MA Philosophy and Political Economy

Choose Kingston’s Philosophy and Political Economy MA

The Philosophy and Political Economy MA is a significant and distinctive interdisciplinary offering building upon established programmes in the disciplines of philosophy, politics and economics and integrating them into a co-ordinated and multi-faceted programme.

Since the dawn of the Enlightenment, it has been taken for granted by influential thinkers ranging from Hobbes, Spinoza and Marx through to Adorno, Foucault, Keynes and Hayek that critical analysis of society would inevitably involve an integration of a broad span of knowledge, skills and modes of analysis that in recent decades have been rigidly segregated into separate disciplines. This segregation has had beneficial aspects in the heightening of the level of analytical precision and knowledge base within the respective disciplines, but these gains have come at a high cost. The great issues of the day – economic and social inequality, the nature of work and exploitation in the contemporary world, ecological issues, the legacy of imperialism, international conflict and trade, the relation between national and transnational institutions, and comparable questions – are commonly discussed within separate disciplines from an economic, political or philosophical point of view reflecting only the concerns and critical literature internal to these disciplines. The results are often an eviscerated and sometimes redundant discussion within isolated fields. This masters course responds to a growing need, in a context marked by dramatic economic crisis, political uncertainty and philosophical disorientation, for a critical, informed re-articulation of these respective disciplines.

What will you study?

The Philosophy and Political Economy MA deals with the great issues of the day – economic and social inequality, the nature of work and exploitation in the contemporary world, ecological issues, the legacy of imperialism, international conflict and trade.

The Critique, Practice, Power module provides a historical and philosophical introduction to the Frankfurt School and French anti-humanist conceptions of critical theory. After introducing the field with reference to Kant’s critical conception of philosophy on the one hand and Marx’s critique of philosophy on the other, the module focuses on competing interpretations of the concepts of critique and enlightenment in Lukács, Horkheimer and Adorno, Althusser, Foucault, and one or two other more recent thinkers.

The economics offering also contains an important mixture of political and economic elements – Political Economy: Effective Demand, Exploitation and Crisis promotes an understanding of key topics in current debates in political economy at an advanced level. It discusses models in the contemporary academic literature in Post Keynesian and Marxian theory and will cover issues of demand formation, unemployment, capital accumulation, and income distribution.

The module offered from politics, International Political Economy examines the manner in which the global economic system has evolved and how it now operates, with special reference to developing countries, and gives an integrative approach to the modern discipline of political economy.

In addition to these core modules, you will be able to choose an optional module from the field of philosophy, with the Marx and his Legacy module recommended.

A series of extra-curricular interdisciplinary workshops for students with the relevant lecturers will play an important role in integrating the different disciplines. These meetings will discuss issues such as exploitation, freedom and , commodification that have been analysed in the taught classes from one particular disciplinary viewpoint. The workshops are organised in conjunction with the dissertation module and are aimed at supporting students to navigate the discourses of three different academic disciplines.

The dissertation reinforces the interdisciplinary nature of the degree. It will span and integrate the literatures associated with at least two of the three disciplines, and will receive multiple supervision in order to facilitate this outcome. Students completing the dissertation will have demonstrated deep familiarity with key aspects of two of the relevant disciplines. A meeting takes place early in the first semester between the dissertation coordinator and students where general considerations in approaching a dissertation including topic selection, identifying and accessing literature and data sources, project planning and effective writing are discussed. All students are given access to MA dissertation research preparation in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and will follow research training in one of these disciplines.