Suspended in 2025/26
GV267      One Unit
Global Political Thought

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Prof Leigh Jenco

Availability

This course is available on the BA in Social Anthropology, BSc in History and Politics, BSc in International Social and Public Policy with Politics, BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, BSc in Politics, BSc in Politics and Economics, BSc in Politics and International Relations, BSc in Politics and Philosophy, BSc in Social Anthropology, Erasmus Reciprocal Programme of Study and Exchange Programme for Students from University of California, Berkeley. This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course is freely available to General Course students. It does not require permission.

This course is capped at three groups.

Requisites

Additional requisites:

Introduction to Political Theory or equivalent.

Course content

This course examines normative and conceptual theories of politics from a global, transhistorical perspective. We go beyond current theories of “decolonization” to consider how conversations about political life can be and have been transformed on the basis of distinctive concerns that emerge from specific times and places, marked by different levels of affluence, historical connections (or the lack thereof), textual or oral heritages, as well as the experience of imperialism. The course will bring these diverse sources into a meaningful discussion about the political questions that they pose, both on their own and in comparison with others. We consider how context should matter in the investigation of political ideas. We ask how, but also whether, we should integrate these disparate perspectives into a shared conversation.
The course cannot aspire to comprehensiveness, but it aims for a certain integrity of themes and builds up a methodological toolbox for critical engagement with a diverse range of sources. All readings will be in English.

Teaching

15 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Winter Term.
15 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

Lectures of 90 minutes; seminars of 60 minutes based on intensive student participation.

Formative assessment

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the AT and 1 “comparison grid” in the WT.

One formative essay of 1500 words (AT) and one "comparison grid” (requiring comparison of multiple texts on different questions, WT).

Indicative reading

Ibn Tufayl, Muhammad ibn ʻAbd al-Malik, Ibn Tufayl’s Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: A Philosophical Tale. Trans. Lenn Evan Goodman. Updated edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Saaler, Sven, and Christopher W. A. Szpilman, eds. Pan-Asianism: A Documentary History. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011.

Tedlock, Dennis, ed. Popol Vuh: The Mayan Book of the Dawn of Life. Rev. ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli, and Charles A. Moore, eds. A Source Book in Indian Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957.

Confucius, The Analects: With Selections from Traditional Commentaries. Translated by Edward Slingerland. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2003.

Assessment

Exam (40%), duration: 180 Minutes in the Spring exam period

Course participation (20%)

Essay (40%, 2000 words)


Key facts

Department: Government

Course Study Period: Autumn and Winter Term

Unit value: One unit

FHEQ Level: Level 5

CEFR Level: Null

Total students 2024/25: Unavailable

Average class size 2024/25: Unavailable

Capped 2024/25: No
Guidelines for interpreting course guide information

Course selection videos

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.

Personal development skills

  • Self-management
  • Problem solving
  • Communication
  • Specialist skills