SGIA3621: Youth and Youth Policy in the Global Political Economy

• Any Level 2 SGIA module

• None

• None

• This module aims to introduce students to the concept of, and policy towards, youth in the global political economy. The module examines constructions of youth and how these are manifested in knowledge-building and data collection processes, elite narratives, global and national policy discourses. These are assessed with regard to how they reflect, and their implications for, the distribution of social, economic and political resources. Through the study of youth and youth policy, the module explores how political economy draws from a range of social science disciplines to describe, analyse and evaluate contemporary distributions of wealth and power.

• Part 1: Constructing youth and knowledge about youth
• Part 2: Policy-making and Narratives of Youth
• Part 3: Youth in the global economy
• Conclusion: Towards a Political Economy of Youth

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Students will have an appropriate understanding of the key scholarly debates around how we may understand youth as a social category, how these draw from a range of social science disciplines, and how they have evolved over time and in response to adjustments in the global political economy.
• Students will have a detailed and systematic knowledge of the principal analytical frameworks for comprehending the status and role of young people in the global political economy.
• Students will have a well-developed appreciation of how the construction of knowledge informs policy frames which service specific distributions of power and wealth.
• Students will have a strong understanding of how to conduct policy document analysis and how this can inform their own understanding of youth policy in the global political economy.
• Students will have a well-developed appreciation of how, through the study of one issue or theme such as youth, we can develop greater understanding of the global political economy.

Subject-specific Skills:

Key Skills:

• Teaching is through 14 two-hour seminars structured to ensure coverage of the full range of content of the module. Each week, students will be assigned a task in advance of the seminar which might entail data collection, a policy document review, detailed reading and evaluation of an assigned text, or a presentation preparation. These assignments will provide a basis for subsequent discussion and guided debate, through which students will be able to demonstrate their acquisition of knowledge and to develop and defend analytical assessments and judgements in a supported teaching environment. Throughout the module, the implications of each weeks discussion for policy narratives, construction and outcomes will be a central component of the learning objectives for each seminar, and at least three seminars will be specifically focused on developing and applying skills of policy document analysis.
• Summative Assessment
• The summative assessment will comprise of a 5,000 word policy document analysis of a key policy document relating to youth drawn from a major international organisation such as the United Nations, the World Bank or the European Union. The analysis will address the construction or narrative of youth framing the policy document, the objectives of the institution formulating the policy and how these are furthered through the policy initiatives detailed in the document, the constraints within which the policy document has been formulated, the intended outcomes or impacts of the specific policy proposals and the potential outcomes or impact upon young people themselves. The analysis will be conducted with reference to the global political economy of youth.

The formative assessment will comprise a 1,500 word policy document analysis, assessing the construction or narratives of youth as presented in a key policy document relating to youth, drawn from a major international organisation such as the United Nations, the World Bank or the European Union. This will be the first aspect of policy document analysis expected in the later summative assessment.

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