Capitalism: histories and theories

• Credit value: 15 credits at Level 6
• Convenor and tutor: Samantha Ashenden
• Assessment: a 3000-word essay (90%) and 500-600-word seminar log (10%)

This module examines the historical emergence, development and contemporary forms of capitalism, enabling you to gain a detailed understanding of the debates attending modern capitalist economic relations from their inception to the present.

Indicative module syllabus

• Introduction: wealth and virtue? Eighteenth-century answers and twenty-first-century questions
• Adam Smith and the invisible hand of market exchange
• Rival views of commercial society
• From feudalism to capitalism: Marx
• From feudalism to capitalism: Weber
• The Great Transformation: Polanyi
• Colonialism and capitalism
• From the Social Question to Keynes: managing capitalism?
• Financialisaton
• Conclusion: varieties of capitalism

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• identify the main debates about the historical development of capitalism
• understand and criticise the assumptions made by writers from different theoretical perspectives
• apply theoretical insights from political economy and economic sociology to topical economic issues.