This class has two goals: First, it shall render students familiar with theories of political sociology that have become influential in International Relations. Here, we will focus on critical-analytical approaches from a range of authors. The second goal is to put European and African scholarship in relation by including older and recent contributions from both continents, including works that use theories of political sociology for empirical analyses.
Most of the sessions will therefore combine basic reading on key concepts and authors with additional reading in which these concepts can be seen “at work”. Credit points are acquired by oral presentations, jointly or individually, and term papers.

The text-centered seminar looks at theoretical arguments that address questions such as the following: What are human rights? How can human rights be justified? How should (and how shouldn’t) human rights be promoted and enforced? Which criticisms do human rights confront and what should we think of these criticisms? What are alternatives to human rights? What are the implications of human rights for global governance in areas such as migration and climate change?

Preparatory Reading

Nickel, James W./Etinson, Adam (2024): Human Rights. In: Zalta, Edward N./Nodelman, Uri (eds.): The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2024 Edition). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2024/entries/rights-human/

Assignments and Credits

9 CP: term paper (5–7,000 words) (two thirds of the grade) and oral presentation (c. 20–25 min.) plus written summary (1,000–1,500 words) or review essay (2,000–2,500 words) (one third of the grade)

6 CP: term paper (5–7,000 words)

3 CP: oral presentation (c. 20–25 min.) plus written summary (1,000–1,500 words) or review essay (2,000–2,500 words)

Note that the 9 CP option is exclusive to students who choose the seminar as part of the MAIR module IR-4.

This course serves as an opportunity for students to aquire conceptual, methodological, and empirical knowledge on the current phenomenon of polarization, its manifestations in Europe and its specificities in the context of the European Union. The course starts by offering an overview of diverse research approaches that enable us to identify and study different forms and types of polarization. We then reflect on polarization as a global phenomenon and on its interrelationships with Western liberal democracy, both in terms of societal processes and institutional variation in European political systems. We then zero in on how polarization has become relevant with a view to European Parliament elections and legislative activity as well as with regard to EU-member state relations. The assignments and learning methods are thereby always designed to equip students with the tools to further develop their analytical and critical thinking skills and their abilities to effectively communicate their reasoning (verbally and in writing) and to conduct their own research.

The current attention paid to the wars between Russia and Ukraine on the one hand and between Israel and Palestine overshadows long scholarly traditions in the study of war, both between and within states. In this seminar, we will look at seminal contributions to the study of the causes, courses and consequences of wars, and we will combine this with case-analyses beyond the two currently debated. This seminar will be taught in cooperation with the “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Kriegsursachenforschung” at the University of Hamburg, with the aim of improving an archive of war documentation (see akuf.de).

This course will provide students with the skills to critically analyze international resource policies and their practical implementation in North Africa and Latin America. The course begins by dealing with fundamental notions of resource sovereignty, sustainable development, and energy transition. It then looks at international and regional governance of natural resources and their trade, with particular attention to hydrocarbons, mining, and ‘renewables’. Finally, it turns to the opportunities and challenges that resource extraction can create to sustainable development, poverty reduction, and societal peace on the national and sub-national level.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung/Preparatory Reading:

Barral, Virginie (2016): ‘National sovereignty over natural resources: Environmental challenges and sustainable development’. In Research Handbook on International Law and Natural Resources. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Bauer, Andrew & Quiroz, Juan Carlos (2013): ‘Resource Governance’. In The Handbook of Global Energy Policy. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell

Assignments and Credits:

MPL (3 CP): Oral presentation plus written elaboration; GPL (6 CP): Term paper; GPL+ (9 CP): Oral presentation and term paper.

The seminar supports students in the process of conceiving, designing, and writing the thesis, complementing the input they receive from their supervisors. The thesis seminar consists of three workshops: In the first workshop students present their thesis topic and initial ideas about how to tackle it. The second workshop gives students an opportunity to present and discuss their fully elaborated research design, i.e. precise statements of their (final) research question, its (normative, scientific, or practical) relevance, its place in the literature, their working hypothesis (or hypotheses), the role of theory in their study, the methods they are employing and the reasons for choosing them, the data they are using, etc. Finally, the third workshop is devoted to discussing interim results of students’ investigation on the basis of a “writing sample”, i.e. a draft of the introduction or of a key chapter. In each workshop, students receive feedback from the instructor and their fellow students intended to help them identify problems in their arguments and possible solutions to these problems.

Assignments and Credits

3 CP: three progress reports

The seminar looks at war and other forms of large-scale political violence from a normative point of view. In the first part of the seminar we will discuss standard just war theory and its main opponents (pacifism, realism). In the second part of the seminar, we will learn about more recent developments in just war thinking, including attempts to extend the reach of the normative framework to non-paradigmatic contexts such as terrorism or to technology-driven changes in the nature of warfare.

Preparatory Reading

Orend, Brian (2016): War. In: Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016). https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/war/

Assignments and Credits

6 CP (TP 1, GS): term paper (15-20 pp.) or oral exam (30 min.)
3 CP (TP 2, GS): presentation (15 min.) with written elaboration (5 pp.) or short term paper (8-10 pp.)

Political parties are central actors in democracies. In recent decades, established party systems have been re-shaped by the effects of globalisation, de-industrialisation and demographic change, and by the actions of political parties both old and new. This seminar deals with the origins and development of parties and party systems in democracies, as well as changes over time. We discuss connections between parties and citizens, changing lines of conflict, and dynamics of political competition. The aim is to deepen understanding of the role and behaviour of political parties, and enable participants to compare parties and party systems among countries and over time.

Literatur zur Vorbereitung [preparatory literature]:
Carter N, Keith D, Sindre GM, & Vasilopoulou S (eds). The Routledge Handbook of Political Parties. Routledge, 2023 (1st edition). https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429263859.

Credits and assignments:
6 CP: 15-20 page term paper or 30-minute oral exam
3 CP: 8-10 page term paper or 15-minute oral exam

Mental health is a central concern of contemporary health care systems and the wider welfare state, but both the coverage of services and the generosity of public benefits vary considerably among jurisdictions. Mental health policies have been completely transformed in Western Europe and North America since the end of the Second World War through the transition from institutional to community-based care. This course deals with the politics of mental health policy in comparative perspective. Its main aim is to enable participants to critically analyse the economic, scientific, and ideological drivers of mental health policies, and their political feedback effects.

In most parts of the world, political dynamics can no longer be understood as being domestic. To different degrees, political conflict, political forms, and also policy-making is co-determined by transnational dynamics and international actors. This colloquium is a forum for the discussion of such phenomena from different research fields: conflict studies, global social policy, state formation, global political sociology. The colloquium is also intended to bring BA and MA students into contact with PhD candidates and post-doc scholars working on related subjects.

In this block seminar you will learn to use the statistical software R to produce customisable, publication-quality maps and other data visualisations. No prior knowledge of R is required. Participants are encouraged to use data from their own research projects, but test datasets will also be provided.

In order to participate in the seminar in a meaningful way, basic knowledge of R is required. If you have not worked with R before, please check out one of the many available online tutorials (e.g. the free Datacamp introductory course in R: https://campus.datacamp.com/courses/free-introduction-to-r) and familiarize yourself with the basic functions of R and the R development environment Rstudio.
For working with large language models we will also use Python.

In a first step, we discuss different texts on the variety of capitalist development in relation to welfare state development.
The second step is to highlight challenges of welfare capitalism as we know it.
Finally, we discuss some concepts on how to develop welfare state capitalism in the future.

preparatory literature:
Literature will be provided in Stud.IP

(CP) credits and exams:
You can achieve both 3 CP and 6 CP for the Master in Social Policy.
The seminar will be held as a block seminar on Fridays.

https://www.uni-bremen.de/fb8/international/internationales-modul
3 CP/ECTS for this course, +3 CP/ECTS extra credit
Introduction to the political economy of carbon trading, with particular reference to the voluntary carbon market as it operates in tropical countries, with special reference to Sub-Saharan Africa and the East African Community.
1. Locating 'nature-based solutions' to climate change within key global crises, including global warming, agriculture and land-use changes and deforestation; population pressure on natural resources and other drivers of climate change.
2. General overview of carbon and biodiversity markets in relation to climate change and mitigation efforts across the tropics (S America, Africa, Asia), with special reference to forests and deforestation.
3. Controversies in carbon markets and trading: (1) conceptual; (2) operational; and (3)practical.
4. The Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) as part of the global carbon trading architecture: evolution 1997 to the present and its current key direction characteristics.
5. Carbon credit/offset projects in relation to: (1) forestry/reforestation; (2) clean energy; and (3) other sectors
6. Research findings on key aspects of the VCM, especially REDD+ and energysaving projects across three continents. Additionality, leakages, impact, measurement.
7. The political economy of key players in carbon trading: the World Bank/donor agencies/INGOs, carbon traders and verifiers, project implementers, governments, and vulnerable communities.