58218 Ideology, Beliefs and Visions

Handbook description

Social change produces ideas but ideas also produce or prevent social change. The ideologies we live under, the beliefs we may hold and the visions to which we aspire are rooted in our experiences but they also transcend them. The capacity to change society can hinge on this ability to inspire people to action. Students examine matters such as what produces beliefs and ideologies and how they are built into coherent worldviews through successive generations, the differences between religious cosmologies, political ideologies and visions and the ways they transform peoples' lives and the source of their potency and danger. They explore different types of ideas in the context of political ideologies, religious values and visions for a better society. Students develop and investigate a research question relevant to the role of ideas in social change, using participant observation and qualitative interviews to analyse ideational dynamics in real world contexts.