Online Masters Global Political Economy

Who gets to ‘know’ the global economy and who are deemed its objects for improvement? This module seeks to broaden the study of power in the global economy that accounts for the legacies of imperialism and colonialism that historically foreclosed non-Western ways of knowing.

It’ll equip you with tools to analytically engage with the current global order: one marked by geopolitical instability, political upheaval, economic uncertainty, and the existential threats posed by climate change and pandemics. 

To achieve this, you’re introduced to key literatures developed by political economists of the Global South: scholars of the black radical tradition, intersectional feminists, indigenous, ecological and other related critics.

Throughout the module, we aim to expand and complicate the understanding of European development as a global actor and institutional model. We do this by examining the impacts of empire, slavery, indentureship, and race in order to offer contemporary analysis of production, finance, development, climate change and the sustained racialised and gendered inequalities.

The module will provide you with political economy analyses that foster more global conversations, paying greater attention to spaces and communities beyond Europe and North America. This approach invites new decolonial framings to address the challenges of the contemporary global economy and explores how these neo-imperial logics are confronted and resisted.

This module offers novel answers to the big questions of migration and dismantles its main myths. Who are the migrants? Do border controls increase security? Do migrants steal our jobs? Can we help migrants at their home? Are open borders desirable? These are just some of the issues addressed by Professor Leila Simona Talani, drawing on her extensive research on migration. 

Starting from the assessment of the impact of globalisation on international migration, the module asserts, on the basis of extensive empirical research, that it’s virtually impossible to stop contemporary migratory flows from the global South to the global North.

As a consequence, policies designed to control, limit or deter migration at the border only result in the transformation of part or all regular migrants into irregular ones.  

This, in turn, leads to an overall increase of insecurity for both citizens and migrants. This is as a result of the involvement of organised crime in the smuggling and trafficking of human beings, the employment of migrants in the underground (or illegal) economy of receiving countries, the enhanced incentives for migrants to adopt deviant behaviours, and their increased criminalisation by the local population and institutions. These issues will all be analysed and assessed in this module. 

This module provides you with the opportunity to reflect systematically on the independent research on a topic of your own choosing required for completing your final dissertation.

The dissertation represents your main opportunity to undertake a distinctive, individual piece of in-depth academic research that showcases what you learned during this programme. It can also be shown to potential employers as evidence of your ability to work independently and produce high-quality research.

The module covers the key stages of the dissertation process, including formulating the research question, conducting the literature review, navigating the relationship with your academic supervisor, writing your thesis, and revising and completing your submission