This module will examine the conditions that prompt people to organize on behalf of their collective interests, how protest movements evolve and under what conditions they succeed. The goal is to use the scientific method to move beyond specific examples and, ultimately, understand the broader causes, strategies, and consequences of protests. Following the module, students will be able to see protests through an analytical lens that allows them to look past the noise and media frenzy.

Politics is often about conflict, but sometimes that conflict takes place within legislative bodies and other times in the streets. Most of what we study in political science courses focuses on conflict within the electoral framework, but this course asks what happens when citizens take conflict into their own hands. It asks : How are people mobilised into potentially dangerous activism and how do state responses (such as heavy-handed policing) affect them? What role do social movements play in political protests and how are they affected by long-term structural changes?
This module will examine the conditions that prompt people to organize on behalf of their collective interests, how protest movements evolve and under what conditions they succeed. The goal is to use the scientific method to move beyond specific examples and, ultimately, understand the broader causes, strategies, and consequences of protests. Following the module, students will be able to see protests through an analytical lens that allows them to look past the noise and media frenzy.

Politics of the Global South examines how political order, authority, and representation are produced, contested, and transformed in contexts often characterised by weak or uneven state capacity, deep inequality, and hybrid institutional arrangements. Rather than treating the Global South as a residual or deficient category, the module critically interrogates how political science has historically conceptualised—and often mischaracterised—politics outside the Global North.
The module combines two core strands. First, it offers a critical engagement with the intellectual history of political science and comparative politics, examining how dominant theories in comparative politics have approached (and sometimes obscured) political realities in the Global South. Second, it explores substantive political dynamics that are central to many Global South contexts, including informal governance and representation, clientelism, corruption, criminal governance, informal resistance, lobbying, and the coexistence of formal and informal institutions.
Throughout the module, students will engage comparatively with cases from Latin America, Africa, Asia, and beyond, and will be encouraged to reflect on how concepts developed in and for the Global South travel to, challenge, or reshape political analysis more broadly. The module places particular emphasis on analytical clarity, conceptual critique, and research design, preparing students to develop independent research on politics in the Global South.

What is the literary and cultural value of fiction written purely to entertain and titillate audiences? In this module, we will use digital methods to explore how we understand and relate to mass market fiction. Using different digital methods and tools, we will critique and create narratives that draw on tropes and themes in popular fiction. Over the course of the semester, we will use a range of disciplinary perspectives on reading, taste, and audiences to interrogate the transformative roles of digital technologies and digital culture(s) on reading and readership.

This module will focus on global popular screen texts, such as films, television series and digital media to reflect on how global popular culture is produced, by whom, what are their main characteristics and where popular culture global appeal lies. This module will seek to introduce you to the ways in which global popular screen texts are produced, by whom, what are their main characteristics and where global popular screen texts’ global appeal lies. It will analyse how screen media industries are organized, as well as the diverse cultural, political, and economic contexts in which global popular screen texts are produced, distributed, exhibited, and consumed. It will discuss some of the principal theories and debates on popular culture, globalisation, cultural industries and cultural imperialism. It will look at different global popular screen texts, ranging from films, television and digital media, assessing their production contexts, formal attributes, ways of circulation, and reception. It will trace how contemporary global popular screen texts have evolved historically since the advent of globalisation in the 20th century. It will discuss the different political purposes of contemporary global popular screen texts, their relationship to industrial contexts and state institutions, how global popular screen texts represent and relate to issues such as class, gender, race, and capitalism and how global popular screen texts can contribute to the ways in which audiences make sense of themselves.
Global popular screen texts are political because it serves as a site of contestation over hegemonic cultural and political values—a space where cultural hegemony is either reinforced or challenged. This phenomenon has become even more poignant in the contemporary globalised society we live in, where popular screen texts flows travel though transnational pipelines and reach global audiences. In the same manner, contemporary global popular screen texts reflect the impact of advanced capitalism and new media technologies as components of an increasingly interconnected world-system.
After completing this module, you will be able to explore your own reflective capabilities in the context of independent learning and professional development, use computing and information technology to enhance a professional presentation of yourself and your work, research and manage data and start developing your skills in decision-making, planning and organising, including self-management.

This module will focus on global popular screen texts, such as films, television series and digital media to reflect on how global popular culture is produced, by whom, what are their main characteristics and where popular culture global appeal lies. This module will seek to introduce you to the ways in which global popular screen texts are produced, by whom, what are their main characteristics and where global popular screen texts’ global appeal lies. It will analyse how screen media industries are organized, as well as the diverse cultural, political, and economic contexts in which global popular screen texts are produced, distributed, exhibited, and consumed. It will discuss some of the principal theories and debates on popular culture, globalisation, cultural industries and cultural imperialism. It will look at different global popular screen texts, ranging from films, television and digital media, assessing their production contexts, formal attributes, ways of circulation, and reception. It will trace how contemporary global popular screen texts have evolved historically since the advent of globalisation in the 20th century. It will discuss the different political purposes of contemporary global popular screen texts, their relationship to industrial contexts and state institutions, how global popular screen texts represent and relate to issues such as class, gender, race, and capitalism and how global popular screen texts can contribute to the ways in which audiences make sense of themselves.
Global popular screen texts are political because it serves as a site of contestation over hegemonic cultural and political values—a space where cultural hegemony is either reinforced or challenged. This phenomenon has become even more poignant in the contemporary globalised society we live in, where popular screen texts flows travel though transnational pipelines and reach global audiences. In the same manner, contemporary global popular screen texts reflect the impact of advanced capitalism and new media technologies as components of an increasingly interconnected world-system.
After completing this module, you will be able to explore your own reflective capabilities in the context of independent learning and professional development, use computing and information technology to enhance a professional presentation of yourself and your work, research and manage data and start developing your skills in decision-making, planning and organising, including self-management.