Contemporary History: Dynamics and Social Transformations

Recommended Prerequisites

n.a.

Teaching Methods

Classes are delivered through both theoretical (2 hours) and practical (2 hours) sessions, with a focus on encouraging research, debate, and student self-learning. This includes providing and guiding the exploration of selected bibliographic resources on key topics from the syllabus, which leads to moments of classroom discussion. In addition to the theoretical classes, where the instructor presents the main issues of the program, the practical sessions serve as a privileged space for discussion and knowledge development, functioning as a forum for debating the results of students' research based on previously selected bibliography.

Learning Outcomes

Understand the main dynamics of transformation in the contemporary world. Articulate historical processes with theories and social dynamics. To develop the capacity for critical analysis of social phenomena in the light of history. Recognize the historicity of inequalities and social changes. Identify the main historical milestones and dynamics of contemporary change. Analyze the impact of wars, crises and globalizations on social organization. Interpret the cultural and political mutations of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

I. Introduction: modernity, progress and social transformation

II. Ruptures in the "long nineteenth century": industrialization, urbanization and social classes; political revolutions: liberalism, socialism and the social question; nationalisms and imperialism

III. Wars and geopolitical reconfigurations in the "brief twentieth century": the First World War and its impacts; between socialist revolution and the rise of fascism; from World War II to the Cold War; decolonization and the emergence of new states

IV. Social movements and the dynamics of rights: the workers' movement and the Social State; Feminism and anti-racism; Mass culture, youth and counterculture

V. The neoliberal order: the neoliberal turn and the reconfiguration of the State; from economic globalization, to inequalities

VI. Challenges of the 21st century: The emergence of China and the global reconfiguration of the main powers; climate change and social crisis; The future of democracy in a context of "polycrises"

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Research work: 25.0%
Classroom presentation and discussion: 25.0%
Exam: 50.0%

Bibliography

Castells, Manuel (1996). A Sociedade em Rede. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.
Frieden, Jeffry (2020), Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century, and Its Stumbles in the Twenty-first, Nova Iorque: Norton.
Hobsbawm, Eric (1999). A Era dos Extremos: O Breve Século XX. Lisboa: Presença.
Judt, Tony (2007). Pós-Guerra: Uma História da Europa desde 1945. Lisboa: Edições 70.
Milanović, Branko (2019). Capitalismo sem Rivais: O Futuro do Sistema que Domina o
Mundo. Lisboa: Temas e Debates.
Piketty, Thomas (2020). Capital e Ideologia. Lisboa: Presença.
Rodrigues, João (2022), O Neoliberalismo não é um Slogan, Lisboa, Tinta da China.
Stiglitz, Joseph E. (2025). The Origins of Inequality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tomka, Béla (2013), A Social History of Twentieth Century Europe, Londres: Routledge.
Zuboff, S. (2020). A era do capitalismo da vigilância: A disputa por um futuro humano na nova fronteira do poder (L. F. Silva & M. Serras Pereira, Trad.). Relógio d’Água.