Module POC3100 for 2019/0
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POC3100: The Politics of Fashion
This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.
Please note that this module is only delivered on the Penryn Campus.
Module Aims
This module aims to introduce and analyze the political implications of interdisciplinary research on global fashion, considering high-end designer fashion, local independent designers, and global systems of production and consumption. Through this module, you will engage the burgeoning theoretical and empirical research on the political sovereignties, subjectivities, economies, ecologies, and geographies that we enact and contest when we participate in the world of fashion. This module will enable you to analyze critically everyday instantiations of fashion as exemplary of broader challenges in contemporary politics and thus to develop crucial strengths in political analysis across a diverse range of theoretical frameworks and practical contexts.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Describe and critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of central definitions of politics developed in fashion research 2. Articulate verbally, creatively, and in writing accurate and insightful accounts of the connections between everyday practices of fashion and global configurations of political relationships. 3. Analyze a particular site of fashion practice as a site of politics, with clear and coherent definitions of key terms and effective integration of theoretical literature. |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 4. Synthesize and critically assess a defined field of political research. 5. Demonstrate through oral and written course work the ability to extend and revise political concepts to account for new fields of theoretical and empirical research. 6. Engage effectively with interdisciplinary research and articulate the significance of this work for analyses of contemporary political life. |
| Personal and Key Skills | 7. Work independently and in groups to engage in spontaneous discussion and defence of arguments in class, to prepare presentations for class discussion, and to contribute to a productive classroom. 8. Work independently to research, formulate, write, and present critical analyses that engage a complex mix of theoretical and empirical content. 9. Research, apply, and present your analyses through alternative practices of aesthetic knowledge creation, such as collage, curation, video, or photography. 10. Develop and extend a self-reflexive academic practice that is both independent and collaborative, including: assessing strengths and weaknesses, identifying goals and work plans, integrating feedback, and envisioning future work paths. |
How this Module is Assessed
In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.
Formative Assessment
A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Combined Project Proposal & Contract | 750 words | 8-10 | Verbal & written |
Summative Assessment
A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 80 | 0 | 20 |
...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group Research Presentation | 20 | 10 minutes | 1-10 | written Peer: verbal |
| Critical Research Paper | 40 | 2,500 words | 1-6, 8-10 | Written |
| Creative Research Practice | 40 | 1,500 words + creative | 1-6, 9-10 | Written |
Re-assessment
Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical Research Paper | Critical Research Paper 2,500 words | 1-6, 8-10 | August/September reassessment period |
| Creative Research Practice | Creative Research Practice 1500 words | 1-6, 9-10 | August/September reassessment period |
| Combined Research Presentation | 1,000 word summary | 1-10 | August/September assessment period |
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Core (selections only):
Behnke, A. 2016. The International Politics of Fashion: Being Fab in a Dangerous World. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. (e-book available)
Secondary:
Bleiker, R. 2017. In Search of Thinking Space: Reflections on the Aesthetic Turn in International Political Theory. Millennium Vol. 45(2) 258–264.
Bleiker, R. 2009. The Aesthetic Turn in International Political Theory. Aesthetics and World Politics. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave McMillan. 18-47.
Crewe, L. 2010. Wear:where? The convergent geographies of architecture and fashion. Environment and Planning A 42: 2093-2108. DOI:10.1068/a42254
-----. 2008. Ugly beautiful?: Counting the cost of the global fashion Industry. Geography 93 (1): 25-33.
Entwhistle, J. and A. Rocamora. The field of fashion materialized: A study of London Fashion Week. Sociology 40 (1): 735-751.
Grayson, K., M. Davies and S. Philpott. 2009. Pop Goes IR? Researching the Popular Culture–World Politics Continuum. Politics 29 (3): 155-163.
May, Christopher. 2016. Towards an international politics of fashion (book review). LSE Review of Books, October 7. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2016/10/07/book-review-the-international-politics-of-fashion-being-fab-in-a-dangerous-world-by-andreas-behnke/.
McRobbie, A. 2013. Fashion matters Berlin: City-spaces, women’s working lives, new social enterprise? Cultural Studies 27 (6): 982-1010.
Parkins, I. 2015. Hurricane Sandy in Vogue. Australian Feminist Studies 30 (85): 221-237.
Van de Peer, A. 2014. So last season: The production of the fashion present in the politics of time. Fashion Theory 18 (3): 317-340. DOI 10.2752/175174114X13938552557880.
Weller, S. 2013. Consuming the city: Public fashion festivals and the participatory economies of urban spaces in Melbourne, Australia. Urban Studies 50 (14): 2853-2868.
