‘Diverse Geographical Political Economies’ is primarily a theoretical, reading-based course, with some room for practical work. It is the core course of the Master's specialisation Economic Geography, as part of RU’s Master's programme in Human Geography. The course will also be of interest for students following the ESS Masters, or specialising in sustainable businesses studies. The course focuses on the ways diverse local and regional economies are coping with core challenges in the global economy, notably wealth-creation, distribution, equality,  sustainability, financial stability, and resource access. The core theoretical perspectives are comparative political economy, including new approaches towards capitalism (including post-capitalism) and economic geography (including diverse and ‘grassroots’ economies), bearing on business organisation, value chains, networking, and finance. Informed by theoretical work, the course’s final, more practical, part will zoom in onto a variety of progressive approaches and strategies of local development. This entails a selection from developments towards circular economy, entrepreneurial networks, local cryptocurrencies, local food chains and social enterprise, amongst others.

The course contains six interactive seminars on fundamental themes, and two working sessions exploring challenges and strategies in practices. The six themes are: (1) towards ‘mission’  and ‘valued’ based capitalism and post-capitalism; (2) markets and networks between competition and collaboration; (3) towards sustainable, circular and/or local value-chains; (4) the role of corporate and state power in (de)forming transformative change and governance; (5) local/regional ‘grassroots’ economic strategies in a (de)globalising world; and (6) from debt mountains to circular money. Students will elaborate on one theme of their own choice in their coursework, individually or collectively.

Entry level: Bachelors in a spatial-environmental or economic discipline. Students should already be familiar with basic theories on business location, multilocational/multinational enterprises, value chains, regional development, and globalisation. Recommended reading: Dicken, Peter (2015), Global Shift: Mapping the Changing Contours of the World Economy (7th edition), Guildford, London