Socioeconomics is an interdisciplinary research programme which is characterised by integrative perspectives on economy and society. By including the environmental dimension, it extends to questions of sustainable development. The aim of this course is to give an overview of classical and contemporary approaches to socioeconomics, to explore their commonalities and differences, and to discuss their respective potential to guide topical research projects. To clarify where socioeconomics begins and where it ends, it is related to classical and neoclassical economics, historical and social economics, critical and new political economy, old and new institutional economics as well as behavioural and neuro-economics. This brings into focus old and new debates over methods and the objectivity of social science.

The course forms part of the methodology and theory section of the new PhD programme in Socioeconomics.

The PhD programme combines rigorous training on socioeconomic theories and research methods with a substantive focus on the interaction between economic, social, environmental, and political institutions and processes. This interdisciplinary program allows students to develop a research profile that overcomes the traditional boundaries between the core social sciences. The programme is one of the first PhD programmes dedicated to the scientific study of socioeconomics in Europe and worldwide.

Students and faculty share an intellectual interest in the mutual dependencies between economic, social, environmental and political behaviours, structures and processes that shape the modern world. It allows students to specialize in such diverse research areas as sustainable work, socio-ecological transformation, inequalities, poverty, spatial dynamics of capitalism, ecological macroeconomics, demography of human development, economic history. The faculty consists of internationally excellent and world-leading scholars of socioeconomics.

Admission to the PhD programme in Socioeconomics is competitive.

Participants will be able to distinguish different socioeconomic approaches and discuss their respective merits and limits. They will be able to reflect on their own research topics in the light of alternative theoretical perspectives and to justify or revise the approach they have chosen in their doctoral work. Ideally, participants will be able to build on the inventory supplied in this course to develop the theoretical parts of their dissertations.

The course rests on individual reading and writing activities, presentations by teacher and doctoral researchers, and class discussions. The precise choice of subjects in seminar work can be adjusted to the specific research interests of the participants. Participants will compile a learning diary throughout the session summing up their insights from readings and discussions.

Learning diary (40%), theoretical paper applying socioeconomic perspectives to doctoral research (40%), active class participation (20%).