Unit information: Secrecy, Power, Politics in 2021/22

Unit name	Secrecy, Power, Politics
Unit code	POLI30033
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Van Veeren
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	none
Co-requisites	none
School/department	School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

In the post-9/11, post-Wikileaks, post-Snowden and #metoo era, secrecy has gained new currency as an area of political significance and worthy of investigation. At the same time, with the rise of social media and reality television, some argue that we now live in a ‘confessional society’ where secrecy is a dirty word. This unit therefore offers an exploration of the concept of secrecy and its practices. Drawing on studies of secrecy – classic and cutting edge – from across politics, security studies, sociology, law, religious studies, anthropology, and cultural studies, as well as using cognate concepts such as surveillance, revelation, transparency, obfuscation, passing, ignorance and covert, we look at how secrets are made, why, and by whom, how secrets are normative and knowledge-making, how economies and new cultural practices grow around secrets, how secrets can be both global and intimate, how secrets are contested and challenged, and therefore how secrecy is powerful and an essential concept and set of practices for understanding (world) politics. Over the course of the unit, we will also take part in a number of practical exercises that may involve walking tours and field trips to develop the skill of ‘seeing secrecy’. In other words, over the course of this unit we explore the secrets of secrecy!

Unit Aim

• The central aim of this unit is to explore the power of secrecy as a varied set of practices.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:

• Explain how secrecy connects to power as knowledge-making (‘power-knowledge’, subjectivity);
• Demonstrate an understanding of a range of secrecy concepts and approaches including transparency, ignorance, panopticism, technologies of the self, opacity, passing, confession, obfuscation, allure and revelation;
• Identify, detail, analyse and contrast a range of secrecy practices across multiple epistemological domains of knowledge-making;
• Critically assess the interconnections between secrecy practices, secrecy concepts, and subject formation.

Teaching Information

10 x 3 hour seminar

Assessment Information

1. 1,000 word essay (25%)
2. 3,000 word essay (75%)

The assessments will evaluate all of the intended learning outcomes listed above

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. POLI30033).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.