PLT2020

The politics of cultural conflict

David Wright-Neville

Proposed to be offered in 2000

8 points - 3 hours per week - First semester - Clayton

Objectives On successfully completing this subject students should have developed an understanding of the political significance of the concept of 'late modernity' and the ways in which it impacts upon everyday life. Associated with this students should be well positioned to identify the manner in which different aspects of culture and identity have been politicised under conditions of late modernity and how this process manifests itself in a range of societies across the globe. They should also be able to distinguish between the integrative and disintegrative consequences of late modernity and how these dynamics are impacting upon established political structures via the invigorated significance of phenomena such as religious revivalism, gay and lesbian movements, and new coalitions of people centring around different artefacts of consumer capitalism.

Synopsis This subject addresses the conditions of late modernity, particularly the phenomenon of globalisation and how it generates a cultural dynamic with powerful political consequences. On the one hand, globalisation exerts an integrative influence upon societies by virtue of the greater exposure to other peoples and cultures that it generates. Because of this, some segments of societies become simultaneously more fearful and more confident in the integrity of their own culture and society. By looking at the revival of anti-immigration movements in Western societies, and at the reemergence of an active sense of civilisational difference in East Asia, the subject will explore how globalisation is working to reaffirm culturally discrete communities. On the other hand, globalisation also reflects a similarly powerful disintegrative dynamic, forging coalitions of people which transcend the national community and stimulate challenges to established political structures and practices. To explore this aspect of the contemporary world attention will be paid to identity politics as it exists in the area of gay and lesbian rights, religious revivalism and youth culture. Throughout the subject particular attention will be paid to the status of culture as a political phenomenon, as both the basis upon which entrenched institutions and forms of human agency rest, but also as the essence for different forms of political resistance. The role of global media empires and the symbolism of internationally recognised commodities will be investigated for the political consequences they generate.

Assessment Tutorial attendance, oral presentation (1000 words) and participation: 20% - Essay (3000 words): 40% - Seen examination (2 hours): 40%

Recommended texts

Featherstone M Undoing culture: Globalization, postmodernism and identity Sage, 1995
Giddens A Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age Polity, 1991

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