CS201-6-FY-CO:
The World in Question: The Social, Cultural, Political & Environmental Legacies of the Enlightenment
2020/21
Interdisciplinary Studies Centre (ISC)
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Undergraduate: Level 6
Current
Thursday 08 October 2020
Friday 02 July 2021
30
18 May 2020
Requisites for this module
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CS201 provides an interdisciplinary examination of historical and contemporary issues arising from the Enlightenment and the consolidation of capitalism and industrialism since the C19th. It explores social, political and existential issues that took new forms in the 20th and 21st centuries. The module covers three broad themes: Empire, The Self, and Nature. We start by examining Empire and look at both the connections between Enlightenment thought and European expansion, colonialism and cultural domination and their legacies. In Part 2, The Self, we then move on to look at how new conceptions of the self have been shaped by broad social, cultural and economic processes. Finally, in Part 3, we look at the ecological legacies of the Enlightenment capitalism and industrialism and consider ways we can address the climate and ecological crisis.
The aims of this module are:
To introduce students to the social, cultural and environmental legacies of the Enlightenment.
To foster understanding about the continuities and discontinuities between historical and contemporary processes.
To provide students with varied insights into the politics of empire, changing conceptions of the self, and both the ecological impacts of industrialism and capitalism, and the benefits of re-orientating our relations with nature.
To encourage students to engage in interdisciplinary thinking and approaches from different academic fields.
By the end of this module the student should have:
A broad understanding of the social, cultural and environmental legacies of the Enlightenment, industrialism and capitalism.
The capacity to summarise and critically engage with set texts.
The ability to discuss and debate the module topics.
The ability for reasoned argumentation applied to oral and text-based presentations.
No additional information available.
Weekly lecture, plus a weekly seminar that will include staff presentations and student discussion.
Dr Hindley will give about half of the lectures and these will be complemented by guest lectures by academics from Art History, ISC, LiFTs, Philosophy, and Psychoanalytic and Psychosocial Studies.
All teaching events will be accessible to students on and off campus either face-to-face or remotely through online teaching. Weeks 8 and 21 are Reading Weeks.
- Rabinow, Paul. (c1984) 'What is Enlightenment? Michel Foucault', in The Foucault reader, Harmondsworth: Penguin., pp.32-50
- Gallagher, Amanda Hall; Pecot-Hebert, Lisa. (2007) '“You Need a Makeover!”: The Social Construction of Female Body Image in “A Makeover Story”, W “hat Not to Wear”, and “Extreme Makeover”', in Popular Communication. vol. 5 (1) , pp.57-79
- Freud, Sigmund; Strachey, James; Gay, Peter. (c1989) Five Lectures on Psycho-analysis, New York: W.W. Norton. vol. The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud
- Thunberg, Greta. (2019) No-one is Too Small to Make a Difference, London: Penguin Books.
- BBC Radio 4 - The Infinite Monkey Cage, Clever Creatures, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008nyc
- Ngugi wa Thiong'o. (Mar 1, 1985) 'The Language of African Literature', in New Left Review., pp.24-47
- Escobar, Arturo. (1999-02) 'After Nature: Steps to an Antiessentialist Political Ecology', in Current Anthropology. vol. 40 (1) , pp.1-30
- Philosophy 24/7 Should we pay reparations for wrongs committed in the past?, https://philosophy247.org/podcasts/reparations/
- The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
- Philosophy 24/7 How Neo-liberalism has Twisted Liberalism, https://philosophy247.org/podcasts/neo/
- S3, Episode 1: The Precrime Unit (Jan. 31st, 2019) – Hi-Phi Nation, https://hiphination.org/season-3-episodes/s3-episode-1-the-precrime-unit/
- Hewamanne, Sandya. (c2008) 'Nation, Modernity and Female Identity', in Stitching Identities in a Free Trade Zone: Gender and Politics in Sri Lanka, Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press., pp.21-45
- Heron, Taitu. (2008) 'Globalization, Neoliberalism and the Exercise of Human Agency', in International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society: Springer. vol. 20 (20) , pp.85-101
- Moore, Jason. (2015) 'Anthropocene or Capitolocene?: On the Nature and Origins of Our Ecological Crisis', in Capitalism in the Web of Life: Ecology and the Accumulation of Capital, New York: Verso., pp.169-192
- Negrin, Llewellyn. (2002-12) 'Cosmetic Surgery and the Eclipse of Identity', in Body & Society. vol. 8 (4) , pp.21-42
- Pitts-Taylor, Victoria. (c2007) 'Miss World / Ms.Ugly : Feminist Debates', in Surgery junkies: wellness and pathology in cosmetic culture, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press., pp.73-99
- David Riesman. (2001) "From Morality to Morale' in The Lonely Crowd, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press., pp.37-65
- James Balog: Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss | TED Talk, https://www.ted.com/talks/james_balog_time_lapse_proof_of_extreme_ice_loss?language=en
- Michel Foucault. (1991) Governmentality, Chicago: University of Chicago Press., pp.87-104
- Conrad, Joseph; Knowles, Owen; Hampson, Robert. (2007) Heart of Darkness, London: Penguin Books. vol. Penguin classics
- Gordon, Peter E. (2017-05) 'The Authoritarian Personality Revisited: Reading Adorno in the Age of Trump', in boundary 2. vol. 44 (2) , pp.31-56
- Johnston, J.; Cairns, K.; Baumann, S. (2017) 'Branding your Unique Identity', in Introducing sociology, using the stuff of everyday life, New York, NY: Routledge., pp.275-302
- Ian Gough. (2017) '"Chapter Post-Growth, Redistribution and Well-being"', in Heat, greed and human need: climate change, capitalism and sustainable wellbeing, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
- The White Man's Burden, https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/kipling.asp
- Pretty, Jules. (2013) 'The Consumption of a Finite Planet: Well-Being, Convergence, Divergence and the Nascent Green Economy', in Environmental and Resource Economics. vol. 55 (4) , pp.475-499
- Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. (c2010) 'The Master Slave Dialectic', in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., pp.630-636
- Huseman, J.Short, D. (2012) 'A slow industrial genocide: tar sands and the indigenous peoples of northern Alberta', in International Journal of Human Rights. vol. 16 (1) , pp.216-237
- Susan Buck-Morss. (2000) 'Hegel and Haiti', in Critical Inquiry: The University of Chicago Press. vol. 26, pp.821-865
- Monbiot, George. (2014) 'Greening the Desert', in Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea, and Human Life: Penguin Books.
- Said, Edward. (1993) 'Two Visions in Heart of Darkness', in Culture and Imperialism, London: Chatto and Windus., pp.19-31
- Adorno, Theodor. (1997) 'Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda', in The Essential Frankfurt School Reader, London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC., pp.118-137
- Tim Jackson: An economic reality check | TED Talk, https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_jackson_s_economic_reality_check?language=en#t-789
- Adorno, Theodor and Max Horkheimer. (2002) '"The Concept of Enlightenment" Chapter 1 in Dialectic of Enlightenment', in Dialectic of enlightenment: philosophical fragments, Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press.
- National Gardening Leave by Andrew Sims and Molly Connisbee| New Economics Foundation, https://neweconomics.org/2012/10/national-gardening-leave
- Jennifer Stitt "For Rachel Carson, wonder was a radical state of mind" | Aeon Ideas, https://aeon.co/ideas/for-rachel-carson-wonder-was-a-radical-state-of-mind
- McKibben, Bill. (1999) 'The End of Nature', in The end of nature, New York: Anchor Books., pp.47-91
- Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. (2012) '"Chapter 2 Research Through Imperial Eyes". In Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples.', in Decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples, London: Zed Books.
- (2017) The animal ethics reader, New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
- Pretty, Jules. (2017) 'Manifesto for the Green Mind', in Resurgence & Ecologist. (301)
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course. The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students. Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Assignment 1: 3000 word essay |
|
50% |
| Coursework |
Assignment 2: 3000 word essay |
|
50% |
| Exam |
Main exam: 24hr during Summer (Main Period)
|
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Jane Hindley, email: janeh@essex.ac.uk.
A range of staff from across the university will contribute to the module.
Interdisciplinary Studies Centre, Room 6.130. Email: istudies@essex.ac.uk
Yes
Yes
No
Dr Ross Wilson
University of Nottingham
Director of Liberal Arts
Available via Moodle
Of 1066 hours, 3 (0.3%) hours available to students:
1063 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
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