East Asian Society
Code: 101525 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2500244 East Asian Studies | OB | 2 | 2 |
Contact
- Name:
- Blai Guarné Cabello
- Email:
- blai.guarne@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.
Teachers
- Irene Masdeu Torruella
Prerequisites
To take this subject, students should ideally have obtained all the programme's first-year credits. Students must be able to read and understand academic texts in English.
Objectives and Contextualisation
East Asian Society focuses on the elements key to a sociocultural understanding of the contemporary Japanese and Chinese societies, with particular emphasis on their representational discourses on collective identity formation in the context of globalisation. The main objective of the subject is to provide students with knowledge and understanding of the current reality of the Japanese and Chinese societies by considering their discourses, practices and institutions through the theoretical lens of Anthropology and Cultural History. Its ultimate purpose is to contextualise the content of other subjects that are part of the programme. To that end, East Asian Society involves lectures and practical classes in which students work on academic texts, participate in debates and discussions, watch documentaries, and use complementary materials.
Competences
- Comparing and critically assessing the different social environments in the field of East Asia.
- Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
- Developing self-learning strategies.
- Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
- Having interpersonal skills.
- Know and understand the characteristics of society and social processes in East Asia.
- Knowing and understanding the social relations, protocol and negotiation in the decision making process in East Asia.
- Knowing and using the information and communication technology resources (ICT) in order to collect, produce, analyse and present information related to the East Asian Studies.
- Knowing the ethnic and cultural diversity of East Asia, the identity management policies of East Asia and their evolution.
- Knowing the history, values, beliefs and ideologies of East Asia in order to understand and critically assess social issues, phenomena, and processes related with that region.
- Promoting the sustainable development.
- Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- Respecting the gender equality.
- Solving conflict situations.
- Solving problems of intercultural communication.
- Students must be flexible and capable of adapting to new circumstances.
Learning Outcomes
- Assessing the obtained results in the search information process in order to update the knowledge about political sciences, economy and sociology.
- Comparing and critically assessing the different social environments in the field of East Asia.
- Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
- Developing self-learning strategies.
- Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
- Having interpersonal skills.
- Know and understand the characteristics of society and social processes in East Asia.
- Knowing and understanding the social relations, protocol and negotiation in the decision making process in East Asia.
- Knowing the ethnic and cultural diversity of East Asia, the identity management policies of East Asia and their evolution.
- Knowing the history, values, beliefs and ideologies of East Asia in order to understand and critically assess social issues, phenomena, and processes related with that region.
- Promoting the sustainable development.
- Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
- Respecting the gender equality.
- Solving conflict situations.
- Solving problems of intercultural communication.
- Students must be flexible and capable of adapting to new circumstances.
- Using different tools for specific purposes in the fields of political sciences, economy and sociology.
- Using the specific terminology of political sciences, economy and sociology.
Content
Japanese society
Topic 1. Society and the individual
Topic 2. Social structure and life cycle: family culture / religious culture
Topic 3. Social production and reproduction
Topic 4. Social and political construction: work culture / school culture
Topic 5. Collective identity and globalisation
Chinese society
Topic 6. Social structure
Topic 7. Life cycle and ritual practices
Topic 8. Social production and reproduction
Topic 9. Collective identities
Topic 10. Globalisation, social control and contemporary debates
Methodology
To achieve the established objectives, this subject involves both lectures and practical classes. Given that its teaching is shared, the lecturers will inform students of the characteristics of assessment activities on the first day of class. The work students carry out mainly consists of lectures, individual/group presentations in class, debates and discussions in class based on selected readings, watching documentaries, documentation searches, reading assignments, written assignments, and a series of tests. Students must keep abreast of the news and information published on the Virtual Campus / Moodle.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Activities
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Lectures | 50 | 2 | 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 4, 3, 11, 15, 14, 12, 13, 16, 6, 17, 18, 5 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Written assignment | 34 | 1.36 | 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 4, 3, 11, 15, 14, 12, 13, 16, 6, 17, 18, 5 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Study and reading | 45 | 1.8 | 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 4, 3, 11, 15, 14, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 5 |
Assessment
Continuous assessment
Students must provide evidence of their progress by completing various tasks and tests. These activities are detailed in the table at the end of this section of the Study Guide.
Continuous assessment activities
- Test on Japanese society (35%)
- Test on Chinese society (35%)
- Witten essay (30%)
Review
When publishing final marks prior to recording them on students' transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews in agreement with the lecturer.
Missed/failed assessment activities
Students may retake assessment activities they have failed or compensate for any they have missed, provided that those they have actually performed account for a minimum of 66.6% (two thirds) of the subject's final mark and that they have a weighted average mark of at least 3.5.
The lecturer will inform students of the procedure involved, in writing, when publishing final marks prior to recording them on transcripts. The lecturer may set one assignment per failed or missed assessment activity or a single assignment to cover a number of such activities. Under no circumstances may an assessment activity worth 100% of the final mark be retaken or compensated for. In case of retaking, maximum grade will be 5 (Pass).
Classification as "not assessable"
In the event of the assessment activities a student has performed accounting for just 25% or less of the subject's final mark, their work will be classified as "not assessable" on their transcript.
Misconduct in assessment activities
Students who engage in misconduct (plagiarism, copying, personation, etc.) in an assessment activity will receive a mark of “0” for the activity in question. In the case of misconduct in more than one assessment activity, the student involved will be given a final mark of “0” for the subject. Assessment activities in which irregularities have occurred (e.g. plagiarism, copying, impersonation) are excluded from recovery.
Single assessment
This subject may be assessed under the single assessment system in accordance with the terms established in the academic regulations of the UAB and the assessment criteria of the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting.
Students must make an online request within the period established by the faculty and send a copy to the teacher responsible for the subject, for the record.
Single assessment will be carried out in person on one day during week 16 or 17 of the semester. The Academic Management Office will publish the exact date and time on the faculty website.
On the day of the single assessment, teaching staff will ask the student for identification, which should be presented as a valid identification document with a recent photograph (student card, DNI/NIE or passport).
Single assessment activities
The final grade for the subject will be calculated according to the following percentages:
- Written essay (40%)
- Oral defense of the written essay (20%)
- Test on Japanese and Chinese societies (40%)
Grade revision and resit procedures for the subject are the same as those for continual assessment. See the section above in this study guide.
Misconduct in assessment activities
Students who engage in misconduct (plagiarism, copying, personation, etc.) in an assessment activity will receive a mark of “0” for the activity in question. In the case of misconduct in more than one assessment activity, the student involved will be given a final mark of “0” forthe subject. Assessment activities in which irregularities have occurred (e.g. plagiarism, copying, impersonation) are excluded from recovery.
Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Test on Chinese society | 35% | 2 | 0.08 | 2, 7, 9, 10, 5 |
| Test on Japanese society | 35% | 2 | 0.08 | 2, 7, 9, 10, 5 |
| Written essay | 30% | 17 | 0.68 | 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 4, 3, 11, 15, 14, 12, 13, 16, 6, 17, 18, 5 |
Bibliography
Japanese society
Bestor, Victoria, Theodore Bestor, Akiko Yamagata, eds., 2011, Routledge Handbook of Japanese Culture and Society, London & New York, Routledge.
Guarné, Blai, ed., 2018, Antropología de Japón: Identidad, discurso y representación, Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra.
Hendry, Joy, 2018, Para entender la sociedad japonesa, Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra.
Kawano, Satsuki, Glenda S. Roberts, Susan Orpett Long, eds., 2014, Capturing Contemporary Japan: Differentiation and Uncertainty, Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press.
Kottmann, Nora, Cornelia Reiher, eds., 2020, Studying Japan: Handbook of Research Designs, Fieldwork and Methods, Baden-Baden, Nomos.
Martinez, Dolores P., ed., 2007, Japanese Culture and Society, London, Routledge.
Robertson, Jennifer, ed., 2008, A Companion to the Anthropology of Japan, Malden, MA, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers.
Sugimoto, Yoshio, 2009, The Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture, Cambridge & New York, Cambridge University Press.
Sugimoto, Yoshio, 2016, Una introducción a la sociedad japonesa, Barcelona, Edicions Bellaterra.
Chinese society
Beltrán, Joaquín, 2013, “Sociedad y cultura china”, Kepa Sodupe & Leire Moure, eds., China en el escenario internacional: Una aproximación multidisciplinar, Bilbao, Servicio Editorial Universidad del País Vasco, pp. 107-148.
Cheng, Li, ed., 2010, China’s Emerging Middle Class: Beyond Economic Transformation, Washington, Brookings Institution Press.
Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce, Gilles Guiheux, eds., 2009 Social Movements in China and Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press.
Gamer, Robert E., Stanley W. Toops, eds., 2003, Understanding Contemporary China, Boulder, Lynne Rienner.
Perry, Elizabeth J., Mark Selden, eds., 2000, Chinese Society, Change, Conflict and Resistence, Londres, Routledge.
Stockman, Norman, 2000, Understanding Chinese Society, Cambridge, Polity Press.
Zang, Xiaowei, ed., 2011, Understanding Chinese Society, New York, Routledge.
Software
No specific software will be used.