SYLLABUS Civil Society and the Public Sphere in the EU CEVRO Institute, Autumn Term 2022 Karel B. Müller karel.muller@vsci.cz, www.karelmuller.eu Office hours: WED between 13,00 and 15,00, or any time after appointment The lecturer reserves the right to alter the syllabus during the term if necessary. Course description: The main objective of the course is to acquaint students with the similarities and differences of contemporary European civil societies and to examine the role of cultural, social, and political factors in the processes of European public sphere formation within the process of European integration. In the first part stress will be laid on the description and interpretation of presently existing varieties of European civil societies. The course will help the students to understand the main historical roots of European plurality, i.e., the political, economic, and cultural processes that engendered this plurality. In the second part the pivotal theoretical concepts of civil society and public sphere will be discussed and applied to a transnational (European) level. The role of civil societies´ plurality in relation to the quest for a European civil society and European public sphere will be explored and examined. Grading policy: Quality participation: 20 % Presentation (10 min MAX) or paper (2-3 thousand words): 20 % (if both 30%) Final test (10 open questions): 60 % Topics: European studies, your topic must be problem oriented. You must register your topic/presentation with me before the end of third week. Week 1: Examining European diversity – syllabus as required reading. Week 2: Defining Europe and the Concept of Nation in European Cultures (anthropological perspective) Shils, Edward (1975). Center and Periphery, The University of Chicago Press, pp. 111-126. Week 3: Defining Europe and the Concept of Nation in European Cultures (historical perspective) Delanty, G. (1995). Inventing Europe, London: Macmillan Press, chapters 2, 3, pp.16-47 Week 4: European Modernities Held, D. (1992). “The Development of the Modern State”, in Hall and Gieben (eds). Formations of Modernity, Polity press & The Open University, pp. 71-125. Giddens, A. (1990). Consequences of Modernity. Polity Press, pp. 10-29. Week 5: Models of Nation/Civil Society Formation Gellner, E. (1997). Nationalism. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, chapters 6 and 7, pp. 37 –57. Week 6: Central Europe and Post-communist Civil Societies Holy, L. (1996). The Little Czech and the Great Czech Nation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, chapter „The private and the public in socialist Czechoslovakia“, pp. 17–27. Sztompka, P. (1998). „Mistrasting Civility. Predicaments of Post-Communist Society“, in Alexander, J. (ed.), Real Civil Societies. Dilemmas of Institucionalization. London: Sage, pp. 191–210. Week 7: The Concept of Civil Society and the Public Sphere Müller, B. K. (2006). The Civil Society-State Relationship in Contemporary Discourse: A Complementary Account from Giddens´ Perspective. The British Journal of Politics & International Relations, 2006, 8 (2), pp. 311–330. Week 8: Beyond the Nation State. Globalization as a Challenge to the Modern State Bauman, Z. (1998). Globalization. Polity Press. Chapter 1, pp. 6–26. Habermas, Jürgen (2000). Beyond the nation state? On some consequences of economic globalization. In E. O. Eriksen a J. E. Fossum (eds) Democracy in the European Union. Integration Through Deliberation? London/NY: Routledge, pp. 29–41. Week 9: Civil Societies in Europe or European civil society? Perez-Diaz, V. (1998). The Public Sphere and a European Civil Society, in Jeffrey Alexander (ed.) Real Civil Societies. Dilemmas of Institutionalization. London: Sage, pp. 211–238. Müller, K. B. (2014). European Civil Society Conundrum, in Central European Journal of International & Security Studies; 2014, 8 (1). Week 10: European Identities as a Quest for a Positive Identity Hoover, K. (1997). The Power of Identity. Politics in a New Key. New Persey: Chatham, chapter 2 ‘Identity Formation in Theory and Practice’, and chapter 3 ‘The Political Pathologies of Identity Formation’, pp. 13–43. Week 11: Europe as the Sphere of Publics and Active Borders? Müller, K. B. (2018). Active Borders and Transnationalization of the Public Sphere in Europe: Examining Territorial and Symbolic Borders as a Source of Democratic Integration, Positive Identity, and Civic Learning. Alternatives vol. 43, no. 3, p. 119–136. Risse, T. (2010). A Community of Europeans, London: Cornell University Press, pp. 107-126. Week 12: Europe – Community of Memory? Assmann A. (2009). From Collective Violence to the Common Future: Four Models for Dealing with the Traumatic Past, in Wodak, Ruth; Gertraud Auer Borea d'Olmo (ed.). Justice and Memory – Confronting Traumatic Pasts. An International Comparison. Wien: Passagen Verlag, pp. 31–48 Assmann A. (2007). Europe: A Community of Memory? Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, Spring 40: 11–38. Week 13: Final test