Registry
Module Specifications
Archived Version 2021 - 2022
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Description In this module, we explore a variety of phenomena to do with everyday life, society and health as a way of developing a "critical consciousness" oriented to the meanings of things as part of a relational world. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Learning Outcomes 1. Explore the meaning and significance of thinking for oneself and critical consciousness. 2. Examine societal and health phenomena by reference to 'the world'- the relational constellation- within which they are located. 3. Collaborate with others in thinking critically about a range of phenomena to do with everyday life, society and health. These include: the ideology of merit; beds; biography, judgement and mental health; stories of illness and disability; death; bodies; claims about human nature; altruism; and relations with nonhuman animals. 4. Develop a reasoned critical position in relation to at least one of the phenomena explored on the module. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml |
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Indicative Content and
Learning Activities He saved us all!: Thinking for oneself and critical consciousnessHow a Soviet Colonel saved the world; thinking for oneself; Arendt on thoughtlessness and personhood; curiosity and the significance of the question; Freire, pedagogy and critical consciousness- presence in the world; Barthes, ideology and mythology; scholarship and argument."How did you do in your Leaving Cert?": Education, meritocracy and societyWhy come to college?; the idea of a university; Sandel, meritocracy and entry to college; college and developing identities; pleasure and college life; universities and the economy"My Bed": Beds, culture and healthTracey Emin, "My Bed" and what counts as art; the bed as an object with a significant place in culture and history; beds, sleep and health; beds and birth;"sickbeds" and "deathbeds"; beds as a site for sex; dreams and their significance; beds as refuge; the significance of "getting out of bed" and "staying in bed"; relations with one's bed as a social and psychological signifier.Simone Biles at the Olympics: Biography, judgement and mental healthChildhood experience and later mental health; linking biography and mental health; individualistic and systemic views of mental health; social expectations and judgements; mental health and younger people; pressures to be "special".The model with a prosthetic leg: Storying illness and disabilityFrank and the "restitution society"; the significance of disability and illness stories; self and narrative; stories and self-repair; formula stories; stories and selectivity- the case of prostheses; stories and oppression- Ehrenreich and the critique of positive thinking; metaphor, suffering and cancer; medicine, science and restitution stories.The midwife who couldn't say "dead": Thinking about mortalityLawton on "dirty dying" and "unbounded bodies"; death denial in culture and health care; Gawande on being mortal; fleeing and facing death; religion, atheism and meaning.Lizzo at Glastonbury: Contested meanings of overweight and obesityStigma and obesity; Murray on "reading fatness"; obesogenic systems and critiques of responsibilisation; weight loss surgery; Throsby on accounting for oneself as overweight in a climate of negative judgement.Daniel Craig as James Bond: Fit bodies in contemporary societyBodies as projects of modification and perfectibility; marketisation of the body; body solutions as a source of body dissatisfaction/shame; culture, control and gratification; disputed meanings of the gym."The Purge" and ideas about human natureIdeas about human nature from philosophy- Hobbes, Rousseau, Hegel, Sartre, Levinas; Bregman on 'Humankind'; Milgram on obedience and conformity; Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment; social implications of ideas about human nature; constructionist and strengths-based perspectives on human potential.The generosity of Bill Gates and the meanings of altruism in contemporary societiesPhilanthropy; charity; social entrepreneurship and innovation; effective altruism; neoliberalism, good deeds and systemic injustice/harms; altruism as a quality of one's intentions.Bord Bia- "Enjoy pork you can trust"?: The ethics of meat and dairy consumptionThe ethical significance of suffering; non-human animals, industrial farming and suffering; Singer and the utilitarian case for veganism; Korsgaard and animals as ends in themselves."Okja": Exploring human/nonhuman animal relationsNonhuman animals as family members; "posthuman families"; relations with nonhuman animals as company, comforting, consoling, empowering, humanising; nonhuman animals as "reasons to live" with illness and disability. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Indicative Reading List
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Other Resources None | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Programme or List of Programmes |
AFU | Age Friendly University Programme |
BHS | Bachelor of Science in Health & Society |
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2003 - 2004
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2004 - 2005
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2005 - 2006
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2006 - 2007
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2007 - 2008
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2008 - 2009
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2009 - 2010
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2010 - 2011
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2011 - 2012
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2012 - 2013
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2013 - 2014
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2014 - 2015
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2015 - 2016
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2016 - 2017
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2017 - 2018
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2018 - 2019
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2019 - 2020
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2020 - 2021
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2021 - 2022
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2022 - 2023
- See the module specification for NS122 in 2023 - 2024
- See the module specification for the current year