Institut d'Etudes Politiques (Sciences Po)

This course begins by discussing major issues that characterize the theoretical and methodological debates between economics and sociology. It then explores social science topics with the combined lenses of economists and sociologists. The first part of the course introduces and discusses differences and commonalities that traditionally characterize economics and sociology. Some space is devoted to the discussion of the concept of causality and to the introduction of the trade-offs and complementarity between quantitative and qualitative approaches. The second part of the course presents selected social issues both within economic and sociological perspectives. This includes recent research in the two disciplines about the economic and social consequences of international migrations; the advancements in understanding discrimination; the study of religion; the causes of illegal and deviant behavior. The final part of the course presents some recent studies about economists in the sociology of professions and discusses the way scientists from the two disciplines relate in the public and academic spheres.

This course introduces the lawyer's profession practically and theoretically from an international perspective. The first part of the course explores the provisions governing the exercise of the lawyer's job in various legal systems, across multiple jurisdictions, and at the different levels of courts. The second part of the course focuses on the various manners to practice as a lawyer, from a comparative legal perspective, by studying the traditional missions of advising, representing, defending, and assisting clients in legal proceedings; as well as the lesser-known missions of negotiating, mediating, facilitating, and lobbying. The third part of the course explores the everyday practical reality of the profession of an international lawyer in several areas of law and across various industries and sectors, including the key concepts and technical issues related to the exercise of the legal profession in a disruptive post-Covid-19 world.

This course investigates how states and international actors have responded to new security challenges in response to the speed and scale of climate change, and how their different understandings of the climate-security nexus might shape global responses to climate change. It relies on an innovative theoretical approach spanning traditional security, human security, and existential security that helps to capture the complex dynamics of emerging approaches to dealing with security in the Anthropocene. By comparing how different framings of climate security impact various policy sectors, the course assesses the barriers and opportunities for addressing global climate security.

This course provides a political analysis of the way in which citizens construct their voting choice, the game of political forces, their evolution, their reassembly, and the impact of institutions on the political system. The class touches on disciplines such as political science, law, history, and sociology to contextualize the political events that shake up and shook up political life under the fifth republic.

This transdisciplinary course covers utopian and dystopian visions in literature, painting, film, television, and political discourse, both past and present. It successively covers the main themes and concerns of various schools of utopia (alotopias, primitivism, Robinsonades, blueprint utopias, etc.) and dystopia (far-right and far-left politics, populism and demagoguery, fear of new technologies, fear of government censorship, dark anti-feminist visions of the future, fear of the growing need for conformity and political correctness, fear of growing crime and violence, etc.). The course broadens the vision of dystopian art, typically considered a Western phenomenon, to include key names from Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. It includes student presentations of themes related to dystopia as presented in works from various cultures and countries of origin.