This course presents and examines the social and cultural forces that have implications for the formation and maintenance of social relationships. It exposes students to the concepts, theories, and methods involved in studying the family. It provides an opportunity for students to critically examine issues associated with marriage, family so that they can derive a clearer understanding of marriage and the family as critical institutions in society. The course helps students to apply theoretical perspectives to go beyond personal experiences and view the family from diverse social contexts.
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This course explores the distinct foundations upon which modern Caribbean politics rests. It attempts to identify the unique characteristics and experiences of Caribbean states to enrich the field of comparisons with other political systems. The special characteristics of small states, the varied impact of colonialism in the region, the nature of the political culture, along with class and ethnic influences, the founding roles of Caribbean leaders, the main state formations that have emerged, as well as the emergence of civil societies in the Caribbean are the main areas covered. The main purpose is to be able to understand the nature of contemporary Caribbean politics from the continuing impact of these foundations.
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This course will therefore be devoted to provoking critical thinking about the political, economic and social challenges and opportunities in the implementation of ICTs for e-Government and in the wider context of e-Governance. It will introduce the student to a variety of theoretical ways of thinking about technology within the broader framework of political science. This is important because convergence of ICTs is reshaping traditional methods of social discourse and the way we interact; exacerbating traditional methods of how knowledge and information are created, managed and utilized as a competitive asset for development; redefining core concepts in contemporary political life such as power, sovereignty, privacy, security, representation, accountability, transparency, individual rights, liberty, democracy, moral agency and ethics. Moreover, the assertion those developing countries will be able to leapfrog traditional technologies and engage newer ones to realise their development goals, have also not been realised. By studying e-governance, students will not only be investigating technical issues, but also the less overt political machinations that go into how these technologies are being used in making decisions about how to engineer information infrastructure for political agendas and the significant implications for political life.
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The course is intended to be a general introduction to the discipline of comparative politics and government. It will clarify and synthesise some of the major theoretical directions found in the literature. The emphasis will be on the examination and assessment of the major theoretical trends, as well as themes in approaches to and concepts in the study of comparative politics.
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This research project course is designed to give students an appreciation for conceptualising contemporary issues from a psychological perspective. Students also have the opportunity to integrate psychological theories and research methods to investigate selected issues.
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This course is a sub-field of Political Science. It focuses on the relationship between politics and economics. More specifically, it is the interaction of the market and powerful state and non-state actors. The course seeks to address two overarching questions: Why is there a need to study international economic issues from a political perspective? What is the relationship between the political and economic order? The course is divided into three parts. Part I discusses the nature of and contending approaches to IPE. Part II examines global governance, global finance, regionalism and international trade. The final part of the course focuses on the case of China in the global political economy.
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This course begins by examining a number of competing definitions of the Caribbean and the approaches to regionalism that have been derived from them. It looks at the various implications of small size for survival in the international system. It will also examine Caribbean regional organisations and evolving approaches to regionalism and multilateralism in the 21st century. The course continues by analysing the Caribbean’s changing political and economic relations with the rest of the world. Students will discuss the challenges and opportunities posed by globalization, the rise of new major powers (China, India, Brazil etc.) and by a changing international system for Caribbean states, and their range of foreign policy responses. They will also explore the dynamics of the deepening economic and political links among actors within the Caribbean Basin and between themselves and the rest of Latin America. We study the principal issues and trends in Caribbean – US relations and Caribbean-EU relations.
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This course is geared towards introducing students to contemporary Latin American Government and Politics. It will also give students an understanding of the main social, political and economic features present in contemporary Latin America. They will explore also the competing theories that have been used to explain development and underdevelopment in the region as well as other salient Latin American issues and identify changing political and economic trends in the region.
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This course is designed to deepen students’ understanding of economic theory and methods. It is a major step above what they would have covered in their introductory course even though it builds on many of the same concepts. Topics include: unemployment, money and inflation; economic fluctuations within the context of the ISLM framework; stabilization policy and the problems of government debt and budget deficits. By the end of the course students should have a good understanding of how economies work and how to make them work better, that is, more efficiently.
