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Critical Engagements with Service and Community (UW)
his class brings political theories of civil society into critical conversation with applied service learning projects in local Seattle organizations. Coursework will introduce students to the concept of civil society, its varied representations and its practice at different geographic scales. At the same time, students will volunteer at different Seattle-based organizations on projects that will emphasize work and service. In this course, these two experiences will be brought together through exercises which focus on the ways in which the broad theoretical tools for understanding civil society inform and conceal everyday practice and vice-versa. The main themes of this course are to examine and think critically about how “good work”--through service, volunteerism, philanthropy and civil society--is discursively constructed, and how work in civil society and service learning is shaped by state, market and political forces. Furthermore, a central theme of this course will be to situate the work of students from the University of Washington doing service learning and the organizations in which they are working, within a broader university politics and a multi-scalar political economy.
GEOG 495B: Critical Engagements with Service and Community: Working in Civil Society
Course Description: This class brings political theories of civil society into critical conversation with applied service learning projects in local Seattle organizations. Coursework will introduce students to the concept of civil society, its varied representations and its practice at different geographic scales. At the same time, students will volunteer at different Seattle-based organizations on projects that will emphasize work and service. In this course, these two experiences will be brought together through exercises which focus on the ways in which the broad theoretical tools for understanding civil society inform and conceal everyday practice and vice-versa. The main themes of this course are to examine and think critically about how “good work”--through service, volunteerism, philanthropy and civil society--is discursively constructed, and how work in civil society and service learning is shaped by state, market and political forces. Furthermore, a central theme of this course will be to situate the work of students from the University of Washington doing service learning and the organizations in which they are working, within a broader university politics and a multi-scalar political economy. We will examine a range of theories related to the intellectual discourse and study of civil society from both inside and outside the discipline of geography, particularly as civil society has been theorized in relation to the state and market and at different geographic scales. The structure of this course will allow students an opportunity to work with and learn from local organizations working in civil society, including: private and community foundations, 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations and unincorporated grass-roots efforts. In-class discussion, lecture, readings and written assignments on civil society will complement these service learning projects. Course requirements include weekly written assignments, a final class presentation and final paper.