SII 199H1F: Society and Its Institutions (3): Fall Offerings
SII 199H1S: Society and Its Institutions (3): Spring Offerings
Section |
Title | College | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| L0021 | Beyond the Straight and Narrow: Deviance, Crime and Control in Canada |  University |
Timetable |
| L0141 | Greece's Wonderland | - | Timetable |
| L0171 | Critical Thinking on the Bike | - | Timetable |
| L0201 | Sustainable and Just Futures: Environmental Politics in an Age of Global Warming | - | Timetable |
| L0231 | Environmental Change: Producing New Natures | - | Timetable |
| L0232 | Political Spaces | - | Timetable |
| L5321 | Headscarves, Extreme Speech and Democracy | - | Timetable |
Section L0101
The Process of Archaeological Discovery
Archaeological discoveries have profoundly changed our view of humanity and history. This course will examine how archaeologists discover the past and what happens when these discoveries are communicated to the public. The class will focus on a series of case studies. Students will first work through the scientific literature to understand the nature of the discovery and the methods used by the archaeologists to identify the importance of the discovery. With this background we will consider what happens to this information when it is spread to the public through the media. We will also examine how conflict can emerge over who should control the archaeological remains. The case studies will come from a wide range of geographic contexts and will include both prehistoric and historic archaeology.
Instructor: M. Chazan, Anthropology
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L5102
Environmental Politics
“The environment” has become increasingly visible as a “political” issue for audiences in North America and elsewhere around the globe. This course traces the history of the North American Environmental Movement, from its antecedents in conservationism and its official inception in the early 1970s, to its turn to the "global" in the 1990s. The course explores the rise of "sustainability" as a core concept and focuses on how issues of equity have come to be a central part of contemporary environmental advocacy. By focusing on power, knowledge, and contestation over meanings as well as access to resources, this course combines cultural politics and political economy as a framework for understanding environmental struggles.
H. Cunningham, Anthropology
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0141
Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great: This course focuses, thematically, on the life and campaigns of Alexander III of Macedon. The course is structured (roughly) chronologically, tracing Alexander's childhood and education in Macedon, his accession to the throne after the assassination of his father Philip II, and then following him on his great campaigns in Asia Minor, Egypt, Mesopotamia, across the Hindu Kush, down the Indus and finally back to Susa. But we will pay special attention not to chronology or military history, but to the many larger historical questions raised by Alexander's campaigns. To what degree, if at all, can the "historical" Alexander be recovered? What did it mean to be Macedonian rather than Greek or Persian? What was the nature of his conquests and does it make sense to speak of an Empire of Alexander? How and why do ancient narratives about Alexander's conquests differ from our own? What kind of broader cultural interactions/reactions did his campaigns engender, and what were the lasting effects? In attempting to answer these and other questions we will scrutinize literary, archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic and other kinds of evidence, introducing ourselves to the wide range of methods and approaches involved in studying ancient history. Finally, as a first-year seminar in the humanities this course is designed to encourage "the development of critical thinking, writing skills, oral presentation and research methods."
Instructor: T.E. Lytle, Classics
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0142
Section L0141
Greece's Wonderland
A visit to civilization's most exciting amusement park. You will ride the Mycenaean merry-go-round with Greeks and Minoans and Trojans, experience the revolutionary roller-coaster where civilization was turned at least eight times on its cultural head, and try the Macedonian and Roman bumper-cars when Hellenism was given a rough ride. In addition, there will be freaks and clowns, and the special treat of the cotton candy of mystery religions. Studies may include: Mycenaeans, Minoans, Trojans, Greeks, Macedonians and Romans; Alphabet (ABGs), literature from epic to rhetoric, mathematics - especially geometry and arithmetic: 0 better than a letter from A to Z to infinity; Politics: demes and democracy, and alternative(s); Commerce and coinage; Technology of ships and architecture; Religion, both personal and mysterious; Science, including physics, biology, geology, astronomy, and metallurgy.
Instructor: J. Traill, Classics
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0161
Computer Networks and Society
The Internet has become such an inseparable part of our lives today that it is becoming more and more difficult imagining a world without it. It has significantly affected numerous aspects of our lives: from communications, to business, and even entertainment. It has changed many applications that existed before (like phone, and TV), and has become a birthplace for new applications that we could not have envisioned just a few years ago. In this seminar, we will study the Internet and its impact on our lives and society. We will briefly overview the structure of the Internet, and reasons behind its rapid growth and tremendous success. We will also study several cases where the Internet has played a major role in solving/alleviating real life problems.
Instructor: Y. Ganjali, Computer Science
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0171
Cultural Politics in Modern China
This course will explore the connections between politics and culture in historical context. The tutelary role of state as guardian of a state-defined orthodoxy will receive particular attention. The course will explore various meanings of the term culture, focusing particularly on political culture and its embodiment in concrete social and political movements. It will seek to understand how culture shapes politics, analyzing the programmatic and socio-political attributes of ideologically driven movements and regimes. A consideration of modern China’s protracted revolutionary crisis from the mid-1800s to the present will serve as the raw material for this exploration. In the first term, we will examine the main competing ideologies of the modern era, Confucianism, Marxism, Liberalism and Nationalism, seeking to understand the ways in which these clashing values shaped and were shaped by the crisis engendered by domestic decline and colonial penetration. Why did Confucianism, now identified with the post-WWII success of the “tiger” economies of Asia fail to survive in the late 19th and early 20th century? Why did the millenarian peasant revolts of the mid-19th century fail to ignite change? What were the attributes of Marxism that carried its proponents to political and military victory in 1949? How were “western” ideas and values assimilated in the process of transplantation to a Chinese environment? In the second term, we will consider the ways in which ideology and culture were transformed by political victory, and the consequences of transformative ideologies in power. Mao’s radical programs, the “Great Leap Forward” and the “Cultural Revolution” will be examined as well as the ideological shifts that have propelled the Deng-era market reforms and their cultural consequences.
Instructor: V. Falkenheim, East Asian Studies
Breadth category: 3. Society and Its Institutions
Section L0201
Debating and Understanding Current Environmental Issues
The course examines current environmental issues for which there is no easy answer or consensus position. For instance, to help solve climate change should we generate more electricity from nuclear power- plants, which have no greenhouse gas emissions? Or instead, should we phase out nuclear plants because of possible accidents, costs and radioactive wastes? The seminar examines the scientific and political aspects of such issues and debates the pros and cons of each.
Instructor: K. Ing, Centre for Environment
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0231
Cities and Everyday Life
Over fifty percent of the world's inhabitants now live in cities. In Canada, eighty percent of Canadians live in cities with populations of 500,000 or more, and the proportion of urban dwellers continues to grow. Understanding the nature of everyday living within cities is therefore increasingly important. This course examines the links between social, political and economic transformation and the continual building and rebuilding of urban landscapes at a variety of scales. A key focus will be on urban lives and livelihoods, and on the way lives differ by class, gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality. Both theories and methods that help us understand urban life will be explored. The course will include one or more of the following sub-topics: (1) urban health and marginalization, (2) housing and homelessness, (3) urban governance and institutions, (4) social justice movements in the city, (5) processes of economic and geographic restructuring and their impacts on work, employment and well-being, (6) urban cultures, identities and diversity, (7) crime, violence and security, (8) mobility, access and transportation, (9) built environments, public space, and civil society.
Instructor: R. DiFrancisco, Geography
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0251
Globalization and it Discontents: Germany as Case Study
This seminar offers incoming students an overview of some of the discourses and debates associated with emerging processes of globalization. The setting of unified Germany – a nation state within the European Union currently coming to terms with heightened levels of mobility of bodies, goods, and capital across its newly redrawn borders – will serve as a case study. Does globalization represent an opportunity or a crisis? Whose interests are served and who stands to lose? How is it bound up with changes in communication technology, modes of transport, and class and social mobility? Has globalization created a world without borders or simply rendered those borders more permeable for certain interest groups, while disenfranchising others? In the process of examining these issues, we will review the writings of political theorists Karl Marx, urban sociologist Georg Simmel, cultural geographer David Harvey, and several other scholars that have elaborated issues such as the nature of capital and currency, labour relations, the operation of tourism as a commodified form of travel, and the nature of citizenship and national belonging in an era of cross-cultural identifications. We will also screen several compelling German documentaries that offer firsthand insight into the nature of globalization processes; these films will offer a means to concretise reading assignments, by tracking specific sites and circumstances where globalization has transformed German industry, culture, and personal lives.
Instructor: A. Fenner, Germanic Languages and Literatures
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0321
Why University? Philosophy of the University
What justifies the institution we call the university? What is the goal of it? Why go to it? This course will explore some of philosophical accounts of education and the university, considering Ancient Greek philosophy, the emergence of the university in the context of medieval religious society, and the structuring of the modern scientific university in Europe. The twentieth century represents a crisis of purpose, as the social function of university education comes into focus. We will also reverse the question and then ask what sort of philosophy does the university require? Philosophy as a discipline in the contemporary university has changed its purpose from its previous roles. We will read about the history of the University of Toronto, as well as readings by Plato, Kant, Heidegger, Dewey, Foucault, Derrida and others Evaluation will be through a set of shorter papers, and emphasis on class participation.
Instructor: R. Gibbs, Philosophy
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0331 Woodsworth College Course
Pacifists and Peaceniks: Canadian Peace Movements in Transnational Context
"Millions of people take to the streets of major cities around the globe to protest the Iraq war." "More than 35 cities and towns across Canada hold rallies to stop the war in Afghanistan." These and other headlines confirm that public pressure for world peace continues to be an important social movement, but the recent protests are only the latest stage in the evolution of an organized rejection of violence and war. This course examines major peace movements since the early twentieth century with a special focus on the Canadian experience. After a review of the religious and philosophical basis of pacifism as well as the historical development of secular peace movements, students will study a number of peace movements, past and present, in terms of such issues as religious and ideological commitment, gender composition and popular culture. The course, taught in an interactive seminar format, will assist students in developing skills in academic research and writing, presentations and class discussions. Where appropriate, films will be integrated with a variety of interdisciplinary readings. Evaluation will be based on in-class tests, presentations, a major research essay, and class participation.
Instructor: T. Socknat, Woodsworth College
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0381
Shifting Borders, Fluid Identities, and the Politics of Language
What happens when one country becomes two, or seven, or fifteen? What becomes of the assumed relationship between language, nation, and state? Whose language is granted official status? Why? In this course we will examine and contrast the affect of changing borders on the politics of language use and language rights in three regions of recent change: post-Yugoslavia, post-Soviet Union, and post-Czechoslovakia. We will discuss language standardization, alphabets, constitutions, and language rights in education.
Instructor: C. Kramer, Slavic Languages and Literatures Breadth Requirement: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0382
Hello Europe! Eurovision Contest, Pop Culture, and the Politics of Music
The course examines Eurovision, the most popular song contest in the world, as a medium for the expression of European cultural identities. By studying European popular culture from an interdisciplinary perspective and focusing on a variety of issues in history, cultural studies, musicology, and semiotics, students acquire conceptual and analytical tools for the fuller understanding of the current European project of imagining and building a coherent and unified cultural community.
Instructor: P. Päiviö, Slavic Languages and Literatures Breadth Requirement: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0021 -- University College course
Beyond the Straight and Narrow: Deviance, Crime and Control in Canada
Who follows the straight and narrow path, and why? That ancient, important question invokes centuries-old religious, moral and philosophical concerns. It is also a social question, of great interest to the upholders of social order; and it is a sociological question, at least since the time of Emile Durkheim. So it is fitting to ask, once more, why do people stray from the straight and narrow path? Why do they break rules? Why do societies make rules? What difference does it make if people break rules or societies make rules? These are fundamental sociological questions I plan to consider in this course. Answering them will teach something about how societies work. It will also teach something about how sociology works. The course will discuss various forms of deviance and conformity against the backdrop of sociology's most general questions: Why do some societies permit certain kinds of behaviour, while other societies do not? We will keep the historical context in mind as we look at present-day notions of right and wrong, deviant and conforming behaviour. The types of deviance we examine include risky delinquent behaviours, deviant forms of appearance, substance abuse, sexual deviance, mental illness, violent crimes, nonviolent crimes, and political crimes (some of which are violent, some nonviolent). We finish with a brief discussion of punishment and its effects.
Instructor: L. Tepperman, University College and Sociology
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0171
Critical Thinking on the Bike
To cycle in the city is at once to intimately experience the most pressing political and aesthetic problems of our current historical moment. From questions of urban geography and ecology to the political stakes of cycling activism and the new economic models (co-ops, feminist) of bike business, from bike design and cycling style to musical, cinematic and literary representations of cycling – we will begin in Toronto before tracking the current spread of bike culture around the world (critical mass rides in Tokyo, the cyclovia bike paths in Bogota, velib bike-sharing in Paris) as well as the history of the bike (beginning with the high-wheel bikes and velocipedes of the nineteenth century to the current trend of fixie bikes and bike re-purposing). In this seminar we will theorize cycling while at the same time mobilize the bike to reroute contemporary political and cultural thought and practice.
Instructor: E. Cadzyn, East Asian Studies
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0201
Sustainable and Just Futures: Environmental Politics in an Age of Global Warming
We stand on the threshold of unprecedented environmental and social transformations as global warming, the loss of biodiversity and accelerating environmental degradation signal limits to economic growth. This seminar considers our current predicament through the concepts of sustainability and justice. We will place the concept of sustainability in the context of 20th century economic and environmental politics. Environmental costs and benefits are not distributed equally across people, societies and nations: some gain at the cost of others. Thus environmental justice becomes central to environmental debates and the quest for futures that are both sustainable and just.
Instructor: K. Kumar, Centre for Environment
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0231
Environmental Change: Producing New Natures
Why do we have environmental problems? How do we understand these problems, their origins, and what should be done about them? This course aims to provide background and insight on the dizzying array of contemporary environmental problems by examining their complex origins and implications in some detail. Emphasis will be placed on developing problem-driven, interdisciplinary intellectual tools required to understand phenomena that are produced through novel combinations of biophysical processes and human actions. Consistent themes will include: the human processes that tend to propel these transformations; geographies of integrated social and ecological transformation; challenges to existing institutions and social relations; and strategies in environmental governance. Case studies will draw on a wide range of issues, including the emergence of genetically modified organisms; long-term nuclear wastes; persistent synthetic organic compounds; an altered global climate; complex socio-ecological aspects of waste production and management; industrial agriculture; and large scale landscape transformations more generally.
Instructor: S. Wakefield, Geography
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L0232
Political Spaces
Is space political? In what ways? What are the implications of thinking about politics geographically? How do political conflicts both invoke and transform space and place? What kinds of alternative political relationships to space and alternative mappings can we imagine? This course will attempt to answer those questions while exploring a wide range of possible contexts in which political spaces are evident. These may include: conflicts over the intimate spaces of the body, identity, and the home; the racialization and gendering of space; the politics of cities and urbanization; the boundaries of public and private space; struggles over land, property, resources and ‘nature'; the political geographies of labour, citizenship and migration; globalization of economic markets and alternative economic political and social cartographies; borders, geopolitics, and the territorial politics of empire; and the geographic projects of colonialism, post-coloniality, modernity, and modernization.
Instructor: TBA, Geography
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions
Section L5322
Headscarves, Extreme Speech, and Democracy
The course would examine the debate about religious freedom of expression and uniform codes that preclude forms of religious dress in schools. By looking at judicial decisions in Canada, the United Kingdom and Turkey, and debates in political and legal philosophy about human rights, democracy, and the legal enforcement of morality, we would get to grips with key questions about the nature of our society and its moral commitments.
Instructor: D. Dyzenhaus, Philosophy
Breadth category: 3 Society and Its Institutions