Spring 2019  |  POL 4210 Section 001: Topics in Political Theory -- Theorizing Just & Caring Futures (67287)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:
Topics Course
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
01/22/2019 - 05/06/2019
Tue, Thu 01:00PM - 02:15PM
UMTC, West Bank
Blegen Hall 140
Enrollment Status:
Closed (30 of 30 seats filled)
Course Catalog Description:
Topics courses provide students with the opportunity to study key concepts, thinkers, and themes in Political Theory not normally covered in the standard slate of course offerings. The specific content of these courses varies considerably from year to year. See the current class schedule for details.
Class Notes:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?jctronto+POL4210+Spring2019
Class Description:
How can we think about more just and caring futures? This class will start from current realities and explore future possibilities, drawing on utopian/dystopian and current texts in political theory. Students will do original work to address these issues.
Who Should Take This Class?:
Advanced Students interested in change, or why it doesn't happen
Learning Objectives:
Here are the outcomes and measures proposed:

0A

6) Understand the role of creativity, innovation, discovery, and expression across disciplines


a. Please explain briefly how this outcome will be addressed in the course. Give brief examples of classwork related to the outcome.



Advanced students often observe that they have learned how to criticize texts well, but they have not learned how to make positive arguments for change. Rather than simply reading political theory, this course will ask students to take on the task of writing a theoretical argument of their own. This course will begin, starting from the account of theory by Charlotte Bunch, by looking at four elements in political theory: 1) describing a problem, 2) analyzing it, 3) offering a vision for change and 4) a strategy to achieve this vision. We will begin by reading some theoretical works that are currently being made by political theorists to change practices and institutions, both on a local, national, and global level, to create more just futures. We will consider utopian writing as one possible direction for change (reading a utopia such as Thomas More's Utopia or Marge Piercy, Women on the Edge of Time), arguments from ideal and "non-ideal" justice theory, and arguments by scholars of care ethics to improve society. Then students will write a paper of their own, following one of these strategies and addressing a problem of their choice.



b. How will you assess the students' learning related to this outcome? Give brief examples of how classwork related to the outcome will be evaluated.



Students will write one long semester term paper that will be developed over the course of the semester and build upon the readings. They will choose a problem that they want to address and follow a directed program through many steps to write the paper. All of the papers will require creativity, innovation, discovery and expression. Students will work from political theory but they may also use work from other social sciences and from other humanistic disciplines in their work. The work will be evaluated both from the standpoint of how well each step in the process is achieved (for example, the research done to discuss a problem, such as political polarization or consider proposals for reducing polarization), as well as from the final standpoint of how well the paper hangs together to provide a compelling way to think about change.




7) Have acquired skills for effective citizenship and life-long learning


a. Please explain briefly how this outcome will be addressed in the course. Give brief examples of classwork related to the outcome.



One of the most difficult tasks for citizens at present is to remain hopeful about possibilities for change. Effective citizens must overcome a sense of passivity and to use Robert Kennedy's term, futility. By looking at ways in which political theorists have suggested, and in some cases achieved, positive change, the course will offer students with a way to keep perspective. In discussing care, attention is paid to the important role of emotions, and values such as hope, in public life. This too will provide students with opportunities for thinking about how to keep proper perspectives.





b. How will you assess the students' learning related to this outcome? Give brief examples of how classwork related to the outcome will be evaluated.



Students will, throughout the course, be asked to keep track of their own emotional and considered responses to the material and to their own papers. By doing so, students will learn how to become more reflective about their political views and how to think about changes in their views and attitudes over time.


Grading:
Students will write one long paper in which they propose a theoretical analysis and solution to an existing political problem.
Exam Format:
N/A
Workload:
150 Pages Reading Per Week
20 Pages Writing Per Term
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/67287/1193
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
11 October 2018

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