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The Good Citizen: the "social contract" reconsidered Spring 2003
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| Program Description | ||
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Thomas
Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr., among others, tell us that it is the
responsibility of good citizens to rebel against the things that we find
unjust. Today, however, popular notions of good citizenship often emphasize
following the rules rather than challenging them. This program asks: What
does it mean to be a good citizen in the 21st century? To address this question,
we will critically examine Western discourses of citizenship in both classic
and contemporary texts. We will begin with classics of social contract theory
(Plato, Rousseau, Locke) and then briefly trace the lived experiences of
these ideas in the American founding period, Victorian America, and contemporary
U.S. society. We will ask: What is the social contract? Who is privy to
it? What rights and responsibilities does citizenship entail? We will then
expand our scope to consider how some contemporary social movements and
theorists (e.g., feminist, anarchist, radical democratic) inside and outside
of the U.S. are negotiating these questions. How do concepts like "cosmopolitanism"
attempt to redefine notions of social responsibility in an increasingly
globalized world? What kinds of alternative social contracts and definitions
of citizenship might we imagine? This class is appropriate for students
interested in political philosophy and theory, American history and culture,
and social movements.
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| last updated: 6/1/2003 |