Solidarity Forever

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

In this course, we will move across time and space to explore the concept of solidarity. Is solidarity a metaphor for social order? A group feeling? An identity? A Movement? A fragile possibility? Course texts will consider these questions ethnographically, revealing the many forms solidarity can take, and the many ways solidarity has been conceived, as it emerges in a range of diverse social contexts and historical moments. We will find solidarity in campaigns for justice, techno raves, soccer stadiums, religious ceremonies, political rallies, workplaces, and beyond. From these different settings, the course seeks to develop a working theory of solidarity through an exploration of its possibilities, limitations, and dangers. With calls for solidarity proliferating across public life, and in response to a range of social, political, and environmental calamities, this course offers students a critical perspective for making sense of this enduring social science concept.