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Social and Political Sciences Tripos, Parts IIA and IIB, 2003: Notice

The Faculty Board of Social and Political Sciences give notice that they have prescribed the following subjects for 5,000-word essays for certain papers for the Social and Political Sciences Tripos, Parts IIA and IIB, 2003 (Statutes and Ordinances, p. 399):

INT. 7: SOCIETY, POLITICS, AND CULTURE IN LATIN AMERICA

1 'More a series of local skirmishes than a national struggle.' Is this an accurate portrayal of the Mexican Revolution?
2 Either

Account for the strategies adopted by the Latin American Catholic Church in adapting to the needs - spiritual and other - of contemporary society?

or

How Latin American is Latin American Pentecostalism?

3 Account for the collapse of Argentina's political economy in 2001-02.
4 Either

What are the respective domestic and international factors accounting for US policy towards Cuba since 1959?

or

Can the political stability of Cuba be explained only by the personality of Fidel Castro?

5 Compare and contrast the strategies adopted to punish and come to terms with human rights violations in the aftermath of military government in Argentina and Chile.
6 What can democratic theory learn from the results of Latin American democratization since 1980?
7 Underlining [the demise of Mexico's one-party system] are changes in 'the perceptions, the symbols, and the political values of the Mexicans' and a 'growing culture of participation' that no longer tolerates the 'arbitrary actions of government' (Foweraker, 1996). In what ways has the transformation of Mexican political culture become manifest?
8 Using examples from at least two countries, explain the role of social movements in strengthening (or weakening) democratic institutions.
9 Using the examples of at least two countries, evaluate the effects of neo-liberal economic policies on employment, social exclusion, and trade unions.
10 Explain how it has come about that Colombia has been in almost uninterrupted civil war since 1952.
11 Using examples from at least two countries, explain the consequences of Land Reform and whether new approaches are now required to reduce inequality and poverty in agriculture.
12 Assess the record of international co-operation between American states to control production of and international trade in illegal drugs.
13 Indians and people of African descent tend to be in low and very low-income groups. What are the theoretical and practical arguments for encouraging ethnic self-affirmation as a path to improving their condition?
14 Symbolic analyses of gender relations focus on language and the power relations generated by representations. Is such a symbolic focus satisfactory if not complemented by a more socio-economic approach?
15 'They are not 'exotic others' operating in an irrational netherworld. On the contrary, they are "made in America" . (P. Bourgeois, on Puerto Ricans in East Harlem, New York). Why and through what cultural, labour, and political processes have Latino migrants to the US been considered 'exotic others' or 'made in America'?
16 Assess the respective roles of politics and economics in the collapse of the Venezuelan political system in the late 1990s.
17 In what ways has modernism and post-modernism in architecture and urban design reflected the socio-political environment?
18 What has been the role of the labour market in the transformation urban kinship patterns?
 

POL. 9: A SUBJECT IN POLITICS IV: REVOLUTIONS

1 Must all revolutions fail?
2 What made the role of the professional revolutionary politically consequential?
3 Is the relation between revolution and progress conceptually necessary or historically contingent?
4 Why are revolutions so violent?
5 Did Lenin's theory and practice betray Marx's conception of socialist revolution or remedy its infeasibility?
6 Was sovereignty the key to the politics of the French Revolution?
7 When did the Russian Revolution end?
8 How far was the 'Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution' great, proletarian, or revolutionary?
9 Was the Mexican Revolution more successful at cultural innovation than at political construction?
 

SOC. 4: A SUBJECT IN SOCIOLOGY II: MEDIA, CULTURE, AND SOCIETY

1. Is the concept of ideology a useful tool for the analysis of contemporary media forms?
2. 'Culture's alienation from human affairs terminates in its absolute docility before a humanity which has been enchanted and transformed into clientele by the suppliers' (Adorno). Discuss.
3. In what ways is the concept of the public sphere useful in understanding the political role of contemporary media?
4. What is the value of Bourdieu's theory of the field of cultural production? What are its limitations? Discuss with reference to one cultural or media industry.
5. Does public service broadcasting have a future, and if so, in what form?
6. What contributions has the 'active audience' paradigm made to the analysis of media reception?
7. What role do the mass media play in the formation of social identities? Discuss in relation to either television or music or the internet.
8. Does an analysis of the political economy of the media industries help to explain the nature of their products? Discuss with reference to at least one industry.
9. What contribution is made to the analysis of culture and media by those writers who focus on their formal and technological characteristics? Are they liable to the charge of technological determinism? Discuss with reference to at least three writers taking this perspective.
10. What does genre theory contribute to media analysis? Discuss with reference to one genre drawn from any medium.
11. How does the concept of realism help in understanding the production of meaning in television? Discuss with reference to either factual or fictional television.
12. Does the concept of cultural imperialism have any relevance for understanding the globalization of culture?
13. How should we understand the social character of music?
14. Why have approaches from feminism and gender studies become the model for a new kind of critical engagement with music?
15. What does the study of news, and the production of news, tell us about the role of the media in the democratic process?
16. Do the media play a significant part in shaping the outcomes of elections? Discuss in relation to recent elections in either the USA or the UK.
17. What are the implications of the growth of new electronic media for the development of direct democracy?

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Cambridge University Reporter 6 November 2002
Copyright © 2002 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.