Syllabus

LAST DAY FOR REGISTRATION SEPTEMBER 30TH

Course Organizer: Cristian Alarcon Ferrari  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Course Assistant: Felix Peniche This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Doctoral Course organized by CEFO (Cemus Research Forum (CEFO) is an interdisciplinary research forum for PhD students and researchers that focuses on environmental and development studies.)

Course Background: The current developments of converging crises regarding labour, the financial system and the global ecology have meant new inquiries into and concerns about the historical development of capitalism. In this PhD course we will study and discuss current critical theoretical approaches to capitalism and its crises. Course participants will read, discuss and critically examine both old and new theoretical developments aimed at problematizing the specific and historical characteristics of the capitalist system. The course has been designed as an interdisciplinary PhD course for PhD and Master students.

Main Subject: Analysis, conceptualization and interpretation of Capitalism.

The aims of the course are:

• To expose students from natural sciences, social sciences and humanities conceptual and theoretical approaches to capitalism in order to understand the current interactions between capitalism and crises. Within this context a first goal of the course is to discuss different definitions and conceptualization of capitalism. This will be done through readings and discussion of a selection of texts by both proponents and critics of capitalism.
• To give students the possibility of gaining a comprehensive overview to historical and current interdisciplinary critical approaches to capitalism. In this regard the course will also examine different views on capitalism and so students will be able to compare and discuss such views with the critical views dealt with in the course.
• To give students analytical tools in the understanding of capitalism from a critical point of view. Therefore, during the course lectures will give several approaches to science, power structures and political formations with a focus on how are those understood under capitalism. One important objective of the course is to discuss what makes capitalism a historically specific different form of organizing production and consumption.
• An additional aim is to assemble researchers and doctoral students from various areas and create a network of researchers interested in the socio-ecological dimensions of capitalism.

The course is divided into three parts.

• The first part consists of students’ individual readings of the course’s literature.
• The second part consists of online and distance work to be organised at Cemus web page. In this part of the course students will comments and discuss the course’s readings and deal with conceptual issues regarding the analysis and interpretations of
• capitalism in general and specific themes within the analysis of capitalism.
• The third part consists of an intensive week of lectures, seminars and workshops held at the Centre for Environment and Development Studies (CEMUS), Uppsala. These lectures will address among others issues the following issues associated wit the understanding of capitalism: Ecology, Labour, Uneven Development, Gender Issues.
• Students will write their own individual papers linking the knowledge obtained during the course to their own research projects. The papers will be submitted by students in the final part of the course. The course participants will be examined by their participation in lectures, seminars and workshops and by the evaluation of their papers. Examiners are PhDs from CEFO research forum.

Required qualifications: PhD Students from Natural, Social Science or Humanities. C-D and MA students may be accepted.

Language: English

University Credits: 7,5 ECTS

Examination: Students have to write and deliver an essay or paper related to the students own interest with a focus on capitalism. Such essay or papers should be presented in a seminar where other students can formulate questions and comments. Students have to comment and present another paper. The paper should be written in the form of a dissertation chapter or article for publication in a scientific journal.

Six Weeks total

• October 1-14 (Online),
• October 17-20 in Uppsala University lectures and discussions,
• October 21 (Workshop),
• October 24-November 15 (Online)