The Institute of Political Economy offers a number of courses each semester. M.A. students are required to complete Theories of Political Economy (PECO 5000) and Methodology of Political Economy (PECO 5001). Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the program, students are able to explore and challenge themselves through enrolment in courses outside of the Institute of Political Economy. The Institute hosts visiting professors each year to teach special topics courses (PECO 5501F or PECO 5502W).
FALL TERM 2019
This Fall 2019 term, our visiting professor is Dr. Katie Cruz from the University of Bristol Law School. Dr. Cruz will be teaching two courses – one for Political Economy PECO 5501F, and one for Sociology – SOCI 5806G.
PECO 5000F [.05 credit]
Theories of Political Economy
Instructor: Justin Paulson
A survey of the evolution of the core concepts and ideas proposed by both the founders and modern practitioners of the various approaches to political economy. Particular attention will be paid to contemporary theorists as well as classical theorists such as Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Mill, Schumpeter, Keynes, Polanyi, and Innis.
Course outline
PSCI 5501F [.05 credit]
Feminist Perspectives on Law and Neoliberalism
Instructor: Dr. Katie Cruz
This course situates feminist legal and political strategy within neoliberal capitalism. We will look at terms used to describe the co-option of feminism lacking a redistributive agenda, including ‘governance feminism’ and ‘carceral feminism’, by way of critical global south and socialist feminist scholarship and activism.
Course outline
SOCI 5806G [.05 credit]
Marxist Feminist Political Economy of Work/Labour
Instructor: Dr. Katie Cruz
This course focuses on Marxist feminist theories of work/labour and work/post-work, ‘social reproduction’ and its intersections with class, ‘race’, sexuality and legal relations, and anti-work alternatives, including a basic income. Comparisons will include orthodox Marxist and other feminist paradigms, such as intersectionality.
Course outline
WINTER TERM 2020
This Winter 2020 term, our visiting professor is Dr. Aaron Henry. Dr. Henry will be teaching two courses – one for Political Economy PECO 5502W, and one for Political Science PSCI 5915X.
PECO 5001W [.05 credit]
Methodology of Political Economy
Instructor: Karen Hebert
An examination of the methods, procedures, and rules for developing theory and guiding inquiry in political economy research, including topics such as logic of inquiry, conceptualization, research design, dialectics, level of analysis, comparison, evidence and statistics.
Course outline
PECO 5502W [.05 credit]
The Future of Work in Bits and Bytes: Subjects, Time and Surveillance
Instructor: Aaron Henry
This course interrogates the growing dominance of “piecework” or “tasks” as key economic relations to production in the growing “Access Economy.” Students will explore how the resurgence of piecework is reshaping ownership, debt, and the modern power relations between labour and capital.
Course outline
PSCI 5915X [.05 credit]
It’s All Going to Hal: Artificial Intelligence, Security and War
Instructor: Aaron Henry
Artificial intelligence has the potential to radically change policing, security, and war. This course explores artificial intelligence in relation to digital totalitarian regimes, predictive security apparatuses, and its potential to transform war by lowering the transaction costs of violence.
PECO 5502X (also listed as HIST 5315W/PSCI 5502X/SOCI 5505X) [.05 credit]
Histories of Human Rights in Canada
Instructor: Dominique Marshall
Retrospective exploration of human rights in Canada, addressing public uses of the language of rights and development of major texts. Includes interpretations of indigenous North American conventions of entitlement and dignity, Christian traditions of humanitarianism, emancipation, and political conflicts conducted in the name of rights
PECO 5900 [0.5 credit]
Tutorial in Political Economy
Directed readings on selected aspects of political economy, involving preparation of papers as the basis for discussion with the tutor. Offered when no regular course offering meets a candidate’s specific needs.
Prerequisite(s): permission of the Director.
Form: tutorial approval form
PECO 5907 [0.5 credit]
Placement in Political Economy
This course offers an opportunity to earn academic credit by engaging in research activities under the supervision of professional researchers in the community. Placement possibilities may be initiated by the student or arranged through community contacts established by the Institute of Political Economy.
Includes: Experiential Learning Activity
Prerequisite(s): permission of the Director
Form: placement approval form
PECO 5908 [1.0 credit]
Research Essay
Directly linked to the student’s course work, the research essay must be interdisciplinary in approach.
Includes: Experiential Learning Activity
Form: committee approval form
PECO 5909 [2.0 credits]
M.A. Thesis
The thesis is an alternative to the research essay. It must also be interdisciplinary in approach, and requires greater substance and originality than the Research Essay. Normally, a student’s thesis committee will be composed of members from more than one discipline.
Includes: Experiential Learning Activity
Form: committee approval form
PECO 6000W [.5 credit]
Political Economy: Core Concepts
Instructor: Danielle DiNovelli-Lang
Drawing on classical and contemporary writings, this course provides an opportunity to reflect on core concepts in political economy. Topics will be selected in consultation with participating units, taking into account the potential number of students, their research interests and those of the participating units.
Course outline
Past courses:
SUMMER TERM 2018
PECO 5501 (also listed as PSCI 5501/SOCI 5504) [0.5 credit]
Socio-Geographic and Intersectional Perspectives on Work and Labour
Instructor: Visiting Professor Mark P. Thomas
This course develops a socio-geographic perspective to study the organization of work in contemporary labour markets in this context of crisis. With an intersectional lens, the course explores the ways in which workplaces and labour markets are organized through intersecting relations of class, race, gender, citizenship status, and ability, and are geographically contextualized by place, space and scale.
SOCI 5805 [0.5 credit]
Sociologies of Globalization
Instructor: Visiting Professor Mark P. Thomas
This course constructs a sociological analysis of the economy by combining developments in the fields of economic sociology, political economy, and global sociology in order to study contemporary global capitalism. The social organization of capitalist markets, the social implications of economic processes, and the sociological bases of economic power are explored through Marxist, institutionalist, network, feminist, and postcolonial perspectives. Beginning with the assertion that economic relations have a social basis, the course examines a range of sociological perspectives on the interrelationships between ‘the social’ and ‘the economic’, the power relations that characterize capitalism as a social system, and the tensions, contradictions and conflicts that shape the social organization of capitalist economies.
FALL TERM 2017
PECO 5000F [0.5 credit]
Theories of Political Economy
Instructor: Randall Germain
A survey of the evolution of the core concepts and ideas proposed by both the founders and modern practitioners of the various approaches to political economy. Particular attention will be paid to contemporary theorists as well as classical theorists such as Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Mill, Schumpeter, Keynes, Polanyi, and Innis.
PECO 5501F [0.5 credit]
Topic: Feminism, Peace, and War: Intersectionalities
Instructor: Visiting Professor H.S. Cosar
A feminist inquiry, interrogation and elaboration on the continuities and shifts in the way wars are launched, legitimized, and reproduced. A critical analysis of official discourses on (just-) war, peace, conflict, militarism, strategy, (in)security in the socio-political context, and counter-discourses in which they are embedded.
WINTER TERM 2018
PECO 5001W [0.5 credit]
Methodology of Political Economy
Instructor: Marc-André Gagnon
An examination of the methods, procedures, and rules for developing theory and guiding inquiry in political economy research, including topics such as logic of inquiry, conceptualization, research design, dialectics, level of analysis, comparison, evidence and statistics.
PECO 5502W [0.5 credit]
Transdisciplinary Research Projects: Linking Political Economy and Political Ecology
Instructor: Visiting Professor Luis Llambi
The basic aim of this seminar is to consider and explore some of the major themes, theories and concepts that together constitute the fields of transdisciplinary research, political economy and political ecology. We revisit some texts and contemporary applications of these epistemological, theoretical and empirical literatures.
PECO 6000W [0.5 credit]
Political Economy: Core Concepts
Instructor: Justin Paulson
Drawing on classical and contemporary writings, this course provides an opportunity to reflect on core concepts in political economy. Topics will be selected in consultation with participating units, taking into account the potential number of students, their research interests and those of the participating units.
Course outline
ARCHIVED COURSE OUTLINES
PECO 5000 Fall 2016
PECO 5000 Fall 2015
PECO 5001 Winter 2016
PECO 6000 Winter 2016
PECO 6000 Winter 2015
PECO 6000 Winter 2014
PECO 6000 Winter 2013
PECO 6000 Winter 2012
PECO 6000 Winter 2011
PECO 6000 Winter 2010
PECO 6000 Winter 2009
PECO 6000 Winter 2008
PECO 6000 Winter 2007
PECO 6000 Winter 2006