Semester 2
Spring 2024

January - June

The Psychology of Contemporary Issues | 20h - 5 ECTS

Syllabus

How are human beings coping with the increasingly fast and changing pace of modern society? Are our brains equipped to cope with the incessant drive for innovation and rapidly evolving scenarios? Do we really understand how our brains work and how we react in certain situations? On this course we will examine and discuss the complex psychological mechanisms that drive human attitudes and behaviour in a wide range of contemporary issues. An insight into these mechanisms can help to shed light on social, economic, political and environmental issues that are currently predominant in our society and unlock some of the enigmas surrounding human behaviour. Drawing on traditional psychological theories as well as up to date research, our aim will be to question the evidence supporting these models and theories and critically assess their validity. Students will engage in discussions and debates on a wide range of topics such as eco-anxiety, online hate speech, exposure to violence, law enforcement, digital bystanders, discrimination, crowd manipulation, gaslighting, groupthink, obedience to authority and many others. Throughout the course and in their assignments, students will also be encouraged to draw knowledge and examples from their own experience, focus on their own behaviour to ultimately gain in self-awareness.

The Evolution of American Political Campaigns | 20h - 5 ECTS

Syllabus
 

With the amount of political media coverage of U.S. elections today, voters have never had greater access to information about electoral candidates and policy issues.  Yet, knowledge of public affairs seems compromised by the electorate’s inability to process the overwhelming amount of media content available.   The relentless broadcasting loops in 24-hour news programming and an increasingly fragmented media ecosystem sustained by the Internet and social media have inaugurated an era of media saturation. Within the context of eroding public trust of mainstream journalism and political institutions, this course examines the evolving relationship between the news media & U.S. election campaigns while considering the effects on democracy.

Media and Society | 20h - 5 ECTS

Syllabus

This course tackles the issue of the rise of journalism understood as a distinct set of practices and interests. Journalism emerged in the late 19th century in various western countries (France, the US and more marginally UK will be used as examples in the run of the course). But to understand this historical turning-point it is necessary to take a step back and to present the rise of a culture of printing and reading in western societies starting in the 15th century. Parallel to that major cultural shift a rise of a culture of news emerged and little by little "the world came to know about itself" (Pettegree, 2014). The (short) presentation of this long history will constitute the first part. Thus news production and news consumption did not for a long time mean "journalism" (even if the word existed). The second part of the course will focus on the changes that occurred in the 19th century on both sides of the Atlantic that gave birth to what we know as "journalism": the monopoly of a group of professional actors over the production of information. As a conclusion we will rise the open question of the future of that monopoly that dominated the 20th century.

Ireland : Beyond Borders | 20h - 5 ECTS

Syllabus

Over the years, the Irish Border has become softer, all the more so that today its physical manifestation is difficult to discern. However, now that the UK has left the EU, its only main land border with another EU member-state is shared with the Republic of Ireland. After two decades of an open border, and cross-border peacebuilding, Brexit could destabilise the Irish peace-process and the Irish economy. If the deal still has to be delineated by Brexit negotiators, the Irish Border is now back in the limelight. Starting from these recent political developments, this course is designed to question the notion of Border(s) and use it as a stepping-stone to better understand contemporary Ireland, assuming that even though it is an island, Ireland has always been open to the world. Until 1920, its political centre was in London, i.e. beyond the Irish sea; the partition of the island into two separate countries has shaped Irish politics North and South alike; the Irish diaspora has enabled the country to maintain economic and political ties with the US on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean; Ireland's entry into the EEC and its commitment to European integration has played an important role in the modernization of Irish politics, economy and society; more recently, for the first time in its history, Ireland became a country of inward migration, welcoming people from abroad attracted by the job prospects offered by the rapid economic growth of the Celtic Tiger. The objective of this course is therefore to introduce students to contemporary Ireland and to deepen their understanding of Irish politics and society, both North and South of the Border, in order to equip them with a better understanding of the implications of a possible hardening of the Border in the context of Brexit.

Comparative Public Administrations in Europe | 20h - 5 ECTS

Syllabus

Public administration is a world of legislations and regulations, and the relevant rules necessary to a good understanding of the topic will be exposed, step by step. But since this is not a law course, we intend to analyse the cultural habits, the power games between political decisions-makers and top civil servants in the policy formulation process; we will also consider the social background of civil servants who are de facto associated to the governing processes, and we will end up with a lesson on the administrative reforms that are shaking off national public administrations all over Europe.

Management of Rewards in the Public Service | 20h - 5 ECTS

Syllabus 

This course is an introduction to a major current sub-topic of Human Ressource Management in the public sector, namely the management of rewards, aiming at attracting and retaining talents. Our perspective is the one of Political Science, sensitive to all the political dimensions, the various institutional, social, historical, cultural, demographic constraints which interfere in the instauration and evolution of a system of rewards for public servants in a given national context. Our goal is, by the end of the course, that students become familiar with the main explicit and underlying issues at stake when a HR policy of rewarding public servants is discussed, adopted and implemented.

The United Kingdom and the European Union : from membership to partnership ? | 20h - 5 ECTS

Syllabus

The aim of this course is to provide students with knowledge and insight into the complex relationship between Britain and the European Union, generally portrayed as a “wait and see” attitude on the part of the UK during its membership and now shaped by the difficulties of implementing Brexit. The current issues surrounding Britain’s exit from the European Union ( such as trade policy and immigration policy) will be studied in the light of the history of UK membership, the divisive EU policies (CAP, CFP, Euro) as well as the constitutional issues regarding EU membership and parliamentary sovereignty. Finally, students will be encouraged to think about the political aspects of the referendum as well as the issues raised in and by the EU Withdrawal Act 2018 and its consequences on the structure of the United Kingdom. The more immediate consequences of Brexit will be analyzed each week with a focus on the political, economic and legal aspects of this unique situation.

The British and American Health Care Systems Since the 1930s | 20h - 5 ECTS

Syllabus

This course examines the evolution of public health care systems in the United States of America and in the United Kingdom since the 1930s. In doing so, it shows how both nations attempted to meet their populations’ expectations for an access to health services and treatments worthy of global powers. It also sheds light on the widespread resistance to publicly funded and administered services: in the USA, big government has been equated with soviet (or other) socialism for the best part of the twentieth century, and the same fears resurfaced as B. Obama promoted his Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Though the post-war consensus was stronger in Britain, it largely fell apart in the late 1970s and the British seem to have now become equally wary of government spending and intervention, even though the National Health Service seems to be the last branch of the welfare state to face a major overhaul.

Racial food ? A  Food's Deconstruction through the Prism of Anti-Racist, Anti-Speciesist and Feminist Studies in France and the USA | 20h - 5 ECTS

Syllabus

Considered as a biological human need linked to the survival of our species, food has often been a forgotten philosophical and sociological object. Since Pierre Bourdieu, food is understood as a sociological fact of social distinction. We do not consume such food by taste or pleasure but because it allows us to be attached to our social class ; which is distinguished through a cultural, economic and social capital. Understood as a system of oppression, feminist philosophers have begun to denounce the sexist character of food. Between GMOs, organic food, permaculture, agribusiness of the capitalist system, vegetarianism and veganism food is at the heart of political debates in our societies.

Relations between the United States & Latin America : an Overview

Syllabus

The course is designed to introduce and examine U.S.-Latin American relations from an interdisciplinary perspective. By associating the discussion of scholarly articles in the fields of history, sociology, international relations and anthropology to the analysis of material from the media and the arts, this course will attempt to provide a multifaceted overview of interAmerican exchanges since the 19th century and to highlight the contemporary outcomes of these relations.

Global Environmental Governance

Syllabus

Contemporary ecological problems and crises are recognized as being predominantly a result of ineffective governance. This course provides a theoretical and practical understanding of the complexities and approaches of how individuals, institutions and governments manage natural resources from a global perspective using political ecology as a framework for our critique and analysis. The course will begin by exploring the conceptual frameworks that underpin natural resource governance, and from there detail the rules, mechanisms, processes and institutions through which important decisions are made and implemented. Natural resource governance is seen to be driven by three distinct policy strategies: public regulation, market-based incentives, and community-based resource management, all of which will be explored in the class looking closely at water and climate change governance and considering how these approaches apply or do not apply to other natural resources. Challenges and opportunities pertaining to the Global South will be emphasized.

The validation of the two following courses is necessary to obtain the one-year degree in International and Comparative Studies :

Methodology of Writing | 5h - 2 ECTS

This class is designed and intended to aid students who are not familiar with the methodology of writing in France and in particular at Sciences Po. Structure and writing skills are the key to successful completion of a course of study in France and students will be guided in the elaboration and development of how to formulate and put forward a thesis statement correctly with a plan.

The importance of building a strong foundation in the conceptualization and operationalisation of research, with the need to take into account of how to design a project that is to be presented either orally or in written format will be dealt with in a hands-on approach through activities in small groups of students. We shall focus on the predominant emphasis that should be provided in the opening sentence of the introduction, the significance of the definition of the terms to define the framework and scope of the piece that is being written as well as need to back up arguments with critical academic research references.

French as a Foreign Language | 20h - 5 ECTS

The course objectives in the English-speaking University Diploma are to pass along language tools that will allow students to communicate as quickly as possible in an everyday environment.

The course is in French-language medium using basic grammar as well as role-play for communicative competency, both of which are used in a progressive manner.

Diverse audio and visual aids will be used.