Advanced Diploma in Political Economy

Since the last major recession (2007/09) and, especially, with the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, which deepened the global crisis, the economy has taken center stage in the world's attention. From the various schools of economic thought—liberal, orthodox, monetarist, neoclassical, and from neo-Keynesian or post-Keynesian critiques—diagnoses and proposals (orthodox or reformist) are being discussed, which, taken together, rather superficially promise a swift "restart" of global capitalist economic expansion.
Therefore, from Marx's critique of political economy, it becomes necessary to rethink the central axes of the debate: What are the causes of the recessions our economies are experiencing? What is the magnitude of the current economic crisis? How are the trends of capitalist accumulation imposed on dependent economies? What role do inflationary processes play? What role does the State play in the current context of economic crisis? What is the burden of public debt? How has the pandemic exacerbated social inequalities? Why is there such insistence on labor, tax, and pension reforms? What are the alternatives from the perspective of the working classes?
This diploma program aims to introduce the foundations of the critique of political economy. That is, it seeks to recover the categories of analysis (logical and historical) for theoretical and political debate in the face of the civilizational crisis, in its multiple dimensions and scope, that humanity is facing.

GENERAL PURPOSE:

To ensure that the participants of the Diploma program appropriate the dialectical method and the essential theoretical categories contained in The Capital The program focuses on Karl Marx's concepts of value and surplus value, with particular emphasis on the historical origins of capitalism. Participants will delve into the contributions of Marx and Engels to the development of a critical theory of the capitalist social order and be able to apply these foundational aspects and categories to a historical context. The program aims to revitalize the debate on exploitation, domination, and plunder, revisiting the classical school's maxim of the labor theory of value and the nature of accumulated labor as expressed in capital. Our overall objective is to review the historical critique of capitalism from its origins to the present, reaffirming the validity of Marxism as a critical conception of society and history.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

That students develop the ability to:

1. Identifying the structural regularities of the process of capitalist crises throughout history, their meanings in the adjustments of capitalist social relations, as a way of thinking about and discussing the changes underway, especially in the relationship between capital and labor, the realm of exploitation.
2. To critically consider the phenomenon of the double oppression of women at the intersection of patriarchy and capitalism and the historical responses of feminisms, reviewing and reconstructing a tradition of struggle with enormous presence in current debates on the issue of gender and diversity.
3. To analyze the aggression of capitalism towards nature and humanity, and its manifestations such as climate change, environmental crisis, global warming, proliferation of epidemics, etc., and to evaluate the various forms that the contemporary ecological debate takes.
4. To critically reconstruct the historical experiences of transition from capitalism to socialism, from the socialism of Eastern Europe to current experiences in the name of socialism, and especially the expectations generated in Our America with the processes of change at the beginning of the 21st century.
5. To understand the historical development of Latin America and the Caribbean from the concept of Social Formation (variegated), in order to contribute to the explanation and analysis of the State, society and its articulations in the region in historical and contemporary terms.

The Higher Diploma in Political Economy is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students; teachers at all levels; activists and members of trade unions, social movements and political parties; public officials; members and managers of non-governmental organizations and professionals interested in the subject.

• Marcelo Carcanholo (UFF, Brasil)
• Beatriz Rajland (UBA, Argentina)
• Matías Bosch (Fundación Juan Bosch, República Dominicana)
• Alejandra Ciriza (CONICET, Argentina)
• Andrés Lozano Reyes (UNAL, Colombia)
• Gabriela Roffinelli (FISYP, Argentina)
• Daniel Campione (UBA, Argentina)
• Carlos Pérez Soto (Universidad Arcis, Chile)
• Enrique Elorza (UNSL, Argentina)
• José Francisco Puello-Socarrás (UNAL, Colombia)
• Lucas Castiglioni (UNICEN, Argentina) 
• Germán Pinazo (IDES, Argentina)

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