SOCIOLOGY OF FUTURE

SOCI440

Course Code: SOCI440
Semester: -
Theory+Practice: 3 + 0
ECTS: 5

Course Type

Elective Course

Course Level

Bachelor's Degree

Year of Study

Semester

ECTS

Name of Lecturer(s)

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, the students;

Question the relationship between the past, present and future.
Gather knowledge about the impact of imagination over social and political organization.
Learn to evaluate utopias and dystopias from a historical and sociological point of view.
Critically interpret the concepts of transhumanism and posthumanism.
They make sociological evaluations about futurological studies.

Mode of Delivery

Face to face

Prerequisites

Recommended Optional Programme Components

No.

Course Description

This course examines the utopias of prominent figures/thinkers in the past, the physical and mental changes that brought those utopias into being, and what actually happened despite their expectations. This course not only opens to discussion the tension between the future expectations of the past and the realities faced but also focuses on the potential futures that the present is pregnant with. Further, the future appears on the horizon of sociology as a field of study particularly when sociological imagination is applied to modern societies in permanent transition. Within the scope of this course, students will read various utopias, dystopias and futurological studies from ancient times to the present, in order to comprehend the extent of human imagination in different times and places and to expand the boundaries of their own (sociological) imagination. In addition to the reading materials, students will watch films and documentaries about the societies of the future. The goal of this course is to reflect on how the society of the future can be shaped based on the classical and contemporary sociological theories and, of course, the empirical data we already have.

Course Contents

WEEK	TOPICS
1^st Week	What is the sociology of future?
2^nd Week	The concept of utopia before the renaissance
3^rd Week	The concept of utopia in the 15th and 16th centuries
4^th Week	The concept of utopia in the 18th century
5^th Week	Utopia and reconstruction of society
6^th Week	Utopia in the 20th century
7^th Week	Otherness and utopia
8^th Week	Midterm examination
9^th Week	21st century as present and future
10^th Week	Technology society and the future
11^th Week	Disasters and futures
12^th Week	Narratives and ılusions of the future
13^th Week	Metamordernism
14^th Week	Social ınclusion and the future
15^th Week	General review

Recommended or Required Reading

Platon, Republic.
Rousseau, J.J. Social Contract
Marx, K. Communist Manifesto.
H. G. Wells, ?The So-Called Science of Sociology,? Sociological Papers 3 (1907): 357?369,
Levitas, Ruth. Utopia as Method: The Imaginary Reconstitution of Society (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
Kumar, Krishan. Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Modern Times (London: Blackwell, 1987)
Jameson, Fredric. Archaeologies of the Future (London: Verso, 2005)
Jameson, F. (1981) ?Conclusion: The Dialectic of Ideology and Utopia,? in The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act. Ithaca: Cornell University Press; pp. 281-300
Tom Moylan, Scraps of the Untainted Sky: Science Fiction, Utopia, Dystopia (New York: Routledge)
Zygmunt Bauman, Retrotopia (Cambridge: Polity, 2017), 1?12
Lowry, Lois (1993) The Giver.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1998) Herland. Dover Thrift.
Harvey, D. (2000) ?Spaces of Utopia,? in D. Harvey, Spaces of Hope, Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Press; pp. 133-181
Popper, K. (1971) ?Aestheticism, Perfectionism, Utopianism,? in The Open Society and Its Enemies Volume 1: Plato, Princeton: Princeton University Press; pp. 157 - 168.
Turner, Fred. From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism
J. E. Stiglitz. (2012) The Price of Inequality.

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

Lecture
Discussion
Presentation

Assessment Methods and Criteria

	Quantity	Percentage (%)
Assignment	2	100
Total(%)		100
Contribution of In-term Studies to Overall Grade(%)		100
Contribution of Final Examination to Overall Grade(%)		0
Total(%)		100

ECTS Allocated Based on Student Workload

Activities	Quantity	Duration (Hour)	Total Workload (Hour)
Midterm exam	1	2	2
Preparation for Quiz
Individual or group work	9	10	90
Preparation for Final exam	1	10	10
Course hours	14	3	42
Preparation for Midterm exam	1	10	10
Laboratory (including preparation)
Final exam	1	2	2
Homework
Total Work Load			156
Total Work Load / 30 (h)			5.2
ECTS Credit of the Course			5

Language of Instruction

English

Work Placement(s)

Programme Qualifications / Learning Outcomes

	LO1	LO2	LO3	LO4	LO5
K1
K2
K3
K4	X	X	X	X	X
K5
K6	X	X	X	X	X
K7
K8
K9
K10
K11	X	X	X	X	X
K12