module specification

GI7040 - Citizenship and Social Justice (2024/25)

Module specification Module approved to run in 2024/25
Module title Citizenship and Social Justice
Module level Masters (07)
Credit rating for module 20
School School of Social Sciences and Professions
Total study hours 200
 
36 hours Scheduled learning & teaching activities
72 hours Guided independent study
92 hours Assessment Preparation / Delivery
Assessment components
Type Weighting Qualifying mark Description
Coursework 20%   Seminar presentation chosen from a list of questions, each of which has a designated week.
Coursework 80%   3,500-4,000 word essay answering one of the set questions, which may, but need not, be that chosen for seminar presentat
Running in 2024/25

(Please note that module timeslots are subject to change)		 No instances running in the year

Module summary

 The original, republican ideal of citizenship that of being an active part of a city and its civil society, of a polis and its political community, not simply the possessor of a passport. This module explores the changing meaning and continuing potential of citizenship, including the modern separation of the politics of the sovereign, bureaucratic state from the market society of its economically active subjects, and the failure of twentieth-century attempts to use states’ representative democracy to democratize society and justify corporate and institutionalized power in terms of citizens’ participation. This failure has much to do with the massive scale of modern political and economic organization, and the module will explore recent arguments about both the politics of locality and community and the relation of citizenship and rights to duties, virtues, and justice.

The module aims:

1. To provide a historical and critical introduction to ideas, theories and arguments about citizenship and social justice.
2. To explore ethical ideas and to articulate such ideas in the construction of a logical argument.
3. To relate philosophical propositions to political, social and economic issues and to institutional, legal and policy prescriptions.

Prior learning requirements

No pre- or co- requisites for the module.
Not available for Study Abroad.

Module aims

 
 

Syllabus

The syllabus progresses from the ideal of a political community of active participants, enjoying an equal status involving both rights and duties, to its contrast with modern, less substantive but more socially inclusive ideas of justice, including that of unconditional human rights transcending state boundaries. (LO 1-4)

Balance of independent study and scheduled teaching activity

Scheduled lectures and seminars, supported by students’ independent reading of recommended texts. Students are required to make a seminar presentation and to participate in critical discussion of lectures and presentations

Learning outcomes

By the end of this module students will be able to:

1. understand the sources and development of contemporary ideas and practices of citizenship;

2. analyze, articulate, criticize and defend ethical ideas, and apply such ideas in the evaluation of political ideologies and institutions and of social and economic policies;

3. critically evaluate the idea that justice is the first virtue of social institutions;

4. present and defend a logical argument supported by relevant evidence.

Bibliography