Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po)

This course covers key concepts in cultural security studies approaches (strategic culture, role theory, ontological security, historical memory) and understand key disciplinary debates, such as material vs. non-material explanations for behavior; culture as practice vs. ideas; and whether cultural variables link directly to policy decisions. Even more importantly, the course applies these theories to real world events to better understand how culture, history, and identity contribute to international politics in the past and present. In doing so, students learn and apply interpretive methods to critically engage with identity discourse as it is espoused by elites and political leadership.

The intellectual challenge and historiographical innovation of this course lie in its subtitle: a transatlantic history. The focus is not so much on describing and understanding the establishment of the plantation slave system and its subsequent dismantling before and after 1848, but rather on observing how the Caribbean world constantly interacted with the French metropolis—and, more broadly, with Europe— in the perception of the Black Other, during the French Revolution and in the abolitionist struggle for freedom, in the development of French capitalism. The course therefore presents an economic, social, political, and cultural history of the back-and-forth across the Atlantic Ocean and over more than two centuries of mutual shaping.

This course takes a sociological approach to the study of inequalities in the region. The first sessions provide fundamental sociological tools to approach social inequalities, minorities, and minoritization. It then interrogates the discursive constructions of the Middle East and North Africa region as demographically homogenous (for example, homogenously Arab). Each meeting is based on the study of a factor linked to social inequalities and linked minoritization; under study are minority-groups as well as minoritization based on gender, socio-economic class, race, citizen/migrant status, urban versus rural habitation, language/dialects spoken, religion/sect. The course ends with a study of minority movements that contest their unequal status.

From the 9/11 attacks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the “politics of emergency” have moved from the periphery to the center of governance. This course examines how the state of exception, no longer a rare response to crisis, became a recurring technique used to justify extraordinary measures, expand executive authority, and suspend normal legal and democratic processes. It examines how this logic operates across regimes, from liberal democracies to authoritarian states, and investigate its contrasting applications to current issues such as climate change or migration. Drawing upon political theories and comparative case studies, the course explores how emergency politics fundamentally transform political practice and challenge democratic norms.

This course focuses on the sociological issues (socialization, social control, regulation, medicalization) that characterize the contemporary world of mental health institutions, practices, and discourse. It covers both the theories and the concrete social processes related to the definition, intervention, and transformations of what used to be called “madness” and is now called “mental disorder.” By questioning the field and modes of intervention of the psychological disciplines, the course also examines the role of mental health in the production and maintenance of social relations. The course thus revolves around three aspects of the concept of mental health: as a field of social practices, as a social norm, and as an object of knowledge produced by the psychological disciplines (psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis).

The course provide a comprehensive understanding of the issues shaping today's world. The working sessions focus mainly on regional studies in order to illustrate how international issues are changing. Particular emphasis is placed on the new geopolitics of Europe and the Middle East, using the reemergence of a power such as Russia as a basis for analysis and relating it to the policies of the European Union and the United States. The course articulates global and regional scales and to shows the links between economic and geopolitical changes.

This course provides the fundamental keys to understand the new place occupied by the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf on the international scene. It offers a panoramic study that is twofold: how are these Arab monarchies deploying regional policies to consolidate their influence in the Middle East; and how have these Arab monarchies become a new global epicenter of international relations? The course also includes a simulation module for international negotiations. It provides a more practical approach of the subject and its stakes, but also to practice international negotiations, public speaking and to solicit the knowledge acquired in the course. In view of the breadth of the theme and the area covered, the teaching involves many disciplines, such as history, geography, economics and international law, with a predominance of international relations and strategic studies.

International economic relations are undergoing deep and destabilizing changes. Disruptions are manifest through trade restrictions and protectionism, the weakening of international institutions and cooperation, the segmentation of the world economy in different geopolitical areas, growing public debt in many advanced and developing economies and mounting challenges to the current International Monetary System, with questions on the future role of major currencies (Dollar, Euro, Renminbi). This course provides the basic analytical tools to observe and understand those evolutions. In addition to lectures by the instructor, presentations by students and debates are also organized. The course develops economic analyses and theories, using mainly graphic tools. No modelling or econometric approaches are used. Tutorials are organized for students who wish to catch up or develop some topics further.

This course is designed as an introduction to the sociological study of lifestyles and social relations in urban spaces. It comprises two parts. The first focuses on the history of this theme in sociology and on the evolution of approaches and paradigms in relation to the social issues of different periods. It both traces how sociology has approached the morphology of urban spaces and the lifestyles associated with them, and follows the social issues related to the distribution/cohabitation/segregation of different social and ethnic groups over time. The general idea is to shed light on contemporary debates about the city related to population dynamics and relations between groups and individuals. The course goes back to the origins of this trend in urban sociology, with the work of the Chicago School, in order to better put more contemporary work into perspective. The second part, which is more methodological in nature, consists of an introduction to urban ethnographic methods through a mini-survey conducted in three contrasting types of urban spaces.

Visibility is commonly thought to be a positive attribute that plays a crucial role in influencing public opinion, prompting social change, and advancing individual and collective goals. But is this true, and how is visibility actually practiced? This course explores visibility as a meaningful social dimension of everyday life. Situated at the intersection of social theory, political science, organization studies, and urban research, it engages with key debates around visibility, including its relationship to recognition, stigma, power, surveillance, and socio-spatial politics in urban settings. The course discuss how visibility is practiced by individuals, groups, and organizations, and interrogates its implications across diverse contexts, with reference to discriminated minorities, the gig-economy and totalitarian regimes. The course equips students with foundational knowledge in the emerging field of visibility studies and introduce the “visibility lens” as a critical tool for analyzing contemporary debates and everyday phenomena.