{"id":56481,"date":"2019-05-15T16:11:11","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T20:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=56481"},"modified":"2025-10-20T10:40:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T14:40:46","slug":"political-economy-perspectives","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/political-economy-perspectives\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing New Perspectives with Political Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Seeing New Perspectives with Political Economy\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

The planetary-scale climate catastrophe that the Paris Agreement is seeking to avert is very large indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carbon mitigation measures to reduce emissions often seem smaller than they need to be, but for those who work in carbon-intensive industries, their impact can be outsized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew Peters is researching how policies like carbon taxes will impact workers and families who depend on carbon-intensive industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe like to pretend it\u2019s the first time that a transition like this has happened,\u201d says the MA student at Carleton University\u2019s Institute of Political Economy<\/a>, \u201cbut in the past, societies have changed from agrarian renewables, to steam engines and coal, to oil and gas. Now, we’re again looking at getting off of those and moving towards renewables.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Seeing
From left to right: Jesse Whattam, Prof. Cristina Rojas and Matthew Peters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Peters is looking to the energy transitions of the past to better understand factors that drive major changes in our energy mix.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIf we have a strong economic policy, and assume that the energy transition will take place smoothly, that assumes that it is primarily an economic problem,\u201d Peters says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cAnd if you looked at past transitions, then you\u2019d say those must have happened for economic reasons, but if you look back there’s some question as to whether that’s actually the case \u2013 whether coal was pushed to the centre of the energy structure because it really was the cheapest option.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Seeing<\/figure>\n\n\n

Political Economy Students Come From Diverse Disciplinary Backgrounds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Peters\u2019 research draws on his undergraduate education in economics, but he credits the diverse disciplinary backgrounds of his Institute of Political Economy group for seeing the issue from new perspectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComing out of my undergrad, I probably would have looked at carbon pricing as an economic problem that could be solved by putting a price on it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThen that would take care of things and eventually, over time, we\u2019d use less carbon- intensive products and technologies and move to a low carbon transition. Having that idea challenged from other backgrounds definitely led me into looking at the issue more critically and from a different perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

At the Institute of Political Economy, interdisciplinary study is not only evident in the backgrounds of its students \u2013 it\u2019s built in to the program at every level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStudents are able to choose their curriculum according to their own interests,\u201d says Cristina Rojas, award-winning professor<\/a> of Political Science<\/a> and the institute\u2019s director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very small program. We accept only 17 students each year, and they are able to take courses in the 10 departments that work with the institute, including political science, history, sociology, anthropology, law, and Indigenous and Canadian Studies<\/a>. Students can also work with advisers who are cross-appointed to other faculties. So, even though the program is small, there is huge room for diversity, for students to follow their own topic and research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Seeing<\/figure>\n\n\n

Contemporary Ways of Understanding Power Relationships<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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In the two core classes of the institute\u2019s master\u2019s program, students learn research methods and read theory by major figures in political economy like Adam Smith and Karl Polanyi, and complement their thinking with more contemporary ways of understanding power relationships, such as institutionalism and post-colonial theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesse Whattam chose to complement the program\u2019s core offerings with courses like Decolonizing Canada (CDNS 5501) from Carleton\u2019s School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies, and grounded her approach to settler colonialism and Canada\u2019s relationships with Indigenous peoples in critical race theory and post-colonial theory.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI’m really interested in how settlers are taking responsibility as beneficiaries of colonization in this era of so-called \u2018reconciliation,\u2019\u201d Whattam says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cIn media, and even in academia, the focus tends to be on state action when it comes to settler responsibility. I’m interested in what’s happening on a community level — how settlers are holding ourselves and our state accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Effecting real change in Canada\u2019s relationship with Indigenous peoples will take a fundamental change in our thinking \u2013 and a long, hard look in the mirror for non-Indigenous people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think increasingly Canadians are questioning this idea that Canada is nice and is peace-keeping, which kind of underpins the idea of reconciliation. That kind of realization is one thing, but the ability to gather, take action, challenge the state and challenge your own thinking is another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Seeing<\/figure>\n\n\n

Connecting Students with Like-Minded Communities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Whattam believes that transformative social changes begin at the grassroots level, and credits the Institute for Political Economy\u2019s links to local organizations with helping her connect to a like-minded community when she moved to Ottawa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast year, I did a research assistantship with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. It really opened my eyes to the policy aspect of political economy, and was a practical and grounded way of understanding the Canadian context of political economy from a federal perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whattam also connected to the Fight for $15 and Fairness<\/a> movement for a $15 minimum wage through the institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPractical, grounded action has always been really important for me,\u201d Whattam says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot just being in academia, but being on the ground, and mixing the knowledge I’m learning with reality. The institute facilitated that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Rojas, it\u2019s those connections to the major social issues of our age that make political economy so relevant today.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIn our current political environment, some of the main issues are the politics of wealth, the environment and social justice,\u201d Rojas says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cAll of those characterize the study of political economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the Political Economy Master of Arts, the Institute for Political Economy offers a collaborative master\u2019s with a specialization in African Studies, and a Collaborative PhD with a specialization in Political Economy for students in participating Carleton doctoral programs.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The planetary-scale climate catastrophe that the Paris Agreement is seeking to avert is very large indeed. Carbon mitigation measures to reduce emissions often seem smaller than they need to be, but for those who work in carbon-intensive industries, their impact can be outsized. Matthew Peters is researching how policies like carbon taxes will impact workers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":56491,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[13],"cu_story_tag":[1921],"class_list":["post-56481","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-research-discovery","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-public-and-global-affairs"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/56481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/56481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98487,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/56481\/revisions\/98487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=56481"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=56481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}