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POLS1251 - Seminar: Political, Social and Media Current Event Questions and Issues
[A. • 3 ECTS - credits]
| Lecturers :
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Dufrasne Marie, Fournier Anne-Alexandra, Xhardez Catherine |
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| Language of instruction :
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French (some texts or activities can exceptionally be proposed in English).
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| Learning outcomes :
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The objective of the seminar is twofold and complementary. On the one hand, it aims to have the students go outside of the university so as to be confronted with “external” activities in the real world, to experience current phenomena. On the other hand, it aims to have them make use of their acquired skills, particularly those they have honed during their studies, to detect and comprehend the underlying facets of those activities and, hence, to better understand the current events to which they relate.
The seminar's overall approach is basically concrete in nature, but it is always linked to a deliberate thought process, continuously comparing theory with practice. This type of method is intended to be interactive and requires a specific type of investment from students (which can take place in various forms: taking part in a conference, visits, discussion with a guest speaker, etc, i.e. the activities which will be suggested by the lecturers). |
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| Prerequisites :
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Students must have succeeded in the first year of the Bachelor's programme in Information and Communication, in Sociology and Anthropology or in Political Sciences.
The course falls within the scope of the overall seminar approach, together with the knowledge acquired in PMSS - Principles and Methods in the Social Sciences. Students are also expected to concurrently follow the seminar of RAMSS - Research Approach and Methods in the Social Sciences - and to draw on the knowledge acquired in that seminar. |
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| Course contents :
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Three groups of topics will be proposed in 2012-13: “Media and Participation”, “Conflict Management and Working towards Peace”” and “Political Parties and Political Communication” [a fourth group, whose framework and activities will take place exclusively in Dutch, will relate to: “Debat over de stad” - see POLS1254].
The topic proposed by the seminar this year, is: the debate on cities and, more particularly, on Brussels; the debate such as it is conducted by researchers, activists and artists today.
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| Mode of delivery :
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Students will be invited to indicate their personal order of preference with regard to these topics during the initial session of the seminar (please note that all students in the bilingual and trilingual programmes must follow the Dutch thematic group - see POLS1254). The students will then be assigned to groups with the condition that no one group may count more than approximately 30 students. Each student's work will thereafter exclusively be conducted within the group to which he/she has been assigned and on the specific topic assigned to that group. Students will find more detailed information on the teaching methods in a general presentation document that will be handed out during the initial seminar session.
Each student's work will thereafter exclusively be conducted within the Dutch-speaking group and will deal with the topic of the city and the reflection surrounding that topic nowadays. Students will find more detailed information on the teaching methods in a general presentation document that will be handed out during the initial seminar session.
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| Assessment methods and criteria :
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The evaluation is based both on:
- the intensity and the quality of each student's individual participation in the various activities of the group to which the student is assigned;
- the dynamics of the progress made in the drafting of the various stages of the report as required in terms of intermediate contributions;
- the handing in at the end of the seminar of an individual report of 20 to 25,000 characters. This report must reflect a state of the art approach, i.e. an initial research phase (bibliography, presentation of an inventory of the reflection) concerning a more specific question that each student will have chosen to address inside the general topic proposed by the seminar.
Note: the activities as well as the reading list (see below) will help students in this process; the lecturers will pay particular attention to the students' respecting the formal presentation criteria with regard to a university-level assignment and will take this into account in their assessment.
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| Recommended or required reading :
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To be determined according to each set of topics.
The seminar's site for the transmission of information and the handing in of the intermediate and final versions of the reports. A reading list will be provided by the lecturers responsible for each group of topics.
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