THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Course Outline
Department of Political Science
POLI 328B (3) Language, Media and Political Power
2010-2011 Winter Term.
Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30 – 11:00 am,
Buchanan D219
Professor: Maxwell A. Cameron
Office hours: Wednesday 9:30 am - 12:30 pm (or by appointment).
Office: Buchanan C419
E-mail: Max.Cameron@ubc.ca
Tel. (604) 822-3129
Weblog: http://blogs.ubc.ca/cameron
Fax. (604) 822-5540
Short Course Description: What happens to political life, and the exercise of political
power, when people learn to read and write? How did the printing press affect religious
doctrine, the balance of power between parliaments and monarchs, and the emergence
of public opinion? Is electronic media reshaping political boundaries and identities
today? Are current political institutions being transformed -- or even becoming
obsolescent -- as new forms of social communication develop? The course will examine
these questions and their practical significance for citizenship in a globalized world. The
course will explain the linkages between mind, language and political power from a
comparative, historical and multi-disciplinary perspective. The Toronto School (McLuhan,
Havelock, Innis, Olson) will provide guidance as we move through changes in human
cognition brought about by the evolution of media of communication from Ancient times
to the present. We will then discuss current theories in cognitive science and apply their
insights to a range of contemporary political issues such as constitutionalism, indigenous
mobilization, and democratization.
Prerequisites and/or Course Restrictions: Third year standing.
Required Reading:
All texts available on Vista (www.vista.ubc.ca) or UBC e-journals.
Course Assignments, Due dates and Grading:
- Draft of research essay: Due February 10. Worth 1/3 rd of final grade. Students will
write a 5-page draft of a research paper on pre-assigned topics (see below). The draft
will contain a title, research question, a thesis statement, and a one-page bibliography.
- Final essay: Due March 15. Worth 1/3rd of final grade. The final paper will be 10-12
pages in length and will incorporate advice and criticism provided on the draft version.
- Examination: To be held during regularly scheduled exam period. Worth 1/3 rd final
grade. The examination will be comprehensive.
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Course Policies:
Attendance: Attendance is expected of students in all classes.
Reasonable Accommodation: The University accommodates students with disabilities
who have registered with the Disability Resource Centre. The University accommodates
students whose religious obligations conflict with attendance, submitting assignments, or
completing scheduled tests and examinations. Please let your instructor know in
advance if you will require any accommodation on these grounds.
Late assignments: Late penalty for assignments submitted after the deadline is 2% per
day (including weekends and holidays). The only exceptions are for students who have a
medical, compassionate, or other legitimate reason for being late and can produce
supporting documentation. Papers will be submitted by electronic means to TurnItIn.com
(see UBC Calendar) where they will be analyzed for plagiarism.
Academic Dishonesty: Please review the UBC Calendar for the university policy on
cheating, plagiarism, and other forms of academic dishonesty. The Library also has a
helpful web page on plagiarism. See: http://www.library.ubc.ca/home/plagiarism/
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Course Outline
Paper Topics:
- What happens to political life, and the exercise of political power, when people learn to
read and write?
- Is literacy an organ of social, cultural, and scientific progress? What impact does the
spread of literacy have on democratic politics?
- How did the printing press affect religious doctrine, the balance of power between
parliaments and monarchs, and the emergence of public opinion?
- Is electronic media reshaping political boundaries and identities today?
- Are current political institutions being transformed -- or even becoming obsolescent -- as
new forms of social communication develop?
- How do technologies of communication alter the balance between orality and literacy,
and how does this, in turn, affect political life? Take a specific technological change
(print, radio, television, the Internet) and trace its effects on politics.
1. Introduction. January 4-6.
Diamond, Jared. 1993. The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human
Animal. New York: Harper Perennial, pp. 141-167.
Rifkin, Jeremy. The Empathic Civilization: The Race to Global Consciousness in a World
in Crisis. New York: Penguin, 2009, pp. 96-104, 263-270.
2. Language and the Evolution of Human Culture. January 11-13.
Tomasello, Michael. 1999. The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, pp. 1-55.
Olson, David, R. 1994. The World on Paper: The conceptual and cognitive implications of
writing and reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-64.
Goody, Jack. 2000. The Power of the Written Tradition. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution, pp. 152-165.
3. Literacy and Ancient Civilizations, January 18-20.
Innis, Harold. 1995. Media in Ancient Empires. In Crowley, David and Paul Heyer, eds.
Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. White Planes, NY:
Longman. 29-37.
Goody, Jack and Ian Watt. 1995. The Consequences of Literacy. In Crowley, David and
Paul Heyer, eds. Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. White
Planes, NY: Longman. 48-57.
Havelock, Eric. 1995. The Greek Legacy. In Crowley, David and Paul Heyer, eds.
Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. White Planes, NY:
Longman. 57-63.
Ong, Walter. 1995. Quality, Literacy, and Modern Media. In Crowley, David and Paul
Heyer, eds. Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. White
Planes, NY: Longman. 63-69.
4. Literacy and Colonialism, January 25-27
Lewis Hanke, 1974. All mankind is One: A study of the disputation between Bartolomé de
Las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda in 1550 on the intellectual and religious
capacity of the American Indians. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press.
5. The Printing Press and Constitutional Revolutions, February 1-3
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. 1983. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 3-11.
Robinson, Francis. “Technology and Religious Change: Islam and the Impact of Print,”
Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 27, no. 1, 1993, pp. 229-251. E-journals.
Benedict Anderson, 1983. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread
of Nationalism. London: Verso, pp. 37-46.
6. Totalitarianism and Electronic Media, February 8-10
Ward, Ken. 1989. Mass Communications and the Modern World. Houndmills,
Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan Education.
Schmitt, Carl. 2002 (1932). The Concept of the Political. George Schwab (Transl.).
Chiacago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 19-37, pp. 69-79.
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7. Liberalism and Law, February 22-24
Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1942. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. New York: Harper
and Row, pp. 250-285.
Course Outline
Course Readings
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Course Outline