USESED001 Forming the Social and Political Identities in Europe

Faculty of Public Policies in Opava
Winter 2016
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. PhDr. Dušan Janák, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Lubomír Hlavienka, Ph.D. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Dušan Janák, Ph.D.
Institute of Central European Studies – Faculty of Public Policies in Opava
Prerequisites
Expert Knowledge:
The graduates of the subject will demonstrate the knowledge of key concepts used to research and describe the issue of identity in social sciences. Further on, they will be able to describe the key processes of forming European nations and to describe the basic characteristics of identities formed in modern European social movements.
Expert Skills:
In the course of writing their seminar paper, the students will practise their ability to link up theoretical concepts with their everyday experience. The students will attempt to set their direct experience of their place of living into the wider context of knowledge about the formation of social identities.
General Competence:
The ability to see individual biographies as a result of wider social process is useful not only in the social science research, but can also be applied in the journalist profession and, considering the area of the specialist subject, it can also be helpful when trying to formulate regional projects or build regional cooperation. In the sphere of forming public policies, the grasp of genealogy and national stereotypes or identities in transnational social movements is the necessary requirement for competent forming.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
The aim of the subject is to present the processes of forming social identities and their significance for the social and political behaviour of their participants. In the introductory part, the students will acquire familiarity with the general theory of identity, which involves describing the processes of forming social and personal identities. The second part deals with the questions of forming, maintaining and transforming of national identities as the prototype of political identities, the formation of which is closely linked to the processes of forming the modern states. The final part deals with the issues related to the protest political identities in the context of modern social movements, and to supranational social identities, which are currently linked to the phenomena of transnational migration and European integration.
Syllabus
  • PART I. General Theory of Identity
    1. Exploring identity in the historical, sociological and philosophical perspective.
    2. Social construction of identity: cultural identity; organism, sexuality and identity.
    3. Political identity - using the term of identity in the context of exploring political processes.
    PART II. National Identity as a Prototype of Political Identity
    4. National identity and forming public political space; cultural and political concept of the nation.
    5. The mechanisms of forming national identities in Europe from 18th to 20th century: identifying ancestors, folklore, mass culture.
    6. National movement of small (suppressed) nations, national identity in rhetoric of political parties
    7. Multicultural society and forming regional identities (in the example of Silesia).
    8. The identity of national minorities, ethnocentrism and nationalism, the strategies of cultural assimilation.
    PART III. Protest Identities and Supranational Social Identities
    9. Forming protest identities in the context of social movements (the example of anti-globalism)
    10. Transformations of political identities in Central Europe after 1989 (post-socialistic nationalism, anti-feminism and new forms of antisemitism, and their manifestation in the rhetoric of political parties).
    12. European political identity (nationality, citizenship and social integration in new Europe).
    Seminar requirements include active participation, a seminar paper of the extent of 5 pages on the theme of regional identity from the area of the student´s birth place or his or her place of his residence. The paper will be summarized in the form of oral presentation given in the seminar and it will be discussed with other students.
Literature
    required literature
  • ELLIOTT, A. (ed.). Routledge handbook of identity studies. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011. ISBN 978-04-1555-558-6. info
  • HROCH, M. Národy nejsou dílem náhody. Příčiny a předpoklady utváření moderních evropských národů. Praha: Sociologické nakladatelství, 2009. ISBN 978-80-7419-010-0. info
  • THIESSOVÁ, A. M. Vytváření národních identit v Evropě 18. až 20. století. Brno: CDK, 2007. ISBN 978-80-7325-118-5. info
    recommended literature
  • GRAF, Sylvie, Martina HŘEBÍČKOVÁ, Magda PETRJÁNOŠOVÁ a Alicja LE. Češi a jejich sousedé: meziskupinové postoje a kontakt ve střední Evropě. Praha: Academia, 2015. ISBN 978-80-7325-118-5. info
  • ŠMAUSOVÁ, G. Proti tvrdošíjné představě o ontické povaze těla a gender. In: Politika rodu a sexuální identity. Sociální studia. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2003. ISBN 80-210-2834-3. info
Language of instruction
Czech
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course can also be completed outside the examination period.
Teacher's information
The subject is completed with an exam that involves a text with approximately 30 closed questions with 4 alternative answers of which one, more, all or no alternative can be correct. To pass the exam, the student has to answer two thirds of the questions correctly.
The course is also listed under the following terms Winter 2017, Winter 2018.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Winter 2016, recent)
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