ATS3627: Global Cultures, Local Traditions: Creating and Consuming (Popular) Culture

Firstly, I chose this unit as an elective, but I think it now might be a cornerstone or capstone or whatever unit for particular (International Studies?) majors. I didn't pay attention to that, because none of it applies to me. But that might be something to consider.

All in all, while the unit was interesting enough, I was probably slightly disappointed in it. A lot of the content I had covered in past units (perhaps my mistake for choosing the unit in the first place, then), and much of the other stuff was sort of common sensical. But as far as units go, it was fairly enjoyable.

The unit was set out like this:

• Week 1: Introduction
• Week 2: Concepts: Tradition, Authenticity & Modernity
• Week 3: Concepts: Hard vs. Soft Power
• Week 4: Concepts: Glocalisation: Cultural 'Odour' vs. 'Odourlessness'
• Week 5: Global Culture: Global Food = Global Culture?
• Week 6: Global Culture: Media Landscapes
• Week 7: Global Culture: Piracy and Protection
• Week 8: Global Culture: Is There Such a Thing as a Global Queer Culture?
• Week 9: Local Culture: Otherness and Tourism
• Week 10: Local Culture: Nationalism
• Week 11: Local Culture: Appropriation
• Week 12: Conclusion: the Global Culture Economy as a Global Culture

My favourite subjects were probably the concepts of 'soft power' and 'hard power,' which are covered in some detail during the semester. I hope to do more work on this in the future, but we'll see.

I found the lectures slow. Unlike the last unit I reviewed (see above), where I played the lectures on about 0.9 speed if ever I had to listen to them, I could get through these ones at about 1.5. Combined with the fact that they were in the warm Rotunda, the lectures weren't overly inspiring. But Carolyn is clearly passionate about what she does, and is great at getting information across. I guess the benefit of going at a slightly slower pace is that the information really solidifies in memory. Further, Carolyn used a lot of videos, images and other sources of information which livened things up a little. The guest lecturers were all good, and it was enjoyable to hear the perspectives of people (all of whom were quite young) who had been researching a particular field in great depth.

I didn't like the tutes. The room was very crammed compared to basically every other tute that I have ever had. My tutor was Phyllis, who marks well and seems extremely knowledgeable, but the tutes were structured in a way that didn't really suit my learning style. I don't think this was really up to Phyllis, so all I will say about her is that she seems super, super intelligent and is very friendly. The vast majority of the tutes were based around the online discussion board. Each week, we had to write a post on Moodle relating to the lecture content and/or readings content, and then preferably comment on other students'. It wasn't particularly onerous, so it was okay in isolation. But then pretty much every tute was spent discussing other people's posts and comments, which I found uninteresting and largely unproductive.

The tests, which were held every three weeks in the tute, only took about five minutes each. There were typically 3-5 multiple choice questions, and a (very) short answer question. It was frustrating at times because, despite doing all of the readings thoroughly to prepare for the online discussion board (I acknowledge that it served its purpose in this regard; this was the only unit where I did every reading on time), the questions were sometimes very specific.

The essay, on the other hand, was great. There was a wide range of suggested topics to devise your own essay around. I did mine on the influence of bubble tea on soft power in Taiwan, which I found interesting and enjoyable.
In summary, the unit is pretty good, and I think a lot of its downfalls were sort of created by my own previous studies, attitude toward social interaction, and warm lecture theatres.

Not that I know of, but there is no exam.

3 out of 5.

Not a thing.

N/A.