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Semester 2

East Asian Youth: Spaces, Ecologies, Technologies (ASST08072)

Subject

Asian Studies

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

2

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

***THIS COURSE IS NOT RUNNING IN 2024/24***

Course Summary

The module explores East Asian youth and youth culture as it connects with the political, social, economic, environmental and cultural transformations of the 20th and 21st centuries. Using theoretical frameworks from political science, anthropology, sociology, cultural and human geography, and science and technology studies, the module seeks to introduce students to the cutting edges of youth experience in East Asia, in countries such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the People's Republic of China, including the work places and industries of the future, landscapes of social and cultural practice, social organisation, political resistance and struggle, environmental and ecological futures, as well as the terrains of nationalist reconstruction, gender, identity and culture wars. Examining case studies from across East Asia, the module will deploy the knowledge and research in the field, and harness the creativity of participants in its assessments.

Course Description

The twentieth century has been conceptualised as an era of youth, in which the teenager, the tweenager and the pre-teen were invented. Young people's work, family and leisure lives have been transformed by rapid social changes across the globe, by liberalising economic and social norms, and by reconfigurations of governmental, social and industrial-business complexes. While the teenager did not necessarily arrive late in East Asia, its young people have been through a series of recent conflicts, revolutions, colonisations and traumas which would surely impact their experience of youth culture and possibilities. South Korean young people for example have been key agents of local democratisation and justice struggles, even at their most violent, and so are deeply embedded in the processes of contemporary cultural and social formation in their country. Globally East Asian young people and their bodies are renowned for the dayglo, effervescent song and dance of Kpop, Jpop and Cpop, as well as a variety of other cultural productions. Young people from other nations make their way to the Korean peninsula both physically and virtually to connect to the energies bursting out of its youth culture. South Korean young people are also renowned for having a complicated relationship with the material and psychological landscapes they inhabit, feeling forced to abandon hope and aspiration at all sorts of levels, in common it seems with younger people in China. How have these circumstances come about given that contemporary South Korea is regarded with both curiosity and aspiration, in an East Asia which across the globe is thought to be a technology-enabled future facing fantasy destination. This module inspired by Anthropology and Human Geography's cultural and material 'turns' seeks to use a wide range of theoretical frameworks, readings and case studies sourced from disciplines including political science, anthropology, sociology, science and technology studies and cultural and human geography, as well as East Asian Studies, to explore the cutting edges of young people's lives and experiences in East Asia. Students taking this module will explore the protest and resistance spaces of East Asia, from democratisation struggles, South Korea's Candlelight and justice movements to Hong Kong's Five Demands, in particular considering new practices and techniques of digital protest and organisation. The module considers young people's role in the spatial manifestation and development of new forms of performative and demonstrative nationalism. The module also touches on urban gentrification and redevelopment, familiar topics across academic disciplines, but in this students will explore the drivers and energies behind social media and algorithm led urban transformations in Seoul, and resistance movements against them, such as Japan's anti-homelessness campaigns. Digital and online terrain is also explored by this module through examinations of South Korea's combative online feminist, anti-feminist, misogynist and Incel groups and their platform and tech-based conflicts, contests and communities. **THIS COURSE DESCRIPTION EXCEEDS THE CHARACTER LIMIT FOR THIS WEBPAGE - PLEASE CLICK THE LINK TO 'VIEW THE TIMETABLE AND FURTHER DETAILS FOR THIS COURSE' TO SEE THE FULL COURSE DESCRIPTION.**

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

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