Unit name | Leadership in France |
---|---|
Unit code | FREN30107 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | H/6 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Professor. Raymond |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
N/A |
Co-requisites |
N/A |
School/department | Department of French |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The unit takes as its starting point the radical transformation in the understanding of leadership in modern France which flows from Rousseau’s Social Contract, and looks at the way symbolic power is vested in icons and myths that consecrate the power of the people rather than the pre-eminence of an individual. The unit then aims to explore the paradoxes that rapidly establish themselves, such as, on the one hand, the rise of ‘l’espace public’, and on the other, the recurring resort to providential leadership in modern France. Using the critical perspectives developed by Durkheim, Bourdieu and others, the unit will elucidate the effect of factors like charisma, the impact of modern communication, the rise of celebrity culture, and enable the students to develop a sophisticated understanding of how and why leadership operates as it does in contemporary France.
On successful completion of this unit a student will be able to
2 x 50-minute seminars per week
The summative assessment will take the form of two 3000-word essays, each returning 50% of the final mark for the unit. The essays will be written in English and the first will deal with the sociological aspects of leadership and the way this has been theorised (ILOs 1-2). The second essay will be more focused on the cultural and historical specificity of the French context (ILOs 3-4).
P. Bourdieu (1991), Language and Symbolic Power, Cambridge: Polity Press.
G. Debord (1992 edition), La société du spectacle, Paris : Seuil.
J. Gaffney (2012), Political Leadership in France, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
R. Girardet (1986), Mythes et mythologies politiques, Paris: Seuil.
S. Hazareesingh (2010), Le mythe gaullien, Paris: Gallimard.
A. Lilti (2014), Figures publiques, Paris : Fayard.
As with other contemporary France units in years 1 and 2, the students are also provided with a dossier of articles, extracts and speeches to orientate discussion in the seminars and act as a springboard for further reading.