Media and film studies

Alternative Cultures, Utopian Politics and New Horizons

Module code: P4101
Level 6
30 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Seminar
Assessment modes: Coursework

Global society is at an impasse. Ecology is in decline; the finance system unchecked; identity, community and politics are in crisis. The future seems foreclosed.

So, what happened to the alternative? What happened to utopian imaginings, and liberated futures? Have we forgotten how to know them?

In this module, you will explore these questions. Through a review of alternative, utopian and liberatory cultural and political ideas, you will become familiar with the imagination and realisation of different horizons.

Drawing on diverse cases (from sound and the city, to ecology and mutuality) it asks where these alternatives can be found today, and how we evaluate them.

Module learning outcomes

• Evaluate key substantive transformations in alternative and utopian cultural and political ideas and practices.
• Analyse historical debates on the alternative, utopian and liberation and freedom.
• Synthesise and develop theoretical tools for analysing alternative and utopian cultural and political ideas and practices.
• Create original and independent analysis of aspects of alternative and utopian cultural and political ideas and practices.