SOC763 Changing Political and Social Identities in Post-Cold War Central Europe

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2009
Extent and Intensity
1/1. 15 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. PhDr. Csaba Szaló, 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
Thu 10:00–11:40 U33
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The course encompasses a variety of themes concerning the reconstruction of social identities in Central Europe after the fall of communism.
The main objective of the course is to demonstrate various cultural patterns of continuity and change by means of theoretically framed case studies that compare pre-communist, communist and post-communist phenomena.
The particular interconnected topics to be understood by students in this course are:
the political reconstruction of memories and identities in the conditions of cultural revolutions
the establishment of post-socialist hegemony in relation to cultural practices of nationalism
the challenge of re-emerging forms of ethnic conflict and solidarity in the form of mythic and utopian imaginary communities
Syllabus
  • Introduction: The experience of total wars and world revolutions – Eric Hobsbawm, Age of Extremes (Vintage, 1996) pp. 21-53.
  • Modernity, trust and identity – Mabel Berezin, Making the Fascist Self. (Cornell University Press, 1997) pp. 11-38.
  • Recurrent modernization: industrial, political and cultural revolutions – Christopher Read, ed. The Stalin Years. (Palgrave, 2003) pp. 23-101
  • The establishment of socialist and post-socialist cultural hegemony - Katherine Verdery, What Was Socialism and What Comes Next (Princeton University Press, 1996). pp.19 -57
  • Post-socialist nationalism and anti-feminism. - Katherine Verdery, What Was Socialism and What Comes Next (Princeton University Press, 1996). pp. 61-103.
  • National minorities and the challenge of re-emerging forms of conflict and solidarity – Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed. (Cambridge University Press, 1996) pp. 13-22, 55-76.
  • The sense of historical injustice and the symbolic power of resentment – Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed. (Cambridge University Press, 1996) pp. 79-147.
  • Migration, displacement and post-colonial identities in Central Europe – David D. Laitin, Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad (Cornell University Press, 1998). pp. 3-58.
  • Strategies of cultural assimilation and the politics of naming – David D. Laitin, Identity in Formation: The Russian-Speaking Populations in the Near Abroad (Cornell University Press, 1998). pp. 243-299.
  • The cultural power of naming and political struggle – Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power. (Polity Press, 1992). pp. 220-251.
  • Nationality, citizenship and social integration in the New Europe – Jürgen Habermas, The Inclusion of the Other. (MIT Press, 1999). pp. 105-127.
Literature
  • Berdahl, Daphne. Where the World Ended. Re-Unification and Identity in the German Borderland. University of California Press 1999.
  • The Stalin years :a reader. Edited by Christopher Read. 1st pub. Houndmills: Palgrave, 2003, xviii, 241. ISBN 0-333-96343-1. info
  • HABERMAS, Jürgen. The inclusion of the other : studies in political theory. Edited by Ciaran Cronin - Pablo De Greiff. 2nd print. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999, xxxvii, 30. ISBN 0262082675. info
  • LAITIN, David D. Identity in formation : the russian-speaking populations in the near abroad. 1st pub. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998, xiv, 417. ISBN 0801484952. info
  • BEREZIN, Mabel. Making the fascist self : the political culture of interwar Italy. 1st pub. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997, xiv, 267. ISBN 0801484200. info
  • BRUBAKER, Rogers. Nationalism reframed : nationhood and the national question in the new Europe. 1st pub. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, xi, 202. ISBN 0521576490. info
  • VERDERY, Katherine. What was socialism, and what comes next? Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996, 298 stran. ISBN 9780691011325. info
  • HOBSBAWM, Eric J. Age of extremes :the short twentieth century 1914-1991. 1st pub. London: Abacus, 1994, xii, 627 s. ISBN 0-349-10671-1. info
  • BOURDIEU, Pierre. Language and symbolic power. Edited by John B. Thompson. 1st pub. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992, ix, 302 s. ISBN 0-7456-0097-2. info
Assessment methods
Form of teaching: lectures and seminars
Requirements: (a) final paper (b) short (cca. 10 min.) presentation based on readings, (c) written examination based on readings.
Workload: 26 contact hours, 499 pages seminar reading (99 hours), 233 pages final paper reading (47 hours), 3000 words academic writing (24 hours), 917 pages exam reading (183 hours).
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
Information on course enrolment limitations: Výhradně pro zahraniční studenty programů "Sociology" a "Erasmus".
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2006, Spring 2008, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2009, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/spring2009/SOC763