90493 - FILOSOFIA POLITICA LM

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing students with the conceptual tools required to analyze questions of effectiveness and fairness in public policies, citizenship rights, (universal) human rights as well as global justice.

Course contents

The course aims at providing students with the tools to approach the main topics at stake in contemporary debates in political theory. Each year a single question or author is selected. This year the course will specifically focus on the current conjuncuture of disorder and war at the global level. This conjuncure challenges not only the so-called "rules based" international order, but also some of the key concepts of political theory, e.g. sovereignty and imperialism. To come to grips with such a predicament, we will first of all focus on "world system" theory, integrating it with other approache and remaining attentive to current events and developments.

Readings/Bibliography

Books required for the exam (English speaking students):

A. G. Arrighi - B.J. Silver, Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System, Minneapolis, MN, University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

B. One of the following books:

S. Mezzadra - B. Neilson, The Rest and the West. Capital and Power in a Multipolar World, London - New York, Verso, 2024.

G. Arrighi, Adam Smith in Beijing. Lineages of the Twenty-First Century, London - New York, Verso, 2007 (in particular Introduction, Part II and Part III, although reading the whole book is recommended).

M. Hardt and A. Negri, Empire, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2000.

Further readings will be suggested during the course.

Teaching methods

Lectures will be combined with seminars, with direct involvement of students and possible participation of external guests.

Assessment methods

Students attending classes will have two options: an oral or a written exam. The written exam will take place at the end of the course and it will consist of three questions to be answered in 50 minutes.

The option to write a paper (around 4000 words, to be delivered one week before the exam) is reserved to highly motivated students, who will discuss the topic with the instructor and will submitt a 1000 words abstract.

For students not attending classes the exam is oral.

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is necessary to contact the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) with ample time in advance: the office will propose some adjustments, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance to the instructor, who will assess the appropriateness of these in relation to the teaching objectives.

Teaching tools

The course presupposes a basic knowledge of the history of modern and contemporary political theory. Students who do not have such knowledge in their curriculum can refer to one of the following texts:

S.S. Wolin, Politics and Vision. Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 2006

A. Negri, Insurgencies. Constituent Power and the Modern State, Minneapolis, MI, University of Minnesota Press, 1999

Students with SLD or temporary or permanent disabilities. It is suggested that they get in touch as soon as possible with the relevant University office (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en) and with the instructor in order to seek together the most effective strategies for following the lessons and/or preparing for the examination.

Links to further information

http://unibo.academia.edu/SandroMezzadra

Office hours

See the website of Sandro Mezzadra