The Governance and Politics of Social Problems

COURSE OBJECTIVE
Students learn how to analyse current societal, economic and cultural developments and how these influence politics and policy-making, such as the role of (new social) media, capital, the rise of the commons, identity questions and technological innovations. Students will also acquire knowledge on the epistemic aspects of these topics, such as the differences between historical and philosophical ‘understanding’ of current developments and methods of scientific ‘explanation’, induction and deduction, holism and individualism. For this purpose, students study classical texts, historical analysis and up-to-date empirical research. In addition to that, students learn to use and reflect on scientific tools to analyse, among others, voting behaviour, populist mobilisation and opinion structures. As a part of the knowledge theoretical aspects of this course, we also address normative questions. Students learn to recognize and analyse the implicit and explicit moral aspects of state formation, voting or abstention in elections, market forces, political mobilisation and so on.

COURSE CONTENT
In this course, students acquire knowledge about the core concepts of political science and policy studies in relation to contemporary societal developments. We depart from two central themes: (1) the relation between the state and the market and (2) the relation between society and individuals, and how these two relations – and the tensions they create - are constitutive for the political realm.

TEACHING METHODS
Lectures

TYPE OF ASSESSMENT
Exam