SGIA3671: The Politics of Inequality

• Any Level 2 SGIA module

• None.

• None.

• The overarching aim of the module is to explore global material inequality as a political relation. More specific aims for the module are:
• to think theoretically and conceptually about inequality;
• to understand inequality as a product of social relations;
• to consider poverty and wealth as co-constitutive facets of globalization;
• to focus on the social identities that poverty and wealth generate.

• The module will connect the four aims through four sets of seminar topics. Indicative content of these sets includes:
• Debates concerning the measurement of global poverty, theories of justice and equality, and Marxist theory and inequality;
• Debates about the precariat, the notion of the one percent, and labour and livelihoods;
• Neoliberalism and inequality, poverty and economic growth, poverty reduction strategies, and global social justice movements.;
• Race and inequality, gender and inequality, and celebrity and philanthrocapitalism.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• By the end of the module students will have:
• an understanding of some major theoretical approaches to the study of the political economy of inequality and poverty;
• an understanding of the some of the core empirical features of global material inequality and poverty;
• an understanding of some of the ways in which inequality is politically contentious;
• an awareness of livelihoods of wealth and poverty in concrete contexts.

Subject-specific Skills:

• By the end of the module students will be able to:
• Critically assess political representations and justifications for inequality;
• Evaluate theories of inequality in relation to the its concrete manifestations;
• Present evidenced accounts of how wealth and poverty are generated and experienced.

Key Skills:

• By the end of the module students will have the following key skills:
• Independent learning within a defined framework of study;
• Independent thought in analysing and critiquing existing scholarship on the subject area and in evaluating its contribution;
• The ability to work to a deadline and complete written work within word limits;
• Advanced essay-writing skills;
• The ability to seek out and use relevant data sources.

• Each topic will be presented through a lecture. Lectures will do three things. Firstly, they will provide clear explanations of the basic subject matter. Secondly, they will provide a mapping of key points in the literature. Thirdly, they will generate key questions and issues that will then be handed over to students for seminar preparation. In this way, the lectures provide preparation for high-quality seminar discussion.
• Each topic set will be integrated into seven two-hour seminars. The seminars will be scheduled so that two or three lectures feed into seminar discussion. The seminars will be based on seven synthesized topics from the lectures. The structure would be roughly as follows.
• Assessment will be through one Position Paper and one essay.
• The Position Paper (2,000 words) is a structured research note. The paper will assess a students ability to make a clear conclusive argument about some aspect of seminar debate. All students will write within a template that includes sections such as: context, the issue, the argument, the evidence and conclusion. This will test students ability to make a concise and reflective assessment on a theme from seminar discussion. The essay (3,000) words will be selected from a list of questions designed to synthesise two topics from the lectures. This assignment requires deeper independent study than the Position Paper. The essay will assess subject-specific knowledge in that it will require some reflection on evidence and source selection, the manipulation of theory and concepts, and an engagement with contentious political issues.

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