ASOA15057U Researching social change (Summer 2019)
BA/MA Elective course
MSc 2015:
Welfare, Inequality and Mobility
Culture, lifestyle and everyday life
Knowledge, organisation and politics
The course presents theories of social change through activism
and democratic engagement drawing on an interdisciplinary field of
methods in sociology, anthropology, and psychology.
The focus is on activists’ search for effective models of
cooperation and collective action allowing people from different
backgrounds to dialogue and take democratic decisions together in a
shifting political, emotional and ecological environment. This
gives rise to important questions that the course will explore: How
and to what extend do activists succeed to build coalitions to
support the change they strive for? Which barriers do they
encounter? Can the barriers be identified as structural, social,
cultural or psychological obstacles, which need specific solutions
to be overcome? What role has research in processes, where social
change is going on?
The lecturers and the reading materials give the students the opportunity to explore theories and practices of deliberation, pre-figurative democracy and non-violent resistance. Empirically the course draws on examples from a global as well as a local context. A hands-on approach is established through involvement with activists working for sustainability in different settings. Working with methods drawing from action-research and performance theory, combined with the sociologist Alain Touraine’s interview method and the cultural anthropologist Cathrine Hasse’s work, the students are trained to handle ‘real life’ challenges.
Knowledge
- be able to explore social change theoretically and practically
- identify barriers encountered during social change processes, and define if they are structural, interactional or so forth
- understand the role for a researcher in action research, when using Touraine’s interview design and interacting with cultural processes as Hasse points out
- reflect on research ethics under ‘real life’ circumstances
Skills
- facilitate a research process concerning social change through activism, while the change is taking place
- analyse and actively address barrier to social change
- assess and critically discuss the agenda of social activists and the potential consequences of their actions.
Competences
- manage to work with complex social phenomena, while interacting with different stakeholders
- take responsibility for the research process and share the result of the exploration with the participants
- give and receive feedback and reflect on how to integrate this into future learning and working strategies
Alain Touraine, Peter Gundelach, Kurt Lewin, Lev Vygotsky, Cathrine Hasse
- Category
- Hours
- Class Instruction
- 28
- Course Preparation
- 106
- Exam Preparation
- 22
- Exercises
- 50
- Total
- 206
Peer-to-peer feedback is an integrated part of the course helping developing the skills and understanding of the students
Registration deadline for courses is June 1 for Autumn semester
and December 1 for Spring semester. Registration deadline for
Summer school is June 1.
When registered you will be signed up for exam.
International exchange students must sign up by filling in an
application
form:
course registration.
Credit students: klik her
- Credit
- 7,5 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- Course participationActive participation will consist of:
1) Active Attendance (min. 80 %)
2) Presentations
3) Feedback - Exam registration requirements
Sociology students must be enrolled under MSc Curriculum 2015 or BSc Curriculum to take this exam.
- Marking scale
- passed/not passed
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
- Exam period
Find more information on your study page at KUnet.
Exchange students and Danish full degree guest students please see the homepage of Sociology; http://www.soc.ku.dk/english/education/exams/ and http://www.soc.ku.dk/uddannelser/meritstuderende/eksamen/- Re-exam
At re-exam, the form of examination is the same as ordinary exam.
If the form of examination is ”active participation” the re-examination form is always “free written take-home essay”.
Criteria for exam assesment
Please see the learning outcome.
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- ASOA15057U
- Credit
- 7,5 ECTS
- Level
- BachelorBachelor choice,Full Degree Master choice
- Duration
- Placement
- Summer
- Schedule
- Expected timetable:
Week 34, 2019:
Monday 9-15
Tuesday 9-15
Wednesday 9-15
Thursday 9-15
Friday 9-15
Classroom: CSS 7.0.28 - Course capacity
- Vejl. 30 personer
- Study board
- Department of Sociology, Study Council
Contracting department
- Department of Sociology
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Social Sciences
Course Coordinators
- Hanne Bess Boelsbjerg (hbb@soc.ku.dk)
- Mille Mortensen (mille.mortensen@soc.ku.dk)
Lecturers
Hanne Bess Boelsbjerg, e-mail: hbb@soc.ku.dk
Mille Mortensen, e-mail: mille.mortensen@psy.ku.dk