LiU Summer Academy: Critical Future Studies, 7.5 credits

Main field of study

Course level

Advancement level

Specific information

The course is given within the framework of the Linköping University Summer Academy and is only open to students from Linköping University's partner universities. The course is on bachelor level and is offered in English.

Entry requirements

Passed 1 year (60 ECTS credits) full-time studies from one of Linköping University’s partner universities

Exemption from Swedish

Intended learning outcomes

After completing the course, the student should be able to:

• account for different conceptions of the future in public culture
• critically evaluate specific imagined futures in public culture
• use techniques and methods based on theories about critical future studies.
• understand how individuals, groups and public institutions make use of the future in negotiating the meaning of the present and the past

Course content

The course is inter-disciplinary and combines methods and theories from the humanities and the social sciences. Some of the themes explored during the course are 

1) Dystopian/utopian imagery in popular culture and public discourse 
2) Technological dystopias/utopias in e.g. the A.I. and robotics discourse 
3) The capacity to use the future for creating agency

The course explores and interrogates how different conceptions of the future are constructed in public cultures, and the scope and constraints for imagining and debating different potential futures in a time of crisis – the environmental issues, the decline of the European democracy, and right-wing populist nationalist up-rising. What imagined futures are to be found in the public discourse and what values and assumptions from the past and the present are prevalent in the public sphere?

Teaching and working methods

The course consists of lectures, seminars and workshops. Homework and independent study are a necessary complement to the course. Language of instruction: English.

Examination

The examination consists of

• individual written assignment, grading: EC
• reflexive assignments, grading: UG
• aktive participation in seminars, grading: UG

For a passed final grade G is required for all parts and at least E in the individual written assignment. For higher grade the grade on the individual written assignment.

Detailed information about the examination can be found in the course’s study guide.

If special circumstances prevail, and if it is possible with consideration of the nature of the compulsory component, the examiner may decide to replace the compulsory component with another equivalent component.

If the LiU coordinator for students with disabilities has granted a student the right to an adapted examination for a written examination in an examination hall, the student has the right to it. If the coordinator has instead recommended for the student an adapted examination or alternative form of examination, the examiner may grant this if the examiner assesses that it is possible, based on consideration of the course objectives.

Students failing an exam covering either the entire course or part of the course twice are entitled to have a new examiner appointed for the reexamination.

Students who have passed an examination may not retake it in order to improve their grades.

Grades

Other information

Planning and implementation of a course must take its starting point in the wording of the syllabus. The course evaluation included in each course must therefore take up the question how well the course agrees with the syllabus. 

The course is carried out in such a way that both men´s and women´s experience and knowledge is made visible and developed.

Department