Political Economy of European Integration

This Master of Arts programme provides the knowledge base and methodology for a deeper understanding of the current issues of European integration, such as the urgent ecological crises, the widening gaps between and within member states, and the unresolved humanitarian refugee crisis. The interdisciplinary programme combines macroeconomics, political science, sociology, and law. It offers a pluralist and critical perspective that allows students to learn from various approaches and methodologies of classical and heterodox theories within and across the different disciplines. The programme is strongly internationally orientated in its content as well as in its lecturers’ and students’ backgrounds, and it encourages intercultural social learning in small groups. In the first semester, students acquire fundamental knowledge on the macro-economics of money and trade in Europe, the politics of multilevel governance of the European Union, historical, political and sociological dimensions of European Social Models and current ecological issues such as nature protection, sustainability and energy security. In the second semester, students are offered a wide range of elective courses, such as Politics of Social Cohesion, Recent Development in European Law, Econometrics, International Political Economy, Labour and Ecology, Modelling in Ecological Economics, Growth and Distribution, The Role of Europe in a Multipolar World or Feminist Economics (or another option from the Master's pool). In the third semester, students have the option to go abroad to another university or do an internship. Students apply their analytical skills by writing their Master's theses on current topics relevant to the political economy of Europe, with support of professors in individual counselling and peer-commenting in small workshops.