POL6607: Assessment 1 guidance-POL6607 APPROACHES TO POLITICAL ECONOMY

Assessment 1: You will submit a 1,000-word “blog post” on a topic of your own choosing. It will account for 30% of your final mark for the module.

The task:

• The Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) blog (http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/category/blog/) is one of the major blog outlets for political economy research. Your task is to write an assessment as if you are writing for the SPERI blog.
• You will be expeted to address the following question: “In your view, what is a pressing issue in the global economy? Explain why, and justify your answer.”
• We recommend that you select a topic that is related to one of the Independent Tasks such as US-China trade wars, global value chains, global care networks, etc.
• You cannot select a topic that you have already discussed or plan to discuss in your critical reflections.
• If you would like develop your own original approach to the assignment and set your own question and topic, then you are welcome to but you must clear this with your seminar tutor first via email or office hours appointment.

Why are we asking you to do this?

• The aim is to test your ability to analyse the global economy, while giving you some freedom to write about a topic that has inspired and piqued your interest.
• We think that developing these kinds of skills is very important and useful from an employability perspective. This assessment is designed to complement the more theoretical portfolio assessment, as well as your other modules and the research-intensive dissertation.

What are we expected to do?

• The assessment will take the format of a blogpost (or newspaper opinion-editorial, an op-ed, if you prefer). While brief, we still expect you to combine the kind of thoughtful research and rigour normally associated with academic work, with a snappy, concise and persuasive argument.
• This means you will still need to research and read around the topic as you would for a normal essay, but you need to write for a broader (albeit imagined) audience (see below).
• You should refer to other sources and pieces of evidence, which may include data tables, graphs etc. You may also refer to course material, or other academic sources you have collected. Please refer to those sources using footnotes rather than in-text links.
• You do not need to use “theory” per se as you would in a normal essay as the format is a blogpost with a different intended audience, but you may want to develop an analytical or conceptual angle to your assessment so long as you can communicate this appropriately.

What does a good blogpost look like?

• The SPERI blog has some guidance, some of which is useful for our purposes:
  • “The SPERI blog is a platform to share new political economy research, expertise and analysis.”
  • “We are keen to publish blogs that address a wide range of complex and long-term political-economic issues.”
  • “We ask that blogs are written in an accessible language that can be understood by the SPERI blog’s broad audience of the general public, policymakers, civil society organisations, academics and students.”
  • “We do not publish blogs that are longer than 1000 words.”
• You should consider this carefully — especially on you intended (albeit imagined) audience and the importance of being accessible but not simplistic.
• SPERI blogposts often has the feel of an op-ed, where the key element is persuasion. The very phrase “op-ed” means opposite the editorial page of a newspaper – i.e. the “opinion” or “comment pages” – which is where columnists have traditionally outlined and rehearsed arguments that illuminated the issues of the day.
• A piece of writing like this is characterised by four qualities, all of which important skills for political economists, both academically and vocationally:
  • It is highly informative: it manages to distil rapidly a large amount of information that may be inaccessible – often because it is too technical to be appreciated by non-experts – to everyday audiences, and explains it to them in a simple (but not simplistic/superficial) way.
  • It is original: a good SPERI blog post has an analysis to share. In other words, it advances a clear argument.
  • It builds that argument logically: it defends or extends on the basis of a set of clear contentions.
  • It supports those arguments drawing upon well-thought out pieces of evidence, even if some may be anecdotal in nature.

How will these blogposts be assessed?

• See the criteria below.

How do I reference?

• While it is important to read and research for this assessment as you would for any of your other essays on your MA, you do not need to use formal referencing for this particular assessment. That’s because of the character of a blogpost, where you are expected to write for a wider (albeit imagined) audience.
• However, you still need to demonstrate where you get your ideas from, as is the norm and requirement in academic studies. On the SPERI blog and many others, this is done through hyperlinks. But for the purposes of this assessment, please use footnotes.
• Check Blackboard for further guidance on assessments, including important information on plagiarism – these assessments will be subject to plagiarism checks like normal.

Are there any examples?

• This is the first time we have used this assessment on this module, as we have developed it as part of our new blended learning model, so there are no examples from previous years unlike the portfolio/critical reflections.
• However, we can point you to many examples on the SPERI blog as good practice. Here are some blogposts that we especially recommend that you can learn from, including some from previous students on this MA:
  • http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2018/08/14/i-was-a-thing-not-a-nobody-but-a-body-the-political-economy-of-the-body-the-weinstein-scandal/
  • http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2020/10/22/four-steps-to-rein-in-big-tech/
  • http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2020/06/28/care-and-cloths-reimagining-the-value-of-labour/
  • http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2020/06/23/contemporary-geopolitical-trends-and-covid-19-the-return-of-the-political/
  • http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2020/04/07/the-moral-economy-of-the-pandemic/
  • http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2020/02/12/brexit-the-conservative-majority-and-the-uk-political-economy-part-3-the-battle-to-shape-workers-rights-has-just-begun/
  • http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2020/02/07/brexit-the-conservative-majority-and-the-uk-political-economy-part-2-global-britain-or-britain-first/
  • http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2020/01/27/why-climate-change-is-globalizations-biggest-challenge-yet/
  • http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2020/01/20/finance-beyond-financial-institutions-how-the-subscription-economy-is-colonising-our-future/
  • http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2020/01/14/community-safety-beyond-economy-and-security-exploring-the-complex-nature-of-desires-for-safety/
• We strongly recommend that you read through some of these examples for examples of good practice.

•Test your ability to analyse the global economy

•Freedom to write about a topic that has inspired and piqued your interest

(a live policy issue, an intellectual or conceptual puzzle, a question of historical change, or whatever it may be)

E.g. US-China trade wars, global value chains, global care networks (highly recommended)

       Brexit (https://www.gov.uk/transition), Belt and Road (一带一路), 1978 Economic Reford (改革开放) •

Combine research and rigour associated with academic work, with a snappy, concise and persuasive argument

Blogpost, not an essay (without necessarily referring to theory, focus on analyzing a case)

      —- Informative

      —- Original

      —- Persuasive

      —- Well-supported

No replication with Critical Reflection

Reference to evidence, including data tables, graphs, course materials, academic sources

Referencing style: footnotes   MHRA Footnotes referencing

In your view, what is a pressing issue in the global economy? Explain why, and justify your answer. (1000 words)

KEY WORDS

pressing issue             significant issue covered by a wide range of sources

global economy          has either negative or positive impact on the global economic system

why                            arguments of why to choose the case, including at least 3 points

justify                         support with evidence (academic work, course material, data resources)

Abstract: central arguments within 3 sentences in bold

Introduction (10%):

statement of the chosen issue/phenomenon

outline of main arguments in the blog

Main body:

2-3 arguments with evidence

present/defend against counter-arguments

Conclusion (not necessarily)

Footnotes/Bibliography