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Historical Perspective of the Contemporary World

Code: 104982 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2501933 Journalism OT 3
2501933 Journalism OT 4

Contact

Name:
Pau Casanellas Peņalver
Email:
pau.casanellas@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

None.


Objectives and Contextualisation

The course aims to provide students with a rigorous knowledge of recent world history, from the emergence of the great political alternatives that marked the twentieth century (communisms, fascism, parliamentary democracy) to the present. The syllabus proposes a journey through the main historical processes and events that took place during this period, with special emphasis on their relationship with the main current issues, as well as on the role of the media in the development and perception of events. The classes will combine political, social, economic, and cultural history, and will adopt a non-Eurocentric approach and a gender perspective.

The main goal is for students to be able to analyse current events – political, social, economic, and cultural – with a broader intellectual background and a broader and more rigorous historical knowledge, in order to be able to explain the present with more tools and be able to perceive the causes and precedents of current affairs.


Competences

    Journalism
  • Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
  • Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
  • Demonstrate adequate knowledge of Catalonia's socio-communicative reality in the Spanish, European and global context.
  • Demonstrate adequate knowledge of the modern world and its recent historic development in terms of social, economic, political and cultural aspects.
  • Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Take account of social, economic and environmental impacts when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  • Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  • Value diversity and multiculturalism as a foundation for teamwork.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Demonstrate a critical and self-critical capacity.
  2. Establish links between communicative knowledge and historic analysis.
  3. Explain the state of the world and its historic development from a perspective appropriate to the different associated specialised journalisms.
  4. Identify the principal forms of sex- or gender-based inequality and discrimination present in society.
  5. Identify the social, economic and environmental implications of academic and professional activities within one's own area of knowledge.
  6. Link topical debates with historic knowledge.
  7. Memorise historic knowledge that allow the historic dimension of communication and journalism to be contextualised.
  8. Read, analyse, interpret and discuss texts featuring historic content and present the summary of the analysis in writing and in public.
  9. Students can apply the knowledge to their own work or vocation in a professional manner and have the powers generally demonstrated by preparing and defending arguments and solving problems within their area of study.
  10. Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  11. Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  12. Students must develop the necessary learning skills in order to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  13. Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  14. Value diversity and multiculturalism as a foundation for teamwork.
  15. Weigh up the impact of any long- or short-term difficulty, harm or discrimination that could be caused to certain persons or groups by the actions or projects.

Content

The programme of the course will be organised as follows:

1. The great political alternatives of the twentieth century: comunisms, fascism, parliamentary democracy

2. The foundations of present-day world: the international order after World War II

3. The emergence of the Third World: decolonisation and revolutionary scenarios

4. The long 68: cultural change and political struggles

5. The end of the Cold War and the consolidation of neo-liberalism

6. The new world (dis)order: current conflicts and issues


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Lectures 40 1.6 1, 2, 3, 5, 4, 8, 7, 13, 12, 11, 9, 10, 6, 15
Type: Supervised      
Office hours 10 0.4 1, 2, 3, 5, 4, 8, 13, 12, 11, 9, 10, 6, 15, 14
Type: Autonomous      
Personal study and reading of papers/books and news 54 2.16 1, 2, 3, 5, 4, 8, 7, 13, 12, 11, 9, 10, 6, 15
Search for and use of sources in order to write a paper 36 1.44 1, 2, 3, 5, 4, 8, 13, 12, 11, 9, 10, 6, 15, 14

Lessons will be lectures with the support of different materials, combined with student participation.

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.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
First written examination 25% 3 0.12 1, 2, 3, 5, 4, 8, 7, 13, 12, 11, 9, 10, 6, 15
Paper 50% 4 0.16 1, 2, 3, 5, 4, 8, 13, 12, 11, 9, 10, 6, 15, 14
Second written examination 25% 3 0.12 1, 2, 3, 5, 4, 8, 7, 13, 12, 11, 9, 10, 6, 15

Continuous evaluation will be based on three items:

-A first written examination on the first half of the syllabus: 25% of the final mark.

-A second written examination on the second half of the syllabus: 25% of the final mark.

-A paper: 50% of the final mark.

Should the final mark be less than 5, students will be able to take a resit exam.

 

Single assessment will be based on two items:

-A written examination on the whole syllabus: 50% of the final mark.

-A paper: 50% of the final mark.

Should the final mark be less than 5, students will be able to take a resit exam.


Bibliography

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ANTENTAS, Josep Maria; VIVAS, Esther: Resistencias globales. De Seattle a la crisis de Wall Street. Madrid: Editorial Popular, 2009.

—: Planeta indignado. Ocupando el futuro. Madrid: Sequitur, 2012.

ARENDT, Hannah: Eichmann en Jerusalén. Barcelona: Debolsillo, 2015.

ARRUZZA, Cinzia; CIRILLO, Lidia: Dos siglos de feminismos. Los ejemplos más significativos, los problemas más actuales. Barcelona: Sylone, 2018.

BANTIGNY, Ludivine: 1968. De grands soirs en petits matins. Paris: Seuil, 2018.

CANFORA, Luciano: La democracia. Historia de una ideología. Barcelona: Crítica, 2004.

CHOMSKY, Noam: El nuevo orden mundial (y el viejo). Barcelona: Crítica, 2003.

EICHENGREEN, Barry: La globalización del capital. Historia del Sistema Monetario Internacional. Barcelona: Antoni Bosch, 2000.

FONTANA, Josep: Por el bien del imperio. Una historia del mundo desde 1945. Barcelona: Pasado & Presente, 2011.

—: El futuro es un país extraño. Una reflexión sobre la crisis social de comienzos del siglo XXI. Barcelona: Pasado & Presente, 2013.

—: El siglo de la revolución. Una historia del mundo desde 1914. Barcelona: Crítica, 2017.

FREEDMAN, Estelle B.: No Turning Back. The History of Feminism and the Future of Women. New York: Ballantine, 2003.

GEORGE, Susan: Informe Lugano. Barcelona: Icaria/Intermón, 2001.

GERGES, Fawaz A.: The Far Enemy. Why Jihad Went Global. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

GRAEBER, David: En deuda. Una historia alternativa de la economía. Barcelona: Ariel, 2012.

JUDT, Tony: Postguerra. Una historia de Europa desde 1945. Madrid: Santillana, 2006.

HARVEY, David: Breve historia del neoliberalismo. Madrid: Akal, 2007.

HESSEL, Stéphane: ¡Indignaos! Un alegato contra la indiferencia y a favor de la insurrección pacífica. Barcelona: Destino, 2011.

HOBSBAWM, Eric J.: Historia del siglo XX. 1914-1991. Barcelona: Crítica, 1995.

HORN, Gerd-Rainer: The Spirit of ’68. Rebellion in Western Europe and North America, 1956-1976. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

HUSTVEDT, Siri: Los espejismos de la certeza. Reflexiones sobre la relación entre el cuerpo y la mente. Barcelona: Seix Barral, 2021.

KAPUŚCIŃSKI, Ryszard: La guerra del fútbol y otros reportajes. Barcelona: Anagrama, 1992.

—: Un día más con vida. Barcelona: Anagrama, 2010.

KERSHAW, Ian: Descenso a los infiernos. Europa 1914-1949. Barcelona: Crítica, 2016.

—: Ascenso y crisis. Europa 1950-2017. Un camino incierto. Barcelona: Crítica, 2019.

KHALIDI, Rashid: Palestina. Cien años de colonialismo y resistencia. Madrid: Capitán Swing, 2023.

KLEIN, Naomi: La doctrina del shock. El auge del capitalismo del desastre. Barcelona: Paidós, 2007.

LEWONTIN, R.C.; ROSE, Steven; KAMIN, Leon J.: No está en los genes. Crítica del racismo biológico. Barcelona: Grijalbo, 1996.

MANN, Michael: El lado oscuro de la democracia. Un estudio sobre la limpieza étnica. Valencia: PUV, 2009.

MURAD, Nadia: Yo seré la última. Historia de mi cautiverio y mi lucha contra el Estado Islámico. Barcelona: Plaza y Janés, 2017.

NASH, Mary: Mujeres en el mundo. Historia, retos y movimientos. Madrid: Alianza, 2012.

POCH, Rafael: La actualidad de China. Un mundo en crisis, una sociedad en gestación. Barcelona: Crítica, 2009.

—: Entender la Rusia de Putin. De la humillación al restablecimiento. Madrid: Akal, 2018.

—: La invasión de Ucrania. Madrid: Contexto, 2022.

REVELLI, Marco: La lucha de clases existe… ¡y la han ganado los ricos! Madrid: Alianza, 2015.

ROSS, Kristin: Mayo del 68 y sus vidas posteriores. Ensayo contra la despolitización de la memoria. Madrid: Acuarela / A. Machado, 2008.

SÁNCHEZ CERVELLÓ, Josep: La descolonización y el surgimiento del Tercer Mundo. Barcelona: Hipòtesi, 1997.

SERRA, Clara; GARAIZÁBAL, Cristina; MACAYA, Laura (coords.): Alianzas rebeldes. Un feminismo más allá de la identidad. Manresa: Bellaterra, 2021.

TAIBO, Carlos: La desintegración de Yugoslavia. Madrid: Catarata, 2018.

TOUSSAINT, Éric: Una mirada al retrovisor. El neoliberalismo desde sus orígenes hasta la actualidad. Barcelona: Icaria, 2010.

TRAVERSO, Enzo: El pasado, instrucciones de uso. Historia, memoria, política. Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2007.

—: A sangre y fuego. De la guerra civil europea (1914-1945). Valencia: PUV, 2009.

—: Las nuevas caras de la derecha. ¿Por qué funcionan las propuestas vacías y el discurso enfurecido de los antisistema y cuál es su potencial político real? Madrid: Clave Intelectual, 2021.

ZINN, Howard: La otra historia de los Estados Unidos (Desde 1492 hasta hoy). Hondarribia: Hiru, 2005.


Software

Basic knowledge of word processor (Word, LibreOffice, etc.) and use of online sources.


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed