GV504 Research Methods in Political Theory

This course is available on the MRes/PhD in Political Science. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course provides an introduction to the philosophical and methodological foundations of political theory. It aims to give doctoral students a comprehensive conceptual toolbox that can be brought to bear on many different substantive problems and research questions in political theory and neighbouring fields and will prepare doctoral students for choosing and reflecting on their methodological approach. The course runs in concurrence with the Political Philosophy Research Seminar and the Doctoral Workshop in Political Theory, complemented by a reading group in the Lent Term on methodological questions in political theory.

This course is made up of seminars totalling 10 hours in the Lent Term. This year, some or all of this teaching will be delivered through a combination of online and on-campus meetings/seminars. There will be a reading week in Week 6.

The seminars run in concurrence with GV501 and GV503, for which attendance is compulsory if students are taking GV504. These courses are made up of 18 hours of workshops/seminars each, which run throughout the Michaelmas, Lent and Summer Terms.

Regular presentations in the reading group.

Some possible choices for the reading group:

Joseph Raz, The Morality of Freedom, Oxford University Press (1986).
Nadia Urbinati, Me the People: How Populism Transforms Democracy, Harvard (2019).
Katrina Forrester, In the Shadow of Justice: Postwar Liberalism and the Remaking of Political Philosophy, Princeton (2019).
Josiah Ober, Demopolis, Cambridge University Press (2017).
William Claire Roberts, Marx's Inferno, Princeton University Press (2016).
Tommie Shelby, Dark Ghetto, Harvard University Press (2016).
Timothy Scanlon, Being Realistic about Reasons, Oxford University Press (2013).
Rahel Jaeggi, Alienation, Columbia University Press (2016).
Rainer Forst, Normativity and Power, Oxford University Press (2017).
Daniel Lee, Popular Sovereignty in Early Modern Constitutional Thought, Oxford University Press (2016).
Cecile Laborde, Liberalism's Religion, Harvard University Press (2017).
Claire Chambers, Against Marriage, Oxford University Press (2017).

Essay (50%, 4000 words) in the LT.
Essay (50%, 4000 words) in the ST.

The essay topics will be chosen in consultation with the course convenor, but typically, one will reflect on a paper given by a visiting speaker in the Doctoral Research Seminar, and the other on one or more of the books read for the Lent term Reading Group.

Department: Government

Total students 2019/20: 2

Average class size 2019/20: Unavailable

Value: One Unit

Please note that during 2020/21 academic year some variation to teaching and learning activities may be required to respond to changes in public health advice and/or to account for the situation of students in attendance on campus and those studying online during the early part of the academic year. For assessment, this may involve changes to mode of delivery and/or the format or weighting of assessments. Changes will only be made if required and students will be notified about any changes to teaching or assessment plans at the earliest opportunity.