Mediterranean World (20162)

Degree/study: Degree in Humanities
Year: 3rd-4th
Term:1st
Number of ECTS credits: 5 credits
Hours of studi dedication: 125 hours
Teaching language or languages: catalan
Teaching Staff: Jaume Torres

1. Presentation of the subject

With the subtitle Modern Maghreb, this year the course will focus on the social and political reality of the region, from a historical approach which emphasizes his relations with Mediterranean Europe. The issues examined will include the poisonous legacy of Corsairism; the experience of colonisation; the impossible Great Arab Maghreb; families and individuals; the 'demographic bomb'; current political and cultural challenges.  

2. Competences to be attained

General competences	Specific competences
-    Skills in managing information from a variety of sources and with sometimes contradictory contents, and in elaborating well-reasoned synthesis. -    Skills in proposing explanations for general processes with different manifestations in different moments and territories.	-    Skills in valuing and interpreting the increasing divergence process between the two great Mediterranean regions. -    Skills in valuing and arranging the different factors configuring the difficult relation between Maghreb and Southern Europe, and their respective views of difference.

3. Contents

1. INTRODUCTION TO MAGHREB. The name; the physical environment; the human environment.
2. MAGHREB, FRONT AND FRONTIER. Portuguese, Spaniards and Turks. Corsairs from Barbary. European conquests.
3. EXPERIENCES OF COLONISATION. Resistance and settling. Colonial chimeras. The Algerian War.
4. INDEPENDENT MAGHREB. The impossible Great Arab Maghreb. Diverging political constructions. Pasts without a future: Europeans and North-African Jews.
5. FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS. The family: legal regime and social reality. The gender dfferential. The 'demographic bomb'.
6. CURRENT CULTURAL AND POLITICAL CHALLENGES. About the "Arab-Muslim' identity of the Maghreb. Deslegitimization of the post-colonial power and emergence of the new political discourses. Democracy: sense and perspectives.

 

*The full version with the sections 4. Assessment, 5. Bibliography and teaching resources, 6. Methodology, and 7. Planning of activities is available in the original version.

4. Assessment

5. Bibliography and teaching resources

5.1. Basic bibliography

5.2. Complementary bibliography

5.3. Teaching resources

6. Metodology

7. Planning of activities