This seminar focuses on the importance of notions of history and social time for political and social theories. Moreover, it explores how time experience is related to ideas of political agency and social identity. Starting with the concept of modernity, we discuss how specific concepts of historical time have shaped political ideas and global politics over the past centuries. We interrogate the idea of progress and discuss its connections to colonial expansion and contemporary global politics. Moreover, we ask whether the idea of emancipatory politics is bound up with concrete notions of the future. Finally, based on our discussion of the roles time measurements, rhythms and speeds have played in industrial and post-industrial societies, we explore ideas about the importance of establishing other time-regimes for more sustainable, caring and democratic societies.

Literatur

Adam, Barbara. 1994. Time and Social Theory.

Allen, Amy. 2016. The End of Progress

Hassan, Robert. 2009. Empires of speed: Time and the acceleration of politics and society

Hutchings, Kimberly. 2008. Time and World Politics: Thinking the Present

This seminar will examine the themes, actors and topics of the contemporary far-right in Europe, the USA, and Central and Latin America. The seminar aims to provide a comparative perspective to a major sub-field in social and political sciences and aspires to familiarize the students with the major issues that are prevalent in far-right research. Topics of discussion will include genealogical and theoretical foundations of the far-right, the main contemporary cases of the far-right in Europe and the Americas, in party, leader or movement form, the far-right’s connection to democracy, its perception of gender, religious and national identities, the alternative far-right and its presence in online media, how other actors mainstream far-right ideas as well as its relationship with the environmental issue.

By the end of the seminar, the students are expected to be able to define the constitutive ideological elements of the far-right and its main characteristics, to understand and recognize major themes and actors of the far-right sub-field, and critically assess cases, either separately or comparatively, using methodological tools that are related to far-right research.


Literatur zur Vorbereitung:

Mondon, A., & Winter, A. (2020). Reactionary democracy: How racism and the populist far right became mainstream. Verso Books.
Mudde, C. (2019). The far right today. John Wiley & Sons.
Wodak, Ruth. 2020. The Politics of Fear: the shameless normalization of far right discourse. London: Sage.

Art der Prüfungsleistung (CP):

The assignments in ‘Far-Right in Europe and the Americas’ consist of a seminar presentation, a position paper or text expert role, and a final paper due to be submitted at the end of the semester. Combined the student will acquire 6 credit points at the end of the semester

This course includes a comprehensive examination of educational inequality which combines theoretical and empirical eivdence while taking a global perspective. Students will gain an in-depth understanding of the systemic and individual causes, consequences, and possible solutions to educational inequality. The course will analyze and discuss various factors that contribute to unequal educational opportunities such as socioeconomic status, origin, gender, and geographic location. Through discussion of empirical evidence and the application of systems thinking, students will develop a holistic understanding of the complex nature of educational inequality.
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Dieser Kurs beinhaltet eine umfassende Diskussion der Ungleichheit im Bildungswesen, die theoretische und empirische Erkenntnisse diesbezüglich kombiniert und dabei eine globale Perspektive einnimmt. Die Studierenden erlangen ein vertieftes Verständnis der systemischen und individuellen Ursachen, Folgen und möglichen Lösungen für Bildungsungleichheit. Im Kurs werden verschiedene Faktoren die zu ungleichen Bildungschancen beitragen wie sozioökonomischer Status, Herkunft, Geschlecht und geografische Lage analysiert und diskutiert. Durch die Diskussion empirischer Belege und die Anwendung eines systemischen Denkens werden die Studierenden ein ganzheitliches Verständnis für die komplexe Natur von Bildungsungleichheit entwickeln.

In a first step, we discuss different texts on the variety of capitalist development in relation to welfare state development.
The second step is to highlight challenges of welfare capitalism as we know it.
Finally, we discuss some concepts on how to develop welfare state capitalism in the future.

preparatory literature:

Literature will be provided in Stud.IP

Art der Prüfungsleistung (CP) [credits and exams]:
You can achieve both 3 and 6 CP for the Master in Social Policy.
The seminar will be held as a block seminar on Fridays