POWER. A COURSE, TAUGHT AT UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID

This course is conceived as twofold: a review of the history of power, and an introduction to theories of power. The first editions was specially tailored for students in their fourth course, Degree of International Relations, and it has lately been adapted for the Law and Political and Social Science Degrees.

• This syllabus of this edition is available in Moodle 
• Readings on contemporary models of power are available here and through Campus Virtual  The access to the teacher podcasts and previous presentations are in the blog posts below.
• This is the access to the table we are completing this course [link] (members in the team work on it to adapt for the team presentation). 

Because networks are very powerful, you may help to develop and strengthen our UCM Class network by sharing highlight on the course via twitter with the hashtag #UCMPower, and do RTs. You are welcome, to do it and highlighting the work of others in the course will be rewarded with better grade.

Important dates
Exam (portfolio) will be completed for upload on Tuesday Dec the 20th.

In this course attitude and compromise are as important than aptitude.
In the first edition, the course was a seminar, benefiting from the limited number of students attending the evening classes, just nine, their hight commitment, and the diversity in the class. We had highly engaged students from Belgium, Italy, México, UK and Spain. The course also profited from the decision of the students to follow the suggestion of the professor, working with the theory course materials in English. The underlying values ​​fostered in the course are those of respect, teamwork, excellence and empathy.

Competences and skills

The competences and skills the student develops, depending on the interest in the subject are: 1) Knowledge of the ideas of the reference authors 2) Understanding of alternative power theories 3) Critical thinking on power theories 4) Applied work on power theory for International Relations, Law, Political and Social Sciences and transdisciplinar studies;  5) Development of written exposition skills of ideas for academic and professional writing 6) The course is complemented by advanced classes in rhetoric and its practice.

Innovation: Flipped classroom

This course is characterized by its innovative approach. Innovation comes from three levers:
First, the empowerment of students, trying to make them autonomous and not dependent on the teacher.
Secondly, the transmission of the value of excellence, linked to the work developed.
Third, a model of flippled classroom: the works are developed and presented by the students, under the coordination and direction of the teacher. Some of these works have access to the powerpoints that are published below. The works have an analog dimension and a digital dimension, leaving a mark through its publication on the web. Works are delivered to the teacher, which returns general corrections. Students in earlier editions have achieved outstanding excellence. You may read their comments in the first entry of the blog.

For students not attending classes: Read and prepare for an exam, articles suggested and the book, Harari. Y. N. 2015. Sapiens, de Animales a Dioses. Ed. Debate.