Laurea Magistrale in Relazioni Internazionali e Studi Europei - Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche e Sociali

Storia di israele moderno

Anno accademico: 2020-2021

Prof. Marcello Verga  

                                      World  History                  I term 2020-2021

                                              Syllabus

 

Contac Information

Prof. Marcello Verga, prof. of Early Modern History

e.mail: marcello.verga@unifi.it

 

 

Course Objectives:

This course is designed to give you tools to understand an increasingly interconnected world and to discuss from a critical point of view the categories of modernity and modernization and their use in the writing history.

This course will focus specifically on two main issues:

1)     The analysis of the long-running processes that have prepared the globalized world we live.

2)    World History as an instrument for the peace among peoples and the History’s textbooks promoted by the UNESCO, EUROPEAN UNION  and COUNCIL OF EUROPE.  

 

REQUIRED READING:

1)  C. Bayly, The Birth of Modern World, Blackwell 2004

2)    C. H. Parker, Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age 1400-1800

3)    UNESCO and EU documents that will be sent by e-mail from the teacher to the students

 

 


Anno accademico: 2020-2021

The course covers the historical and philosophical underpinnings of human rights, with special attention for the RIGHT TO LIFE in its various articulation, such as euthanasia, death penalty and femicide. The derogations to human rights allowed in time of armed conflict and emergency situations, including health ones will also be addressed.

Students must have completed an introductory course to International Law of at least 6 credits. This is a compulsory requirement also for Erasmus students.

Only those students who (i) have attended at least 70% of classes and (ii) have done so by always having their video-camera on, will be allowed to pass the exam as attending students.



Anno accademico: 2020-2021
Anno accademico: 2020-2021

The course examines the trajectories the continent has experienced since the end of the colonial domination up to the present "new rush for Africa". Through a methodology that comprises a variety of sources, students will deepen their knowledge on the recent history of the continent; they will develop a personal view and understanding to confront the processes that have marked and still characterize the various African regions and ultimately link them to the rest of the world

Anno accademico: 2020-2021

Those students requiring 6 ects, namely those enrolled in the master's degree "Relazioni Internazionali e studi europei", course in "Theories and Practice of Lobbying 2020-2021(B026832) B087", and those enrolled in the master's degree "Politica, Istituzioni e Mercato" BUT within the curriculum "Istituzioni e politica E-51", course in "Interest group politics 2020-2021 (B026407)"  can have access to all needed material and online lessons at B030751 - INTEREST GROUPS POLITICS 

In brief:  the 2nd and 3rd modules will be shared by all 3 courses (B030751, B026832, B026407)The first lecture is scheduled on 12th October 2020.  

All three courses (B030751, B026832, B026407) are designed for MA students. This means that Erasmus Students attending these courses will be assessed according to the same criteria used for advanced MA students



Anno accademico: 2020-2021

General informaiton about the aims and the methodology of the course

The course focuses the main trends of the world economy in the last 30 years through an analysis of case studies at the national and macro-regional level.

It will be familiarizing with the main issues concerning the economic and social balances and unbalances connected with the globalization process.

The course will teach how to use database and other official sources to analyze the world economy. Student will be learning how to use skills and instruments permitting to capture the most relevant aspects of today's process of globalization.

Lectures includes a wide use of slides for power point presentations that will be at disposal of the students before every single lecture. According to the evolution of the Covid-19 situation, seminars with foreign guests will also be part of an approach permitting students to interact with the instructor/s, the use of media, short and long movies will be used to add some other elements to make clearer some aspects of the course.

Attending students will be requested to give a presentation on the most relevant topics of the course. Groups could be up to four members, and their presentations must be no longer than 15 minutes. According to the pandemic conditions, the presentations could be also on-line.

Exams and presentaions' evaluation:

The group presentation will receive an evaluation of 20% of final mark. The exam consists of the following sections: an individual paper of 7-8 pages double line space (15-16,000 characters, approx. 3,000 words) on a topic selected by the student and connected with the course (value 25% of final mark). The instructor must approve the proposal before starting researches. The deadline for the definition of the topic  for attending students is the 15th of November. Students must sent by email their paper no later than seven days before the date chosen for the exam. The final exam is a two hours written exam subdivided into two sections: the first part has 20 multiple-choice questions (value 15% of the final mark) and four open question the student will select among six questions (value 40% of the final mark).
Non- attending students are requested to write a paper of 15 pages (30,000 bytes, approx. 6,000 words), footnotes included, bibliography non included. The paper must be sent by email 7 days before the exam's date. The exam is a written exam based  the books by Robert Gilpin, The Challenge of Global Capitalism: The World Economy in the 21st Century, Princeton UP, 2011 (first four chapters) and  Luciano Segreto, L’economia mondiale dopo la Guerra fredda, Bologna, il Mulino, 2018


Detailed descritpion of the course

1. Introduction  
2. What do they have in common: explaining the myriad faces of globalization
3. An overview of the international economic scenario at the end of Cold War and the unexpected recovery of the US
4. Japan. The cost of the challenging US and the lost decades
5. The European Hybrid. Varieties of Capitalism in the Old Continent
6. After Saigon’s fall: the triumph of capitalism in Asia
7. B for Brazil or for bluff?
8. Russia: from socialism to authoritarian capitalism via de-industrialization?
9. India between poverty and high-tech
10. China: the new giant or the partial power?
11. Africa: not anymore the lost Continent?
12. The world of commodities: producers vs. consumers?
13. The financialization of the world economy
14. Conclusions: pandemia and the globalization process

Anno accademico: 2020-2021