EEO: Re-Imagining capitalism: alternatives for the XXI century (18BBA00829)

General information

Type:	OP	Curs:	1,2,3	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	4 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Ed: 1	Ferran Macipe Catalán	Ciencias Sociales	ENG

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Ed: 2	Ferran Macipe Catalán	Ciencias Sociales	ENG

There are no prerequisites for taking this course other than the following attitudes and values:
. critical thinking
. desire to learn
. open-mindedness

No previous knowledge in particular is expected.

Weekly readings of about 50 minutes

After a process that started a few centuries ago, capitalism has become the dominant socio-economic system in the world. For this reason, understanding the rules and mechanisms upon which capitalism is based has become indispensable for comprehending today's world and one's own role in it.

This course describes the pillars and mechanisms upon which capitalism functions. This is done by undertaking an applied analysis of the system's strengths and shortcomings, and of the role played by the main economic agents that make it function the way it does.

In recent years, such varied and well established institutions as the Financial Times, the International Monetary Fund, McKinsey & Company, as well as many thinkers and academicians, have written about the need to redefine and improve Capitalism in light of the problems the system has failed to solve and/or contributed to create. In line with this trend, the course goes on to discuss some of the proposals designed and brought forward in recent times in order to foster sustainability in the broadest sense of the term ("the capacity to continue?) and contribute to overcome today's most severe challenges facing humanity. To that aim, contributions from states, the private sector and civil society will all be equally valued and judged only on their effectiveness rather than on any preconceived notion.

. to have an in-depth understanding of the economic roots and rules of capitalism
. to be able to explain the role of capitalism in shaping our own lives
. being capable of tracing the reasons behind the most severe problems facing humanity
. being able to take a standpoint regarding capitalism and the alternative economic arrangements proposed by different thinkers and organizations
. to improve and practice the skills of open-mindedness and constructive critical thinking

1. Introduction

2. A framework of Capitalism

3. Pros, cons and contradictions of Capitalism

4. Capitalist culture and models

5. How we experience capitalism: social patterns, expectations and pressures.

6. Proposals for a better Capitalism (part I)

7. Proposals for a better Capitalism (part II)

8. The economy for the common good

9. Final project: Our own plan towards a sustainable future

10. Final exam

Class time will be divided into lecture, class discussion, presentations by students and team work.

Each participant will be able to draw his or her own conclusions, but an important part of the course will be the discussions to try to agree on the strengths and shortcomings of both capitalism and the proposed alternatives.

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

BAUMAN, Zygmunt, "On Living in a Liquid Modern World?, Liquid Life, Polity Press, 2005, 1-14.
BARBER, Benjamin, Consumed, Norton & Company, 2008
BECK, Ulrich, "Living Your Own Life in a Runaway World?, Global Capitalism, Will Hutton and Anthony Giddens (editors), The New Press, 2000, 164-174
BELLAMY FOSTER, John, Robert W. McChesney and R. Jamil Jonna, "The Internationalization of Monoploy Capital?, Monthly Review, 63(2), June 2011
BHAGWATI, J., In Defense of Globalization, Oxford University Press, 2004
BOWLES, S., EDWARDS, R. and ROOSEVELT, F., Understanding Capitalism: Competition, Command and Change, Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 2005
CAVANAGH, J and Jerry Mander, Alternatives to Economic Globalization, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2nd edition, 2004
CHANG, HA-JOON, 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism, Penguin Books, 2010
CONSTANZA, Robert, Brendan Fisher et al., Quality of Life: "An approach integrating opportunities, human needs and subjective well-being?, Ecological Economics, 61 (2007), 267-276
DÖRRE, LESSENICH and ROSA, Sociology, Capitalism, Critique, Verso, 2015
DOWD, Douglas (editor), Understanding Capitalism: Critical analysis from Karl Marx to Amartya Sen, Pluto Press, 2002
ELLIOTT, Anthony and Charles Lemert, The New Individualism: The emotional costs of globalization, Routledge, revised edition, 2009
FELDER, Christian, Change Everything: Creating an Economy fort the Common Good, Zed Books, 2015
FINANCIAL TIMES, Capitalism in Crisis, http://www.ft.com/intl/indepth/capitalism-in-crisis, multiple authors, 2012
FULCHER J., Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2004
JACKSON, Tim, Prosperity Without Growth, Earthscan, 2009
HAN, Byung-Chul, The Burnout Society, Sanford Briefs, 2015
HARVEY D., Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism, Oxford University Press, 2014
HUTTON, Will and Anthony Giddens, "In Conversation?, Global Capitalism, Hutton and Giddens (editors), The New Press, 2000
LATOUCHE, Serge, Farewell to Growth, Polity Press, 2009
MACKEY J. and SISODIA R., Conscious Capitalism, Harvard Business Review Press, 2014
MULLAINATHAN, Sendhil and SHAFIR, Eldar, Scarcity, Penguin Books, 2014
NILSSON, E., Capitalism: Power, Profits and Human Flourishing, available at http://economics.csusb.edu/facultyStaff/nilsson/capitalismtext.html
OXFAM INTERNATIONAL, Rigged Rules and Double Standards, 2002
PIKETTY, Thomas, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Harvard University Press, 2014
REICH R., Supercapitalism: The Battle for Democracy in an Age of Big Business, Icon Books Ltd., 2009
RIVOLI, Pietra, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, John Wiley & Sons, 2009
ROSA, Hartmut, "Full Speed Burnout? From the Pleasures of the Motorcycle to the Bleakness of the Treadmill: The Dual Face of Social Acceleration?, Journal of Motorcycle Studies, 6(1), Spring 2010
SACHS, J., The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, Penguin Press, 2005
SANDEL, M. What Money Can't Buy, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012
SEN, A., Development as Freedom, Anchor, 2000
SENNETT, Richard, "Street and Office: Two sources of identity?, Global Capitalism, Hutton and Giddens (editors), The New Press, 2000, 175-190
STIGLITZ, J., Making Globalization Work, W.W. Norton & Company, 1st edition, 2006
STIGLITZ, SEN & FITOUSSI, Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, 2009, http://www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr/en/index.htm
TODARO, M. and SMITH, S., Economic Development, Addison Wesley, 9th edition, 2005

Group	Teacher	Department
Ed: 1	Ferran Macipe Catalán	Ciencias Sociales

Group	Teacher	Department
Ed: 2	Ferran Macipe Catalán	Ciencias Sociales