The objective of the course is for the student to come into contact with different theories on contemporary culture that have addressed the connection between culture, nature and social power. In particular, they will try to internalize and be able to handle a broad notion of social imaginary that will help them to critically approach many cultural and political phenomena of the world in which they live. In order to do so, he/she must acquire a series of knowledge, abilities and attitudes.
Among the knowledge, he must become familiar with some authors and theories that:
- Have theorized in an open way culture understood both from a materialistic perspective and as a vector of social power.
- The consequences of that open notion of culture in fields such as:
- Our relationship with nature
- Technology and its social role
- The State
- Postcolonialism and globalization
The capacities to be acquired refer to:
- Follow both abstract argumentations and their correspondence in contemporary social imaginaries.
- Read texts of transdisciplinary theorists of our time.
- Interpret, with a high theoretical level and from various perspectives, the phenomena of contemporary culture, in their ethical, political and ideological implications.
- High capacity of oral and written expression on complex and high level theoretical issues, but referring to the concrete social world.
- Link what they have learned in this course with all the cultural knowledge and interpretative skills they have acquired throughout their undergraduate studies.
In terms of attitudes, at the end of the course, the student should:
- Increase their capacity for critical reflection on the world in which they are trained and will work.
- Distance themselves from today's dominant imaginaries, amplified by the media and other cultural production entities.
- Become aware of the complexity and multiperspectivity of the interpretations of today's world.
