Course syllabus

Welcome to the course SC30011 New perspectives on social movements and social change, power and resistance

Course dates: 29 April -30 September, 2024
Webbregistration in Ladok (The University of Gothenburg's study administrative system): Between 1 - 15 April, 2024

Course Coordinators: Håkan Thörn and Mattias Wahlström
Examiners: Håkan Thörn and Mattias Wahlström
PhD course administrator: Iréne Carlensberg (irene.carlensberg@gu.se)

Time and forms of teaching

While the most important part of the course will be our three intensive campus days 3-5 June 2024, as previously announced the course starts with a course introduction in zoom on April 29 at 10.15-11.15: https://gu-se.zoom.us/j/63750874224

If you go to “files” in the left-hand menue, you can find the folder “course readings” where all the course literature is available in digital format (with one or two exceptions that are on their way in the next one or two weeks) sorted by the surname of the main author.

In the schedule, you will also find references to what literature belongs to each course segment. In preparing for the campus part of the course in June, we would like you all to read as much as possible of the literature. We understand that the list is long and that some of you may have to prioritize their readings. If you cannot find the time to work your way through everything on the list before June, please at least read one or two of the texts for each segment of the course. This is important for the quality of the discussions during the campus part.

You will also see your name listed in connection with two of the course segments. We will discuss the meaning of this more during the course introductions, but in short we would like you to take particular responsibility and lead the group discussions on this topic in one of the smaller groups that we will divide you into. It will therefore be particularly important that you come prepared for this part of the course. (The division of labour that we have done among you has a random element, but we have also glanced at your self-presentations to make sure that at least one of the topics seems to resonate with your research interests.)

Deadline for submission of draft exam papers is September 15. An online paper feedback seminar will be organized 30 September 2024.

Themes 

The following themes are covered in the course:

Theoretical perspectives

Social movements and social change (Håkan Thörn, Mattias Wahlström and Anton Törnberg, University of Gothenburg).

Social movements and democracy (Christina Flesher Fominaya, University of Århus) [cancelled]

Social movements and civil resistance: a historico-comparative perspective (Stephen Zunes, University of San Fransisco).

Structural field of contention (Kerstin Jacobsson, University of Gothenburg).

Critical theory and social movements (Carl Cassegård, University of Gothenburg).

Gender and social movements (Katarzyna Wojnicka, University of Gothenburg) 

Social movements and grievances (Kjell Erling Kjellman, University of Oslo).

Methodological Perspectives

Studying civil resistance – a comparative perspective (Stephen Zunes, University of San Fransisco).

Analyzing movement texts (Håkan Thörn, University of Gothenburg)

Social movements and visual analysis (Nicole Doerr, University of Copenhagen)

How to study emotions in social movements (Åsa Wettergren, University of Gothenburg).

Interpretive computational analysis of social movement discourse (Anton Törnberg, University of Gothenburg)

Narrative analysis of social movements (Mattias Wahlström University of Gothenburg)

Syllabus and reading list

The syllabus describes the structure of the course, contents and learning objectives.
Syllabus in English

Syllabus in Swedish

Reading list (to be published)

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