Global Digital Cultures

Digitalisation is transforming our cultural practices - from friendships, intimacy and sexual relations, to the construction, targeting and surveillance of the public. Digital platforms and mobile apps, such as TikTok, YouTube, Tinder, Instagram, Netflix, the Russian platform VK and the Chinese WeChat and Tantan, have rapidly become central to the production, circulation, consumption and monetisation of culture. How can we understand these transformations as they take shape across the globe? This course introduces you to new digital technologies and practices from an interdisciplinary perspective in order to address this question. We will distinguish and connect approaches within Media Studies, Geography, Sociology, Anthropology and Political Science. This course is 6 ECTS, and will be taught from November 2023 until December 2023.

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The Eternal Pursuit of Happiness

Nothing is more human than striving for well-being, happiness and the good life. In the past, we turned towards philosophers and Church Fathers for advice to live well. Nowadays, we tend to use science and technology in our pursuit of happiness and well-being. But how do science and technologies shape this quest for the good life? And to what extent is our modern, Western, affluent society – driven by a combination of hedonistic consumerism and individual self-actualisation – a fertile ground for this pursuit?  What are alternative ideals and practices of happiness? In this course, we scrutinise contemporary concepts and practices of happiness, touching upon diverse topics such as dopamine in the brain, digital well-being, Eastern and Southern philosophies of the good life, the medicalisation of (un)happiness and the disappearance of fate. Supported by guest lecturers and key experts, you will embark on a quest to understand the complex and paradoxical character of happiness and put it into practice with a personal experiment. This course is 6 ECTS, and will be taught from the end of October 2023 until January 2024.

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Degrowth

How is economic growth entwined with the social, environmental and financial turmoil of the past several decades? How can we have a stable and prosperous economy that does not grow - let alone one that shrinks to a sustainable level, relative to existing planetary boundaries? The Degrowth movement offers a radical critique and an alternative vision that draws from a range of unorthodox intellectual and philosophical traditions, such as political ecology, ecological economics, eco-Marxism and post-development. In this course, those insights are brought together to confront us with our own biases concerning growth, limits, money, quality of life and so on. This course is 6 ECTS, and will be taught from November 2023 until January 2024.

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Register through GLASSExternal link. Limited spots are available.