This module is not currently running in 2021 to 2022.
The module aims to address topical events in the processes of European Integration and External Relations taking crises as a potential engine for change. Students are asked to engage in this process of change through scholarly investigation that uses primary textual and visual sources from multiple critical perspectives.
The module is intended to be both theoretically sophisticated and accessible to students, thus providing invaluable knowledge for understanding and analysing the contemporary policy practices of the European Union. This hands-on approach should prove both stimulating and pedagogically useful as students explore how policies create crises and crises may inform new approaches to governance.
The module assesses European policy themes in the light of the different interpretative and heuristic tools provided by the theories drawn from a variety of approaches in the social sciences. There is a core emphasis on locating the potential origins of crises and on identifying processes of change or transforming crises. The critical nature of the module allows for the exploration of competing theoretical perspectives and indeed practitioner interpretation of contemporary crises in the European context.
Total contact hours: 22
Private study hours: 178
Total study hours: 200
EU International Relations and Diplomacy MA
Essay, 3500 words (60%)
Group Policy Paper, 3500 words (40%)
Reassessment methods: 100% coursework
Reading list (Indicative list, current at time of publication. Reading lists will be published annually)
Dinan, D; Nugent, N and Paterson, WE (2017) The European Union in Crisis Palgrave Macmillan
Outhwaite, W. (2017) Brexit: Sociological Responses, Anthem Press
Guiraudon, V., C. Ruzza and H.J. Trenz. (2015). Europe's Prolonged Crisis: The Making or the Unmaking of a Political Union, Palgrave Macmillan
Chaban, N and Holland, M (2014) Communicating Europe in Times of Crisis: External Perceptions of the European Union, Palgrave Macmillan
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes. On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. demonstrate a capacity to appraise European policy making from different theoretical perspectives
2. demonstrate an in depth knowledge of key policy areas and institutions within the EU polity
3. demonstrate a deep and systematic understanding of the political, economic and social features of Europe in the contemporary world order
4. demonstrate the capacity to critically assess the differing interpretations of crises in the European context
5. demonstrate the ability to design and undertake substantial investigation to address European policymaking
The intended generic learning outcomes. On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
1. work with theoretical knowledge at the forefront of their discipline;
2. be aware of the ethical dimensions of the scholarly work done in their discipline in general as well as of their own work in particular;
3. have a comprehensive understanding of methods and methodologies in their discipline;
4. undertake analysis of complex, incomplete or contradictory areas of knowledge;
5. have a level of conceptual understanding that will allow them to critically evaluate research, advanced scholarship and methodologies and argue alternative approaches;
6. be reflective and self-critical in their research work;
7. engage in academic and professional communication orally and in writing;
8. have independent learning ability required for continuing professional study;.
9. demonstrate specialised knowledge of, and critical insight into, the key historical and theoretical issues in their programme area, together with familiarity with appropriate bibliographical sources.
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