London School of Economics

This course focuses on the substantive role that China plays in the Global South where its preponderance of material power and putative developing country status confers upon it a dominant position in bilateral and regional political economies.  China's economic position, coupled to an astute use of finances flowing from its mercantilist policies, has enabled it to become the leading trading partner and a significant investor in the developing world.  Moreover, the Global South is increasingly figuring in Beijing's expanding security interests and soft power provisions.  Interpretations embedded in prevailing academic discourses like socialisation, threat and peaceful rise take on new meaning when studied through the lens of ties with developing countries.  Understanding how dynamics in this relationship are impacting upon a host of global and contemporary issues (BRICs, multilateralism, peacekeeping, the environment) is crucial to the shape of the 21st century.

This course helps students gain a science-based understanding of some of the most intriguing phenomena in the workplace and society. Students develop analytical skills that are crucial for both academic and industry careers. Students who are interested in understanding the Asian business environment are especially encouraged to take this course. It draws upon scientific research from various disciplines, including psychology, sociology, history, and anthropology, to critically examine topics such as creativity and innovation, emotions at work, leadership, cross-cultural differences, and management in an Asian context

The course begins with a simple system called sentential or propositional logic, which despite its simplicity captures a significant range of important arguments. The course then focuses on (first-order) predicate logic, which is much more powerful and provides the logical basis for analysing a great variety of arguments and theories.

This course introduces students to key concepts and techniques used in operations management, and their practical applications. The course covers a range of topics related to manufacturing and service operations such as operations strategy, sustainability, process design and analysis, supply chains, inventory management, lean operations, and quality control.

This course introduces students to social science theories, research, and application related to understanding human behavior in the workplace. This course considers "the people side" of business and management. Topics include personality and performance, managerial decision-making, motivating others, fairness in organizations, the multicultural workplace, power and influence, the adaptive leader, and team leadership.

This course develops beginner to intermediate Russian language skills in a dynamic and communicative way. The course develops all four language skills (i.e. speaking, listening, reading and writing) through individual and group work, topical discussions, and authentic and web-based multi-media materials. The focus is on accuracy as well as communication that advance students’ language competence, transferable skills, and cultural awareness.

This course teaches students how to collect and handle date in a hands-on manner. The first few weeks of the course cover theoretical concepts through traditional lectures, but then the format shifts to a practical approach. Live coding demonstrations are used to guide students through the material, which can be followed in real-time. Python is the primary programming language used in staff-led lectures and classes, but students are also permitted to use R for their assignments if they prefer.

This course considers how we understand and explain the difference between things with minds and things without. This is the central question of the metaphysics of mind. Increasingly, philosophers who engage with this question aim to give a naturalist account of the mind: one that fits into the picture of the world offered to us by the sciences. But many features of the mind – including, in particular, conscious experience – fit uneasily into this naturalistic world view. This course familiarizes students with the key debates in this area.

The course focuses on the fundamental principles of effective manipulation and visualization of data. It covers the key steps of a data analytics pipeline, starting with formulation of a data science problem, going through manipulation and visualization of data, and, finally, creating actionable insights. The topics covered include methods for data cleaning and transformation, manipulation of data using tabular data structures, relational database models, structured query languages (e.g. SQL), processing of various human-readable data formats (e.g. JSON and XML), data visualization methods for explanatory data analysis, using various statistical plots such as histograms and boxplots, data visualization plots for time series data, multivariate data, and graph data visualization methods.

The course considers how "things" enter into and mediate everyday social relations and practices. Students consider all aspects of the social life of things, from design and production through use, consumption, and everyday practices. This allows them to address a range of long-standing theoretical and political concerns within sociology such as the role of objects and materiality in social life; social organizations of objects and exchange, such as consumer culture; design, technology, and innovation; and the socio-political status of "everyday life" itself. At the same time, there is a strong methodological emphasis: not just how do we study objects in everyday life, but how might such studies impact on social research more generally.