ACTIVIST UG3

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What you learn about on modules in this stream: This stream focuses on the theory and practice of social and political change. It brings together modules that explore and challenge power, inequality, justice, and collective action, equipping students with the analytical and practical tools to engage critically with issues such as climate justice, human rights, gender equality, and decolonisation.

Career ambitions: campaigner for a charity, such as Oxfam, Amnesty, Shelter or working in a campaigns team of a Trade Union. Working for organisations, sucgh as the World Health Organisation, which strive to strengthen democracy, human rights, or equality domestically or internationally.

AUTUMN TERM MODULES IN THIS STREAM

PR3101 – ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS

POL/IR

15 credits – Autumn Term

Module Description – This module involves students in the study of environmental politics through a multidisciplinary analysis of the challenges we face through climate change and other problems, how narratives on the environment and climate change are framed by different actors e.g. media, politicians, how pro- and anti- environmental values have developed alongside the concept of sustainability, how this has been translated into politics and public policy at local, national and international levels of governance, and how environmental activism has been expressed through social movements e.g. #FridaysforFuture. At the start of the module, we examine the gathering crisis of climate change – the threats we face and how are they framed by different political actors. Next, we explore the development of environmental values, internationally and historically, exploring concepts such as ‘postmaterialism’ and ‘sustainability’ and considering how they relate to the idea of a social contract for future generations. The next part of the module concentrates on environmental issues through the lenses of national politics e.g. the development of Green parties and policies, and broader social movements and direct action such as the Climate Strikes and Extinction Rebellion. Finally, we investigate how environmental policy is agreed and implemented at different levels of governance: through international agreements e.g., COP26 in Glasgow (2021), national strategies e.g., commitments to Net Zero, and local policy (anything from recycling, to parks, to public transport). The module, thus, provides students with a firm grounding on the nature of existing threats to the environment and how politics and public policy fails or lives up to the challenges they create.

Module Leader – Professor James Sloam

Module Delivery – Weekly seminars and lectures

Assessment – Opinion piece (10%); Policy briefs (30%); essay (60%)

What you can do to prepare the module – Think about how you encounter climate change discussions in day-to-day life. What are your views on the major environmental challenges we face and how they might be addressed? For some diverse perspectives on action against damage to the environment, see Tobin, P., & Barritt, J. (2021). Glasgow’s COP26: the need for urgency at ‘The next Paris’. Political Insight, 12(3), 4-7, and Flanagan, C., Gallay, E., & Pykett, A. (2022). Urban youth and the environmental commons: rejuvenating civic engagement through civic science. Journal of Youth Studies, 25(6), 692-708. Both of these articles are free to access online.

PR3300 – THE POLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

15 credits – Autumn term

Module Description – The world is currently a very unequal place – with the top 1 percent individuals owning more wealth than the bottom 95 percent (OXFAM, 2024). Many of the bottom 4 billion still lack good access to crucial livelihood aspects including food, clean water and sanitation, and housing. Looking forward, addressing these issues is complicated by major global challenges including historical legacies of colonisation, environmental and climate change, population growth and urbanisation, as well as by inequality itself. These realities have shaped the design of this module. In the first, introductory, part, we talk about what development is, how it can be measured, how it has been theorised, and what its state is in different regions of the globe. In the second part, we look at some of the major challenges – at historical legacies of colonisation, at environmental and climate change, at population changes, and at inequality. In the last section, we examine the effects of these challenges on countries’ domestic institutions, on states, and on international/global governance.

Module Leader – Dr Ivica Petrikova

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Blog post (1000 words) – 30%; Essay (2500 words) – 70%

What you can do to prepare for this module – you can read the Routledge Handbook of Global Development (Sims et al., 2022)

PR3636 – PEACE AND JUSTICE AFTER CONFLICT

15 credits – Autumn term

Module Description – This module looks at the challenges of contemporary post-conflict peace and justice processes. It asks how countries deal with the legacies of wartime destruction, mass violence and societal divisions, how they attempt to establish ‘sustainable’ forms of peace and recover economically from the widespread destruction caused by conflict. To do this, it explores the role of states, international organisations such as the UN, International Financial Institutions (IFIs), regional organisations and alliances such as NATO, as well as civil society groups and NGOs that are increasingly involved in post-conflict transitions.

Throughout the weekly programme, we will reflect on the evolving meaning of peace and justice – from the liberal internationalism of the 1990s until today – as they are redefined in more inclusive ways, and the pitfalls and opportunities this entails. We will do this by exploring topics such as peace agreements (and who takes part in their negotiation), statebuilding interventions, post-war reconstruction and economic reforms, transitional justice, peacebuilding and ‘reconciliation’. Given the widely acknowledged gendered impact of war and its legacies in post-conflict societies, the module ‘mainstreams’ questions of gender throughout the teaching programme, exploring them alongside other power dynamics related to ethnicity, race, and socioeconomic status.

The module’s aims are threefold. First, this class aims to analyse the challenges posed by post-conflict transitions, with a focus on peace and justice processes. Second, the module provides a comprehensive and detailed overview of the role played by various international actors and their interventions in post-conflict contexts. Third, it aims to apply a range of IR theories and concepts to recent case studies of post-conflict transitions.

Module Leader – Dr Daniela Lai

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Online forum contribution (1000 words) – 30%; Case study (2500 words) – 70%

What you can do to prepare for this module – the module does not assume previous knowledge of these topics, but if you want to prepare, you might enjoy watching Derry Girls (available in streaming from All 4), Argentina 1985 (Amazon Prime), or Quo Vadis Aida (Netflix). If you want to read an academic book, I would suggest starting from Oumar Ba’s States of Justice: The Politics of the International Criminal Court (Cambridge University Press, 2020), which is available as an ebook from the Library.

SPRING TERM MODULES IN THIS STREAM

PR3496 – NARRATIVE IN WORLD POLITICS

POL/IR

15 credits – Spring term

Module Description – “Whose story wins?” has become a popular phrase in politics. This module introduces students to the role of narrative communication in world politics. All political institutions and organisations in all countries have no choice but to communicate. They use this communication to offer direction, on any policy sector, or about the identity of the nation or community. Narrative is essential when facing difficult pasts and generating accountability. Narrative is a form that institutions and organisations now invest in. Narrative provides a sequence of events that can generate a feeling that politics should move in a certain direction. Projecting a narrative is difficult in politics because not all parties or supporters will agree with that narrative. Yet this opens up forms of disagreement and conflict that allows us to identify and explain how core political dynamics unfold, including authority, legitimacy, and memory. It also helps students explain fundamental questions in International Relations: they will be able to explain the role of narrative in generating cooperation or conflict, producing alliances or enemies, and creating expectations about how problems can be solved. Students will be asked to consider narrative in different historical moments, from different countries, and in different policy sectors. They will explore how digital media now allow citizens to produce and share their own narratives – digital storytelling has become central to many activist and citizen-led movements. The module also covers a range of theories of narrative in politics, specifically around a spectrum from ‘thin’ rationalist approaches that largely focus on narratives as ‘roadmaps’ used by political elites to ‘thick’ studies that use feminism, race and ethnicity, and formal linguistics as lenses. With each theory introduced, the students will also learn what methods different approaches use. This helps students with their final year dissertation.

Module Leader – Professor Ben O’Loughlin

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Essay 1 (1750 words) – 50%; Essay 2 (1750 words) – 50%

What you can do to prepare for this module – Spend half an hour working out the political story you could tell for one of the following: a) a country, b) a brand (celebrity, sports team, company), or c) a person. For the one you chose, think about: where did they come from, where are they now, and where are they going? Be prepared to talk for a few minutes about what you found.

PR3950 – GLOBAL HEALTH POLICY

15 credits – Spring Term

Module Description – Since the turn of the millennium, global health has received dramatically increased attention, both as an emergent academic discipline and in terms of heightened policy salience. This module serves as an introduction to global health policy, synthesising material from a range of disciplines such as political economy, social epidemiology, and public health. It examines the constellation of health actors involved in policy formulation, including international organisations, governments, public-private partnerships, non-governmental organisations, philanthropic foundations, and commercial actors. It tackles key contemporary policy debates surrounding the health effects of—for instance—rising economic inequalities, global trade, and austerity politics. Students are also taken through approaches to effective policymaking encompassed in the planning, delivery, and evaluation of policy responses to global health issues. Throughout the module, emphasis is placed on how health policies, systems, and outcomes are influenced by the so-called ‘social determinants of health’—the political, economic, social, and cultural factors that operate at both national and transnational levels.

Module Leader – Dr Thomas Stubbs

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Portfolio (1000 words) – 30%; Essay (2500 words) – 70%

PR3963 – GENDER AND NATIONALISM IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND SOUTH ASIA

15 credits – Spring term

Module Description – This module looks at the role of gender in nationalism during the colonial and post-colonial period across the Middle East and South Asia. Students are introduced to key readings that challenge our conventional understanding of gender in international relations and look at how empire influenced our understanding of gendered roles. The module then moves to specific locations and examinations the role of gender in specific political debates in Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, India, Palestine and Iran. The module will challenge students to think beyond conventional understandings of debates about the veil, honour killings and the role of women in violent conflicts. We will examine the ways in which women in particular, seek out zones of agency for themselves, within both the domestic and political spheres in the post-colonial period, and the challenges that arise from this development. We will examine whether revolutions and political movements created spaces in which women could carve out specific political spaces for themselves, and how and why those opportunities might have been lost. By the conclusion of the module students should not only be familiar with key debates on gender and nationalism in the Middle East and South Asia, but also be able to analyse current affairs pertaining to gender in the region, in a critical perspective.

Module Leader – Dr Antara Datta

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Essay 1 (1750 words) – 50%; Essay 2 (1750 words) – 50%

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