University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 9

Semester: 2

Planned timetable: To be confirmed

Despite the drug trade's vast economic revenue, its huge multinational and multicultural workforce, and centrality to public policy, its illegalisation fractures our understanding of how it works, what motivates its participants, and what effects it has on broader society. This seminar considers both the lived experiences of those involved and cultural depictions of the drug trade, from the show Narcos to narcocorridos. The module is designed to follow how the drug trade works conceptually and spatially from source to user. Therefore, the module chronologically addresses areas, both contemporary and historical, of drug production; the dynamics and experiences of drug trafficking, including the origins of narcotics illegalisation and state efforts to curtail the drug trade; and finally, the consumption of drugs and the practice’s policing by state authorities. The module largely focuses on the cocaine trafficking route from South America to the United States.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Before taking this module you must pass IR2006

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 2 hour seminars (X10 weeks)

Scheduled learning hours: 20

Guided independent study hours: 280

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: Coursework = 100%

As defined by QAA
Coursework: 100%

Re-assessment: Examination = 100%

Personnel

Module coordinator: Dr D R Hirschel-Burns
Module teaching staff: Dr Daniel Hirschel-Burns
Module coordinator email drhb1@st-andrews.ac.uk

Intended learning outcomes

• Contextualise the illegalisation and trafficking of narcotics as historically-rooted processes.
• Understand the varying definitions of drugs and how attitudes to controlling them changed.
• Understand the varying definitions of drugs and how attitudes to controlling them changed.
• Understand the different types of market regulation that exist under capitalism, and how drug market regulation compares to licit industries.
• Analyse how cultural production around the drug trade influences our understandings of what the drug trade is and how we should judge it ethically.
• Consider how academics study and should study phenomena that are by nature covert, and what that tells us about the methods we use to learn about them.