Method conferences (CM)
There are only two method conferences per semester, which are open to international students.
Presentation
Method conferences enable students to deepen their knowledge and acquire a methodology. They are based on active participation by students, who are required to prepare reading sheets, presentations, outlines, essays, controversies, dossiers and so on. They are compulsory.
First year
Method conferences cover the following subjects
Introduction to Law
I. Khillo
This method conference offers a progressive, analytical exploration of the main foundations of French constitutional law. Structured into twelve sessions combining national and international news, thematic presentations and essay topics, it offers students the opportunity to delve deeper into key concepts such as the rule of law, sovereignty, the Constitution, the separation of powers and the different systems of constitutional review, with an emphasis on their concrete application in France and Europe. The program also addresses contemporary issues such as federalism, the strengthening of presidential prerogatives under the Fifth Republic, and the role of the legislature. Lastly, it opens up to the international dimension through a reflection on the workings of the UN. The aim of this conference is to provide students with a critical, rigorous and contextualized understanding of the major legal and institutional balances.
Economics Politics
The aim of the economics methods lecture is to deepen and apply the knowledge acquired during the fundamental macroeconomics (first semester) and microeconomics (second semester) courses. This application can take the form of exercises, educational games and/or oral presentations (lectures, debates, etc.) on a theme related to a theory or concept covered in the basic course. The main topics covered in methods lectures are: national accounting, fiscal policy and monetary policy for macroeconomics; supply and demand, competitive markets, game theory, market failures and imperfect competition for microeconomics.
History
Political sociology
This methodological conference provides an introduction to political sociology, which studies relations between the governed and those who govern, using a scientific approach that differs from normative or intuitive discourse. It examines such topics as political behavior, elites, parties, elections and the media, with a particular focus on the logics of individual action. The course has two aims: to impart a sound knowledge of political sociology, and to enable students to produce an informed analysis of political phenomena, based on scientific readings. It also aims to develop cross-disciplinary skills such as oral expression, argumentation, debate and teamwork. By the end of the semester, students should be able to mobilize scientific references to construct rigorous reasoning, and to engage in critical and constructive oral discussions.
Sociology
S. Louvel
The method conference aims to introduce students⋅e⋅s to sociology through the reading of founding and contemporary texts of the discipline and through the holding of contradictory debates. It helps develop skills in analyzing scientific texts (identifying issues, thesis, methods and results, as well as critical reflection) through weekly analysis of a collectively-discussed text. It also reinforces oral expression skills (argumentation, intelligibility, creativity, etc.). Weekly debates are organized on each of the course themes (social integration and regulation, norms and deviance, capitalism and markets, social hierarchies, work, culture, school, family, social movements, gender, etc.). They enable students to take part in contemporary social debates from a critically informed perspective.
Social Science Methods
V. Caby
The aim of the MSS CM is to introduce students to the epistemology of the social sciences, and to the main qualitative and quantitative methods specific to this multidisciplinary field. These methods of data collection and analysis include: case studies, comparisons, observation, interviews, discourse analysis, sampling, descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. Familiarization is achieved by: reading texts dedicated to these methods; critical oral presentation of empirical investigations based on these methods; practice of these methods in exercises; input from the teacher; assessments. By the end of the course, students should know what each method consists of, when to use it, why and how, and its main strengths and weaknesses.
Two conferences on foreign language methods
4 ECTS credits each (duration 36 hours - 2 x 3h per week - for each language in each semester)
- Language 1 - English required
- Language 2 - the language studied in high school is retained in 1st year.
Language lessons are organized by level. The student's level is determined by tests taken at the beginning of the year. There are 2 sessions per week of 1h and 2h respectively.
The aim of language teaching in the 1st year is to enable students to acquire a sufficient level for their stay in a European university during their 2nd year, and thus to follow and validate the courses they will be taking in this context.
Sport = 2 ECTS credits
Sport is compulsory and therefore has the same characteristics as compulsory courses.
Registration is online, at the beginning of each semester, on the SUAPS UGA website https://suaps.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/ (SUAPS = Service Universitaire des Activités Physiques et Sportives).
Possibility of registering :
- on a team sports activity
- on an individual sports activity,
- on a specific IEP activity (courses open only to IEP students - Outdoors, Men's and Women's Football)
- on an activity proposed by the UGA (course with all UGA campus students)
Exemption from sport: students exempted from sport for the year must enroll in 1 specialized course in place of sport.
Le certificat médical justifiant la dispense doit être transmis le plus rapidement possible à M. DRAMISSIOTIS Nicolas responsable du sport à Sciences Po Grenoble. En cas de dispense en cours d’année, contacter M. DRAMISSIOTIS Nicolas <nicolas.dramissiotis@iepg.fr>.
Professionalization workshops, office automation and digital tools=
Education in documentation and the Digital Working Environment (ENT)
This Education is compulsory. This element of the curriculum can lead to the award of an office and documentation skills passport.
Professionalization workshops, office automation and digital tools - 2 ECTS credits
Office automation and digital tools
Students will need to register for a MOOC offered on the France Université Numérique (FUN) website, enabling them to acquire skills tailored to their needs and levels.
Professionalization
Like the CMs, this workshop brings together a maximum of 20 students.
In A1, the aim of the "Professionalization" workshop is to help employees develop a professional project.
- Writing workshops = The aim of these workshops is to develop students' capacity for innovation, to encourage a diversity of talents within the curriculum, and to create an additional framework (in addition to thesis writing in 3rd year) for a personal production that can be valorized in the 1st cycle. More specifically, the aim is to put social issues into narrative form, drawing on the techniques of literature, journalism, the graphic and plastic arts, video and animated film.
- Photo workshop: with Pascal Auclair and Marielle Imbert
- Literary writing workshop: with Isabelle D'Araquy and Anaïs Escot
- Plastic arts workshop: with École supérieure d'Art de l'Agglomération d'Annecy
- Animated film workshop: with Cinéma art et essai Le Méliès
- Urban writing workshop: with the Grenoble School of Architecture
Third year
Strategic management of organizations
Finance and corporate governance
The link between finance and governance is central to capitalist companies, where shares are both a source of remuneration and decision-making power. This methods conference analyzes this link, addressing contemporary issues such as the financialization of corporate strategies, the 2008 crisis, ecological challenges and the various responses (CSR, green finance, etc.). It also provides the basics of general accounting, essential for financial analysis. The objectives are: to understand how accounting documents are produced, to provide an introduction to financial diagnosis, to study current issues combining finance and governance (reforms, social responsibility, shareholder activism, etc.) and to enrich students' economic culture.
In-depth macroeconomics
Applied social sciences
The welfare state and solidarity
Altereconomy and development
Applied political science
Political theory
Public policy in Europe
As citizens, inhabitants of a country and a territory, we are confronted on a daily basis with the various dimensions of public policy. Public policy is an important branch of political science, since it is a major link between those who govern and those who are governed. Understanding and analyzing public policy is essential not only for a better understanding of current political events and the issues at stake, but also for developing a critical and informed perspective in our present and future professional, political, associative and civic activities. One of the objectives of the Method Conference is to acquire the tools of public policy analysis. The CM also proposes to understand and discuss research approaches in the field of public policy. One of the objectives of the CM is to apply these tools to concrete cases of public policy.
Administrative law
Law and public policy
Economic policies
Marketing
This method conference looks at the new challenges facing marketing within organizations. It explores the dynamics between new market subjectivities and consumer responses to them. First, it uses the notion of power to trace the evolution of marketing over several decades. It then examines the transformations in consumer practices and the challenges posed by postmodern consumption, in relation to central marketing concepts such as positioning, targeting and segmentation. It also presents new market research methodologies such as netnography, projective methods and implicit association testing. In a second phase, the lecture is devoted to the analysis of concrete cases, enabling students to criticize the situations studied, propose solutions and envisage extensions to other contexts, audiences or markets.
European institutions and policies
European Institutions and Policies
Over the past decade, the European Union has faced a number of crises: an economic crisis, a new crisis in its migration regime, the Brexit, democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland, the COVID-19 pandemic, and most recently, Russia's war in Ukraine. All these crises raise questions about the European integration project, its resilience and the risks to which it is exposed. To answer these questions, it is essential to understand and assess the resources that the EU can mobilize in the face of these challenges. This means looking back at the history of the Union, understanding its institutional structures and legal framework, and the dynamics of decision-making. The aim of this course is to provide students with an introduction to the European Union's political system, its institutions, its players, its judicial system and its law, by tracing historical developments and highlighting contemporary issues. The course offers an in-depth analysis of (inter)institutional dynamics in Brussels, as well as relations with national governments, member state administrations and agencies, and representatives of third countries. Particular attention is paid to how the EU governs or responds to the multiple crises it has experienced in recent years. The course also presents theoretical perspectives to better understand a process of European integration increasingly structured by crisis management.
International and comparative politics
Ideologies, cultures and political sensibilities
Since it would be pointless to study a political ideology and culture outside a given social context, this opening method conference is part of the profound methodological renewal currently underway in the social history of political ideas. The historicity of doctrinal corpuses is thus at the heart of an approach that pays close attention to the media used to produce and disseminate systems of thought, as a result of power relationships between actors, the interaction between these systems of thought, or conflictual events during which actors may make certain ideas visible. Thus, ideas are inscribed in their social context of enunciation and dissemination: far from limiting itself to the study of ideas in themselves, this conference invites us to think about the social conditions of the appropriation of ideologies by different actors (activists, etc.), and the redefinitions or deformations of these ideas when they are discussed in different social spaces. We also need to understand how ideas are impregnated and disseminated through the use of different original sources, drawn from social and cultural political practices, over and above canonical texts (testimonies of ordinary actors, graphic representations, etc.). To give just a few examples, republicanism, liberalism, feminism and political ecology are approached from thematic angles. This CM also introduces students to research by having them build their own corpus of archives, thanks to familiarization with various conservation centers.