Checking date: 10/05/2024


Course: 2024/2025

Theory of contemporary culture
(13835)
Bachelor in Humanities (Plan: 407 - Estudio: 213)


Coordinating teacher: ALMAZAN GOMEZ, MANUEL ADRIAN

Department assigned to the subject: Humanities: Philosophy, Language, Literature Theory Department

Type: Electives
ECTS Credits: 6.0 ECTS

Course:
Semester:




Requirements (Subjects that are assumed to be known)
Good reading skills and familiarity with working with philosophical essays. Basic knowledge of political philosophy and critical ability
Objectives
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.
Skills and learning outcomes
Description of contents: programme
THEME 1: CULTURE AND NATURE - Global Ecosocial Crisis and Ecological Humanities - Culture: six meanings THEME 2: CULTURE AND POWER - Culture is ordinary: Raymond Williams - Ideology in Terry Eagleton THEME 3: THE CULTURE OF INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM - The mechanization of nature - The neutrality of technique and technology - The State as a natural form of organization - The coloniality of power THEME 4: IN SEARCH OF A NEW CULTURE - Towards a Gaian culture - Humble techniques - Autonomy and ecofeminism (of subsistence) - Ch'ixinakax utxiwa
Learning activities and methodology
This is a course with a strong theoretical character, based on: - Lectures by the professor, introducing the relevant theories. - Readings by the student of key books on the phenomena studied. - Readings by the student of essays and articles in seminar format. - Tutorials with the professor - Final oral exam
Assessment System
  • % end-of-term-examination 30
  • % of continuous assessment (assigments, laboratory, practicals...) 70

Calendar of Continuous assessment


Extraordinary call: regulations
Basic Bibliography
  • Albelda, J.; Arribas, F.; Madorrán, C.. Humanidades ecológicas. Hacia un humanismo biosférico. Tirant lo Blanch. 2023
  • Almazán, A.. Técnica y tecnología. Cómo conversar con un tecnolófilo. Taugenit. 2021
  • Alonso, A. y Arzoz, I.. La Nueva Ciudad de Dios. Siruela. 2008
  • Alonso, A. y Arzoz, I.. El desencanto del Progreso. Para una crítica luddita de la tecnología. Dykinson. 2021
  • Berlan, A.. Terre et liberté. La quête d´autonomie contre le fantasme de délivrance. La Lenteur. 2021
  • Castoriadis, C.. Los dominios del hombre. Encrucijadas del laberinto. Gedisa. 2005
  • Castoriadis, C.. La institución imaginaria de la sociedad. Tusquets. 2013
  • De Sousa Santos, B. y Meneses M. P. . Epistemologías del sur. Akal. 2014
  • Graeber, D. y Wengrow, D.. El amanecer de todo. Ariel. 2022
  • Latour, B.. Dónde aterrizar.. Taurus. 2019
  • Margulis, L. . Planeta simbiótico. Debate. 2002
  • Merchant, C.. La muerte de la naturaleza. Mujeres, ecología y revolución científica. Comares. 2020
  • Mies, M. y Bennholdt-Thomsen, V.. The Subsistence Perspective. Beyond the Globalised Economy. Zed Books. 1996
  • Riechmann, J.. Autoconstrucción. La transformación cultural que necesitamos. Catarata. 2015
  • Scott, J. C.. Contra el estado. Una historia de las civilizaciones del Próximo Oriente antiguo. Trotta. 2022
  • Williams, R.. Historia y cultura común. Antología.. Catarata. 2008

The course syllabus may change due academic events or other reasons.