Economy, Politics and Society introduces students to the main currents of economic thought, the ways in which geography, history and institutions have shaped the trajectory of nations, and how basic concepts such as work and labour define both the individual and society. The important facts and events that have shaped economic development around the world, and influential theorists who have had a major impact on our thinking about the Economy, Politics and Society, will be discussed to help students understand the modes of reasoning that have been deployed in this field.
Department: Economics | Semester: Spring 2025
This course explores the dynamic interplay between the economic system, social institutions, and political landscape. Students will develop critical thinking skills to understand and analyze the interdependence and interpret the present realities of the capitalist society in which we live and imagine its past and future. The course also introduces students to the features (e.g. consumerism, alienation, inequality) of capitalist society in contemporary times. We attempt to understand the manifestation of these features in connection with our lives like its impact on culture, aspirations, work environment, and health in society. The course also enables the students to understand the role played by the state in today’s globalized world and evaluate political processes and institutions. The course concludes by examining the currents of technological change, the internet, and media to imagine our future in capitalist societies. So broadly we cover these four themes; a) The Historical Evolution of Capitalism b) Capitalism and Globalisation, c) Features of Capitalist societies, and d) Technology, Mass Media, and the Future of Capitalist societies.
Department: Economics | Semester: Spring 2025
This course is about ideas that illuminate the economic organization of our society. Real-world examples will be used to discuss the power and limits of these ideas. To do this we have to ask questions of things that one takes for granted.
What does it mean to say there is no `free lunch’? And why does it matter? What are the predictable consequences of incentives Vs command and control? What do those terms even mean? Why is the rupee note not a worthless piece of paper? Why does it have value? Does trust matter to economic life and GDP? Why do we not pay for Gmail? Why is it so easy to access high-tech gadgets (if you have the money) but not so easy to enjoy clean water and air (even if you have the money)? Should the government ban polluting industries? What’s the alternative? Why is construction labour toiling in the sun paid much less than white-collar work done drinking coffee? What does Taylor Swift’s sell-out concerts say about livelihoods in a digital economy. How does it matter to inequality?
Rahul Verma
Department: Political Science | Semester : Monsoon 2024
The primary objective of this course is to familiarize students with basics of social
science approaches to better understand that world we live in. Social realities are
often complex due to continuous interactions of varied nodes of identities, socio-
political institutions, and economic relations that shape individual lives and
collectives. This course introduces students to the basic theories, methods, and
particular contributions of economics, political science, and sociology. It would
focus on – a) how social scientists study critical questions about economic
development, political regimes, social systems, among others, and b) understanding
the complexities and challenges of democracy and governance using India as a case
study, in relation to other relevant examples depending on the theme. Through the
course, students will familiarise with various research designs to understand the
social-political realities and how to interpret basic quantitative data. The course
intends to develop the thinking, writing, and communication abilities of students. It
will also provide important tools for analyzing the material covered in other courses,
especially in social sciences.
Mohammad Ali Khan
Department: Political Science | Semester : Monsoon 2024
This course will introduce students to non-European aspects of political thought with
particular recourse to various parts of the colonised world. The course shall largely
focus on the colonial and post-colonial periods in order to highlight to students, the
reception of concepts like liberalism in the non-European world, but also explore how
these concepts underwent changes and reinterpretations in new environments. An often
neglected aspect of the study of politics, is the study of the role of religion in the social
and political formations of the non-European world; and part of the aim of this course
will be to highlight the continuing importance of religious thought to understanding
wider political discourse. This course will equip students with a perspective that will
enhance and broaden their understanding of notions like the state, liberalism and,
democracy beyond their ‘Western’ interpretations in addition to providing the
background for understanding the roots of these concepts in political theory. Most
importantly, the course will introduce students to major non-Western philosophers and
thinkers. Apart from this, the students will also understand how ideas travel and how
these often disrupt the geographical imaginings that we often assume to be unassailable
and fixed.
The nature of academia has meant that subjects and disciplines have been divided and
categorized in what are thought to be distinct conceptual frameworks. However, my
own belief is that the most compelling work in the social sciences is predicated on
approaches that interrogate and blur these boundaries. Therefore, although this EPS FC
is formally linked to the political science department, the material we cover, the debates
we unpack and the ideas we explore will also take into account historical context,
literary expressions, philosophical underpinnings and indeed aspects of sociological and
anthropological work.
Department: International Relations | Semester : Monsoon 2024
Why do we think and act the way we do? Why do we believe in a certain moral framework, dream, desire, sleep, work, or eat the way we do? These may seem like the most banal set of questions, prompting a ‘that is just how it is’ response. However, implicated in their answers are hundreds of years of social, economic, and political thought. In this course, we will engage with different social, political, and economic ideas that have changed the way we look and interact with the world, and for this purpose, we will go straight to the horse’ mouth. In other words, we will read and engage with texts written by some of the greatest social, economic, and political thinkers from around the world such as Marx, Ambedkar, Berger & Luckmann, Weber, bell hooks, and Foucault. The only precondition for the course is that students should be willing to engage with the texts.
Department: Sociology | Semester: Monsoon 2024
The course seeks to explore the emergence of modern Politics and Society in India by analyzing seminal writings related to the emergence of modernity on the Indian subcontinent. We will examine the evolution of modern South Asia from 1818 until 1947. The course surveys major figures who grappled with and helped shape social, economic and political struggles during the British colonial period. We will consider the multiple debates that went into, nation formation, economic condition, caste stratification, the role of women, and religious reform, i.e.,the complexity of the social and political discourse of the period. We will analyse primary texts, including autobiographies, speeches, dialogues, treatises, ethnography, and where possible literary fiction. Please note that this is a tentative syllabus, and we will modify it suitably as the semester progresses.
Please note that this is a tentative syllabus, and we will modify it suitably as the semester progresses.
Learning Outcomes Goals:
- Read, think, and evaluate critically modern South Asian society, economy and politics.
- Acquire basic knowledge about major events in modern South Asian history.
- Understand the impact of important figures, and seminal debates in modern South Asian culture and history
- Gain comprehension about colonialism and its impact on modern South Asia
- Understand the construction of communalism in modern South Asia
- Learn to evaluate critically primary sources
Outcomes:
Upon completion the student will be able to
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the dominant themes in modern South Asian history and culture
- Demonstrate an analytical understanding of the impact of colonialism in South Asia and its lasting consequences in today’s modern states in the region.
- Critically evaluate primary sources
- Critically evaluate secondary sources
- Demonstrate an ability to synthesize information from non-traditional sources.
- Demonstrate the ability to engage critically and analytically with the concept of modernity and its global impact.
Rita Brara Mukhopadhyay
Department: Sociology | Semester: Monsoon 2024
Inquiries into science studies, animal rights, and climate change are building up the foundations of a ‘new political’ in our times. Current theorizing and the charge of the ‘new political’ is co-evolving with capitalism as it intensifies its extractive relationship to nature. The planet can well do without us humans; it is rather our survival that is contingent both on living and non-living nature.
We now seek to remake the political by postulating rights of non-human nature, deliberating the agency of matter and reckoning with precarity as the earth’s present condition. The ongoing attempts at reforming politics are not without ifs and buts… and so we shall look into the continuing force of inclusions by legacy and troubling exclusions.
Media and Democracy
Department: Media Studies | Semester: Monsoon 2024
Is there a straightforward relationship between proliferation of media and democracy? Does freedom for media necessarily mean democratic freedom? What if free media translates into corporatized control over media platforms, algorithms, content, eventually publics themselves? How do we reconcile the rise of digital technologies that evoke narratives of emancipation, autonomy, and freedom- with the simultaneous rise of online troll cultures, virulent racism, sexism, xenophobia, and exclusionary political ideologies around the globe? Answers to questions such as these depend, to begin with, on how we approach understandings of media, democracy, or freedom.
We will think about mediation as social process that extends beyond ‘the media’- not as power emanating from specific objects, technologies, or institutional practices, but as the ideological foundation of social life. We explore the relationships of media with electoral democracy and its political institutions, but also what they mean for ordinary people outside of its formal and elite institutions: their local meanings and practices, contestations and shifting forms of power, and the multiplicity of desires they both produce and represent. Towards these objectives, we examine actions of governments that relate to repression of media and democratic freedoms- and the struggles to liberate them; but also, how morally loaded concepts such as `freedom’ are given particular meanings in their discourses and social practices.
The challenge in this course will be to both apprehend the dominant configurations of `media’ and `democracy’ in present times, as well as anticipate imaginations of their possible forms and praxis that might provide for a more diverse and equal world.
Department: Economics | Semester: Spring 2025
What does it mean to say there is no `free lunch’? And why does it matter? What are the predictable consequences of incentives Vs command and control? What do those terms even mean? Why is the rupee note not a worthless piece of paper? Why does it have value? Why do we not pay for Gmail? Why is it so easy to access high-tech gadgets (if you have the money) but not so easy to enjoy clean water and air (even if you have the money)? Should the government ban polluting industries? What’s the alternative? Why is construction labour toiling in the sun paid much less than white collar work done drinking coffee? The course will introduce fundamental economic ideas to address these and other questions. Real world examples will be used to discuss the power and limits of these ideas in understanding the economic organization of society. Importantly, once understood, these ideas will lead you to ask questions about things that you took for granted.
Nitish Kashyap
Department: Economics | Semester: Spring 2025
This foundation course explores the dynamic interplay between the economic system, social institutions, and political landscape. Students will develop critical thinking skills to understand and analyze the interdependence among the three to interpret the present realities of the capitalist society in which we live and imagine its past and future. The course introduces students to the idea of a capitalist society and examines its features (e.g. consumerism, alienation, inequality) in contemporary times. We attempt to understand the manifestation of these features in connection with our lives like its impact on culture, aspirations, work environment, and health in society. The course also enables the students to understand the role played by the state in today’s globalized world and evaluate political processes and institutions. The course concludes by examining the currents of technological change, the internet, and media to imagine our future in capitalist societies. We cover the course across these four themes; a) The Historical Evolution of Capitalism b) Economy & State in the Globalised World, c) Consumerism, Workers’ Alienation, Inequality, Crony Capitalism, and Environment in the contemporary world, and d) Technology, Mass Media, and Future.
Readings would be mostly non-technical papers, excerpts from books, and some multimedia resources.
Course Objectives:
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Understand the interwoven relationship across the political, social, and economic
spectrum in the contemporary world.
- Critically evaluate the competing arguments for the “Why” of our social, political,
and economic realities and articulate their own arguments.
- Develop an eye for interdisciplinarity while analyzing social realities and changes.
nitish.kashyap@ashoka.edu.in
