London School of Economics

This course examines the idea of the communication revolution from two perspectives. First, how have changes in communications technology altered the speed and nature of communication between individuals and societies? The course explores how inventions such as the printing press, the camera and the radio helped connect Latin Americans to national and international networks and gave rise to new political and cultural identities. Second, how have individuals and groups used mass communication to both push for and resist revolutionary change? Examples include the role of print culture in the Atlantic Revolutions, printmaking in the Mexican Revolution and the pioneering use of radio education in the Andean countryside during the 1960s. 

The course examines the inter-relationships between the development of the international economy and the growth of national economies until the late 19th century. The course introduces students not only to a wide variety of topics and issues, but also to the wide variety of approaches used by historians. The course includes analyses of the original leading nation, Britain, and its replacement, the United States, as well as the catch-up of areas such as continental Europe, and the failure to catch-up of earlier well-placed areas such as Latin America. 

Employing the theory of Bourdieu throughout the course, students examine the interrelatedness of economy, governance, and society in influencing the choice of where we live. Students focus on the role of culture in nuancing class-based explanations of the relationship between people and place. We consider how housing choices can confer social advantage or disadvantage on individual households. Students discuss the significance for policy makers of placing the social at the center of our understanding of housing choices. We use a series of place-based typologies and phenomenon to relate theory to practice. Examples might include but are not limited to suburbanization, rural second homes, and gentrification.

This course introduces students to selected ways in which human geographers seek to understand cities. It explores the relationship between people and place. Primarily engaging with London, students consider how the city has been shaped over time by its people and how, in turn the city experience has shaped and continues to shape the lives of those who live there. Students consider how the city is described, imagined, and planned through official discourses, and how people create a sense of place, of self, and of others in the city. In the fall semester, students explore the relationship between planning, architecture, design, and people’s identities. In the spring semester, students explore the relationship between infrastructure and people. Throughout students consider how human geographers engage with the lived experience of the city through the lens of, for example, ethnicity, class, and sexual identity.

The first half of the course explores classic epistemology. It begins with the argument for skepticism about the external world, and in seeking to solve this problem considers a range of positions and arguments in epistemology, including: the JTB account; the causal theory of knowing; reliabilism; internalism and externalism; contextualism, and semantic externalism. The second half of the course focuses on modern formal epistemology. Moving from a qualitative to a quantitative concept of belief, it explores Bayesian epistemology – a powerful account of rational degrees of belief or credence. Students consider a series of puzzles for Bayesian epistemologists: the sleeping beauty problem; imprecise probabilities; awareness growth; and the surprise exam paradox. 

This course provides an essential toolkit for solving real-world problems that arise in various industries, such as the financial and tech sectors, healthcare, manufacturing, and planning. Through an engaging set of lectures and classes, students develop problem-solving and modelling skills, and learn insights necessary for strategic decision-making.

This course critically evaluates Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), focusing on firms’ attempts to prevent labor standards violations in their supply chains. Students begin by analyzing the rise of CSR, setting it in the context of global value chains, international labor standards, and emerging private forms of regulation. They then analyze topics such as the impact of CSR on corporate financial performance; whether CSR is an effective means of raising labor standards; theories of CSR; and how to embed CSR within the firm and comparative CSR. The course includes examples of how large firms are dealing with the ethical challenges posed by global supply chains. The course will include one lecture from a CSR professional.

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.