Social Theory & Political Analysis subject guide (2015)

THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCES FACULTY OF ARTS SOTH20003 Social Theory & Political Analysis Subject Guide Semester Two, 2015 The website for this subject is available through the Learning Management System (LMS) at: http://www.lms.unimelb.edu.au/ The LMS is an important source of information for this subject. Useful resources such as lecture / seminar notes, lecture recordings and subject announcements will be available through the website. It is your responsibility to regularly check in with the LMS for subject announcements and updates. You will require a university email account (username and password) to access the Learning Management System. You can activate your university email account at: https://accounts.unimelb.edu.au/manage 1 Teaching Staff Subject Coordinator & Lecturer: Ben Gook Ben Gook completed his PhD in the Social Theory and Cultural Studies programs at the University of Melbourne. His thesis concerned social change and it takes as its case study the re-unification of Germany after 1989. It will be published in September 2015 as Divided Subjects, Invisible Borders: Re-unified Germany after 1989. Ben has taught in a number of areas, including sociology, cultural studies, media and communications, and social theory. He has taught the third-year course Psychoanalysis & Social Theory on a number of occasions and coordinated Social Theory & Political Analysis in 2013. Office Location: Room 439, John Medley (East Tower) Email: bgook@unimelb.edu.au Office hour: Wednesday, 11am – Midday. Email for other times to avoid clash. Tutor: Teagan-Jane Westendorf Email: teagan-jane.westendorf@unimelb.edu.au Consultation times arranged via email. Subject Overview This subject involves the study of theory and empirical research in social and political relations, culture and ideology, and human subjectivity and action. Students who complete this subject should possess an awareness of the ways in which social theory can provide a critical perspective on standard approaches to the study of politics, and knowledge of a repertoire of social theory concepts and approaches which can be drawn upon to analyse political processes. Student evaluation of this subject A previous version of this course was taught in 2013. SES results averaged 4.3 (out of 5), with high marks on whether the subject was “intellectually stimulating” (4.6) and introduced “new ideas, approaches and/or skills” (4.8). Results for the subject were above the departmental and faculty means for seven out of ten questions, with the remaining three within 0.1 of the mean. The SES outcome on using information technology recorded a result of 4.4 for effective use, all “agree” or “strongly agree.” Responses from the SES on the question of its best aspects included: “The lectures were actually really well structured and I’m sure the lecture slides will be a great resource to return to in future. I also appreciated the fact that the lectures actually went through and explained the often difficult subject matter of the readings”; “Getting to engage with abstract social theory and having teachers that went out of their way to make this often complex information accessible”; “This is the most difficult subject I have ever done and it is also the most useful subject I have done with regards to learning how to think deeply and 2 question accepted ideas and ideologies”; “The course material was really great and thought provoking. I really enjoyed all the content.” Learning Objectives Students who successfully complete this subject will: • • • • have knowledge of the major ideas and theories used to analyse social, cultural and political relations; be able to apply this knowledge to assist in an analysis of political processes; have experience of thinking systematically about difficult intellectual problems of an abstract nature; have experience with methods of critical analysis and argument employed in the social theoretical traditions, leading to improved general reasoning and analytical skills. Subject Structure Students are expected to attend a 1.5 hour lecture and a 1 hour tutorial per week. The subject’s timetable is as follows: Day Time Lecture 1: Tuesday 2pm – 3.30pm Tutorials (please register): Wednesday 9am or 10am Location Building 184-124 (Thomas Cherry Theatre) Class Registration – Tutorials Students are required to register into their tutorials before the commencement of semester by using the on-line class timetable tool in their Student Portal. The ISIS team will provide students with further updates and information about Class Registration via the Student Portal closer to the registration opening date for semester 2, 2015. Readings All required readings for this subject are listed in this guide and included on the LMS. Required readings represent the minimum expected for you to participate effectively in class. Further supplementary readings are listed in this guide and on the LMS as PDF files. You are encouraged to augment your understanding of the topics discussed by drawing on these readings. They may form the basis of essay research. But it is expected that you will develop your own learning and knowledge through wider reading and research, particularly with regard to completion of assessment items. 3 Films Please also note that the lecture program and associated readings include a number of films. Most of these are recommended viewing – i.e. not required. They may simply help you think about the topics under discussion. Some may be called upon during lectures. 4 Semester 2, 2015 Lecture / Tutorial Program and Readings BLOCK ONE: INTRODUCTION Week One (27 July – 31 July): Setting Ideas Afloat • • • Zygmunt Bauman, “Setting Fears Afloat,” Liquid Fear (Cambridge: Polity, 2006), 129-159. Raymond Williams, “Structures of Feeling,” Marxism and Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), 128-135. William Davies, “The Political Economy of Unhappiness,” New Left Review 71, SeptOct (2011): 65-80. Supplementary Reading: o Renata Salecl, “Success in Failure: How Hypercapitalism Relies on People’s Feeling of Inadequacy,” On Anxiety (London: Routledge, 2004), 30-42. o John Cash, “Negotiating Insecurity: Law, Psychoanalytic Social Theory and the Dilemmas of the World Risk Society,” Australian Feminist Law Journal 30 (2009): 87-107. o Mike Davis, “Fortress LA,” City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (London: Verso, 1990). o Alberto Toscano, “Figures of Extremism,” Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea (London: Verso, 2010), 1-42. Supplementary Viewing: o The Power of Nightmares (Adam Curtis, 2004), Contagion (Steven Soderbergh, 2011). BLOCK TWO: IDEOLOGY & HISTORY Week Two (3 – 7 August): Ideology • • Terry Eagleton, “What is Ideology?,” Ideology: An Introduction (London: Verso, 1991), 1-31. William Davies, “The Disenchantment of Politics: Neoliberalism, Sovereignty and Economics,” The Limits of Neoliberalism: Authority, Sovereignty and the Logic of Competition (London: Sage, 2014), 20-57 (eBook edition) Supplementary Reading: o Terry Eagleton, “Ideological Strategies,” Ideology: An Introduction (London: Verso, 1991), 33-61. o Pierre Dardot & Christian Laval, “Manufacturing the Neo-Liberal Subject,” The New Way of the World: On Neoliberal Society (London: Verso, 2014), 312-372 (eBook edition). 5 o Jamie Peck, “Neoliberal Worlds,” Constructions of Neoliberal Reason (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 1-38. o Raewyn Connell & Nour Dados, “Where in the World does Neoliberalism Come From? The Market Agenda in Southern Perspective,” Theory & Society 43 (2014): 117-138. o Stuart Hall, Doreen Massey & James Rustin, “After Neoliberalism: Analysing the Present,” After Neoliberalism? (London: Soundings, 2013), 3-18. o David Harvey, “Freedom’s Just Another Word…,” A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 5-38. o Loïc Wacquant, “Three Steps to a Historical Anthropology of Actually Existing Neoliberalism,” Social Anthropology 20, No. 1 (2012): 66-79. Week Three (10 – 14 August): Ideology, History and Subjectivity • • • Slavoj Žižek, “Che Vuoi?,” The Sublime Object of Ideology, 2nd Edition (London: Verso, 2008), 95-144. John Cash, “Ideology and Social and Cultural Theory,” Routledge Handbook of Social and Cultural Theory, ed. Anthony Elliott (London: Routledge, 2014), 113-135. Molly Anne Rothenberg, “Introduction: The Excess of Everyday Life” and “What Does the ‘Social’ in Social Change Mean?,” The Excessive Subject (Cambridge: Polity, 2010), 1-29. Supplementary Reading: o Slavoj Žižek, “The Seven Veils of Fantasy,” ed. Dany Nobus, Key Concepts of Lacanian Psychoanalysis (New York, Other Press, 1998): 190-218. o Jodi Dean, “Enjoyment as a Category of Political Theory,” Žižek’s Politics (New York: Routledge, 2006), 1-46. o Walter Benjamin, “On the Concept of History” & “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (Abridged).” Available (in different format and original translation) in Walter Benjamin, Illuminations (New York: Schocken Books, 1968). o Esther Leslie, “Time for an Unnatural Death,” Overpowering Conformism (London: Pluto, 2000), 168-207 (esp 168-179 and 195-207). o Ben Gook, “Something’s Always Left Over: Material and History,” ed. Marta Rabikowska, The Everyday of Memory: Between Communism and PostCommunism (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2013), 99-124. o Slavoj Žižek, “Foreword: The Camera’s Posthuman Eye,” in Henry Bond, Lacan at the Scene (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009): xi-xvi. o Alain Badiou, “Of an Obscure Disaster: On the End of the Truth of State,” Lacanian Ink 22 (2003): 58-89. o “Walter Benjamin,” episode of Thinking Allowed, BBC 4, podcast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038yk6v Supplementary Viewing: o Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (Sophie Fiennes, 2012), Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942), The Living Dead (Adam Curtis, 1995, esp. episode one, “On the Desperate 6 Edge of Now”), Material (Thomas Heise, 2009), Good Bye Lenin! (Wolfgang Becker, 2004), The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006). Week Four (17 – 21 August): Alain Badiou: The Century (lecture by Bryan Cooke) • • Alain Badiou, “Search for a Method,” “The Beast” and “The Unreconciled,” The Century (London: Polity, 2007), 1-38. Alain Badiou, “Prologue” and “Paul: Our Contemporary,” St Paul: The Foundation of Universalism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 1-15. Supplementary Reading: o Alain Badiou, “Anabasis,” “Seven Variations” and “The Infinite,” The Century (London: Polity, 2007), 81-110, 148-164. o Alberto Toscano, “‘European Nihilism’ and Beyond: Commentary,” in Alain Badiou, The Century (London: Polity, 2007), 179-201. o Nina Power & Alberto Toscano, “Politics,” eds. A. J. Bartlett & Justin Clemens, Alain Badiou: Key Concepts (Durham: Acumen Publishing, 2010), 94-104. BLOCK THREE: WORK & ECONOMY Week Five (24 – 28 August): Work and Ideology • • • • Lauren Berlant, “After the Good Life, an Impasse,” Cruel Optimism (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011) 191-222. Frédéric Lordon, “Making Others Do Something,” Willing Slaves of Capital: Spinoza & Marx on Desire (London: Verso, 2014), 11-42 (ebook edition). Maurizio Lazzarato, “Neoliberalism in Action: Inequality, Insecurity and the Reconstitution of the Social,” Theory, Culture & Society 26, no. 6 (2009): 109-133. Up in the Air (Jason Reitman, 2009) or Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014). Supplementary Reading: o Jodi Dean, “Technology: The Promises of Communicative Capitalism,” Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies: Communicative Capitalism and Left Politics (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), 19-48. o Melissa Gregg, “The Return of Organisation Man,” Cultural Studies Review 18, no. 2 (2012): 242-61. o Robert Castel, “The Roads to Disaffiliation: Insecure Work and Vulnerable Relationships,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 24, no. 3 (2000): 519-535. o Loïc Wacquant, “Social Insecurity and the Punitive Upsurge” & “Theoretical Coda: A Sketch of the Neoliberal State,” Punishing the Poor: The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009), 1-37, 287-310. o Frances Fox Piven, “A Response to Wacquant,” Theoretical Criminology 14, no. 1 (2010): 111-116. 7 o Luc Boltanski & Ève Chiapello, “Management Discourse in the 1990s,” The New Spirit of Capitalism (London: Verso, 2007), 57-101. o Lauren Berlant, “Slow Death (Sovereignty, Obesity, Lateral Agency),” Critical Inquiry 33 (2007): 754-780. o Lauren Berlant, “Structures of Unfeeling: Mysterious Skin,” International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society (2015). o Kathi Weeks, “Introduction,” The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics and Postwork Imaginaries (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011), 1-36. o Iva Illouz, “From Homo Economicus to Homo Communicans,” Saving the Modern Soul: Therapy, Emotions and the Culture of Self-Help (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008) 58-104. o Arlie Hochschild, The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home, New Edition (New York: Penguin, 2012), 12-16, 22-47, 232-237. o Arlie Hoschschild, “Feeling Management: From Private to Commercial Uses,” eds. Ash Amin & Nigel Thrift, The Blackwell Cultural Economy Reader (London: Blackwell, 2003), 329-351. o Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on the Societies of Control,” October 59 (1992): 3-7. o Mark Fisher, “Reflexive Impotence, Immobilization and Liberal Communism” and “October 6, 1979: ‘Don’t let yourself get attached to anything’” Capitalist Realism (Winchester: Zero Books, 2009), 21-38. o Andrea Fumagalli, “Twenty Theses on Contemporary Capitalism (Cognitive Biocapitalism),” Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities 16, no. 3 (2011): 717. Suggested Viewing: o The Wire (HBO series, 2002-2008), La Promesse (Dardenne brothers, 1996), Rosetta (Dardenne brothers, 1999), Human Resources (Laurent Cantet, 1999), Time Out (Laurent Cantet, 2001), Tokyo Sonata (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2008), The Girlfriend Experience (Steven Soderbergh, 2009), Two Days, One Night (2014). Week Six (31 August – 4 September): Finance and Affect • • Martijn Konings, “Financial Affect,” Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory 15, no. 1 (2014): 37-53. Christian Marazzi, “Financial Logics,” The Violence of Financial Capitalism, New Edition (Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2010), 27-43. Supplementary Reading: o Georg Simmel, The Philosophy of Money [1900] (London: Routledge, 2004). o Bob Jessop, “Recovered Imaginaries, Imagined Recoveries: A Cultural Political Economy of Crisis Construals and Crisis Management in the North Atlantic Financial Crisis,” ed. Mats Benner, Before and Beyond the Global Economic Crisis: Economics, Politics and Settlement (Elgar Online, 2013), 234-254. o Doug Henwood, “Instruments” & “Players,” Wall Street: How it Works and For Whom (London: Verso, 1998): 10-117. 8 o John Lanchester, “The ATM Moment” & “Rocket Science,” I.O.U.: Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No One Can Pay (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010), 15-64. o Bob Jessop, “Post-Fordism and the State,” ed. Ash Amin, Post-Fordism: A Reader (London: Blackwell, 1994), 251-279. o Christian Marazzi, “Rules for the Incommensurable,” Substance 36, no. 1 (2007): 1036. o Maurizio Lazzarato, “Immaterial Labour,” eds. Paolo Virno and Michael Hardy, Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996), 133-146. o Maurizio Lazzarato, “From Capital-Labour to Capital-Life,” Ephemera: Theory & Politics in Organization 4, no. 3 (2004): 187-208. o Jürgen Habermas, “The New Obscurity: The Crisis of the Welfare State and the Exhaustion of Utopian Energies,” Philosophy and Social Criticism 11, No. 1 (1986): 118. o ACTU, “The New Divide: The Growth and Extent of Insecure Work in Australia,” Lives on Hold: Unlocking the Potential of Australia’s Workforce: The Report of The Independent Inquiry into Insecure Work (Melbourne: ACTU, 2012), 14-25. Suggested Viewing: o Inside Job (Charles Ferguson, 2010), Margin Call (J.C. Chandor, 2011), The Queen of Versailles (Lauren Greenfield, 2012). BLOCK FOUR: SUBJECTIVITY & DEMOCRACY Week Seven (7 – 11 September): Subjectivity and Process (lecture by Teagan-Jane Westendorf) • • • Giorgio Agamben, “Introduction,” Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998), 1-12. Judith Butler, “Subjection, Resistance, Resignification: Between Freud & Foucault,” The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997), 83-106 . Michel Foucault, “Docile Bodies,” Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (New York: Vintage Books, 1975 ), 135-149 (cont. to 169 if keen). Supplementary Reading: o Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and SocialistFeminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991), 149-182. Supplementary Viewing: o Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015), Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Mamoru Oshii, 2004). 9 Week Eight (14 – 18 September): Democracy and Crisis • • • Wendy Brown, “Democracy against Itself: Nietzsche’s Challenge,” Politics Out of History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 121-37. Wendy Brown, “‘We are all Democrats Now. . .’,” Democracy in What State?, eds. Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Daniel Bensaïd, Wendy Brown, Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Ranciere, Kristin Ross, Slavoj Žižek (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), 44-57. Wolfgang Streeck, “Crisis Theory: Then and Now” and “From Legitimation Crisis to Fiscal Crisis,” Buying Time: The Delayed Crisis of Democratic Capitalism (London: Verso, 2014), 6-59 (eBook edition). Supplementary Reading: o o o o o o o o Wendy Brown, “Undoing Democracy: Neoliberalism’s Remaking of State and Subject,” Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution (New York: Zone Books, 2015), 17-45. Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Daniel Bensaïd, Wendy Brown, Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Ranciere, Kristin Ross, Slavoj Žižek, Democracy in What State? (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011). Claude Lefort, “The Question of Democracy,” Democracy and Political Theory (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988), 9-20. Wolfgang Streeck, “The Crisis in Context: Democratic Capitalism and its Contradictions,” eds. Armin Schäfer and Wolfgang Streeck, Politics in the Age of Austerity (Cambridge: Polity, 2013), 262-286. Wolfgang Streeck, “The Rise of the European Consolidation State,” lecture, London School of Economics, 2014. Watch online (update of Buying Time chapters and discussion with Colin Crouch): https://youtu.be/B5r9rqgPUVU Claus Offe, “Participatory Inequality in the Austerity State: A Supply-Side Approach,” eds. Armin Schäfer and Wolfgang Streeck, Politics in the Age of Austerity (Cambridge: Polity, 2013), 196-218. Peter Mair, “The Passing of Popular Involvement,” Ruling the Void: The Hollowing of Western Democracy (London: Verso, 2013), 26-47 (eBook edition). Jacques Ranciere, “Democracy, Republic, Representation” and “The Rationality of a Hatred,” Hatred of Democracy (London: Verso, 2014), 39-71, 75-6. (eBook edition) BLOCK FIVE: CLIMATES, BODIES, PLACES Week Nine (21 – 25 September): Accumulation, Development, Environment • Karl Marx, “The Secret of Primitive Accumulation,” “The Expropriation of the Agricultural Population from the Land,” “Impact of the Agricultural Revolution on Industry,” “The Genesis of the Industrial Capitalist” and “The Historical Tendency of Capitalist Accumulation,” Capital, vol 1 [1867] (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976), 873-95, 908-30. 10 • • Rosa Luxemburg, “The Reproduction of Capital and Its Social Setting,” The Accumulation of Capital [1913] (London: Routledge, 2003) 328-347. Nancy Fraser, “The Significance of Rosa Luxemburg for Contemporary Social Theory,” lecture, Rosa Luxemburg Institute, Berlin, 2014. Watch online: https://youtu.be/zk2VJAW_jHw Supplementary Reading: o Andreas Bieler et al., “The Enduring Relevance of Rosa Luxemburg’s The Accumulation of Capital,” Journal of International Relations and Development (2014), 1-28. o Silvia Federici, “The Accumulation of Labor and the Degradation of Women: Constructing ‘Difference’ in the ‘Transition to Capitalism,’” Caliban and the Witch (Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 2004), 61-132. o David Harvey, “Accumulation by Dispossession,” The New Imperialism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 137-182. o David Harvey, “Reading Marx’s Capital, Chapters 26-33,” (video/podcast) https://youtu.be/Z-8U_Rpd9wk. o David Harvey, Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001). o Bob Jessop, “Spatial Fixes, Temporal Fixes and Spatio-Temporal Fixes,” eds. Noel Castree and Derek Gregory, David Harvey: A Critical Reader (Malden: Blackwell, 2006), 142-66. o Nancy Hartsock, “Globalization and Primitive Accumulation: The Contributions of David Harvey’s Dialectical Marxism,” eds. Noel Castree and Derek Gregory, David Harvey: A Critical Reader (Malden: Blackwell, 2006), 167-90. o David Harvey, “Roepke Lecture in Economic Geography—Crises, Geographic Disruptions and the Uneven Development of Political Responses,” Economic Geography 87, no. 1, 2011, 1-22. o David Harvey, “Notes Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development,” Spaces of Neoliberalization, Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development (Munich: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2006), 55-93. Supplementary Viewing: o Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2014), Manufactured Landscapes (Jennifer Baichwal, 2006). *********************************************************** NON TEACHING PERIOD: Monday 28 September – Sunday 4 October *********************************************************** 11 Week Ten (5 – 9 October): Nature and Extinction • • • Dipesh Chakrabarty, “The Climate of History: Four Theses,” Critical Inquiry 35 (2009), 197-222. Claire Colebrook, “Extinct Theory” in eds. Jane Elliott and Derek Attridge, Theory after ‘Theory’ (London: Routledge, 2011), 62-71. McKenzie Wark, “Cyborg Donna Haraway: Techno-science Worlds and Beings” (sections), Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene (London: Verso, 2015), 114-128 and 139-151 (eBook edition). Supplementary Reading: o Dipesh Chakrabarty, “Brute Force,” Transit: Europäisch Revue (2010), http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2010-10-07-chakrabarty-en.html. o Dominic Boyer, “Energopower,” Anthropological Quarterly 86, no. 1 (2014), 309-33. o Raymond Williams, “Ideas of Nature,” Problems in Materialism and Culture (London: Verso, 1980), 67-85. o Ben Dibley, “‘The Shape of Things to Come’: Seven Theses on the Anthropocene and Attachment,” Australian Humanities Review 52 (2012): 139-153. o Ben Dibley, “ ‘Nature is Us:’ The Anthropocene and Species-being,” Transformations 21 (2012), http://www.transformationsjournal.org/journal/issue_21/article_07.shtml. o Erik Swyngedouw, “Apocalypse Forever?: Post-political Populism and the Spectre of Climate Change,” Theory, Culture & Society 27 (2010): 213-232. o John Bellamy Foster, “Marx and the Rift in the Universal Metabolism of Nature,” Monthly Review 65, no. 7 (2013), http://monthlyreview.org/2013/12/01/marx-riftuniversal-metabolism-nature/ o John Bellamy Foster, "Marx's Theory of Metabolic Rift: Classical Foundations for Environmental Sociology," American Journal of Sociology 105, no. 2 (1999): 366405. o John Bellamy Foster, “Der ökologische Bruch [The Ecological Break],” lecture, Rosa Luxemburg Institute, Berlin, 2013. Watch online (in English): https://youtu.be/6LbWQylV5zU o Slavoj Žižek, “The Freudian Unconscious versus the Cereberal Unconscious,” “The Libidinal Proletariat,” & “Welcome to the Anthropocene,” Living in the End Times, Updated Edition (London: Verso, 2011). Suggested Viewing o Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón, 2006), Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011), La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962), Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols, 2011), Watermark (Jennifer Baichwal, 2013), Chasing Ice (Jeff Orlowski, 2012). 12 Week Eleven (12 – 16 October): Precarious Life • • Judith Butler, “Violence, Mourning, Politics,” Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence (London: Verso, 2004), 19-49. Claudia Rankine, “The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning,” New York Times Magazine, June 22, 2015, http://nyti.ms/1Cppxni. Supplementary Reading o Judith Butler, "Can One Lead a Good Life in a Bad Life? Adorno Prize Lecture," Radical Philosophy 176 (2012): 9-18 o Judith Butler, "Survivability, Vulnerability, Affect," Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? (London: Verso, 2009): 33-62. o Lauren Berlant, “Claudia Rankine,” BOMB 129 (2014), http://bombmagazine.org/article/10096/claudia-rankine. o Angela Mitropoulos, “Precari-Us?,” Transversal 07 (2004), http://eipcp.net/transversal/0704/mitropoulos/en. o Rob Nixon, excerpts from “Introduction,” “Slow Violence, Neoliberalism and the Environmental Picaresque,” “Slow Violence, Gender and the Environmentalism of the Poor,” Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2011). o Kathleen Stewart, Ordinary Affects (Durham: Duke University Press, 2007). Week Twelve (19 – 23 October): The Social and Suffering • • • Theodor Adorno, “Society,” Salmagundi 10/11 (1970) 144-53. Theodor Adorno, “Lecture Sixteen” and “Lecture Seventeen,” Introduction to Sociology (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 136-154. Jennifer L. Eagan, “Unfreedom, Suffering and the Culture Industry: What Adorno Can Contribute to a Feminist Ethics,” ed Renée Heberle, Feminist Interpretations of Theodor Adorno (Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press), 277-299. Supplementary Reading: o Simon Jarvis, “A Critical Theory of Society,” Adorno: A Critical Introduction (New York: Routledge, 1998), 44-71. o Pauline Johnson, “Social Philosophy,” ed. Deborah Cook, Theodor Adorno: Key Concepts (Stocksfield: Acumen), 115- 29. o Matthias Benzer, The Sociology of Theodor Adorno (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). o Alex Thomson, “Freedom and Society,” Adorno: A Guide for the Perplexed (London: Continuum, 2006), 83-117. o Renée Heberle, “Living with Negative Dialectics: Feminism and the Politics of Suffering,” ed Renée Heberle, Feminist Interpretations of Theodor Adorno (Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), 217-231. SWOT VAC: Monday 26 – Friday 30 October EXAMINATION PERIOD: Monday 2 – Friday 20 November 13 Attendance / Participation Requirements Tutorials This subject is designed as a tutorial course with an adjunct lecture series. Consequently students should read, and be prepared to discuss, at least two of the readings for each tutorial. Any student who is either unable or unwilling to read for and attend the tutorials on a regular basis is advised against taking this subject. Lectures Lectures will typically include clips and other multimedia resources, so it is strongly suggested students attend. The lectures be recorded and available via the LMS, however copyright restrictions permit us from including clips. So the recordings will only be a partial representation of the lectures. Attendance Hurdle Requirement Attendance at all lectures and tutorials is expected. Apologies for absence, especially from tutorials, are also expected. All Undergraduate subjects in the School of Social and Political Sciences have a minimum hurdle requirement of 75% tutorial attendance. If a student does not meet the tutorial attendance hurdle requirement s/he will fail that subject with an NH grade. Application for Tutorial Attendance Waiver Students can apply for attendance waivers of up to a maximum of 2 weeks only (beyond the number of classes students are able to miss without penalty). Applications should be submitted to the Subject Coordinator by e-mail (and copied to the tutor/seminar assistant) no later than 3 working days after the class that was missed. Supporting documentation (i.e. Doctor’s certificate) may be supplied to support a student’s request. Students should be notified of the outcome of the application via email within three business days of its submission. If the application is approved, students will be required to submit a 200 word precis of the class(es) missed, normally 5 working days after outcome notification. Applications will not be considered if submitted more than 3 working days after the class that was missed. Students seeking a class attendance waiver for more than two weeks (beyond the number of classes students are able to miss without penalty) should submit an application for Special Consideration (https://my.unimelb.edu.au/studentportal). 14 Assessment Assessment for this subject comprises of: Assessment type Weighting Due Date Class presentation 10% 1600 word essay 30% One tutorial during semester, allocated at the first tutorial 5pm Thursday 17 September 2015 2000 word research essay 50% Class participation and contribution 10% 5pm Thursday 12 November 2015 (examination period) Tutorials across the semester Please ensure you are available for the entirety of the University’s examination period (2 – 20 November). Assessment one: class presentation (10%) The class presentation will be assessed as an oral presentation, rather than as a written paper. Students should prepare and present it accordingly and should accept responsibility for contributing to the ensuing class discussion. Sometimes two students will make a presentation at each tutorial and students may choose to prepare and present material collaboratively. Where such collaboration is possible, it is the preferred option. The presentations need to be focussed and brief – ten minutes per student. The presenters should be well-prepared to participate in the subsequent discussion. Constructive participation in the class discussion will count towards 50% of the mark for the class presentation. Presentations should be accompanied by a one-page handout (one for each student in the class), which may take the form of either a summary of the whole presentation or a concluding statement. A copy of this handout should be given to the tutor at the seminar and you will receive a comment (usually verbal rather than written) and a mark for the presentation. The class presentation should not be a mere summary of the reading, though it may need to contain a summary component. Rather it should focus on a particular issue raised by, or in response to, the reading and should offer a critical evaluation of this issue and the manner in which the reading bears upon it. It should, then, outline a considered response to the reading and this response should be further elaborated, or reconsidered, in the ensuing class discussion. Assessment two: 1600 word essay due 5pm Thursday 17 September 2015 (30%) First essay questions will be made available via the LMS early in the course. Assessment three: 2000 word essay due 5pm Thursday 12 November (Examination Period) 2013 (50%) Second essay questions will be made available via the LMS before the non-teaching period. 15 Grading system A standard grading system applies across all Faculties of the University, as follows: N 0%-49% Fail - not satisfactory • Work that fails to meet the basic assessment criteria; • Work that contravenes the policies and regulations set out for the assessment exercise; • Where a student fails a subject, all failed components of assessment are double marked. P 50%-64% Pass - satisfactory • Completion of key tasks at an adequate level of performance in argumentation, documentation and expression; • Work that meets a limited number of the key assessment criteria; • Work that shows substantial room for improvement in many areas. H3 65%-69% Third-class honours - competent • Completion of key tasks at a satisfactory level, with demonstrated understanding of key ideas and some analytical skills, and satisfactory presentation, research and documentation; • Work that meets most of the key assessment criteria; • Work that shows room for improvement in several areas. H2B 70%-74% Second-class honours level B - good • Good work that is solidly researched, shows a good understanding of key ideas, demonstrates some use of critical analysis along with good presentation and documentation; • Work that meets most of the key assessment criteria and performs well in some; • Work that shows some room for improvement. H2A 75%-79% Second-class honours level A - very good • Very good work that is very well researched, shows critical analytical skills, is well argued, with scholarly presentation and documentation; • Work that meets all the key assessment criteria and exceeds in some; • Work that shows limited room for improvement. H1 80%-100% First-class honours - excellent • Excellent analysis, comprehensive research, sophisticated theoretical or methodological understanding, impeccable presentation; • Work that meets all the key assessment criteria and excels in most; • Work that meets these criteria and is also in some way original, exciting or challenging could be awarded marks in the high 80s or above. • Marks of 90% and above may be awarded to the best student work in the H1 range. 16 Assessment Submission Assessment submission in the School of Social and Political Sciences is a two-step process. please note that both of these steps must be completed by the due date and time before work can be assessed. i. Students must submit assessment electronically (in word doc format) through the Turnitin function, via the online submission portal on the LMS site of this subject. This will act as an electronic receipt of assessment submission. AND ii. All written work for assessment must be submitted to the School office and include a correctly completed School Assessment Coversheet. The cover sheet includes a student declaration, which students must sign. The declaration relates to the originality (lack of plagiarism, collusion, etc.) of student work. Essay Coversheets are available from relevant subject LMS sites and can also be found in the ‘Student’ section of the School’s website. Assessment should be typed in double-spacing in 12 point font on one side of the sheet only, and with a margin of at least 4 cm on the left hand side of the page. All work submitted through the School office will be collated and passed on to the relevant tutor/lecturer within 24 hours. Please note: students are required to prepare their assessment (ie. properly collated and a completed coversheet) prior to submission. Stationery will not be provided at the School office. Assignments will not be accepted via fax or email. Students are expected to retain a copy of all work submitted for assessment. Extension Policy and Late Submission of Work Extensions for assessment other than the final piece will be handled by tutors / subject coordinators in accordance with the current policy outlined below: Students are able to negotiate a short-term extension of up to 5 working days with tutors for in-semester assessment. Longer terms of up to 10 working days can only be approved by the subject coordinator. Extensions are not granted after due dates have passed. An extension of time after a deadline has passed will be given usually only for a reason that falls within the guidelines for Special Consideration. A specific date will then be agreed upon and enforced unless evidence for additional Special Consideration is produced. To apply for an extension, students must complete an Assignment Extension Request form available from relevant subject LMS sites (and from the ‘student’ sections of the School’s website) and email it their tutor/subject coordinator, along with any supporting documentation where possible, prior to the submission date. Students will then be notified of the outcome of the application by their Tutor or Subject Coordinator via the student’s university e-mail account. Extensions for the final piece of assessment due during the examination period may be granted by the subject coordinator on the provision of some documentation for a maximum of TEN working days (two weeks) and on the condition that the work will be marked in time for a final grade to be returned by the results submission deadline set by the School. Special Consideration forms should be submitted for issues which impact on the whole of semester work and for issues affecting assessment where more than a two week extension is requested. 17 Penalty for Submission of Late Assessment Essay-based assessment (or equivalent) submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per working day. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass any subject. Special Consideration Students can apply for Special Consideration via the Student Portal. Special Consideration applications should be submitted no later than 5pm on the third working day after the submission/sitting date for the relevant assessment component. Students are only eligible for Special Consideration if circumstances beyond their control have severely hindered completion of assessed work. Appropriate response to Special Consideration depends upon the degree of disadvantage experienced by the student. This may vary from an extension in the case of slight disadvantage to additional assessment in the cases of moderate or severe disadvantage. Consideration of special consideration applications will be by a Faculty Special Consideration Committee (SCC), working within guidelines established by the Special Consideration Policy Committee (SCPC) and coordinated by a Student Centre. Arts Student Centre Staff will contact students with the outcome of their application, copied in to appropriate School staff. Subject coordinators or other staff (academic or professional) may submit advice directly to the Special Consideration committee if they wish. Final decisions in line with University policy will be made by the Committee. Students should be advised not to apply for special consideration unless the relevant circumstances have delayed their study by at least 2 weeks. Applications for special consideration detailing delays to study for a shorter period will be refused and the student will be referred to their subject coordinator for an extension. If students are experiencing difficulties and are not sure whether to apply for special consideration, it is important that they discuss the matter with the lecturer / subject coordinator or a Student Advisor at the Arts Student Centre. For further information on Special Consideration, please refer to: http://policy.unimelb.edu.au/MPF1030 Student Equitable Adjustment Procedure (SEAP) Further information: https://policy.unimelb.edu.au/MPF1074 Elite Athletes & Performers, Army Reservists, Emergency Volunteers Special study arrangements can be made for students who are elite athletes, performers, defence reservists or emergency volunteers. Further information can be found via these links: https://policy.unimelb.edu.au/MPF1072 & https://policy.unimelb.edu.au/MPF1070 Plagiarism Plagiarism is a copyright offence, which the University regards as cheating and it is punished accordingly. Students are warned to be careful to guard against it occurring consciously or unconsciously in essay writing. It is therefore important that students spend time ascertaining how their own work differs in its assumptions and methodology from that of 18 the critics they have read or engaged with (including lecturers and tutors!). Students should not repeat material used for another piece of work in the same subject or in any other subject that they have studied, as this also constitutes plagiarism in the terms of the University’s guidelines. Students should refer to the Schools’ Essay Writing Guide which provides clear guidelines for referencing. Plagiarism is academic misconduct, and is taken very seriously by the School, Faculty and University. Any acts of suspected plagiarism detected by assessors will be followed up, and any students involved will be required to respond via the Faculty and/or University procedures for handling suspected plagiarism. For more information and advice about how to avoid plagiarism, see the University's Academic Honesty page at http://academichonesty.unimelb.edu.au/advice.html Students should be aware of how to appropriately acknowledge sources in their assignments and what referencing style is expected in a particular subject. Students should ask their tutor or subject coordinator if unsure. The Academic Skills Unit (ASU) has a number of free online resources on referencing at: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills/all_resources#researchreferencing For further information, please refer to the School’s 2015 SSPS Academic Programs Policy and Procedure Guidelines document, provided in subject readers and LMS sites, and the Melbourne Policy Library website: http://policy.unimelb.edu.au/ 19