2022/23 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

SLSP1212 Formations of Coloniality/Modernity

20 creditsClass Size: 195

Module manager: Dr Hizer Mir
Email: h.mir@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2022/23

This module is mutually exclusive with

SLSP1210	Formations of Modernity
SLSP1211	Formations of Modernity/Coloniality

Module replaces

SLSP1210 Formations of ModernitySLSP1211 Formations for Modernity/Coloniality

This module is approved as a discovery module

Module summary

The School of Sociology and Social Policy has been studying societies from 1946 to now, and as you look back, you will see there were different ways of understanding societies in the school. All of them asked the same fundamental questions: How can we explain the emergence of this present rather than some other? Answers have tended to look at why Europe became modern and how we should understand this modernity. These answers found in various ways throughout the discipline tended to treat the understanding of modernity in isolation from processes in the rest of the world. When sociology was set up at the University of Leeds (https://northernnotes.leeds.ac.uk/history-of-sociology-at-leeds/), the division between what was modern and what was not was clear. It overlapped with what was assumed to be characteristic of Europeanness or Whiteness or Western. It was contrasted with what was considered non-modern (traditional), which coincided with what was thought of as being non-European, non-White, or non-Western. Sociology, since its formal establishment as an academic discipline (1892 in the University of Chicago, 1895 in the University of Bordeaux, 1902 in the London School of Economics), has tended to see the role of colonialism in making both the West and the Rest as of being marginal interest and importance to its remit of understanding modern societies.Modernity, however, cannot be separated in this way from colonialism. Modernity/coloniality are two sides of same coin and together they have shaped and continue to shape our world.It is this recognition of the role of modernity/coloniality which has animated scholars and students across the world to demand the decolonisation of the curriculum.This module introduces the key debates around decoloniality and what the present looks when we see it as formation of modernity/coloniality.

Objectives

By exploring key themes, classic and contemporary debates in the formation of coloniality/modernity we will be deploying decolonial thought and exploring its impact on conventional accounts of the emergence of modern societies in the world. As such on completing the module students will be better able to:

- Demonstrate their understanding of the main theoretical perspectives relating to the development of coloniality/modernity
- Contribute to informed debate in relation to issues surrounding coloniality/ modernity
- To introduce the challenge that decolonial thought offers to conventional accounts of modernity and colonisation.
- To develop students' skills in critical reading.
- Develop critical filters in order to assess social issues and competing accounts on a topic.

Learning outcomes
1. Demonstrate a familiarity with the basic concepts, historical information, and practical competencies and research techniques to develop a sociological understanding of coloniality/modernity.
2. An ability to critically read primary texts in a global/post-western sociological thinking.
3. Develop an understanding of critical sociologies of the margins.
4. Be introduced to the sociological imagination and critiques of it.
5. Be introduced to the potential of decolonial literature and approaches for understanding social phenomena.
6. Develop an understanding of the responses to coloniality/modernity.

Syllabus

This module critically explores the processes that led to the formation of the present. This is central question for social sciences in general and the sociological imagination in particular. For many decades an understanding of the present was based on examining the emergence of modernity in Western Europe, without putting this into the context of what was happening in the rest of the world. As result the knowledge was produced was not only very often de-contextualised, but also inadequate. This knowledge was to be organised in disciplines and institutions that we are now so familiar with. It produced a way of seeing the world that that stretched across all levels of education and helped to shape social relations around view of the world centred on the modernity and modernisation being synonymous with being Western.

By placing the emergence of modernity in global context we not only bring the rest of the world into horizon of sociological thinking but also improve the diet of examples by which we understand that world and our place in it. This module responds to the challenge of demands for decolonizing knowledge by a presenting an experiment: what happens when we understand the present as outcome of not of single process of modernity but rather the argument that modernity and coloniality are conjoined rather distinct phenomena: coloniality/ modernity.

This module will think through some of how the couplet coloniality/modernity have intersected to create the contemporary world we all inhabit. It will look at the debates that sought to explain the West's rise and the relationship between knowledge production and the exercise of social power. It will examine the many ways by which modernity/coloniality have produced different societies. It will ask what intellectual tools we have and what tools we need to understand the contemporary social world. By studying thinkers and situations not only from the Global North but also from the Global South, it provides a grounding for a sociological imagination that is attuned the with the plurality of the present rather than the imposed homogeneity of the past.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
On-line Learning	11	1.00	11.00
Group learning	2	1.00	2.00
Seminar	11	1.00	11.00
Private study hours			176.00
Total Contact hours			24.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			200.00

Private study

The students will be expected to engage with the online learning units of the module which will include the lecture for that unit as well as various pointers to further content. These pointers will range form further reading we expect students to engage with, documentaries/podcasts on relevant concepts and debates. These materials will support topic related learning as well as encouragement to engage with a wide, diverse range of sources. (Total: 30 hours)

The students will be expected to prepare accordingly for their seminars to take part in discussions. (6 hours per week over 10 weeks). They will also need to research for and write their 400 workbook contributions in which students will be expected to engage with primary texts (Total: 18 hours).

The students will be expected to spend 68 hours preparing and writing their end of semester essay.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

The 1200 workbook, which will be handed in in chunks of 400 words on weeks 3,5 and 8, will be explained to students as a way to monitor their progress throughout. This will allow for monitoring both of the students' critical reading skills and their understanding of relevant concepts. They will also receive feedback in an ongoing way through their seminar work and contributions to discussions therein. In addition to this, there will be two Q&A sessions (weeks 5 and 10) which will also allow for feedback. In addition to this, tutors on the module will be available to go over essay outlines in one-to-one meetings.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	1 x 1,500 words	90.00
Report	3 x 400 word Workbooks	10.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 13/10/2022

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