Postgraduate Course: The World as Story: Narrative, Self and Society (Online) (EFIE11515)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | *Programme Core Course: Narrative Futures: Art, Data, Society (MSc)*
Please Note:
This course is only available to students enrolled on the Narrative Futures: Art, Data, Society (MSc) degree programme.
How do stories shape the real world in which we live? And how do they determine our perception of ourselves and the dynamic environments that we inhabit? In 'The World as Story' course students will critically examine the uses and abuses of the storytelling instinct in different spheres of social life and analyse the origins and effects of influential cultural narratives. They will come away with a better understanding of the forces that shape the narratives of our possible futures. |
| Course description |
The Semester 2 'The World as Story' programme core course will focus on the personal and social power of narratives: the way they allow us to make (and make sense of) our public and private identities; the way they drive public discourse and action and influence economic theory and practice; the way they are marshalled for purposes of education or corporate gain; and the way they can help us envision the past and future of planet Earth.
Intensive units will be team-taught by an interdisciplinary group of instructors and will include seminars, interactive collaborative activities and, subject to availability, a fieldtrip. Students will get the opportunity to bond as a cohort, but also to work in smaller groups and individually.
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - Online Hybrid Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities. Students should note that their interactions may be recorded and live-streamed (see the Lecture Recording and Virtual Classroom policies for more details). There will, however, be options to control whether or not your video and audio are enabled.
You will need access to a personal computing device for this course. Most activities will take place in a web browser, unless otherwise stated. We recommend using a device with a screen, physical keyboard, and internet access.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 1,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 17,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
176 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course will be assessed by means of the following components:
1) Group Project Report (20%)
2) 2000 Word Individual Essay (80%) |
| Feedback |
Feedback on any formative assessment may be provided in various formats, for example, to include written, oral, video, face-to-face, whole class, or individual. The Course Organiser will decide which format is most appropriate in relation to the nature of the assessment.
Feedback on both formative and summative in-course assessed work will be provided in time to be of use in subsequent assessments within the course.
Feedback on the summative assessment(s) will be provided in written form via Learn, the University of Edinburgh's Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
Formative Feedback Opportunity:
Formative feedback is ongoing feedback which monitors learning and is intended to improve performance in the same course, in future courses, and also beyond study.
Working in small groups, students will select one of the topics covered in the course and analyse the narratives that it has given rise to. They will use qualitative or quantitative data as evidence and present their findings to the class in the form of a collaborative report (a PowerPoint presentation or other suitable format).
Following formative feedback on the presentation and report from the class and the instructor, a final version of the report will be submitted alongside the individual essay as part of the summative assessment.
The Course Organiser will provide oral feedback immediately following the group presentations. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate competence in core skills including independent research, planning and writing, group collaboration and oral presentation.
- Show knowledge of the current social impacts and future implications of storytelling in relation to a variety of pressing global challenges.
- Critically analyse primary evidence - qualitative or quantitative data - to understand the processes of narrative formation, propagation and utilisation.
- Critically analyse and put into dialogue secondary academic texts from different disciplines dealing with the topic of narrative and society.
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Reading List
The list of required class readings will be provided by the team-teaching instructors and may change year-to-year in accordance with staffing.
All mandatory readings will be made available digitally. Students will also have access to a General Bibliography incorporating both theoretical and skills/methods sources covering a range of fields. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Story,Narrative,Society,Data,Identity,Public,Economics,Environment,Planet |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Lynda Clark
Tel:
Email: lynda.clark@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Zoe Hogg
Tel:
Email: Zoe.Hogg@ed.ac.uk |
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