Is Marx’s critique of political economy still relevant today? Capital was published 150 years ago, and some people would say that it no longer applies to 21st century society. Marx built his critique of capitalism around a ‘labour theory of value’, but nowadays technology, machinery, and knowledge seem to have replaced human labour as the most important factors of production. The question is therefore if Marx’s work still has anything to say about the contemporary knowledge economy, and the people living in modern society. In order to be able to answer this question, it is first necessary to get a clear idea about what Marx was trying to do in Capital. To that end, this seminar will provide a general introduction to Marx’s critique of political economy. It will discuss such central Marxian concepts as the commodity, abstract labour, and surplus value. We will see how Marx identified the relation between capital accumulation and labour exploitation as central to capitalist society. At the same time, we will go beyond economic concepts to explore Marx’s understanding of the specific social relations that accompany capitalist value production. The seminar has two main goals. First, to introduce Marx’s value theory by following the main steps of the argumentation in Capital. On this basis, the second goal will be to assess whether Marx can help us to understand current social, political, and economic developments.

The Internet has become an essential driving force for political, cultural and economic change, and a crucial space for human rights protection and violation. Though the Internet, far from being a mere “cloud”, is relentlessly socially and physically re-constructed by powerful states and transnational corporations. These actors struggle over economic gain and influence – from ways to monetize user behavior to the location of undersea cables. Political contestations in the field of Internet governance are driven by ideas as much as by perceived interests and they take place inside and outside of formalized global institutions.



This course introduces students to the politics of global Internet governance on several levels – from physical data infrastructure to platform content policies. In the beginning of the course (April) we will explore how the Internet became the way it is and why its governance has become such a major concern within public attention. We will examine and understand how multistakeholder governance works as the core principle of global Internet governance. We will also study the Internet as an amalgam of different technologies and physical

infrastructures, highlighting its materiality and the inequalities that are connected to this feature.



The second part of the course (meeting on June 15th) allows us to investigate the actors and institutions in global Internet governance. During this meeting we deal with the role of states, “the technical community”, private companies and civil society in Internet Governance. As we discuss these actors, we also have a look at the global fora and institutions they are most associated with, including the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).



In the third part of the course (meeting on June 16th), having understood the playing field and the players somewhat better, we will engage with the question of digital rights. Various human rights issues arise in the field of global Internet governance. First, we talk about how various actors aim to entrench digital rights protection into law, policy and corporate practice, especially using digital bill of rights and comparable documents. Thereafter, we focus on a number of specific and very timely human rights issues in the field of global Internet governance (of students’ choosing), applying what has been learned. These issues may include ICANN’s “WHOIS” function and privacy concerns, Google’s foray into censorship as a way to enter the Chinese market, social media platforms’ struggle to balance freedom of speech and protection against harassment, or the EU’s recent Copyright Directive (“upload filter”).

The end of the Cold War has resulted in a strong decrease of nondemocratic regimes, with democracies becoming the most widespread regime type around the world. However, today still more than half of the world population lives in nondemocratic regimes. And even among established democracies authoritarian trends do occur. This seminar is subdivided into two sections: First, we will define and analyze the functional logic of authoritarian regimes and ask the following questions: Why do some nondemocratic regimes only survive for some years, whereas others exist for several decades? How do nondemocratic leaders legitimize their hold on power? And which institutional differences do exist between different nondemocratic regime types? The second section is dedicated to the analysis of democratic breakdowns and democratic declines. We will try to figure out, which factors may endanger newly established democracies. Moreover, we ask the question why even established democracies are prone to authoritarian trends. The seminar concludes with a critical and philosophical discussion on the future of democracy.

Course requirements
• Regular attendance, active participation and regular reading of the announced literature
• Ability and willingness to read quantitative literature

Credit points
• 3 CP: Essay or exam
• 6 CP: Research paper or exam

Readings (inter alia):
• De Mesquita, Bruce Bueno/Morrow, James D./Siverson, Randolph M.; Smith, Alastair (1999): Policy Failure and Political Survival. The Contribution of Political Institutions. In: Journal of Conflict Resolution 43 (2): 147-161.

This class aims to shed light on the political causes and consequences of redistribution in advanced capitalist democracies such as the USA and Europe. The course is divided into three section. In Section A we discuss concepts, origins and varieties of economic inequality and redistribution more generally. How can states intervene and which policies do governments have at their disposal to address inequality? In section B we discuss theories about how politics influences redistribution. The main focus of this section is on theories related to the role of politics and institutions on policies that change market inequality. In Section C we look at the reverse relationship: that is, the influence of inequality on politics. Economic inequality can lead to a number of political phenomenon such as unequal political participation as well as the rise protests or movements on nationalism and populism. Essential literature is the “Oxford Handbook of Economic Inequality”, the edited volume on "Democracy, Inequality, and Representation" by Andersen and Bermandi as well as “Fighting Poverty in the USA and Europe” by Alesina and Glaeser. To successfully pass the class, students are asked to actively participate, read the respective literature, and fulfill the class assignments, which include group-based and individual forms of evaluation.

The course introduces students to social policies and how they impact social, political, economic and health conditions of modern nation states. The general focus of the course is comparative and introduces students to differences and similarities in social policies among the rich social welfare states born out of the industrial revolution – countries mostly located in Western and Northern Europe and North America. It discusses the rise of social democratic and corporatist institutions and the neoliberal turn among these rich societies after the 1970s or 80s. It looks at how different policies cause the distribution of resources and welfare, generate political movements, contribute to productivity and impact population health and well-being. It then briefly covers Eastern European and East Asian social policy systems, social policy from a supranational perspective via the European Union and immigration, and finally concludes with closer look at income and wealth inequality. The coursework involves posting in online forums, discussion of readings and a final paper in a topic that students may choose (group work on the paper is possible).
The main readers for the course:
Dodds, Anneliese. 2013. Comparative Public Policy. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kennett, Patricia. 2001. Comparative Social Policy: Theory and Research. 1st ed. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.

This course introduces students to how experiments are used to address questions about social phenomena. Social science research and policy analysis have in recent years put greater emphasis on the causes underpinning phenomena of interest. This is an important advance as the lack of doing so can lead to erroneous substantive conclusions and policy recommendations. Experiments are well-suited for the identification of causal effects, as they give researchers control over the research setting and thus allow them to exclude alternative explanations. The course focuses on introducing students to basic concepts and analytical tools employed in experimental research. Students are also acquainted with different experimental research designs, including lab, survey, and field experiments. At the end of the course, students will possess a good understanding of the strengths (and weaknesses) of the experimental methods most commonly used in social science research. A capacity to employ these methods independently is fostered through various exercises, including the writing of a research plan. Prior knowledge of basic statistical concepts, such as hypothesis testing and regression analysis, is strongly recommended.

A recurring question from my students concerns the distinctiveness of feminist approaches to methods, methodologies, and epistemologies. This key question is posed in different ways: Is there a specifically feminist method? Are there feminist methodologies and epistemologies, or simply feminist approaches to these? Answers to these questions are far from straightforward given the continually evolving nature of feminist reflections on the methodological and epistemological dimensions and dilemmas of research. This course attempts to address these questions by tracing recent developments in this area.
The seminar demonstrates the many ways in which feminist researchers continue to challenge, develop, reflect and strive for robust practices and warrantable knowledges. This is configured through; inter alia, notions of voice, positionality, representation, intersectional understandings, strong objectivity and feminist empiricism. A large part of the course will be devoted to methods and their application in praxis. Students should have basic knowledge of research methods (at least done the course introduction to research methods). The course language is English, however, depending upon composition and request of students.

Literature
Harding S. (1987): Is There a Feminist Method? In: Harding S. (eds) Feminism and Methodology: Social Science Issues, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1–14
Ramazanoglu C, Holland J. (2002): Feminist Methodology : Challenges and Choices. London: SAGE Publications Ltd
Rayaprol A. (2016): Feminist research: Redefining methodology in the social sciences. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 50(3), 368–388