Time Schedule:
Amanda Snellinger
JSIS B 347
Seattle Campus
Examines how three key global processes - rising levels of formal education, changing health regimes , and environmental transformation - are shaping youth in the US and South Asia. Examines ways young people rework broader structures, paying particular attention to their economic livelihoods, cultural practices, and political engagements. Offered: jointly with GEOG 343.
Class description
The social category of youth differs from culture to culture. It is a contentious demographic that different people both claim to be apart of and others want to influence. Historically, throughout the world, youth generations have found agency and power through activism and consumerism. The current political events in America, South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa have shown that youth can change their society through political participation or their market influence. In this course we will explore how youth is defined in different cultural contexts and how activism, consumption, education, and livelihood strategies play a role in this discursive process. Through the processes of reading, writing, and discussing we will analyze theoretical works, case studies, and media on youth mobilization in order to understand how it operates as a social category in different cultures. The course readings focus on how youth has been defined in social science, tracking the definitions of youth from a static category within the context of life stages to one that is a process of becoming, which is relative and contextually dependant on social surroundings.
Student learning goals
To understand how youth operates as a social category, particularly in South Asia and the U.S.
To understand how the category of youth operates in various cultures
To understand how Social Science has approached the category of youth as an analytic
To understand modern and postmodern perspectives on youth, adulthood, generations, and generational interaction
To understand the role of youth in cultural, social, and political change in the globalized world
General method of instruction
A combination of lecture and seminar discussion
Recommended preparation
some exposure to the social sciences
Class assignments and grading
reading and writing assignments
course participation, writing assignments based on course materials, and exam
