Banner Viadrina

Master of Arts
in European Studies

Lehrveranstaltungen

Contemporary Studies of Ideology: Concept, Research and Critique

3/6/9 ECTS
Seminar: Zentralbereich Kultur / Zentralbereich Politik / WPM 5: Kultur, Geschichte & Gesellschaft in Europa
Mi, 11:15 - 12:45 Uhr Ort: GD 205, Veranstaltungsbeginn: 17.10.2018
This seminar is dedicated to the study of ideology, a word often used but rarely understood. The seminar will help to find answers to the following questions: What is an ideology? How does it influence human thought and practice? Can ideology be understood? Can it be overcome? The aim of the seminar is to provide students with an understanding of three approaches to ideology: analytical, hermeneutical and critical. During the seminar all three approaches will be tested, their limitations clarified, and their usefulness for wide-range studies in humanities and social sciences critically examined.

Literatur: Berger, P.; T. Luckmann. (1991). Social Construction of Reality, London: Penguin Books. Bourdieu, Piere. (1984). Distinction. A Social Critique of Judgement of Taste, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Freeden, M. (2003). Ideology: A very short introduction (Vol. 95). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Habermas, J. (1996). Between Facts and Norms, Cambridge: MIT Press. Horkheimer, M., (1972). Critical Theory, New York: Seabury Press Marx, K. (2000). Karl Marx: Selected Writings, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ricoeur, P. (1981). Lectures on Ideology and Utopia, ed. George H. Taylor, New York: Cambridge University Press. Unger, R.M. (2011). Knowledge and Politics, NY: Free Press.
Hinweise zur Veranstaltung/zumBlockseminar: Seminar language: English
Leistungsnachweise: Referat, Hausarbeit


Introduction into Contemporary Political Philosophy

3/6/9 ECTS
Seminar: Zentralbereich Kultur / Zentralbereich Politik / WPM 5: Kultur, Geschichte & Gesellschaft in Europa
Mi, 16:15 - 17:45 Uhr Ort: AM 205, Veranstaltungsbeginn: 17.10.2018
Beschreibung This seminar explores contemporary ideas on power, common wealth, state, liberty, emancipation, citizenship, subjugation, globality, imperialism and colonialism. In 20th and 21st centuries, humanity has gone through unprecedented growth of human involvement into politics. With this qualitative rise in participation new political practices have been applied to competition, solidarity and obstruction. During this course the students will study theoretical concepts and research works explaining the political change in a global order. The seminar will be based on organized discussions between students presenting opposite theoretical and ideological positions vis-à-vis key issues of political philosophy.

Literatur: Agamben, G. (2000). Means without end: Notes on politics, Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press. Escobar, A. (2004). Beyond the Third World: imperial globality, global coloniality and anti-globalisation social movements. Third World Quarterly, 25(1), 207-230. De Crespigny, A., & Minogue, K. R. (1975). Contemporary political philosophers, London: Baywaters. Kymlicka, W. (2002). Contemporary political philosophy: An introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Latour, B., & Weibel, P. (2005). Making things public: atmospheres of democracy, Bologna: 11 publishers. Pogge, T. (2012). A companion to contemporary political philosophy, London: John Wiley & Sons. Srauss, L. (1988). What Is Political Philosophy? and Other Studies. Chicago: U of Chicago Press.
Hinweise zur Veranstaltung/zumBlockseminar: Seminar language: English
Leistungsnachweise: Referat und Hausarbeit


Philosophy of Revolution: Theories, Practices and Discourses

3/6/9 ECTS
Seminar:
Zentralbereich Kultur / Zentralbereich Politik / WPM 5: Kultur, Geschichte & Gesellschaft in Europa
Mi, 14 - 16 Uhr Ort: AM 205, Veranstaltungsbeginn: 17.10.2018
This seminar is dedicated to the analysis of theories of revolutions existing in contemporary philosophy and political theory, as well as their application during the revolutionary moments of humanity. Since the 18th century, revolution was a popular topic for discussions and practice. Today there is a multitude of revolutionary theories and practices making impact on development of contemporary societies. The issues of a socialist revolution, a liberal revolution, a conservative revolution, a color revolution, and an electoral revolution will be studied in detail during the seminar. This course will thus help students to understand: 1) What is a revolution? How do revolutionary theory and revolutionary practice comply? What are the consequences of revolutionary events? Case studies include French, American, Russian, Nazi Germany’s, Chinese, and Iranian revolutions.
Literatur: Tilly, C. (1977). From mobilization to revolution, NY: Praxis. Trotsky, L. (2008). History of the Russian revolution. NY: Haymarket Books. Bailyn, B. (2012). The ideological origins of the American Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. De Tocqueville, A. (2008). Ancien regime and the French revolution. London: Penguin. Isaacs, H. (2010). The tragedy of the Chinese revolution. NY: Haymarket books. Schoenbaum, D. (1997). Hitler's social revolution: class and status in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939. London: Norton & Company. Milani, M. M. (1988). The making of Iran's Islamic revolution: from monarchy to Islamic republic. Westview Pr.: Places Publishing. Mitchell, L.A. (2012). The Color Revolutions, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Leistungsnachweise: Referat und Hausarbeit Report and Paper

Non-Western Philosophy of History

3/6/9 ECTS
Seminar: ZB Ku, ZB Po, WPM 4, WPM 5
Dienstag, 14.15 -15.45 Uhr, Ort: AM 202,
Veranstaltungsbeginn: 10.04.2018
This seminar is dedicated to the study of history, time and humanity as seen by Eastern European and Asian philosophers. After half a century of being abandoned, the discipline of philosophy of history returns to the university curricula. This time it is changed under the impact of non-Western views and a clash between Western and Eastern theories. The issues of meaning of history, variety of historical narratives, East and West, collective memory, multiple modernities, post-colonialism and orientalism, demodernization, post-humanity are back in the center of attention in humanities and social sciences. The seminar aims to provide students with an understanding of the above concepts, limits of their applicability, and a set of methods to apply them for their future studies. Moreover, during the course students will also learn the perspective of non-Western philosophers and explore which theoretical changes have been brought as a result into global thinking about humanity.

Literatur: Collingwood, R. G. (1946). The idea of history. Eisenstadt, S. N. (2002). Multiple modernities. Eze, E. C. (1997). Postcolonial African philosophy: A critical reader. Foucault, M. (1971) The order of things: an archaeology of the human sciences. Hegel, G.W.F. (1824) The philosophy of history. Khan, M. M. (2001) The political philosophy of Islamic resurgence. MacMaster, R. E. (1967) Danilevsky, a Russian totalitarian philosopher. Said, E. (1979. Orientalism. Stalin, J. (1975) Marxism and the national-colonial question: a collection of articles and speeches.


History of Post-Soviet Separatism and Reconciliation (1991-2017)

3/6/9 ECTS
Seminar: ZB Ku, ZB Po, WPM 1, WPM 4, WPM 5
Mittwoch, 14.15 -15.45 Uhr, Ort: AM 204,
Veranstaltungsbeginn: 11.04.2018
This course is dedicated to the analysis of separatist movements in late Soviet Union, emerging political systems of non-recognized statelets in Eastern Europe, and the impact of separatism on the maternal states’ development. It also addresses the question of models for conflict prevention, settling and reconciliation. Secessionist movements in late Soviet Union have led to the creation of 15 internationally recognized and 6 non-recognized states. Out of 6 countries -participants in the Eastern Neighborhood Policy only one (Belarus) is in full control of its territory. Abkhazia, Karabakh, South Ossetia, Transnistria, Luhansk Peoples Republic and Donetsk Peoples Republics exist and constitute an entire network of polities outside of international order. How did it happen? What impact does secession make on populations in seceded territories and on metropolitan states? What is the role of Russia and/or Armenia in secessions? What influence does support for non-recognized state have upon the sponsor state? The study of these questions will be based on the use of most recent research and analytical publications in a collaborative environment.

Literatur: Kuchler, F. (2015). The Role of the EU in Moldova’s Transnistria Conflict, Stuttgart: ibidem. Kudelia, Serhiy. (2016). The Donbas Rift, in: Russian Politics & Law, 54:1, pp. 5-27. Minakov, Mikhail. (2017). Novorossiya and the Transnationalism of Unrecognized Post-Soviet Nations, in: Beichelt, Y., Worschech, S. (eds.) 2017. Transnational Ukraine?, Stuttgart: ibidem. O'Loughlin, John Vladimir Kolossov & Gerard Toal. (2011). Inside Abkhazia: Survey of Attitudes in a De Facto State, Post-Soviet Affairs, 27:1, 1-36. Pokalova, E. (2015). Conflict Resolution in Frozen Conflicts: Timing in Nagorno-Karabakh, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 17:1, 68-85


History of Post-Soviet Ukraine

3/6/9 ECTS
Seminar: ZB Ku, ZB Po, WPM 4, WPM 5
Mittwoch, 16.15 -17.45 Uhr, AM 204, 
Veranstaltungsbeginn: 11.04.2018
What is it like to live in a new democracy, a capitalist society, and a nation-state after 75 years of socialism? How do you build a state and a nation after totalitarian experiments? Why do you make revolutions and get rid of them in several months? This course seeks answers to the questions above using the Ukrainian experience. The aim is to provide students with a better understanding of developments of Ukraine’s political system and its crises in 2004 and 2014. Through reading and class discussions, students will gain important insights about current political issues in Ukraine and situate them in a broader context of Eastern Europe.

Literatur: Aslund, Anders (2009) How Ukraine became a market economy and democracy, Washington, DC: Paterson Institute Press, pp. 43-59, 68-93, 105-113. Grilli di Cortona, P., B. Pisciotta (2015) The Ukrainian Political System from Independence to Democratic Involution, in: Brogi, G., M. Dyczok, O. Pachlovska, G. Siedina (eds.) (2015) Ukraine Twenty Years After Independence, Roma: Aracne, pp. 101-118. Hale H. E. 2016. 25 Years After The USSR: What's Gone Wrong?, in: Journal of Democracy, 2016, Т. 27,No. 3, pp. 24-35. Henry E. Hale (2005). Regime Cycles: Democracy, Autocracy, and Revolution in Post-Soviet Eurasia, in: World Politics, 58, pp 133-165. Kubicek, Paul (2009): Problems of post-post-communism: Ukraine after the Orange Revolution, Democratization, 16:2, pp. 323-343. Kuzio, Taras, Wilson, Andrew (2002) Ukraine: Perestroika to Independence, pp. 179 –192. Minakov, Mikhail (2016) A Decisive Turn? Risks for Ukrainian Democracy After the Euromaidan, in: Carnegie Regional Insight, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, February 3, 2016. Shveda, Y., Park, J. H. (2016) Ukraine's revolution of dignity: The dynamics of Euromaidan, in: Journal of Eurasian Studies, 7(1), pp. 85-91. Wolczuk, K., Wolczuk, R. (2015) ‘Soft is Beautiful...!’ Ukraine’s Approach to Regional Integration, in: G. Brogi, M. Dyczok, O. Pachlovska, G. Siedina (eds.), Ukraine Twenty Years After Independence, Roma: Aracne, , pp. 27-38.Zon, Hans van (2000) The political economy of independent Ukraine, NY: St.Martin’s, pp. 17-20, 23-49

Political Epistemology: possibilities and limitations to study politics

3/6/9 ECTS
Seminar: ZB Po, WPM 4, WPM 5
Dienstag, 14.15 -15.45 Uhr, 
Ort: AM 203, 
Veranstaltungsbeginn: 10.10.2017
This seminar is dedicated to the study of main themes and approaches in political epistemology. The political epistemology is  an interdisciplinary approach merging topics and methods of epistemology, political philosophy and theory, political science and sociology to study our knowledge of politics. At the seminar three controversies will be analyzed: 
1) What is truth and argument in a statement on politics?
2) What means ‘to understand political phenomena’? 
3) What conditions beliefs and conclusions of political actors and analysts?

The participants of the seminar will review basic concepts of knowledge and ideology, and be able to apply those to  fundamentalphenomena of politics.
Literatur: Unger, R.M. 2011. Knowledge and Politics, NY: Free Press. Corsín Jiménez, Alberto (2010) The Political Proportions Of Public Knowledge, in: Journal of Cultural Economy, 1(2010), 69-84.  Thomas, Alan (2008) Value and context: the nature of moral and political knowledge, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Minakov, Mykhailo. 2015. Utopian Images of the West and Russia Among Sup-porters and Opponents of the Euromaidan, in: Russian Politics & Law, 2015, 53:3, 68-85. Berger, P.; T. Luckmann. 1991. Social Construction of Reality, London: Penguin Books.Weber, M. 2010. Objectivity in Social Science, in: From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, NY, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bourdieu, Piere. 1984. Distinction. A Social Critique of Judgement of Taste, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press


Revolutionary cycles of contemporary Ukraine

3/6/9 ECTS
Seminar: ZB Po, WPM 4, WPM 5

Mittwoch,16.15 -17.45 Uhr, 
Ort: LH 101/102, Veranstaltungsbeginn: 11.10.2017

This seminar will be dedicated to the analysis of Ukraine’s political development in 1991-2015. During recent 25 years Ukraine have gone through two revolutionary cycles: in 1991-2004 that started with post-Soviet attempt of building democracy and finished by the Orange revolution; and in 2005-2015 when Ukraine evolved from one Maidan to another. The case of Ukraine will help participants to understand: 
1) How does the post-Soviet oligarchy function;
2) What is the political logicof post-Soviet vertical power; 
3) What were the color revolutions. 
Also, the events of the Orange revolution and Euromaidan will be studied.


Literatur: Fedorenko, Kostiantyn. 2015. The Two Movements: Liberals and Nationalists during Euromaidan, in: Ideology and Politics Journal: War, Propaganda and Political Process in Post -Soviet Societies Minakov, Mikhail. 2012. ‘Tsvetnyiie revolutsii’ v postsovetskom mire, in: Ob-shchaia tetrad Minakov, Mykhailo. 2016. Euromaidan, War, and the Development of Ukraine's Political System in 2014 -2015, in: Rimlands, Buffer Zones and Great Power Rivalry: Ukraine Conference Papers (New York: Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University Press, 2016) Mitchell, L.A. 2012. The Color Revolutions, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Way, Lucan. 2008. The Real Causes of the Color Revolutions, in: Journal of Democracy, Vol. 9/3


Meaning of A Revolution. Revolution as a topic in contemporary political philosophy and theory

3/6/9 ECTS
Seminar: ZB Po, WPM 3, WPM4, WPM 5
Mittwoch, 14.15 -15.45 Uhr, 
Ort: AM 105, 
Veranstaltungsbeginn: 11.10.2017

This seminar will be dedicated to the analysis of how contemporary philosophy and political theory conceptualizes revolution. Since the times of American and French revolutions, a revolution was under a scrutiny of philosophers, historians, lawyers and politicians. At the seminar we shall see how the thinking about revolution was making impact on the revolutionary practices in XIXXX centuries. We’ll re-visit American and French revolutionary theorists, Marx, Gramsci, Arendt and Strauss in a quest for an answer: can Modernity develop without revolutions? Is revolution limited only by change? Can revolution lead to establishment of freedom? How conservative revolution is possible?


Literatur: Jefferson, T. 1999. Jefferson: Political Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Paine, Th. 1995. Thomas Paine: Collected Writings. NY: Library of America. Voltaire. 2007. The Philosophy of History, NY: Philosophical Library. Marx, K. and Engels, F. 1871. The Civil War in France Gramsci, A. 1988. An Antonio Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings, 1916- 1935. New York: Schocken. Arendt, H. 1963. On Revolution. New York: Viking Srauss, L. 1988. What Is Political Philosophy? and Other Studies. Chicago: U of Chicago Press Minakov, Mikhail. 2013. Moses and Prometheus: Ukraine between Liberation and Freedom (in German: Moses und Prometheus.  Die Ukraine zwischen Be -freiung und Freiheit), Transit, Nr. 44

Russian Imperial and Soviet Modernization Models (XVII-XX)

This seminar is dedicated to the issue of long trends in modernization of Russia and other Eastern European countries in the period between the XVII and XX century.  For a long time the theory and history of modernity has been reviewing modernization as a global trend centered on the Western experience. Yet modernity became a global phenomenon with a variety of models and experiences in different societies. The Russian/Soviet modernizations set a sample of the multiple modernities. In a result of tectonic shifts in the Eastern European societies of XVII-XVIII centuries the Russian Empire emerged as an alternative modern project with its owl cultural logic, political institutions and socio-economic models. The cultural patterns of Russian/Soviet modernizations have evolved into stable re-emerging structures that could survive profound crises of 1917-24 and 1989-92.The seminar is oriented at providing young scholars with a set of tools to analyze social and political history of Russia and Eastern European societies in modern times.

Literatur: Cracraft, James. 2004. The Petrine Revolution in Russian Culture, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.  Istoriia Rossii: teoreticheskie problemy. Vyp. 2. Modernizatsionnyi podkhod v izuchenii rossiiskoi istorii. Otv. red. A. S. Seniavskii. Moskva: Institut Rossiiskoi istorii RAN, 2013. Kenez, Peter. 2006. A History of Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End, Cambridge, CUP.
Kotilaine, Jarmo and Marshall Poe (eds). 2004. MODERNIZING MUSCOVY Reform and social change in seventeenth-century Russia, London: Routledge. Pipes, Richard. 1974. Russia Under the Old Regime, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 
Reinhardt Koselleck, Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the Pathogenesis of Modern Society (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988).Eisenstadt, Shmuel. 2000. Multiple Modernities, in: Daedalus 129 (2000), N1, pp.1-29. Szporluk, Roman. 1991. Russia, Ukraine, and the breakup of the Soviet Union, Boston: Hoover  Institute Press.


Experiment after Experiment: creation of public and private spheres in the Post -Soviet societies (1991-2015)

This seminar will be dedicated to a study of how the post -Soviet societies re-created public and private institutions that were destroyed or marginalized under an impact of the Soviet totalitarianism. With the collapse of USSR new countries had to experiment with creation of democratic politics and free market. The post-Soviet revolutionary changes took place in the private sphere as series of ‘revolutions’: criminal, entrepreneurial, sexual etc. In the public sphere, there was a re-invention of national states, party systems, parliamentary practices, self-governance etc. Altogether these processes led to a creation of unstable oligarchies, lasting authoritarianisms and repeating attempts of democratization. This seminar will provide participants with several models to analyze post-Soviet political and socio-economic development.

Literatur: Åslund, Anders. 2007. How capitalism was built :the transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press. Freedom in the World. Freedom House 1991-2015 [https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2015#.VkMC-a4rKqA]Habermas, Jürgen. 1971. Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit. Untersuchungen zu einer Kategorie der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft, Neuwied/Berlin: CHP. Index of Economic Freedom. Heritage Foundation 1994-2015 [http://www.heritage.org/index/]. Kupatadze, Alexander. 2012. Organized Crime, Political Transitions and State Formation in Post-Soviet Eurasia, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.


Un-Recognized Post-Soviet Nations (1991-2015)

This seminar will be dedicated to the study of social and political history of un-recognized nations in the Eastern Europe.In reaction to the creation of national states and a wave of title-nations’ nationalism and to the deepening socio-economic crises of early 1991 several separatist movements have led to the establishment of un-recognized polities. Among them: Abkhazia, Karabakh, South Ossetia, Transnistria. After two decades of independence the populations of these polities have evolved into un-recognized nations with specific views towards their neighboring societies and the world order. 
These populations were also important players in the new wave of separatism, now in Ukraine. The Novorossia project was based on a mixture of imperial, nationalist, and trans-national beliefs shared by many Ukrainians living in the Southern Ukraine 
and by the Transnistria and Abkhaz populations.This seminar will propose to the participants to try to study the history and 
ideologies on the un-recognized nations inEastern Europe.

Literatur: Goltz, Thomas. 2006. Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the Post-Soviet Caucasus., London: M. E. Sharpe. Latta, Anthony. 2005. Engaging Eurasia's Separatist States: Unresolved Conflicts and De Fact States, in: Demokratizatsiya, 13(2), 300-319. Minakov, Mykhailo. 2015. Transnationalism of Un-Recognized Post-Soviet Nations: case of the Novorossia project, a paper for the conference: “Ukraine’s historical and contemporary interlockings: A transnational perspective on transformations”. Prilepin, Zakhar. 2015. Materials of his blog at [http://novorossia.su/].


Non-Free Thinking: Phenomenon and History of Soviet Philosophy (1917-1991)

The seminar will be dedicated to a better understanding of a specific paradox of Soviet philosophy. On the one hand, there was immense ideological control over philosophy in the USSR. On the other hand, the Soviet philosophy is a philosophical 
tradition with huge literature and almost a century-long history. Duringthis seminar,the participants will review sources, main characteristics and the major period of development of the Soviet philosophy. We shall discuss tragic events, survival technics and spiritual bravery of philosophers in highly risky conditions of totalitarian and post-totalitarian Soviet Union.

Literatur: Bakhurst, D. 1991. Consciousness and Revolution in Soviet Philosophy, Cambridge: CUP. Bochenski, I.M.1950. Der sowjetische russische dialektische Materialismus. Bern.Minakov, Mikhail. 2014. Transformatsii filosofskogo obrazovaniia v Ukraine v konse XX veka, in: Forum noveishei istorii I kultury, 2 (2014), 355-416 [http://www1.ku-eichstaett.de/ZIMOS/forum/inhaltruss22.html]. Plotnikov, Nikolai. 2001. Sovetskaiia filosofiia: institut I funktsiia, in: Logos, 4(30), 101-120.
Ulam, A. 1963. The Historical Role of Marxism and the Soviet System, in: The New Face of Soviet Totalitarianism, Cambridge: CUP, 20-32. van der Zweerde, Evert. 1997. Soviet historiography of philosophy: istoriko-filosofskaja nauka, Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.