SOC761 Development of Ethnic Relations in the Czech Republic

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2009
Extent and Intensity
1/1. 15 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Irena Kašparová, M.A., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. PhDr. Ing. Radim Marada, Ph.D.
Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Ing. Soňa Enenkelová
Timetable
Mon 16:00–17:40 U33
Prerequisites
Students should have social science background; topics, themes and theories will centre around social anthropology and sociology loads of knowledge. English writing skills required.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 35 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/35, only registered: 0/35
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The overwhelming theme of the course is a critical quest for Czech identity. Czech nation, which was artificially homogenised during the decades of communist rule, is currently discovering its many Others, living within its territory and culture often for centuries. The aim of the course is a disclosure of all these nuances of Czech culture by focusing upon lives of few chosen Others, while framing the discussion within the (predominantly) social anthropological discourse.
Syllabus
  • 1. Theories of race and ethnicity: This lecture will introduce the context in which I would like to present the problem of ethnic relations in the Czech Republic, both from contemporary and historical perspective. Current social science operates with specific terms such as race, ethnicity and multiculturalism, which public language takes over without deeper analysis. I believe it is vital for our understanding of this phenomenon to understand the context in which these terms emerge and the precise meaning they carry. Could that be that the theories of race, racism and ethnicity are based on a myth? If so, is multiculturalism nonsense? This lecture will examine these terms from the perspective of social anthropology. 2. Time, History and The Other: this lecture will deal with another group of terms widely used without exact and unified connotations not only in the academic debates but also among the general public. The class discussion will centre on historically changing problems of self-identification in relation to the other, various perceptions of time and the consequences this has for our understanding of history. 3. Nation, Nationalism and the Theory of the State: Each one of us has a nationality and is a member of a certain state – true or false? Are there people without nationality and a state? What consequences does that have for them? Are all these categories as natural as they appear to be, or are they just arbitrary creations of modernity, used by abstract powers to control individuals? 4. Specificity of the Roma national minority in the Czech Republic I.: The Roma national minority is the most visible and the most discussed within the contemporeary Czech Republic. The Roma are more then any other minority disliked by the majority population, which sees them as problematic and having the greatest demands. Why is that? What makes them different from other minorities? Where is the root of the so called Roma problem or Roma question? The following lectures will approach this theme from historical and cultural perspective, positioning the whole issue within the wider context of the complex Czech majority culture. 5. Specificity of the Roma national minority in the Czech Republic II.: continuation of the topic 6. Specificity of the Roma national minority in the Czech Republic III: A walk through the Roma quarters of the city of Brno, guided visit to Roma museum. 7. Historical context of national minorities in the Czech Republic: Near yet far away? Germans and Slovaks: This lecture will introduce the development of ethnic relations within the boundaries of the former Czechoslovak states in the period between 1918-1989. The greatest attention will be devoted to the Czech-German and Czech-Slovak relations. 8. Development of ethnic relations in the Czech Republic since 1989-success of multiculturalism? Vietnamese, Ukrainians and economic migration: Various sociological surveys will be introduced which present the attitudes of the Czechs towards ethnic minorities, foreigners in general, xenophobia, national extremists and related issues. Efforts, successes and downfalls of multicultural education and projects will also be introduced in relation to Vietnamese and Ukrainian minorities. 9. Touring Minorities – Tourism, Czechs and the Other: Tourists are a special category of foreigners. Most of them come and go; they stay for only a little while, yet still represent the Other. Their fluidity and the numbers in which they flood the world bring an enormous change in perception of the other In addition, this is a very special category of foreigners, a category which allows for a first hand experience of each individual, as all of us are tourists once in a while and thus foreigners at some time of our life. Does this experience change our views - if so –how? 10. Minorities in the Media I. – Written media: Media play very important role in forming public opinion, beliefs, mental concepts and fears. They are anonymous and abstract but present concrete images of concrete people. Do they simply mirror the public debate or do they dictate the images we internalize? In the following two lectures we will look at the image of minorities in the press and in films and take apart the myth of media objectivity and neutrality. To what extend does the minority member in the media comply with the real one in the world out there? The topic will be summed up with the held of theories introduced at the beginning of the course, including various theories of racism, nationalism and ethnocentrism. 11. Minorities in the Media II. – film analysis: Good soldier Švejk, Larks on the string 12. Who are the Czechs? (De)Construction of the national spirit: We have learned about minorities in the Czech Republic all the term – but are we able to spot the Czechs among them? Who are they? What are they like? Do such people exist in reality or only on paper? This final lecture will be carried out in dialectics, in a form of a debate. The teacher, being a Czech, will speak about Us- the students will speak about Them. Will the two lines of discussion ever meet?
Literature
  • The little czech and the great czech nation : national identity and post-communist social transformation (Orig.) : Malý český člověk a skvělý český národ : národní identita a postkomunistická transformace společnosti. info
  • Hard to make out foreigners. How foreigners are (not) written about in the Czech Press. Praha: MKC o.s.
  • MEETHAN, Kevin. Tourism in global society :place, culture, consumption. 1st pub. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001, x, 214 s. ISBN 0-333-76058-1. info
  • ČERNÁ, Milena. Life in black and white. Photo by Jindřich Štreit - Jaroslav Kořán - Eva Davidová. Praha: Gallery, 2000, 176 s. ISBN 80-86010-38-4. info
  • After writing culture : epistemology and praxis in contemporary anthropology. Edited by Allison James - Jenny Hockey - Andrew Dawson. 1st pub. London: Routledge, 1997, ix, 273 s. ISBN 0-415-15006-X. info
  • Europe and the people without history. Edited by Eric R. Wolf. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997, xvii, 503. ISBN 0520048989. info
  • VERDERY, Katherine. What was socialism, and what comes next? Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996, 298 s. ISBN 0-691-01132-X. info
  • MITCHELL, Timothy. Colonising Egypt. 1st print. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991, xviii, 218. ISBN 0520075684. info
  • ANDERSON, Benedict R. O'G. (Benedi. Imagined communities : reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Rev. and extended ed. London: Verso, 1991, xv, 224 p. ISBN 0-86091-329-5. info
  • SMITH, Anthony D. National identity. 1st ed. London: Penguin books, 1991, 226 s. ISBN 0-14-012565-5. info
  • Ethnic groups and boundaries : the social organization of culture difference. Edited by Frederik Barth. Boston: Little, Brown and comp., 1969, 153 s. info
Assessment methods
Lectures, class discussion, field trim, museum visit Examination: essay 50% and final oral group exam 50%
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2006, Autumn 2007.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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