POL2801H1F L0101

Special Topics

MA Research and Data Seminar: Bridging the Local and Global – Local Data Informing Global Agendas

Themes

This course is intended primarily for Political Science M.A. students and is designed to bridge the local and the global by focusing on how local data informs global policy agendas in international organizations including UN-Habitat, UNEP, the World Bank and UNDRR. The course will review factors and forces at work engendering this rising interest in localizing, what in the not-so-distant past were considered, global agendas with member state action at their core. The factors contributing to the rising local agendas will be examined, including demographic change (the sheer size of cities relative to many countries); the growing contribution of cities to their GDP (and the significant role of cities in economic development, investment and prosperity); and, the shifting power and influence that city leaders command over the core global agendas such as sustainable development (the SDGs), climate change, resilience, economic development and inclusive societies.
The primary purpose of the seminar is to provide an opportunity for students to design and conduct independent and group research projects across these topics. Class meetings will be devoted to the presentation and discussion of global agendas, designing research projects, exploring data mapping and research design.