Sciences Po Reims

This course teaches the fundamentals of econometrics, in particular regression analysis and statistical inference. It purposefully starts at a level that assumes no prior knowledge of statistics, econometrics, or programming. The objective is to understand and interpret simple and multiple linear regressions and detect whether an analysis uncovers correlations or causality. The course does not rely on advanced math; rather it uses practical learning to teach the main concepts. Moreover, it introduces how to use R, a very powerful and widely used programming language, to perform data cleaning and undertake statistical analyses. By the end of the course, students carry out small-scale research projects using real-world data and regression analysis to reveal associations between various variables.

This course offers an introduction to social movement studies, a dynamic field of academic studies that has grown in prominence for the past several decades. It focuses on the protests that have emerged and developed in the United States since the 2007-2008 financial crisis, as the United States has been home to a wide range of movements and counter-movements that have attempted to define or redefine notions such as equality, justice, and democracy. Throughout the world the 2010s and 2020s have been characterized by innovative or renewed forms of contentious politics that directly challenged the political status quo and neoliberal hegemony. Topics include Occupy Wall Street; the Tea Party; the 2011 occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol; the January 2021 attacks on the federal Capitol in Washington, D.C.; the 2012 Chicago teachers' strike and the 2018-2019 teachers' strikes in predominantly Republican states; the recent successful organizing efforts at Amazon and Starbucks; the different iterations of the Movement for Black Lives; far-right rallies under the Trump presidency; campaigns against campus sexual assault in the early 2010s; the worldwide #MeToo movement and anti-feminist reactions fueled by the so-called men's rights movement; the 2016 No Dakota Access Pipeline protests and the Green New Deal; and corporate misinformation campaigns, behind-closed-doors lobbying, and judicial battles waged by Big Oil companies against environmental justice movements.

This course provides a historical understanding of some key issues and themes in modern and contemporary political history. It provides a general basis of knowledge of the 20th and 21st centuries while addressing multiple topics and historical questions, as political history is understood broadly and flexibly, encompassing social, economic, and cultural factors. This course presents the history of the contemporary world through carefully selected topics with a particular focus on the history of Europe and the Americas. The opening session of the course will address the decline of traditional empires, which characterized world history throughout the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. The final session of the course will bring the material up to the present. The course presents a comparative and transnational analysis and discussion of the history of the past one hundred years.

This course considers how nuclear energy is viewed from a science, political, and public standpoint. It investigates how one of the most sought-after solutions to climate change is also the most decried one. Based on recognized institutions reports and experts interviews, the course turns to history and physics to explain this energy (and its track record) to address politically and culturally the root of the various debates surrounding its use, impact, and potential threats; investigate the potential it represents in addressing the greatest challenges of our generation and the next; and overall, to rebalance the debate on nuclear energy by exploring its advantages as well as disadvantages, as far removed as possible from the passion it sometimes inspires.

This course investigates the institutional, legal, political, and economic aspects of the global city. It explores how a truly multinational but local-based political community could rise where, in a circular way, native roots, universalism, cultural diversity, and international links can coexist and support each other. It considers how cities have been the standpoint from which scholars investigate macro-phenomena and issues affecting society as a whole, and discusses how any change affecting the delicate urban ecosystem will therefore also have wider repercussions on how global governance itself is conceived.

This course considers how personal autonomy, the idea that persons should be in control over their own lives, underlies virtually every aspect of law, from private law institutions like property and contract to the basic rules of constitutional law. To navigate this complex relationship, it discusses questions such as what cognitive capacities are needed for personal autonomy; what does it mean to exercise autonomous control over a given decision, action, or event; what role does causation play in such control; and what is meant by a person's “own life.” In addition, the course discusses how these questions figure in Canadian and American criminal law, tort law, and law on socio-economic rights.

This course provides an introduction to the enterprise of comparative constitutional law as a judicial practice and as a field of academic study. It compares, across different constitutional systems, issues of constitutional structure, judicial review, separation of powers, constitutional interpretation, constitutional amendments, and individual rights, among others. Additionally, the course considers the various approaches that have been used to solve similar constitutional problems, with special attention given to equality, freedom of expression, religious freedom, and the recognition and adjudication of social and economic rights.

This course covers the main authors, concepts, and theories that structured questions related to technology. It begins with the historical figures (Plato, Descartes, Marx, Bergson, Heidegger) that laid grounds for more contemporary theorizations. The course focuses on the “founding myths” related to technology in philosophy, as well as how the 19th century contributed to several shifts from these very myths by bringing forth its own questions. It then explores the diversity of contemporary issues related to technology from a philosophical perspective (Ellul, Sloterdijk, Stiegler, Hottois, Simondon). The course covers issues that range from what technology is for humans, for societies, as well as for itself once removed from the human-centric perspectives on technology.

This course traces the evolution of economic thinking throughout the late-modern and contemporary era. It surveys the major currents of classical, socialist, neo-classical, demand-side, Soviet, neoliberal, and contemporary economics while providing a detailed examination of both theory and practice. Economic thought is presented and discussed alongside its relationship of mutual influence with historical events to provide a clear perspective of how ideas and theories influenced the unfolding of key events, such as the Industrial Revolution or the rise of welfare economics, and of how in turn crises, conflicts and radical experiments influenced economic thinking. The different currents of economic thought are discussed both in the specific context of the times in which they were conceptualized as well as part of broad debates that continue to this day, such as those on laissez-faire versus State intervention, on welfare and private interest, on national sovereignty and globalization, and on inequality and growth. The course not only accounts for the theoretical origins of capitalist and socialist economics, but also details the theoretical and practical evolution of both, providing an analysis of the often sidelined but historically and economically meaningful Soviet planning experiments. It covers two and a half centuries of economic thought through subsequent sessions dedicated to major thinkers and the key events that influenced and shaped their theories. The course then reaches the contemporary era fully equipped to survey and discuss the theoretical and practical answers to the economic crises of the 1990s and 2000s. Finally, the course discusses the core issues and broad debates that link all its parts to consider their purposes and outcomes. 

This course analyzes how policy making and artificial intelligence may be intertwined in a dynamic that has major impacts on the definition of public service itself. It investigates the integration of artificial intelligence related tools: how they are likely to affect policy making processes, whether they will change the relationship between the administration and citizens, and if they enable the delivery of new public services. The course emphasizes the adoption of artificial intelligence in a historical context of the progressive adoption of technologies, from traditional bureaucracies to essentially digital governance and e-bureaucratic forms. It focuses on the study of major artificial intelligence technologies and their potential uses, the value of data as a resource and product of administrations, as well as data ethics. The course analyzes use cases of artificial intelligence adoption in major policies such as health, education, bureaucracies, security, and climate change mitigation in the context of their implementation, from international to citizen-related approaches. It critically assesses the relationship between public-based policies and the creation of public value; the potential leverages, risks, or barriers; and the geopolitics of public artificial intelligence. Finally, the course develops a critical approach on how not only public agents, but also citizens, have major roles to play in the adoption of these technologies.