A Wicked Problem: a critical look at corruption

Institution: Carleton University (Southam Hall 509)
Category: Faculty of Public Affairs
Language: English

Course Description

The intent of this course is to explore corruption as a ""wicked"" problem, one that is complex, has interacting causes and seems intractable.

The course will consist of 4 components:
1. Understanding what is corruption and its intersection with good governance
2. A review of thought on corruption;
3. Current perspectives and understanding of corruption; and
4. New ways of conceptualizing corruption.

Components 3-4 would be underpinned by practical, real-world investigations into historical cases of corruption, and discussion and debate on institutional design and good governance. Specifically, to support Component 3, students will be asked to put on their anti-corruption investigator hats on and take part in an open source investigation. For Component 4, students will be introduced to Netlogo, a multi-agent programmable modelling environment where attempts will be made to model corrupt behaviour.

Practical aspects of the learning will be supported by multi-disciplinary literature drawing from philosophy, ethics, sociology, economics, law, political science and complexity science.
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