ASOB16201U Protest movements, Culture, and Social Change

Volume 2024/2025
Education

Her er link til skemaet (Link for the Schedule)

 

This course is also offered to full-degree students enrolled at the Faculty of Social Science, UCPH

Bachelor Programme in Anthropology

Bachelor Programme in Psychology

Master programme in Global Development

Master programme in Political Science

 

Course package (MSc 2015):
Velfærd, ulighed og mobilitet / Welfare, Inequality and Mobility

Kultur, livsstil og hverdagsliv / Culture, Lifestyle and Everyday Life

 

Bachelor elective course


Enrolled students can register the course directly through the Selfservice a KUnet without a preapproval.

Please contact the study administration at each programme for questions regarding registration.

 

Content

This course provides a sociological introduction to the study of culture in trans-national and local protest movements, including debates about political conflict and cooperation, social class and group culture, race/ethnicity, gender/intersectionality, nationality, language, and religion, images, narrative, discourse and emotions. How do cultural diversity and inequality influence the potential of social movements to promote social change or cooperation on the local ground and in global arenas of political and media debate? In a moment where right wing political parties mobilize cultural difference as a threat, social movements around the globe try to build coalitions across social differences to address transnational political conflict and global collective action problems including climate change and ethnic or religious tensions. How and to what extend do engaged citizens and the current progressive movements succeed to reach out to ordinary people to build broader coalitions? How do they use digital media networks and everyday politics to support minorities, migrants and refugees?
 

First, we will investigate culture within local or transnationally operating non-state organizations such as activist groups or NGOs. Second, we will look at culture as a set of discourses and practices analyzing digital media, memes, visual, text-based and affective contents and news media framing and storytelling practices used by social movements. Lectures and research presentations in this course will allow students to gain an interdisciplinary and trans-national comparative perspectives on culture, protest movements, and social change. We focus on case studies including the climate justice movement, indigenous people’s movements, anti-racist movements, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, transnational solidarity and pro-democracy movements. We compare protests in the context of the global pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and protests against Corona regulations. Last but not least we critically explore far right and populist right wing political mobilization online and offline.

Learning Outcome

Knowledge:

The course will provide the students with knowledge of:

  • the core sociological research literature within the thematic field of the course, and
  • familiarity with the recent literature on Protest, Culture, and Social Change including interdisciplinary research on political participation, and research in cultural sociology, gender and media studies, narrative and discourse studies.

Skills:

Students will have trained their ability to:

  • compare and contrast key theoretical perspectives that are central to the thematic field of research within the course
  • identify significant international and interdisciplinary developments in research on Protest, Culture, and Social Change.
  • apply and critically discuss key theoretical concepts within the thematic field of the course
  • review and reflect on the interdisciplinary scientific literature on Protest, Culture, and Social Change acquiring insights into a number of different disciplines and their conceptualization of the themes we discuss as well as their state of the art. 

 

Competences:

Further, students should also be able to

  • assess and discuss practical relevance of their analysis for key actors, issues, and problems within and across the methodological and thematic fields addressed by the course.

 

Competencies:

In carrying out the presentations, projects, and written assignments students demonstrate that they have acquired competencies that allow them to independently

  • identify and analyse empirical cases and settings for research on the themes of the course.
Literature

Readings include peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters,  films, literary narratives and digital media storytelling, newspaper articles and videos. Students are required to read approximately 600-700 pages.

Students are also expected to choose supplementary reading materials for their presentations, projects, and written assignments (approximately 300 pages).

Lectures, class discussions, student presentations, exercises and written assignments based on the readings. The presentations include project work (either individually or in groups).

Students are expected to contribute actively to discussion of core theoretical-analytical tools as well as the more specific analytical examples and case studies. In their written assignments, including the final written take-home essay assignment, students are expected to identify their own analytical questions and demonstrate their capacity to critically assess and analyse empirical data based on the examples and case studies we discuss in class.

Students should also expect to review literature and assess empirical data besides the course texts. Aspects of conducting
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 42
  • Preparation
  • 124
  • Project work
  • 40
  • Total
  • 206
Peer feedback (Students give each other feedback)

Peer feedback (students give each other feedback)

Peer feedback is integrated into the teaching through feedback on the ideas for the analysis of empirical case studies, societal debates and theories discussed in the course.

Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment, -
Type of assessment details
The students are required to formulate their own exam questions based on pre-defined guidelines provided by the teacher. Students will receive the exam guidelines for formulating exam questions during the ongoing semester. The teacher is required to provide at least two exemplary exam questions that adhere to the guidelines.

The exam can be written individually or in groups of max. 4 students.
Length of the exam is 10 pages + 5 pages pr. extra group member.
Exam registration requirements

You need to be signed up for the course to attend the exam

Aid
All aids allowed

The Department of Sociology prohibits the use of generative AI software and large language models (AI/LLMs), such as ChatGPT, for generating novel and creative content in written exams. However, students may use AI/LLMs to enhance the presentation of their own original work, such as text editing, argument validation, or improving statistical programming code. Students must disclose in an appendix if and how AI/LLMs were used; this appendix will not count toward the page limit of the exam. This policy is in place to ensure that students’ written exams accurately reflect their own knowledge and understanding of the material. All students are required to include an AI declaration in their exam submissions regardless of whether they have used generative AI software or not. This declaration should be placed as the last page of the exam submission. Please note that the AI statement is not included in the calculation of the overall length of your assignment. The template for the AI statement can be found in the Digital Exam system and on the Study Pages on KUnet under “Written exam”. Exams that do not declare if and how AI/LLMs were used will be administratively rejected and counted as one exam attempt.

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
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

Students have to write a new essay using the guidelines provided by the teacher

NOTE!

This is an elective course. We can only guarantee that the exam can be taken during the 3 immediate exam periods after the course has ended.

Criteria for exam assesment

Please see the learning outcome.