Everyday Political Theory

Catalog description

Everyday Political Theory will enable you to analyze and evaluate the stuff of everyday life: Your coffee shop, living situation, TikTok feed, and favorite subreddit. The job that you love (or hate). The congregation down the street. The library, co-op, and trail. There are all potential arenas for politics: shared meaning and action. You will acquire analytic skills to explore relationships between membership, cooperation, and value. Each topic in class will involve an ‘us’ (membership), some goal we want to achieve or problem to solve (value), and strategies for solving the problem (cooperation). While larger-scale problems matter, we will focus on areas of life you are likely to directly experience. You’ll gain critical skills in seeing like a citizen: see the order of things, evaluate what is important, and chart a course for change.