Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence (MA)

Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence general programme

Its central question is: how did people’s lives in the past half millennium change,  by processes of urbanisation, increased mobility, economic change, and global interaction? How did key transformations in various parts of the world change people’s lives? Key transformations were globalisation, (de)colonisation, industrialisation, migration, state formation, urbanisation and changing gender patterns. We focus both on the local and the global level.

We are interested in the way people, both men and women, cause and are affected by social, cultural and economic processes. How did ordinary people experience major changes of the past? Why did some societies achieve more economic growth than others? Why are some inequalities more persistent than others? Who had access to power and how did certain groups manage to exclude others from power? When and why did collective action occur? Within the specialisation Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence (CMGI), you will look at the movement of people, goods, services, capital, and ideas. You will study the means by which actors influence these changes, but also the restrictions they encounter, which can be demographic, physical, spatial, political, institutional, legal, technical, financial, and imagined.

In short, this specialisation focuses on the ways that men and women created social, cultural, and economic processes and how these processes affected them. Without losing sight of the value of individual experiences in historical analysis, CMGI attempts to analyse the aggregate or structural level of social groups, networks, and polities, and tries to understand how people are empowered and limited by both formal and informal institutions.

Programme structure

The Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence general programme consists of the following elements:

• Literature seminar
• Research seminar
• One or two optional courses (at Leiden University, or another university), or opt for an internship
• Thesis Seminar
• MA thesis and exam
• Literature Seminar

Detailed programme

For a detailed overview of the curriculum, please check the Prospectus. This shows the themes we focus on this academic year.

Application

How to apply for this track:

Go to Studielink
 
Select ‘MA History’ and continue the application procedure
 
When asked for a specialisation, select ‘Cities, Migration, and Global Interdependence’. Studielink automatically directs you to uSis (Leiden University’s online application portal) within 2 or 3 working days.
 
In the online application portal, Leiden University will let you know whether you qualify for automatic admission and will guide you through all necessary steps to complete your registration, as well as informing you about what you have to do after applying.
Note: you specifically need to mention your interest in the Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence general programme in the Questionnaire.