Global Studies (GLST) 611

Introduction

In recent years, as you may be aware, the study of social movement has emerged to be an area of crucial significance not only to the students of sociology, political sciences, history economics, government and development studies but also among the policy planners and political leaders. Over the years new perspectives have emerged both to understand and accommodate social movement in the social science discourses on social change, social transformation and social development. This course endeavors to develop an understanding of social movement in terms of various intellectual traditions, emerging concepts and theories of social movements by examining the contemporary literatures. It also examines the various dimensions of social movements in the context of globalization, resurgence of grass roots mobilization, formation of new identities among the marginalised groups and introduction of a new perspective on social development by the state. Besides analyzing the phenomena of social movements, their dynamics and transformation this course will also present several case studies as illustrations to the specificity of these movements.

Course Structure

This course is divided into three interrelated thematic Blocks.

BLOCK I: SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: CONCEPTUAL ISSUES

BLOCK II GLOBALISATION AND INTERNATIONALISATION OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

BLOCK III LOCALIZATION OF GLOBAL ISSUES: PERSPECTIVES FROM WITHIN

Course Objectives

This course aims to

• Explain the concepts and perspectives on social movements,
• Discuss the origins, ideologies, organizations, leaderships of social movements
• Describes the processes of change and transformations in social movements
• Elaborate the issues of new collective identities and the emerging patterns of collective mobilizations in the social movements
• Examine the distinctions between the old and new social movements,
• Narrate the processes of globalisation and internationalization of social movements, and
• Explain the various specificity of localized issues in the social movements based on selected illustrations.

Evaluation

To receive credit for this course, students must participate in the online activities, successfully complete the assignments, and achieve a final mark of at least 60 per cent. The Master of Arts-Integrated Studies grading system is available online at the MAIS home page. Please note that it is students' responsibility to maintain their program status. Any student who receives a grade of "F" in one course, or a grade of "C" in more than one course, may be required to withdraw from the program.

The following table summarizes the evaluation activities and the credit weights associated with them.