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The course is conducted in cooperation between Ruhr University Bochum and University Duisburg-Essen and will be held alternating between the two universities on 28.10.2016, 12-16hs; 11.11.2016, 12-16hs; 02.12.2016 10-16hs; 16.12.2016, 10-16hs; 13.01.2017, 12-16hs. All readings and discussions are in English.
Course description
Social inequalities are traditionally addressed within national contexts, often with a focus on Western welfare states. More recently global inequalities have also become a focus of research, particularly in the context of uneven development, income and wealth disparities and sometimes with regard to power asymmetries. These global inequalities can characterize inter‐state relations, but also unequal relations between individuals, in and between families and households. Furthermore, new transnational social formations and spaces have emerged from international mobility, cross-border ties of people and the global travelling of information, money and ideas. Thereby they have become sites for the (re)production of transnational inequalities. Both from global and transnational perspectives inequalities concern countries in the Global South where our conceptualizations of inequality are not necessarily translatable - as postcolonial research, for instance, has claimed. Thus, the questions as to how define, identify and understand the meaning and production of inequalities call for re‐conceptualization, including a view on the socio‐spatial context, interrelated dynamics and developmental issues.
It is the aim of the seminar to introduce students to global and transnational perspectives on inequalities. We will focus on key categories such as class, status, gender, ethnicity, territory and space, and their diverging implications across places. We will work with the recently launched Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which include a number of explicit and implicit references to different inequalities concerning central challenges for future society and mankind, such as climate change, the scarcity of resources, or decent living and working conditions for all. Students are invited to choose particular goals and targets, to develop specialized expertise in this field and contribute their insights to our plenary debates. Thereby, the seminar strives at contributing to a better understanding of how global and transnational contexts relate to inequality production and which measures can be taken against it.
Teaching, assessment and grading
The course will include different elements of input lectures, work group, students’ contributions and plenary discussion. To acquire knowledge of core concepts and debates, students are required to read basic texts for each session (seminar reader, all texts are in English!). As the Sustainable Development Goals will be the empirical focus of the seminar, they pre‐define relevant policy fields (e.g. migration, environment, poverty etc.) for further investigation. Since the seminar alternates between Bochum and Duisburg and takes place every other week, students will have time in between sessions to gain expertise in one area of the SDGs. Students will form working groups and deepen their knowledge in both the conceptual basics and in one policy field over the course of the semester. On top of the required reading, we will provide further material that reflects ongoing discussions in the context of development, which address global and transnational forms of inequality.
Students will need to prepare oral presentations in their working group, participate in the plenary discussion and hand in one written exercise. Regular attendance and active participation based on each session’s readings are highly encouraged. Presentations should be no longer than 10 to 15 minutes and be supported by power‐point presentations or a paper‐hand‐out. The presentation is meant to introduce the core idea of a text or issue to situate it in the wider framework of the session and course theme. Those of you who wish to acquire an Einzelleistung should extend their presentation to elaborate on its topic in a written homework (approx. 20 pages), drawing on various other texts. Deadline for submission of homework is 31 March 2017. In our first session we will organize students’ contributions for the following sessions.
Basic Reading
Therborn, Göran, 2006, (ed.) Inequalities of the World London: Verso.
Faist, Thomas, Fauser, Margit, Reisenauer, Eveline, 2013, Transnational Migration, Cambridge, UK: Polity Press
Freistein, Katja, and Bettina Mahlert, 2016, The potential for tackling inequality in the Sustainable Development Goals, Third World Quarterly, DOI:
Pogge, Thomas, and Mitu Sengupta, 2014, Rethinking the Post‐2015 Development ‘Agenda: Eight Ways to End Poverty Now, Global Justice. Theory, Practice, Rhetoric 7, 3‐11.
Sen, Amartya, 2009, The Idea of Justice, London: Penguin.
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