| Unit name | Moral panics (Level H Reflective History Unit) |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HIST38021 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Reid |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Pre-requisites |
None |
| Co-requisites |
None |
| School/department | Department of History (Historical Studies) |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
The ability to reflect about the nature of History as a discipline and the ability to reflect on one’s own academic development are important attributes of the historian. This unit will offer students the opportunity to engage in this reflective practice via the study of moral panics over time and place. Moral panics are said to occur when ‘a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests’ (Cohen, 1972). Contemporary British examples might include responses to paedophilia, so-called ‘hoodies’, and terrorism. The unit aims to introduce students to the core conceptual literature on moral panics. It asks them to consider a series of key questions including: what is a ‘moral panic’?; what causes such panics to erupt?; what roles do moral panics play in the development of social and cultural boundaries and mores?; why do societies panic over some phenomena (e.g. child sexual abuse) but not others (e.g. child starvation)?; what role does the media play in the construction and dissemination of moral panics?; whose interests do moral panics serve?; what results do they have? The unit aims to explore these and other core questions through a range of historical and contemporary case studies. It will use sociologist Stanley Cohen’s now classic Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972) as its core text, but it will also ask students critically to consider Cohen’s model and to examine the responses of others scholars to it.
By the end of the unit students should have:
One 1-hour introductory session followed by five 2-hour classes.
24-hour seen written examination (2,000 to 2,500 words) (summative, 100%)
The examination will assess the student’s ability to reflect on the particular and unique skills that historians acquire, to reflect on the way in which they apply those skills to a specific task, to convey that understanding to others in their writing, to demonstrate an awareness of how those skills might be applied more generally, and to demonstrate their knowledge of moral panics and their role in the emergence and regulation of dominant social and cultural norms.
David Altheide, Terror post 9/11 and the media (2009) Stanley Cohen, Folk devils and moral panic: the creation of mods and rockers (1972) Charles Critcher, Moral panics and the media (2003). Geoffrey Pearson, Hooligan: a history of respectable fears (1983) John Springhall, Youth, popular culture and moral panics: penny gaffs to gangsta-rap, 1830-1996 (1998) Kenneth Thompson, Moral panics (1998)
