Module POL3261 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POL3261: Becoming an Actor in World Politics: International and Transnational Recognition
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
1) To introduce students to the politics of international recognition of states, secessionism and contested statehood
2) To bridge traditional (legal and state-centric) understandings of international recognition in IR and the social theory of recognition
3) To expand traditional views of international recognition into the concept of transnational recognition, applying the latter to a variety of processes of state and non-state actor emergence in world politics
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
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Module-Specific Skills | 1. Demonstrate understanding and situate debates on the international recognition of states and contested statehood 2. Critically apply insights from the social theory of recognition to both state and non-state actors in world politics |
Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Find, use and analyse secondary and primary data relevant to specific issues in politics and IR; 4. Place contemporary political issues in larger contexts; 5. Deploy critical arguments in analysing political issues and evaluating sources; |
Personal and Key Skills | 6. Work independently and in a group, including the presentation of material for group discussion; 7. Demonstrate analytical skills and the ability to digest, select and organise material; 8. Demonstrate writing skills including the ability to produce well organised and coherent essays to a deadline, practice in articulating and defending positions on tutorial topics. |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
- State recognition in international law and politics
- Secessionist movements and unrecognised/contested/de facto states
- Recognition in social and political theory
- Interstate recognition in IR: (mis)recognition or ‘disrespect’ as driver for state behaviour and cause of war
- Interstate recognition in IR: mutual recognition as respect/status between states, case of rising powers
- Recognition of governments: coups d'état, civil wars, decolonisation conflicts, foreign occupation
- Transnational recognition of non-state actors: social movements, civil resistance movements, national liberation movements, rebel movements, parties to civil wars
- (Mis)recognition in identity conflicts
- Recognition in conflict resolution/peacebuilding: ‘thick recognition’ in transformation of intractable conflicts, reconciliation and just peace
- Case studies (term 2) to be determined by class
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
---|---|---|
44 | 256 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
Category | Hours of study time | Description |
---|---|---|
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 44 | 22 x 2-hour seminars |
Guided independent study | 88 | Reading for seminars |
Guided independent study | 144 | Completion of coursework |
Guided independent study | 24 | Preparation of case study presentation |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
How this Module is Assessed
In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.
Formative Assessment
A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.
Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|
Individual reading summary | 10 minutes | 1-7 | Oral |
Summative Assessment
A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.
Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
---|---|---|
80 | 0 | 20 |
...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.
Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|---|
Essay 1 | 40 | 3,000 words | 1-8 | Written |
Case study presentation in pairs | 20 | 20 minutes | 1-7 | Oral |
Essay 2 | 40 | 3,000 words | 1-8 | Written |
Re-assessment
Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.
Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
---|---|---|---|
Essay 1 | Essay 1 (3000 words) | 1-8 | August/September reassessment period |
Case study presentation in pairs | 20-minute presentation | 1-7 | August/September reassessment period |
Essay 2 | Essay 2 (3000 words) | 1-8 | August/September reassessment period |
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
- Aggestam, K. and A. Björkdahl (eds.) (2013), Rethinking Peacebuilding: The Quest for Just Peace in the Middle East and the Western Balkans (Oxon/New York: Routledge).
- Brincat, S. (2017) ‘Cosmopolitan Recognition: Three Vignettes, International Theory, 9(1), pp. 1-32.
- Caspersen, N. and G. Stansfield (eds.) (2011) Unrecognized States in the International System (Oxon/New York: Routledge).
- Crawford, J.R. (2006) The Creation of States in International Law (2nd ed.) (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- Checkel, J.T. (ed.) (2013) Transnational Dynamics of Civil War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
- Coggins, B.L. (2016) Power Politics and State Formation in the 20th Century: The Dynamics of Recognition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
- Daase, C., C. Fehl, A. Geis and G. Kolliarakis (eds.) (2015) Recognition in International Relations: Rethinking a Political Concept in a Global Context (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
- Geldenhuys, D. (2009) Contested States in World Politics (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
- Gosewinkel, D. and D. Rucht (eds.) (2017) Transnational Struggles for Recognition: New Perspectives on Civil Society since the Twentieth Century (New York/Oxford: Berghahn Books).
- Honneth, A. (1995) The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts (Cambridge: Polity).
- Ker-Lindsay, J. (2012) The Foreign Policy of Counter Secession: Preventing the Recognition of Contested States (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
- Lindemann, T. (2010) Causes of War: The Struggle for Recognition (Colchester: ECPR Press).
- Lindemann, T. and E. Ringmar (eds.) (2012) The International Politics of Recognition (Boulder/London: Paradigm).
- McBride, C. (2013) Recognition (Cambridge: Polity).
- O’Neill, S. and N.H. Smith (eds.) (2012) Recognition Theory as Social Research: Investigating the Dynamics of Social Conflict (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
- Pegg, S. (1998) International Society and the de Facto State (Farnham: Ashgate).
- Taylor, C. and A. Gutmann (eds.) (1994) Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition (Princeton: Princeton University Press).
- Visoka, G, J. Doyle and E. Newman (eds.) (2020) Routledge Handbook of State Recognition (Oxon/New York: Routledge, 2020).