Understanding Political Concepts
- Offered byCoursera
Understanding Political Concepts at Coursera Overview
Duration | 15 hours |
Start from | Start Now |
Total fee | Free |
Mode of learning | Online |
Difficulty level | Beginner |
Official Website | Explore Free Course  |
Credential | Certificate |
Understanding Political Concepts at Coursera Highlights
- Flexible deadlines Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.
- Shareable Certificate Earn a Certificate upon completion
- 100% online Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.
- Coursera Labs Includes hands on learning projects. Learn more about Coursera Labs External Link
- Beginner Level No specific pre-requisite is necessary
- Approx. 15 hours to complete
- English Subtitles: English
Understanding Political Concepts at Coursera Course details
- Political science discourse brings us face to face with many important concepts like authority, democracy, and power. However, all of them are used differently in different contexts, and their specific meaning depends on the theory they relate to. There is no way around such puzzling diversity. Students of political science simply have to accept this challenge. Yet, the diversity of political science concepts can be used as a powerful resource for learning, through intellectual techniques for stirring personal creativity.
- This MOOC teaches conceptual thinking and elementary theory-building through Hyperpolitics, an interactive dictionary for understanding and working with the most central concepts in political science. Its aim is to provide students with fresh critical insights about key political concepts, offering a methodology by which users can unpack and reconstruct them on their own. Its companion open-access website serves as a powerful tool for students' practice in forging their own vocabulary while learning how to make professional use of authoritative PS internet resources.
- Throughout its 4 weeks, this MOOC comprises lecture sections, based on visualizations of the arguments presented; reading assignments; and practical exercises.
- This course is part of the IPSAMOOC project, a joint venture Federica Weblearning-IPSA, the International Political Science Association.
Understanding Political Concepts at Coursera Curriculum
Bringing Concepts Back In
What is the problem which “Hyperpolitics” promises to solve
Scientists in our world
What is a "concept"
Conceptualization
The structure of an empirical theory
What is the definition of a "concept"
Two very different approaches towards “defining”
Before you start...
What is the problem which “Hyperpolitics” promises to solve
The role or benefit of “Hyperpolitics”
What is "Hyperpolitics"?
Scientists in our world. Different observers, perspectives, perceptions
What do we learn from the Reading on “Scientists in our world”?
What is a concept, and why should we do "conceptual thinking"?
What do we learn from the Reading on “What is a concept...?”
Structure of empirical theories
Helpful old useful concepts
What do we learn from the Reading “The structure of empirical theories”?
Sartori's ladder of abstraction
Defining ‘concepts’
Operational definitions
Structure of empirical theories
Challenge yourself: Hyperpolitics
Challenge yourself: Concepts
The Hyperpolitics Methodology
Tools for conceptual thinking
More comprehensive versions and uses of “property spaces”
From property spaces to typologies
Sum up
A common vocabulary
Conceptual Matrix
The quadrants
The peripheral concepts
Summary of Matrix Building
Tools for conceptual thinking: “property spaces” and typologies
More comprehensive versions and uses of “property spaces”
From property spaces to typologies
Constructing and using typologies: some examples
Summary: What is a typology?
Developing a concept’s intension by using a property space
What do we learn from the Reading on “concept development”?
A common vocabulary
At the core of “Hyperpolitics”: Matrix-Building
The central concept and the axes
The quadrants
The peripheral concepts
Two examples
Sum up
Challenge yourself: Property spaces
Challenge yourself: Matrix Building
The Concepts of Party and Legislature
The concept of "Party"
Building a Matrix
The four quadrants
How to work with this Matrix
The lower quadrants
The sequence of concepts
How to define "political party"
The adaptive nature of political parties
The matrix of Party: the axes
The Hyperpolitics website
The "back-office" preparation of a matrix
The upper right quadrant
The lower left quadrant
The upper left quadrant
The lower right quadrant
The two axes of the matrix of Legislature
The horizontal axis
The vertical axis
The lower left quadrant
The lower right quadrant
The upper right quadrant
The upper left quadrant
Challenge yourself: Party
Challenge yourself: Legislature
The Concepts of Bureaucracy, Constitution and Corporation
Bureaucracy
The most critical quadrants
The upper left and the lower right quadrant
The Constitution
The lower quadrants
The upper quadrants
Corporations
The upper quadrants
The lower quadrants
The concept of Bureaucracy
Why is bureaucracy necessary?
The two axes of the matrix of Bureaucracy
The upper right quadrant
The lower left quadrant
The lower right quadrant
The upper left quadrant
Conclusions
The Matrix of Constitution
The Axes
The Axes
The lower right quadrant
The lower left quadrants
The upper left quadrants
The upper right quadrants
The Matrix of Corporation
The Horizontal Axis
The Vertical Axis
The upper left quadrant
The upper right quadrant
The lower left quadrant
The lower right quadrant
Challenge yourself: Bureaucracy
Challenge yourself: Constitution
Challenge yourself: Corporation
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