Year
2021
Units
4.5
Contact
8 x 2-hour seminars per semester
Other requirements
Students must apply through the School of International Studies office for enrolment into this topic.
Enrolment not permitted
INTR9048 has been successfully completed
Topic description

Making sense of political, social, and cultural change in a rapidly evolving world is challenging at the best of times. In an era of globalisation, where the capacity for states, non-state actors, and non-government organisations to effect change is enhanced, the challenge is magnified. This topic examines the relationship between global change, globalisation, and the concept of global citizenship. The topic considers the role and place of human rights, gender, security, migration, and the environment in discussion of global citizenship and explores ways of achieving inclusive global citizenship that have relevance to policy makers in today's world. As well as producing high quality written work in accordance with postgraduate academic standards, as part of the topic students will be given the opportunity to experience, first-hand, commemorative events in Hiroshima surrounding the 1945 atomic bombing.

Educational aims

This topic aims to:

  • Provide an overview of the various academic debates surrounding global citizenship, including those concerning its definitional scope and its theoretical and practical relevance in a global world
  • Explore the theoretical and practical dimensions of global citizenship in an international context where the role of the nation-state is being subjected to significant pressures across all regions
  • Investigate the political, ethical, legal, and economic implications of global citizenship and its relationship to cosmopolitanism as an alternative to more traditional notions of nationalism
  • Explore the politics of gender, culture, and ethnicity and the way this impacts on the conceptualisation of global citizenship
  • Examine the role of international institutions, principally the United Nations, in promoting global citizenship
  • Examine a range of specific issue areas - including human rights, the environment, migration, security, humanitarian intervention, and gender - through the prism of global citizenship and associated critiques of global citizenship
Expected learning outcomes
On completion of this topic you will be expected to be able to:

  1. Demonstrate an appreciation of the key academic debates concerning the nature and utility of the concept of global citizenship
  2. Distinguish between the key concepts and issues that surround related areas, including globalization, global governance, and cosmopolitanism
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of those issue areas where global citizenship can play a role in promoting justice and mitigating conflict
  4. Demonstrate and understanding of the barriers to achieving this in the real world and how far they can be overcome
  5. Reflect on the requirements and obligations of global citizenship