Contemporary Theoretical Debates I

Recommended Prerequisites

General access requisites to the master programme apply.

Teaching Methods

Sessions are opened by presentations by the teacher, based on texts made available and read by students before the session. These presentations are followed by an open discussion, involving all students. The moment of discussion is crucial, allowing students to collectively explore and discuss of the themes dealt with in the CU. Some sessions include oral presentations, by students, of texts which are part of the assigned reading list.

Learning Outcomes

The unit aims to create a space for the uptake and debate on current themes, both theoretically and empirically. Throughout the semester, three themes, central to the understanding of contemporary societies, will be introduced by the instructors. It is expected that students acquire and develop skills for engaging with and reflecting on: the new forms of biopower and the constitution of subjectivities and citizenship in contemporary societies; the hybrid features of culture and its expressions; the forms of sociability which shape intimate and private/public relations. A core objective of this curricular unit is to promote the capacity for problematization and mobilization of conceptual and theoretical resources for a critical approach to reality, as well as the skills required for debate and argumentation, collective wor0k and oral and written expression.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Biopower, subjectivity and citizenship in contemporary societies:
Biopower and biopolitics. The somatic subject and the work of the self. The politics of “life itself” and biological citizenship. Collective health: another politics of life?

2. Sociabilities, reflexivity and affects in contemporary societies:
Interpersonal and community relations in a society of consumers. Human bonds in a globally connected society. Love, culture and institutions in a society of work on the self. Identities and forms of recognition of the others in a dilemmatic society.

3. Culture and diversity:
Cultural diversity. Multiculturality. Pluriculturality. Culture as a hybrid.

Head Lecturer(s)

João Carlos Freitas Arriscado Nunes

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Exam 100% OR: An oral presentation of one of the texts included in the reading list (20%). Two individual, written essays, up to 10.000 ch. each (80%): 100.0%

Bibliography

Bauman, Z. (2006) Amor líquido. Lisboa: Relógio d’Água.
Canclini, N.G. (1998) Culturas híbridas: Estratégias para entrar e sair da modernidade. São Paulo: EDUSP.
Pais, J.M. (2010) Lufa-lufa quotidiana: Ensaios sobre cidade, cultura e vida urbana. Lisboa: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais.
Rabinow, P.; Rose, N. (2006) “O conceito de biopoder hoje”. Política e Trabalho, 24, pp. 27-57.
Rose, N.; Novas, C. (2003) “Biological Citizenship”, in A. Ong & S. Collier (orgs.), Global Assemblages. Oxford: Blackwell.
Swidler, A. (2003) Talk of Love: How Culture Matters. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Valla, V.V., et al (2011) “Aspectos das condições de vida das classes populares: a experiência da ouvidoria coletiva e o relatório SAGMACS revisitado”, in Classes populares no Brasil: Exercícios de compreensão. Rio de Janeiro: Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sergio Arouca/Fiocruz.