UMass Boston

State, Sovereignty & Governance for Inclusion & Social Development

Course #: GISD 615, Class #: 10580, Section #: 01

Description

State and governance regimes of various sorts design, implement, as well as comprise crucial context for any work within global inclusion and social development. This course familiarizes students with theories, research and practice regarding the role of the state and governance as it pertains to inclusion and development. The course examines the emergence of the state, including pre- and non-Westphalian state contexts, specifically experiences of colonization and the development, and the near-universal inheritance of the modern state. We explore contemporary forms of the state, and pressures emerging and surrounding it, including those of the market, civil society and democracy. The course then moves to the recent transformation of statehood and the shift to new modes of governance, specifically the role of non-state actors across scale--from local to global--and investigates how various institutions, corporate power and political society shift the role of states.