GD5401 Global Concepts

Academic year

2024 to 2025 Semester 1

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 11

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Availability restrictions

Open to MLitt Global Social and Political Thought students only.

Planned timetable

To be arranged.

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Dr S R Tyre

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Team taught; teaching staff confirmed at start of semester.

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

This module introduces key concepts of political and social thought stemming from different world-regions and discusses how these regions have imagined and re-imagined themselves throughout history. You will learn about the societies and cultures of Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The module is divided into four sections according to the cardinal directions - Global North, South, East and West - and will introduce you to key concepts in global intellectual history, while encouraging you to question its sometimes arbitrary categories. These directions encode the hierarchical ways in which global space has been organised over the past few centuries by Western domination. Simultaneously, these directions also allude to political solidarities and identities born on the margins. The module questions: how can we think in common with diverse societies and cultures, to create a more democratic and equal world? Through research-led teaching and instruction from scholars across several disciplines, you will learn to analyse debates around broad concepts and compare how they are approached from anthropological, historical, and philosophical perspectives. The module includes skills workshops that connect your academic learning with the development of personal and professional competencies. Workshops bring together students from other Graduate School for Interdisciplinary Studies Masters degrees, helping you to make new interdisciplinary connections.

Assessment pattern

100% Coursework

Re-assessment

100% Coursework

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

Usually 1 x themed seminar and 1 x associated tutorial; additional skills workshops in some weeks.

Scheduled learning hours

15

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

276

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • Study major traditions of conceptual history and analyse how to investigate conceptual transfers across socio-cultural borders.
  • Gain familiarity with selected key political and social concepts from various European and extra-European intellectual-philosophical traditions.
  • Gain confidence in debating how to link together the study of concepts with concerns of contemporary critical theory.
  • Explore the valence of long-standing concept-vocabularies in the emergence of global modernities and transnational public spheres.