Fall/Winter Timetable
POL2027H1S L0101
Undergraduate Course Code: POL485H1S L0101
Topics in Political Thought II
The Politics of Capitalism
Themes
Does capitalism promote human freedom and emancipation or does it depend on and perpetuate inequality and exploitation? In pursuit of this question, we will analyze four overlapping themes: labor and property, markets and exchange, commodities and commodification, and credit and debt relations. Our discussions will focus on a series of questions: What is the value of work? Does capitalism exploit laborers, or offer new outlets for creative production? What is the connection between labor and property? Are markets the best way of organizing human relationships and satisfying needs and wants? Are there things that shouldn’t be commodified? Does a credit culture provide new moral and economic resources, or does it generate greater inequality and exploitation? In this political theory seminar, we will explore these problems by reading and interpreting a range of texts in political theory and political economy from the mid-seventeenth century to the present.
Texts
TBA
Format and Requirements
One two-hour seminar per week, requirements TBA
November 14, 2023
Congratulations to Madalyn Hay, a recipient of a 2023-2024 Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship. Madalyn, one of our doctoral students, holds a BAH in Contemporary Studies and Classics from the...
August 24, 2023
Congratulations to alumna Meaghan Williams, a recipient of the 2022-23 Governor General’s Gold Medal for Academic Excellence, the highest academic honour available to graduate students in Canada. Awarded annually by the Office of the...
June 14, 2021
Great news from the Canadian Political Science Association, which held its annual awards ceremony (online) over the weekend of June 12 & 13: Professor Stefan Rencken’s book "Private Governance and Public...
April 22, 2021
Congratulations to two political science alumni now teaching at U of T who have both won Superior Teaching Awards! Igor Shoikhedbrod and Khalid Ahmed will be celebrated on May 5th at...
August 6, 2020
Q&A with 2020 Vanier Scholar Yojana Miraya Oscco Congratulations to PhD student Yojana Miraya Oscco who has won a prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship (SSHRC). Launched in 2008, the program enables...
April 30, 2020
Congratulations to our graduate student Kevin Edmonds who has won New College's June Larkin Award for Pedagogical Development. A PhD candidate specializing in Caribbean political economy, histories of alternative/illicit development, foreign intervention and...