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FACULTY OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
SCHOOL OF ENGLISH, MEDIA AND PERFORMING ARTS
Mobile Cultures
Dr Caroline Wake
ARTS2091
SESSION 2, 2011
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ARTS2091: Mobile Cultures
1. Location
FACULTY FASS
SCHOOL EMPA
COURSE CODE ARTS2091
COURSE NAME Mobile Cultures
SESSION 2 YEAR 2011
2. Table of Contents
Staff Contact Details ....................................................................................................................2
Course Details ..............................................................................................................................3
Rationale for the Inclusion of Content and Teaching Approach .....................................................5
Teaching Strategies.......................................................................................................................6
Assessment ..................................................................................................................................6
Academic Honesty and Plagiarism ..............................................................................................10
Course Schedule .........................................................................................................................10
Required and Recommended Resources .....................................................................................23
Course Evaluation and Development ..........................................................................................23
Other Information ......................................................................................................................24
3. Staff Contact Details
Course Convenor Name: Dr Caroline Wake Phone: 9385 6715
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Email address: [email protected] Email is the preferred method of communication for this course. Please put ARTS2091 in the subject line. Office: Robert Webster Building, 208 Contact time/availability: During class weeks, Caroline will be available on Wednesdays 11am-‐12pm and Thursdays 3-‐4pm. Emailing: Please put ARTS2901 in the subject line. Unfortunately with the large number of students I teach it is not always possible to know you all on a first name basis or remember the particulars of something you mentioned in class. So if you want matters to be dealt with efficiently, please include your student number, full name and class details (day and time). Emails that ask questions that can be answered by reading the course outline will not be answered. If your question is complicated, or you have multiple questions, please come and see me in my consultation time rather than email. I do not read or answer student email outside of office hours.
4. Course Details
Credit Points: 6 Units of Credit
Lecture Time: Wednesday 9 -‐11 am
Lecture Location: Rex Vowels Theatre
Course Description
Welcome to Mobile Cultures!
Media are increasingly portable, mobile, networked and ubiquitous. But what are the conditions that
have given rise to these new media technologies and practices, and how might we respond to new
mobile networks and forms of participation that mobile media allow? From mass media to mass
migration, mobility is one of the key concepts of modern life. This course investigates mobile media in
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the context of the pervasiveness of mobility in modern life and the way in which technology enables
and controls all kinds of mobile cultures.
This subject will survey the history of mobile and portable media from transistor radios through to
iPhones, within a larger context of mobile cultures in which we move, from village to city, home life to
car culture, from airport to internet. Tracing the evolution of modernity from the industrial revolution
to the fluid spaces of contemporary super-‐modernity, this course investigates the current state of play
in the mobile media landscape within broad cultural, political, historical and theoretical frameworks.
Using these frameworks we will analyse how power and resistance operate within a society structured
by movement: how social relationships are built and reconfigured in an age of global travel and
communication, who is empowered and who is disempowered.
Aims of the Course
This course will enable students to:
1. Gain an understanding of the mobilities paradigm and through this gain insight into key social
and political issues and challenges facing contemporary society.
2. Contextualise contemporary mobility within a history of modernity and learn to analyse
configurations of power in relation to the mechanisms by which they control mobility.
Student Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of this course the student will be able to:
1. Apply a mobilities framework to contemporary technological and social configurations.
2. Investigate the means by which different regimes of power operate to shape understandings
and experiences of time and space.
3. Work collaboratively in groups to facilitate the learning of other students.
4. Produce a high level of academic research and writing.
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Graduate Attributes
ARTS2091: Mobile Cultures is designed to develop the following UNSW graduate attributes:
1. The capacity for analytical and critical thinking and creative problem solving.
2. The ability to independently conduct relevant and high quality multidisciplinary research.
3. The skills of effective and precise academic communication.
4. The skills required for collaborative work.
5. Rationale for the Inclusion of Content and Teaching Approach
The mediascape has changed dramatically in recent decades. The exponential growth of global travel,
the rise of the internet and the uptake of mobile phones and personal media players has
fundamentally altered our everyday lives, our society and our sense of self.
This course is designed to assist students in conceptualising this moment of radical reconfiguration.
Moving away from traditional static models of mass-‐media towards theorisations emphasising
mobility, connectivity and personalisation, this course is designed to give the students the up-‐to-‐date
understanding of contemporary media that they will need to become successful media practitioners.
This course does not primarily focus on specific mobile technologies (which themselves will be
outmoded shortly), but rather seeks to provide an appropriate and relevant academic framework for
students to engage with and develop. The assessments in this course are designed to promote a deep
engagement with the key theoretical concepts and theorists as well as to encourage self-‐reflexive and
collaborative learning.
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6. Teaching Strategies
ARTS2091: Mobile Cultures will consist of one lecture (two hours) and one tutorial (one hour) each
week. Attendance at both is compulsory. In some weeks lecture time may be set aside to discuss
course related issues, such as assessment tasks, research skills and resources.
Tutorials are a space for you, the student, to determine what will best help you navigate the complex
terrain of Mobile Culture. You tutor’s role is to assist and guide you, not to do the work for you, so the
success of your tutorials comes down to you. You are expected to come to class having done the
readings, but it is not a problem if you have not understood everything as the complex ideas from the
readings and lectures will be discussed and worked through in the tutorial. So come along prepared to
ask questions and engage with the issues and you will find the tutorials a productive learning
environment. Remember the tutorial will only be as useful and enjoyable as you make it.
7. Assessment
This course has three assessment tasks: a short exam, a group presentation and a final essay.
Assessment Task One: Exam -‐ 30%
Forty (40) minutes – Rex Vowels Theatre – 9am, Wednesday 17 August 2011
This exam will be composed of twenty (20) multiple choice questions and five (5) short answer
questions. It will be based directly on the first five chapters of the textbook: John Urry’s Mobilities, and
on the lectures. It is closed book and will take place in the lecture hall in the Week 5 lecture time slot.
It will be designed to assess your knowledge of the basic concepts and key ideas in the mobilities
paradigm. It is recommended you study the first five chapters of Urry’s Mobilities and your lecture
notes as preparation for this exam. Attendance is compulsory. If you cannot, for any reason, make it to
this exam you must apply for special consideration.
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Please come on time, if you are late you risk not being allowed to sit the exam.
Assessment Task Two: Group Presentation -‐ 30%
Twenty (20) minutes, in tutorials Weeks 6 to 8, i.e. August 24-‐25, August 31-‐September 1 and
September 14-‐15.
Groups of four or five students will be in charge of leading class discussion for twenty (20) minutes.
They must select one of the week’s required or recommended readings and lead a class discussion of
its key terms, concepts and relationship to the rest of the course. Groups are expected to present a
brief analysis of the article (not just a summary), and then organise and run a brief task (of their own
devising) that will aid their classmates’ understanding of the reading. This Assessment will be marked
on three primary criteria:
• Demonstrated understand of key ideas of the reading.
• Ability to contextualise the reading in relation to broader academic theory.
• Ability to facilitate other students’ engagement with this text.
Each week (6-‐8) will have two groups leading discussions. Groups will be formed in Week 4. Readings
will be assigned in Week 4.
All group members will receive the same mark. Group contracts assigning duties and deadlines will be
finalised in Week 5. All students are expected to do significant research and planning for this task.
Remember 20 minutes can disappear surprisingly quickly. You will need strong time management skills
and careful planning to do well at this task.
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Assessment Task Three: Final Essay -‐ 40%
1800-‐2000 words due 4pm Friday, 28 October 2011
The final task for this course will be an 1800-‐2000 word individual research essay on mobility. The
essay should demonstrate:
• A strong understanding of both the key ideas and frameworks of the mobilities paradigm.
• The ability to critically assess and contextualise the work in this field.
• The ability to develop a unique and original argument.
• Clarity and precision of expression.
• Originality of thinking and approach.
• The ability to create a concise and sophisticated argument within the word limit.
This is the major assessment task for this course and will be marked accordingly.
Essay Questions
1) “As people and artefacts become more mobile, other people and objects become relatively less mobile”
(Urry, 2007:145). Discuss the cultural and political relationship between mobility and immobility in
contemporary society.
2) Pick a contemporary practice or technology of mobility and analyse how it reflects, challenges and/or
expands a post-‐structuralist theorisation of power (‘discipline’, ‘control’ or ‘strategies and tactics’). How
has this practice or technology reconfigured society, how has society configured this practice or
technology?
3) How has the concept of mobility informed a contemporary understanding of society and subjectivity?
Explore this question in relation to theories of contemporary modernity: liquid modernity,
supermodernity and/or risk society (reflexive modernity).
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4) Different technologies and practices of mobility reflect different cultural configurations and values. Pick
two practices/technologies of mobility, one from before 1920 and one from after 1980 and contrast
how they reflect the different societies which produced them.
Assessment
Task
Length Weighting Learning
Outcomes
Assessed
Graduate
Attributes
Assessed
Due Date
Exam 20 multiple choice
and 5 short answer
questions
30% 1 1, 2 Week 5 lecture
9am, Wednesday
17 August 2011
Group
Presentation
20 minute group
presentation
30%
All group
members
receive the
same mark
1, 3, 4 1, 2, 3, 4 In tutorials
Weeks 6, 7 and 8
Final Essay
1800-‐2000 words 40% 1, 2, 4 1, 2, 3 4pm Friday,
28 October 2011
You must COMPLETE ALL TASKS to be eligible to pass the subject.
Referencing Your Assignments In all assessment tasks, any material or ideas taken from another source must be referenced in
accordance with the Referencing Style Guidelines as outlined in the UNSW Assessment Policies.
ARTS2091 follows the Harvard in-‐text system of referencing. Guidelines on how to reference according
to this system can be found at: http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/pdf/harvard.pdf
And at: http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/pdf/elect_ref.pdf.
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Submission of Assessment Tasks
General School of English, Media and Performing Arts Guidelines
The School of English, Media and Performing Arts (EMPA) now has very strict guidelines concerning
assessment tasks. You can download a copy of these ('Essential Information for all EMPA Students")
from: http://empa.arts.unsw.edu.au/media/File/ESSENTIAL_INFORMATION_FOR_ALL_STUDENTS.pdf
You should keep in mind that all courses in EMPA, including ARTS2091 follows these guidelines (which
include guidelines on how to submit your work, whether and how you can apply for extensions, late
penalties, academic honesty and plagiarism, etc). So it is crucial that you read the guidelines now.
8. Academic Honesty and Plagiarism
For information on academic honest and plagiarism please refer to the pdf, "Essential Information for
all EMPA students" available at:
http://empa.arts.unsw.edu.au/media/File/ESSENTIAL_INFORMATION_FOR_ALL_STUDENTS.pdf
The Learning Centre can provide further information: www.lc.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism
9. Course Schedule
Week 1: Theorising Mobility – July 20
LECTURE
What are the major paradigms and methodologies available for studying mobility, and why is it
important to do so? This week’s lecture will cover the basics of the field and explore what questions
and new insights arise when we understand culture as mobile.
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This week we will also go through the course in detail including the structure, required readings and
the assignments.
TUTORIALS
No tutorials this week
REQUIRED READING
Urry, J. (2007) ‘Chapter 1: Mobilizing Social Life’ in Mobilities, Cambridge: Polity Press [Textbook]
RECOMMENDED READING
Cresswell, T. (2006) ‘Chapter 1: The Production of Mobilities’ in On the Move: Mobility in the Modern
World, New York: Routledge
Week 2: Methodologies, Modernity and Movement – July 27
LECTURE
This lecture will contextualise mobility within a history of modernity. We will explore how the
intensification of mobilities has destabilised and reconfigured traditional formations of the social from
the family to the nation state.
TUTORIALS
In this week’s tutorial we will be exploring our own personal experiences of mobility. Think about all
the forms of mobility you engage with regularly (walking, cars, buses, trains, aeroplanes) and the
mobile devices you use (mobile phones, mp3 players, iPhones, iPads, e-‐readers, portable gaming
systems, etc) and come to class prepared to talk about how you think these practices and technologies
have changed society.
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REQUIRED READINGS
Urry, J. (2007) ‘Chapter 2: “Mobile” Theories and Methods’ and ‘Chapter 3: The Mobilities Paradigm’ in
Mobilities, Cambridge: Polity Press [Textbook]
RECOMMENDED READING
Cresswell, T. (2006) ‘Chapter 2: The Metaphysics of Fixity and Flow’ in On the Move: Mobility in the
Modern World, New York: Routledge
Week 3: Walking, Running and Playing in the City – August 3
LECTURE
Our cities shape our practices of mobility, and our practices of mobility shape our cities. In this lecture
we will be looking at a number of ‘pedestrian’ engagements with urban space; from Baudelaire,
Benjamin and de Certeau’s observational wanderings to the ludic reclamation of city space of parkour
enthusiasts and location based gamers. Travelling on foot offers a unique and intimate relationship to
space, which this week we will be analysing.
TUTORIALS
In the tutorial today we will be focusing the power of the pedestrian observer. We will be discussing
the changing role of pedestrians in our cities and how we can conceptualise a city in terms of the
various types of flow that take place in it. We will explore how practices such as parkour and location
based gaming challenge our assumptions about the potential uses of urban environments.
REQUIRED READINGS
Urry, J. (2007) ‘Chapter 4: Pavements and Paths’ in Mobilities, Cambridge: Polity Press [Textbook]
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de Souza e Silva, A. and Hjorth, L. (2009) ‘Playful Urban Spaces: A Historical Approach to Mobile
Games’ in Simulation and Gaming, Volume 40 Number 5. Available online at:
http://sag.sagepub.com.wwwproxy0.library.unsw.edu.au/cgi/reprint/40/5/602.pdf
(You will need to log on using your student number and Unipass)
RECOMMENDED READINGS
de Certeau, M. (1984) ‘Chapter 7: Walking in the City’ in The Practice of Everyday Life Berkeley:
University of California Press
Benjamin, W. (2004) ‘Paris; Capital of the Nineteenth Century’ in The Arcades Project trans. Howard
Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Week 4: Public and Private Transport – August 10
LECTURE
This week will focus on the restructuring of time and space that came about with the birth of the
steam train. We will explore how that invention altered subjectivity and radically changed how people
understood themselves and their world. We will also explore the contemporary road and rail network
and how these systems functions to structure our everyday experiences. We shall analyse how we
participate with and reconstitute the notion of the ‘public’ on public transport in contrast to the
‘private’ space of cars.
TUTORIALS
This week will be group work. You will be analysing your own engagements with public transport.
Before you come to class think through: how do you use public transport, what are your experiences?
Do you talk to fellow passengers; do you create your own space through personal mobile technology
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(such as Mp3 players)? What different strategies and tactics do you use to claim your own space?
What practices do other passengers use? Why?
REQUIRED READINGS
Urry, J. (2007) ‘Chapter 5: “Public” Trains’ in Mobilities, Cambridge: Polity Press [Textbook]
Schivelbusch, W. (1978) ‘Railroad Space and Railroad Time’ in New German Critique, No. 14. Available
online at:
http://www.jstor.org.wwwproxy0.library.unsw.edu.au/stable/pdfplus/488059.pdf
RECOMMENDED READING
Urry, J. (2007) ‘Chapter 6: Inhabiting Cars and Roads’ in Mobilities, Cambridge: Polity Press [Textbook]
Week 5: Exam and Assessment Task 2 Preparation – August 17
LECTURE
The lecture will be set aside for Assessment Task One. It will be a short answer and multiple choice
exam, covering the first five weeks of the course. Attendance is compulsory. If you cannot for any
reason make this lecture you must apply for special consideration.
TUTORIALS
This week will primarily be focused on preparing for Assessment Two: the in-‐class presentations. We
will finalise groups, talk through strategies and assign the readings and weeks to present. Students
should have already decided who they would like to work with and thought through how they are
going to approach this task. This aim of this tutorial is to finalise the details and talk through what is
expected.
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REQUIRED READINGS
Note: Due to the exam there are no required readings this week. Please use your time to revise the
first five chapters of Urry and the lecture notes from Weeks 1 to 4.
Week 6: Gender, Sexuality and Mobility – August 24
LECTURE
Guest Lecture by Dr Katherine Albury
Recent years have witnessed a growing moral panic surrounding teen ‘sexting’, the sending of sexually
explicit photos via mobile phones. The practice has been the focus of widespread legal and political
debates around what constitutes child pornography. In Australia although young people in this 16 and
17 year age group are legally permitted to consent to sexual activity, this activity is deemed ‘child
pornography’ if it is photographed, as Australian Classification Guidelines do “not permit any
depictions of non-‐adult persons, including those aged 16 or 17, nor of adult persons who look like they
are under 18 years”. Effectively, sexually active 16 and 17 year olds are excluded from all legitimate
visual representation. In this week’s lecture Dr Katherine Albury will explore this issues surrounding
texting, and ask this if ‘un-‐representability’ also excludes young people from what has variously been
termed sexual, or intimate citizenship.
TUTORIALS
First week of student facilitated tutorials, Assessment Task Two.
REQUIRED READINGS
Cresswell, T. (1999) ‘Embodiment, Power and the Politics of Mobility: The Case of Female Tramps and
Hobos’ Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series, Vol 24 No 2: 175-‐192.
http://www.jstor.org.wwwproxy0.library.unsw.edu.au/openurl?volume=24&date=1999&spage=175&i
ssn=00202754&issue=2&
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Corbett, D. (2009) ‘Let's Talk About Sext: The Challenge Of Finding The Right Legal Response To The
Teenage Practice Of "Sexting"’. Journal of Internet Law Vol 13 No 6: 3-‐8. Available online at:
http://search.ebscohost.com.wwwproxy0.library.unsw.edu.au/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=4
5447192&site=ehost-‐live
RECOMMENDED READING:
Funnell, N. (2009) ‘”Sexting” gives teens more control’, NineMSN Soapboxing. Available online at:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/blog.aspx?blogentryid=448103&showcomments=true
Week 7: Mobs and Mobility – August 31
LECTURE
Screening of the documentary Burma VJ (2009) Dogwoof Pictures
TUTORIALS
Second week of student facilitated tutorials, Assessment Task Two.
REQUIRED READING
Goggin, G. (2006) ‘SMS Riot: Transmitting Race on a Sydney Beach, December 2005’ M/C Journal Vol 9
No 1. Available online at: http://journal.media-‐culture.org.au/0603/02-‐goggin.php
Vincent, R. (2003) ‘The Cell Phone and the Crowd: Messianic Politics in the Contemporary Philippines’
in Public Culture Vol 15 No 3: 399-‐425. Available online at:
http://publicculture.dukejournals.org.wwwproxy0.library.unsw.edu.au/cgi/reprint/15/3/399.pdf
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RECOMMENDED READING
McCarthy, C. (2011) ‘Egypt, Twitter, and the Rise of the Watchdog Crowd’ in CNet News. Available
online at: http://news.cnet.com/8301-‐13577_3-‐20031600-‐36.html
Morozov, E. (2009) Iran Elections: A Twitter Revolution? In The Washington Post. Available online at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-‐dyn/content/discussion/2009/06/17/DI2009061702232.html
Week 8: Place and Non Place – September 14
LECTURE
Guest Lecture by Dr Gillian Fuller
This week we will be looking at different theoretical concepts of place. From Michel de Certeau’s
distinction between place and space to Augé’s work on non place. We will explore those spaces that
operate outside of specific geographic localities. The homogeneous, the standardised and the uniform.
What is the significance of these spaces, how do they function. What subjectivities do the produce?
TUTORIALS
Third week of student facilitated tutorials, Assessment Task Two.
REQUIRED READINGS
Urry, J. (2007) ‘Chapter 12: Places’ in Mobilities, Cambridge: Polity Press [Textbook]
Augé, M. (1995) ‘From Places to Non-‐Places’ in Non-‐Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of
Supermodernity, London: Verso. Available online at:
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~jread2/Auge%20Non%20places.pdf (pages 75-‐ 115 of book, pages 6 –
26 of PDF)
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RECOMMENDED READING
de Certeau, M. (1984) ‘Chapter 9: Spatial Stories’ in The Practice of Everyday Life, Berkeley: University
of California Press
Week 9: Power and Fluidity – September 21
LECTURE
Power is often talked about in terms of enclosures: the nation state, the family, the prison, the school
etc. But how can we rethink power in context of a mobile culture? How does power work when
subjects are in constant motion shifting between and beyond traditional enclosures. This week we look
at two key theories of power: Michel Foucault’s notion of ‘discipline’ and Gilles Deleuze’s concept of
‘control’ to map the shifting configurations of power that are occurring in the space of flows that is
contemporary supermodernity.
TUTORIALS
The readings for this week are very theoretically dense, so in class we will use the time to closely
analyse them and break them down into the key terms and ideas.
REQUIRED READINGS
Deleuze, G. (1990) ‘Postscript on the Societies of Control’ L'Autre journal, No 1. Available online at:
http://www.n5m.org/n5m2/media/texts/deleuze.htm
Foucault, M (1977) ‘Panopticism’ in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison trans A. Sheridan.
New York: Pantheon. Available online at:
http://www.esubjects.com/curric/general/world_history/unit_three/pdf/L11_Discipline_and_Publish_
ch3.pdf
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Please Note: The two readings are both very difficult, do not be disheartened if you do not understand
all of the ideas, but please do attempt to read both. These are important readings. I will be explaining
them in depth in the lecture and we will be analysing them closely in the tutorials. If you are struggling
with these texts, look at this week’s recommended reading and read the Galloway chapter set for week
11, they should help.
RECOMMENDED READINGS
McHoul, A. and Grace, W. (1993) ‘Chapter 3: Power’ in A Foucault Primer: Discourse, Power and the
Subject, New York: New York University Press
Week 10: Structures of Mobility – September 28
LECTURE
This week we are looking at the way movement restructures society. Expanding on our analysis of
power from the previous week, this week we will explore the notion of the network or Rhizome and
how it reshape the relationship between people, and between objects. We will look at the network, in
contrast to the hierarchy, as an infrastructure for mobility, based around and facilitating movement.
TUTORIALS: Another theoretically complex week so make sure you read the reading this week, we will
be analysing them closely in class.
REQUIRED READINGS
Urry, J. (2007) ‘Chapter 10: Networks’ in Mobilities, Cambridge: Polity Press [Textbook]
Galloway, A. (2004) ‘Introduction’ in Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization, Cambridge,
MIT Press [Skim pages 3-‐10, page 11-‐ 27 are the crucial ones]
RECOMMENDED READING
Taylor, M.C. (2001) ‘From Grid to Network’ in The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture,
Chicago : University of Chicago Press
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Week 11: Flying and Connecting – October 5
LECTURE
Guest Lecture by Dr Gillian Fuller
The airport is the city of the future. It is a laboratory for thinking about the ongoing evolution of
information architecture and urban planning. The airport collapses the categories of the urban
metropolis – mall and terminal, private and public, information and physical space, citizens and
humans.
TUTORIALS
In this week, we will bring some of the theories we have been discussing into conversation with the
case study of airports. In other words, we will test out the language of place, non-‐place, power,
discipline, control and networks and see if it can help us think about airports. Contrariwise, we’ll also
see if the airport might shift some of these theories or at least cause us to reconsider them.
REQUIRED READINGS
Urry, J. (2007) ‘Chapter 7: Flying Around’ in Mobilities, Cambridge: Polity Press [Textbook]
Fuller, G. and Harley R. (2005) ‘SYD: The City as Airport’, in SCAN, Vol 2, Number 1
Available online at:
http://scan.net.au/scan/journal/print.php?journal_id=46&j_id=4
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Week 12: Migration and Im/mobility – October 12
LECTURE
The stranger is, according to Bauman, the key figure of postmodernity and postmodern mobilities. Yet,
as Sara Ahmed has argued in response, not all strangers are created equal and some strangers are
designated as stranger than other strangers. This week we look at Australia’s differential treatment of
asylum seekers who arrive by air and those who arrive by boat. We consider the history of the policy of
mandatory detention and at the detention centre itself as a place and non-‐place, a location of mobility
and immobility. We also examine the recent history of the Tampa, the SIEV 4, the SIEV X and the Pacific
Solution as well as the coming Malaysian Solution. Last but not least, we look at the recent SBS
program Go Back to Where You Came From as a complex instance of multiple mobilities.
TUTORIALS
This week’s discussions will centre on Go Back to Where You Came From and, as with last week, we will
discuss this example in terms of the theories we have covered throughout the course. What sort of
mobilities does this program model, enact and enable? How does it represent power relations? In
representing these power relations, does it inevitably reproduce them? How does the experience of
watching this program on TV differ from watching it on your iPhone?
REQUIRED READINGS
Urry, J. (2007) ‘Chapter 9: Gates to Heaven and Hell’ in Mobilities, Cambridge: Polity Press [Textbook]
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SBS, Go Back to Where You Came From, Episodes 1-‐4 (Episode 1 at the very least)
http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/goback
RECOMMENDED READINGS
Ahmed, S. (2000) ‘Chapter 4: Home and Away: Narratives of Migration and Estrangement’ Strange
Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-‐Coloniality New York: Routledge
Perera, S. (2002) ‘What is a Camp…?’ borderlands e-‐journal Vol 1 No 1. Available online at:
http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol1no1_2002/perera_camp.html
-‐-‐-‐. (2002) ‘‘A Line in the Sea: The Tampa, Boat Stories and the Border’ Cultural Studies Review Vol 8
No 1: 11-‐27. Available online at: http://search.informit.com.au/fullText;dn=200210550;res=APAFT
(You will need to log in with your student number and zPass).
Week 13: Mobility: Past and Future – October 19
NO LECTURE THIS WEEK.
TUTORIALS
This week will be used for concluding and recapping the course. We will spend the class workshopping
the final assignments discussing ideas and resources that might be useful and how to approach the
questions. Bring a rough outline of your final essay to class.
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REQUIRED READING
Urry, J. (2007) ‘Chapter 13: Systems and Dark Futures’ in Mobilities, Cambridge: Polity Press [Textbook]
RECOMMENDED READING
Cresswell, T. (2006) ‘Epilogue’ in On the Move: Mobility in the Modern World, New York: Routledge
10. Required and Recommended Resources
Course Textbook
The prescribed (compulsory) textbook for this course is:
Urry, John (2007) Mobilities, Cambridge: Polity Press
It is available from the UNSW bookshop.
Highly Recommended
Many of the recommended readings for this course come from:
Cresswell, Tim (2006) On the Move: Mobility in the Modern World, New York: Routledge
It is also available at the UNSW bookshop and is an extremely useful resource for students wanting a
deeper engagement with the concept of mobility.
It is also highly recommended you familiarise yourself with the resources and services the university
library offers: http://www.library.unsw.edu.au/
Online Course Resources
The Mobile Cultures course website and audio recordings of lectures can be accessed through the TELT
gateway: http://telt.unsw.edu.au/
Please login to UNSW Blackboard for the Mobile Cultures website, and Lectopia for lecture recordings.
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11. Course Evaluation and Development
This is a new course that is the result of a Media Program Review and Faculty Restructure. This course
will undergo continual development, via feedback process such as CATEI and collegial review. We
therefore take your feedback very seriously.
12. Other Information
Information on relevant Occupational Health and Safety policies and expectations as outlined at:
http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/ohswc/ohs/ohs_policies.html
Tutorial attendance is compulsory. It is FASS policy that you should attend at least 80% (that is, 10 from
12) of the tutorials and lectures in order to pass the course (see EMPA's "Essential Information for
Students” referred to elsewhere in this outline). In short, attendance at less than 80% of tutorials or
lectures without documentary evidence of illness or misadventure may result in failure in the course.
Please also note that if you arrive more than 20 minutes late for tutorials you will be marked absent.
This policy will be enforced in this course.
Advice concerning special consideration in the event of illness or misadventure is available in the
document “Essential Information for all EMPA Students", which can be found at:
http://empa.arts.unsw.edu.au/media/File/ESSENTIAL_INFORMATION_FOR_ALL_STUDENTS.pdf
Student equity and diversity issues can be discussed via the Student Equity Officers (Disability) in the
Student Equity and Diversity Unit (9385 4734).
Further information for students with disabilities is available at:
www.studentequity.unsw.edu.au/disabil.html
