Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL2100: Political Conflicts in Europe

This module descriptor refers to the 2022/3 academic year.

Module Aims

This module familiarizes you with basic approaches to understand political conflicts in Europe from the perspective of comparative politics. This includes theories on party political conflict and its dimensions as well as theoretical approaches to understand ‘post-factual’ politics and threats to the quality of democracy. It aims at providing you with the skills to apply core theories to current political conflicts in a variety of European countries, to critically evaluate the usefulness of these theories, and to equip you with the presentation skills required to describe, analyse, and explain political conflicts in Europe yourself. That is, the module seeks to improve your ability to critically analyse texts and to communicate effectively. Apart from its focus on substantive issues, the module also seeks to introduce you to the comparative method and other quantitative research designs in political science. This focus also promotes an understanding of predictive social science models. Case studies come from Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Northern Europe. 

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. demonstrate knowledge of the major concepts and theories used in political science to understand conflicts in Europe;
2. evaluate theories in the field of comparative politics based on empirical evidence.
Discipline-Specific Skills3. exercise informed judgment concerning the use of empirical evidence in support of an argument in published research;
4. synthesize competing theories to analyse new problems.
Personal and Key Skills5. present complex arguments with clarity and concision;
6. work independently and with peers to meet common research and assessment deadlines effectively;
7. speak confidently in front of small and large audiences on a subject you have studied.