This course focuses on the new social geography of the state and social policy. A new geography of the state is emerging with the downloading of services to sub-national levels of government and the rise in importance of supranational institutions. This has raised questions about the hollowing out of the nation state and the real and imagined impacts of globalization on the politics of redistribution. A new social geography of the state is emerging as the "rescaling" of social policy brings with it increasing uncertainty about normative basis for policies of redistribution — as institutions contend with economic, cultural and political differences across (and within) national borders. The course focuses on approaches within political economy, with particular emphasis on the regulation school. Examples are primarily Western, with emphasis on Europe, the European Union and North America.