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Undergraduate // Majors // Social Sciences Concentrations

Designing Societies

Devise ways to improve society, based on the science of influence and motivation, the challenges facing developing and developed economies, and the central components of government constitutions. Envision an ideal social order at the local, national, and global level and learn how to be a leader who develops guidelines — from ethical frameworks to legal policies — that would shape and support such a society.

Core courses

Designing Societies (Social Sciences Major)

In their second year, Social Sciences majors enroll in core courses that provide the foundation for the Social Sciences concentrations. They also take electives from core courses offered in other majors.

SS110 / Psychology: From Neurons to Society

In this course we learn about the mind by looking at (1) multiple levels of analysis, from neurons to social systems, (2) multiple methodologies used in research, and (3) how multiple types of explanation (mechanism, function, ontogeny, phylogeny) shed light on each other. Using these three course objectives, we will build up a framework for understanding the full range of topics in cognitive science, and how they relate to other disciplines both within the social sciences (e.g., political science and economics) and beyond them (e.g., biology and computer science).

Prerequisite: SS51 / Complex Systems

Corequisite:

SS111 / Modern Economic Thought

How do economists address the challenge of allocating scarce resources to best serve the unlimited needs and wants of those in society? The first half of this course introduces the idea that markets can work efficiently to coordinate economic activity thereby addressing the problem of scarcity. However, when markets fail to work efficiently, an argument for government intervention in the market arises as a potential solution to better serve the needs of those in society. These concepts of scarcity, efficiency, and ultimately, trade-offs are then applied to the analysis of international financial markets in the second half of the semester where the drivers of manias, bubbles, and crises are explored.

Prerequisite: SS51 / Complex Systems

Corequisite:

SS112 / Political Science and Social Change

Governments greatly affect their citizens and, in turn, citizens may greatly affect government and their society. The course has four units to examine these influences. The first unit is a brief introduction to the discipline of political science. The second unit covers the rise of the modern state, seeking to understand the ideas, structural factors, and rational decisions that led to different political orders. The third unit examines how society can change the state through revolutionary and reformist social movements. We end by exploring ongoing struggles in the contemporary world to remake states and societies by critically examining case studies of both positive and negative social change. For the final project, students design a campaign to enact a specific social change (at the local, state, or federal level) and devise ways to assess its impact. Note: This course qualifies as part of the Interdisciplinary Minor in Sustainability because it provides causal frameworks for understanding the political context of sustainable design, technology, and environmental policy. These causal frameworks include structuralism, constructivism, institutionalism, and rational choice.

Prerequisite: SS51 / Complex Systems

Corequisite:

Concentrations Courses

Designing Societies (Social Sciences Major)

In their third year, Social Sciences majors select a concentration, begin taking courses within it and begin work on their capstone courses. They also take electives chosen from other Minerva courses (other concentration courses in Social Sciences, core and concentration courses in other colleges).

In the fourth year, Social Sciences majors enroll in additional electives chosen from Minerva’s course offerings within or outside the major. Additionally, they take senior tutorials in the major, and finish their capstone courses.

SS162 / Personal and Social Motivation

How can we effectively change our own habits and behaviors? What is the best way to motivate and persuade others? Is it ethical to consciously motivate or persuade those around us? As the answers to these questions have become better understood, they are being used to help people adopt more beneficial practices across many fields such as medicine, business, and environmental activism. Drawing on personality psychology, health psychology, cognitive psychology, and social psychology, we gain a better understanding of what motivates us and learn why specific ways to influence people's beliefs and behavior are most effective in certain contexts.

Prerequisite: SS110 / Psychology: From Neurons to Society

Co-rerequisite:

SS164 / Global Development and Applied Economics

Examine important challenges facing both developing and developed economies. Explore the development of societies through the analysis of access to education and healthcare as well as sustainable mechanisms for economic growth. Identify the socio-economic impacts of rural to urban migration and technological progress while exploring the reasons for income inequality throughout the world. Generate and critique policies designed to address specific economic issues within an effective institutional and political framework. Note: This course qualifies as part of the Interdisciplinary Minor in Sustainability.

Prerequisite: SS111 / Modern Economic Thought

Co-rerequisite:

SS166 / Comparative Constitutional Law: Designing Societies

This course is an overview of comparative constitution-making and implementation. What distinguishes a constitution from other types of law? What are its purposes? How should it be written, interpreted, and enforced? How do economic, social, political, and cultural context determine the process and substance of a constitution? What have been the most successful constitutional systems and why? These are the guiding questions of this course. In it, students will compare and contrast the constitutions of several different countries and critically examine the nuances of the daunting political tensions inherent to the founding of a new constitutional regime: how should one recognize the positive legacies of the past and the constraints of the present, all the while leaving room for legal development and adaptation to an uncertain future? Students will combine these lessons with their foundational knowledge early in the course to articulate their own framework for approaching constitutional design. Using this framework, they then participate in a multi-class final group project to write a constitution. By the end, the students should be able to think broadly and deeply about how institutions, rules, and structure can order complex social systems and maintain stability, efficiency and justice. (not an ABA or CBA approved law course)

Prerequisite: SS112 / Political Science and Social Change

Co-rerequisite: