Critical Social Inquiry 0154 - New Media, Youth and Activism

This class explores the relationship between new media technologies, global youth and transnational environmental social movements. While the class looks at new media technologies broadly, a large part of the course will focus on the role and impact of social media in developing participatory networks that are complementary to on-ground academic-activist movements in the global north or south, with a special focus on Asia and the US. We explore the potentials of new media and the ways in which global youth navigate this unlikely space for the realization, sustenance and application of Freire's concept of conscientizacao (critical consciousness) to create new discourses that bring about lasting environmental change. We will be comparing case studies across Asia and the US, to understand the nuanced differences in the way in which global youth from both geo-political locations are using new media technologies for sustaining transnational environmental social movements. The impact of the youth's online activism that bypasses political economic structures of academic and civil society institutions is examined along with interrogating how communities of exchange and action are formed as a result of using new media as tool for social transformation.

Power, Community and Social Justice Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research Independent Work Students are expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time.