Cultural and Critical Theory (Globalisation: Politics and Culture)

Commencing with current debates concerning the appropriate conceptualisation and historical location of the process of globalisation, the first unit, The Political Economy of Globalisation, addresses the central approaches to understanding the development of the world system from within the disciplines of international relations. It will consider the key contemporary arguments concerning some of the institutional, economic and political transformations of the last two decades: the role of the World Trade Organisation, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Services, the development of regional blocs, and the changing status and role of the United Nations. It will also address the issues of the relationships between globalisation, bio-technology, militarism and the nation state.

The second unit, Globalisation and Culture, focuses on the role of culture
in the process of globalisation. Via a variety of primary texts and secondary
theoretical material it will consider the relationship between globalisation and cultural imperialism, recent developments in postcolonial theory and issues of global and local identity formation. It will also address the various complementary and contradictory forms of reaction and resistance to globalisation. Central to the unit will be the interrogation of conceptualisations of cultural identity, nationhood, space-time compression, national and international mobility and ideas of ‘home’ and ‘belonging’. Students will gain a critical understanding of the primary conceptual and theoretical frameworks that locate the role of culture within a global context.

The Core Course in Cultural Theory and Aesthetics is designed to embrace
the needs both of those who have touched on its material before (with, for
example, degrees in Political Economy, International Relation, Cultural Studies, Politics), and those from other disciplinary backgrounds whose previous academic experience has provoked an interest in these questions, without addressing them directly. Taught sessions consist of both an intellectual contextualisation of the material, and a close reading, and sophisticated critique, of primary texts.

Structure of the Degree

The Core Course is delivered during the autumn and spring terms. In addition to the Core Course, students must complete a Research Methods course and an Elective Course before researching and writing a 20,000 word Dissertation.

• The Core Course, delivered over two terms, Globalisaton, Politics and Culture;

• a Research Methods Course, which prepares students to meet the
challenge of identifying, delimiting, preparing for, and completing extended
research projects and their written outcome, and considers the distinctive
approaches taken by the different disciplines relevant to the field;

• an Elective Course – one of the following - chosen from three types of
student experience -

• a one term MA unit drawn from the range of other degree programmes offered to post-graduate students in the School of Historical and Critical Studies, in the Faculty of Arts and Architecture, of which the School is a part, or from further afield in the University

• a Higher Education Teaching and Learning Course which involves following a one term, third-year, Honours level, Undergraduate course unit, considering the course design and delivery issues with the responsible tutor, observing student progress, and delivering one lecture and conducting one seminar discussion; OR

• completing a 10,000 word Extended Essay with regular one-to-one
tutorial supervision;

• and a Dissertation of 20,000 words in which the insights provided by the critical theory addressed in the Core Course are combined with each student’s disciplinary specialism in an investigation of a text, issue, or problematic that can be supervised within the School of the University.

The Dissertation is the culmination of the degree experience. It allows each
student to address an issue or text drawn either from the Core Course or from their disciplinary specialism, and to do so with the experience of having already approached other areas of inquiry (on the Elective Course) armed with the critical insights provided by the Core Course.

Mode of Attendance : Full-time: 1 year (max 5 years)