CSOn4013 Anthropocene: Violence in Places, Worlds and Earth

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 10 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. Róbert Braun (lecturer), doc. PhDr. Csaba Szaló, Ph.D. (deputy)
doc. PhDr. Csaba Szaló, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Róbert Braun
Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Ing. Soňa Enenkelová
Supplier department: Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 25 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/25, only registered: 0/25, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/25
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 14 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
Realities, enactments and quantum theory -- a Science and Technology studies perspective
The course introduces students to current interpretations of the Anthropocene, especially those related to Anthropogenic violence and political ontology. The course has a Science and Technology studies (STS) focus. It addresses the problem of how practices enact representations on the one hand (epistemology) and realities on the other (ontology); with how methods represent and enact the real. One of the claims of this course is that technoscience does its realities as well as the representations of those realities: that technoscience enacts worlds that are fit for its methods. This reality is the Anthropocene in all its complex multiplicity, temporality and spatiality. The course will offer an introduction to science studies as well as to ethnomethodology; to different conceptualizations of the Anthropocene in geology, philosophy and STS; as well as to how the human, human and non-human agency may be conceptualized in light of the Anthropocene and how these concepts also enact the Anthropocene. The course will reflect on basic concepts of Husserlian phenomenology, his critique of the mathematization of nature and its consequences for the lifeworld as well as its applicability in STS and in addressing laboratory work in physics, specifically in quantum theory. The course will introduce students to STS and ethnomethodology concepts, such as ontological politics, ontology work, ontography, mundane reasoning and mundane ontography; as well as theories of a quantum real. The work of John Law, Annamarie Mol, Harold Garfinkel, Edmund Husserl, Melvin Pollner, Michael Lynch, Karen Barad and Hugh Everett will be discussed.
Syllabus
  • 08.03.2024 10.00 - 16.40
  • 1. Anthropocene: What is it?
  • 2. STS: What is it?
  • 3. Political ontology: What is it?
  • 4. Quantum theory: what is it?
  • 12.04.2024 10.00 - 16.40
  • 5. Enacting the Anthropocene: Anthropos, the collective being
  • 6. The ontology of the scientific revolution and the new real
  • 7. Apparatuses of the Anthropocene.
  • 8. More-than-human worlds
  • 03.05.2024 10.00 - 16.40 (guest: Csaba Szaló)
  • 9. Phenomenology, dwelling and places (Szalo)
  • 10. Phenomenology and STS (Szalo and Braun)
  • 11. Quantum social science, quantum phenomenology
  • +12. Presentations
Assessment methods
Requirements: 170 hours reading (400+ pages) 26 hours writing learning diary entry (11 sessions) 4 hours preparing a presentation 25 hours writing the final paper (2500 words) 20 hours revising the final paper Workload standards: 10 ECTS credits = 250 hours workload Regular reading for seminars: 3 pages per hour Position paper or learning diary entry: 2 hours Preparing a presentation - 4 hours Writing a first draft of final paper: 100 words per hour Revising the final paper: 100 Words per hour
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
The course is taught only once.
The course is taught: in blocks.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2023, Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/spring2025/CSOn4013