Why study this programme?
Aided by rapid globalization and technological advancement, capitalism has become the predominant and taken for granted mode of economic organization around the world. While it has produced progress and prosperity for some people and places, this has been achieved through the exploitation and impoverishment of others.
Capitalism is also currently producing multiple crises on a global scale: the holy grail of economic growth is becoming more elusive. Capitalism is failing to provide the secure jobs, affordable housing, or basic necessities that people need, while crippling both households and nation-states with rising debt. It is also producing severe inequalities as wealth and resources get extracted from some regions and flow into others. Finally, capitalism is fuelling climate change, eroding the capacity of the planet to sustain its diversity of human and non-human life, but also exacerbating inequalities, this at all scales.
In this Master’s specialisation, we tackle some key questions that get to the heart of these challenges: are rising debts, geographical inequalities, housing, labour, and resource shortages, or climate change endemic to capitalism? How do these challenges have uneven impacts, especially on racialized and colonized peoples and the places they inhabit? And finally, how can we tackle these challenges – both on a local and global scale – through radical policy interventions, promoting forms of sustainable, ethical enterprise, grassroots initiatives and resistance, and re-imagining dramatically different ways of organizing society.
Master's specialisation in Capital, Labour and Extraction
- This Master's specialisation will give you advanced understanding of issues that are dominating the agenda of many governments, NGOs, businesses, and social movements.
- Our approach is critical, open, radical, constructive and interdisciplinary. We welcome students from all social sciences, and include insights from related fields such as human geography, anthropology, business studies, sociology, economics, post/decolonial studies. We also introduce non-academic expertise to our program.
- Our lecturers are internationally recognized experts in the fields of economic geography, human geography, energy studies, post/decolonial studies, and development studies, conducting research in the Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
- The lecturers are associated with the research centres Global-Local Divides and Connections (GLOCAL) and Nijmegen Centre for Border Research (NCBR).
- We give you the freedom to develop your own research topic for your thesis and select your own internship to support this.
- Our department has multiple collaborations and partnerships with other global universities, various NGOs, government departments and think tanks. These collaborations also provide internship opportunities.
Why choose Radboud University
- Our classes are small and interactive, and our professors are easily approachable. There is an open environment where you can easily come in contact with other students.
- Our compact campus in Nijmegen is the greenest in the Netherlands where everything is within walking distance. It is a welcoming space, with ample facilities suited to studying and discussing societal issues with fellow students outside lectures.
- We encourage our students to take a multidisciplinary approach to their studies. You are free to customise your own programme, so you can learn about and research topics that you are passionate about.
- You earn a valuable diploma in an accredited university system. We stimulate and support the development of your critical skills in order to improve your chances in the job market within your field.
- With staff hailing from around the world and with education and research related cooperation set up with academic partners around the world, an international setting is created.
Do you want to know more about what Radboud University has to offer?
Nijmegen School of Management
At Nijmegen School of Management, one of the seven faculties within Radboud University in the Netherlands, we have a clear aim: we enable students to play their part in the transformations towards a sustainable society through high-quality scientific research and education. With more than 5,000 curious students and more than 500 dedicated employees, we form a dynamic community. Read more about the faculty’s story and about our mission, vision and strategic themes.