ATS2624: Global Governance

The first assignment was a real pain, as it was 'NOT AN ESSAY' (Anne emphasised this a lot), but there was no great guidance given to us on what was expected etc. I've heard that heaps of people failed this assignment, due to harsh marking and lack of guidance. Average mark was around 55% I think. For the assignment, we basically had to pick a theory (e.g., realism), and describe what that theory says about global governance.
The second assignment was a lot better. At first, I was a little disappointed that there were no set essay questions, but as I was actually writing the assignment, I enjoyed having the freedom to choose what to discuss and not be limited by the essay question. For the essay, we watched a film that addressed a global governance issue (e.g., Hotel Rwanda, Outbreak), and applied knowledge of global governance to the film's events. I am writing this review before sitting the exam (in fact, the exam is in about 4 hours), so I can't comment about the quality of the exam.

Overall, this unit was run in a fairly basic and organised manner. There were some issues with the online library reading list, which the tutor (Anne) basically blamed on the students. I don't think anyone enjoyed the first assignment , but I can kinda see the value in doing it (in hindsight). Generally, there was not a lot of support from the staff throughout the semester. I found some staff to be condescending and unsympathetic when students skipped the reading for one week. In tutorials, students were individually picked on to justify why they had not done the readings. I can see that it would be frustrating to have 25% of the class not do the readings, but for most people, there were extremely legitimate reasons.
Things I liked: the low contact hours, the second assignment, and the guest lecturer for week 11 (Tom Bamforth). Things I didn't like: lectures were pretty boring, tutes were not engaging, the first assignment as bad. I was really hoping to have some lively discussions in class, and was really disappointed in how dull they were.

Anne McNevin, Sara Meger

The first month focused on looking at the history and elements of global governance, and covered the main theories of international relations (i.e., Realism, liberalism, critical theories). These weeks were pretty boring, but necessary for the first assignment. From weeks 5-11, more specific types of governance were covered, including economic governance, development governance, environmental governance, security governance, and humanitarian governance. These were more interesting, especially as the lecturers were mixed up and the content much more relevant to current global affairs.

No, with no sample exams either.

2.5 out of 5

Yes, with screen capture

Prescribed is 'Weiss, T 2013, Global Governance: Why? What? Whither?, Polity Press, Cambridge'. It is the main textbook used every week for the readings. Additional articles are accessible online.

1 x 1 hour lecture and 1 x 1 hour tutorial weekly

2014, Semester 2

N/A