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