Transnational Social Movements, Risk and Public Space

Recommended Prerequisites

Students should have solid training in their area of expertise and should, additionally, have enough references of a transversal character that allow them to follow a transdisciplinary programme. They should also possess a command of the English language that enables them to read texts of a high level of complexity (level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

Teaching Methods

The classes are theoretical-practical and composed of an expositive part followed by discussion with students.

Specially valued is the application of the learned concepts to contemporary issues and debates and to ongoing research projects. In classes where the mandatory texts are presented, the teacher begins to make an introductory synthesis followed by students' presentations and collective discussion. Students' evaluation will be based on the active participation in class and on the oral presentation of a topic resulting from the program, chosen through interaction with the lecturer.

Learning Outcomes

This curricular unit has two main objectives: the analysis of New Social Movements (NSM) with the integration of the theoretical and historical experiences of social movements in a broad sense; discussing of the present experiences of the anti-globalization movements.

This seminar is organized on the analysis of mass media and the central role that they play in global societies as public opinion modulating factors and also as promoters/neutralizers of collective protest forms of civil society. Taken into account is also their role in the mediatisation of social relations and political agendas that influence both the governmental actions and the political and sociocultural struggles of the NSM. The thematic of risk will be used as the guiding principle to analyze the interventions of States, international agencies and the NSM

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

- Public spheres and forms of participation

- Media critical theory

- Protest and the production of public things

- Language and the critic of capitalism

- Alternative media and the possibility of global citizenship

- Extreme events and the production of citizenship

- Collective action and participation in Portugal

- Media and international solidarity

Head Lecturer(s)

José Manuel Oliveira Mendes

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Other: 25.0%
Synthesis work: 75.0%

Bibliography

Chomsky, Noam (2002), A manipulação dos media. Os efeitos extraordinários da propaganda. Lisboa: Editorial Inquérito.

Klein, Naomi (2007), The Shock Doctrine. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. London: Penguin.

McDonald, Kevin (2006), Global Movements. Action and Culture. Malden: Blackwell.

Moeller, Susan (1999), Compassion Fatigue, How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death. London: Routledge.

Opel, Andy, and Donnalyn Pompper (2003), Representing Resistance. Media, Civil Disobedience, and the Global Justice Movement. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group

Seaton, Jean (2005), Carnage and the Media. The making and Breaking of News About Violence. London: Allen Lane.

Strangelove, Michael (2005), The Empire of Mind. Digital Piracy and the Anti-Capitalist Movement. Toronto: Toronto University Press.