| Academic year: | 2009-2010 |
| Course code module | 1MSOC_230 |
| Semester: | 1st semester |
| Credits: | 15 |
| Study load (hours) | 420 |
| Theory (hours): | 30,00 |
| Practice/Exercises(hours): | 15,00 |
| Other (hours): | |
| Part-time program: | 2 |
| Instructor(s) | Gert Verschraegen
Walter Weyns
|
| Language of instruction: | Dutch |
| Semester exam information: | exam in the 1st semester |
| Contract restriction information: | |
1. Prerequisites
*Algemene competenties
*Sequentiality
None
2. Objectives (expected learning outcomes)
- understanding of the complex processes of collective and individual identity building in a technologically high developed society, and of the social and cultural problems related to it
- comprehension of cultural sociological concepts and theories concerning identity construction
- be able to apply, exemplify and (empirically) critize these concepts and theories
3. Course content
In 2008-2009 this course focusses on culture. We study processes of individual and collective identity construction in a high-technological society.
The main topics are: processes of identity construction (how are individual and collective identities being built?) - identity crises - meaning in a liquid society - the self as a social and cultural dynamics (dialogical self, saturated self) - transformations and conflicts around the dividing line between the private and the public - the construction of self under changing social, cultural and technological circumstances - posthumanism - cultural nomadism - identity politics
The in-depth study is structured into three seperate courses:
STATE OF THE ART (6 ECTS)
This part of the in-depht study can be followed separately
course scheme
0 INTRODUCTION
1 INDIVIDUAL, IDENTITY CRISIS AND INDIVIDUALISM Historical, psychological and sociological approaches of the genesis of the modern individual. Texts by Burckhardt on the Renaissance, by Erikson on identity crisis and by Durkheim on individualism as a modern societal product.
2 THE DYNAMICS OF CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION Stuart Hall (The Minimal Self)
3 THE SELF IN NETWERK SOCIETY Sherry Turkle and Manuel Castells
4 CRISIS OF THE SELF IN A HIGH TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Part I Texts by Gehlen, Barglow, Hermans, Weyns
5 CRISIS OF THE SELF IN A HIGH TECHNOLOGICAL SOCIETY. Part II
6 TRANSFORMATION OF THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE. Habermas, Sennett, Slater, Weyns
7 POSTHUMANISM. Jos De Mul, Knorr-Cetina, Fernandez-Armesto, John Gray
8 LATE MODERN NOMADISM Maffesoli, Bauman, Simmel, Lieve de Cauter
9 IDENTITY POLITICS. Craig Calhoun.
10 CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE POLITICS OF DIVERSITY
DISCUSSIONS (4 ECTS)
The discussions start from the texts read in the STOA, as well as a few additional texts. In the discussions students alternately play the rôle of disputant, participant and scriptor.
ASSIGNMENT(5 ECTS)
individual paper
4. Teaching method
Direct contact: LecturesSeminars (possible question and answer sessions)
Personal work: ExercisesAssignments - individual
5. Assessment method
Written assignment: Without oral presentation
Presentation
6. Compulsory reading – study material
reader
7. Recommended reading - study material
Nihil.
8. Tutoring
After class and by appointment.