Re-Imagining Capitalism (2235.YR.014788.1)

General information

Type:	OPT	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	3 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 1	Ferran Macipe Catalán	Ciencias Sociales	ENG

This is a critical thinking course. The capacity to question, discern and reassess (highly valued in today's workplace) is applied here to capitalism as a socio-economic system, to its way of functioning and rationale.

The aim of the course is three-fold: to understand capitalism, to develop a critique of its strengths and weaknesses, and to discuss alternatives, both in terms of ameliorative reforms and systemic changes.

There are no prerequisites for taking this course other than the following attitudes/values:
. critical thinking
. cooperation

No previous knowledge in particular is expected.

One reading of about 40 minutes due each 2.5h of class
A final project
In class exercises

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 is a critical thinking course. The capacity to question, discern and reassess (highly valued in the workplace) is applied here to capitalism as a socio-economic system, to its way of functioning and rationale.

The aim of the course is three-fold: to understand capitalism, to develop a critique of its strengths and weaknesses, and to discuss alternatives, both in terms of ameliorative reforms and systemic changes.

The course is conceived to provide, not only an economic understanding of the world, once capitalism has become dominant in it, but also an appraisal of the sociological pressures it sets in motion. If well-versed and aware of them, it's more likely we can "be the change we want for the world" and achieve a place in the system that's well aligned with our values as citizens and professionals.

. 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 I

3. A framework of capitalism II

4. Strengths, flaws and contradictions of Capitalism. Structuralist antitrust doctrine (Wu).

5. Capitalist culture and models. The entrepreneurial State (Mazzucato)

6. The attention economy. The sociology and psychology of the system (Han)

7. Financialization. Map of solution within capitalism.

8. Systemic reform of Capitalism

9. The 99% economy (Adler). Participatory socialism (Piketty).

10. The economy for the common good

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

Critical thinking will be guiding both the course's methodology and the evaluation system.

ADLER, Paul, "The 99 Percent Economy: How Democratic Socialism Can Overcome the Crises of Capitalism", OUP USA, 2019
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 Monopoly 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
DAVIS, William (editor), Economic Science Fictions, Goldsmith's Press, 2018
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
FELBER, 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, 2016 (2nd edition)
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
MAZZUCATO, Mariana, The Entrepreneurial State, Penguin Books, 2017
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
PIKETTY, Thomas, Capital and Ideology, Harvard University Press, 2020
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
SPETH, James Gustave and COURRIER, Kathleen, "The New Systems Reader: Alternatives to a Failed Economy", Routledge, 2020
SRNICEK, Nick and WILLIAMS, Alex, Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work, Verso Books, 2015
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
WU, Tim, The Curse of Bigness, Columbia Global reports, 2018

Group	Teacher	Department
Year 1	Ferran Macipe Catalán	Ciencias Sociales