Back
Semester | spring semester 2019 |
Course frequency | Irregular |
Lecturers | Teresa Pullano (teresa.pullano@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
Content | The present lecture deals with "critical" perspectives on European integration and with critical reflections on approaches to the EU as an object of analysis within the social and human sciences. The qualification of "critical" itself will be reflexively considered during the lecture. Nevertheless, "critical" here as at least the following meanings. At first, "critical" refers to critics of mainstream theories of European integration, such as intergovernamentalism, functionalism and supranationalism as developed during the last fifty years. How is it possible to fill the gaps in mainstream studies of EU integration? How to "open up" the field of EU studies? One avenue is to "normalize" the EU as an object of study and to reflect upon a going back to classical legal, political and social theories and to apply them to the EU. For example, how does the classical sociology of Durkheim reveal new aspects of EU integration, or how can we apply classical theories of State building to the EU? A second sense of "critical" here refers then to "critical theory" or "critical theories". Often, EU studies adopt implicitly liberalism as the main and sometimes exclusive paradigm to think about integration, without reflecting explicitly. How do critical theories of the liberal paradigm approach EU integration? We will, in this respect, go through critical approaches of EU's economic policy, discussing the relation between neoliberalism and recent EU economic developments, political science approaches reintroducing an analysis of power struggles within the EU. We will then move to post-marxist studies of the EU, reintroducing aspects of marxist and post-marxist theory in the study of integration. We will then move to post-structuralist approaches to the EU, such as the Foucauldian one, and we will discuss the advantages and limits of those "critical studies". Finally, we will see how it is possible and beneficial to introduce postcolonial as well as feminist studies to EU integration's studies. In the last session, critical philosophical investigations of Europe, such as in the work of Etienne Balibar, Jurgen Habermas and Antonio Negri. |
Learning objectives | Learning outcomes: 1. EI integration theories: current state of the art 2. What does critical mean with respect to EU integration theories? 3. How to apply classical approaches in political science and political sociology 4. How to reintroduce the dimension of "power differentials" into analysis of EU integration 5. Critical political economy's study of the EU 6. Critiques of neoliberalism and the EU 7. An overview of post-marxist approaches to the EU 8. Poststructuralist approaches's applications to the EU, esp. Foucauldian studies 9. Political philosophy and the EU: Habermas, Balibar, Negri 10. Feminist critiques and the EU 11. Post colonial critiques and the EU |
Bibliography | A bibliographical list will be given at the beginning of the lecture |
Weblink | Europainstitut |
Language of instruction | English |
Use of digital media | No specific media used |
Course auditors welcome |
Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
---|
No dates available. Please contact the lecturer.
Modules |
Modul: Erweiterung Gesellschaftswissenschaften B.A. (Bachelor's degree subject: Political Science) Modul: Erweiterung Gesellschaftswissenschaften M.A. (Master's degree subject: Political Science) Modul: Europäisierung und Globalisierung (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) Modul: Gesellschaft in Osteuropa (Bachelor's degree program: Eastern European Studies) Modul: Gesellschaft in Osteuropa (Bachelor's degree subject: Eastern European Cultures) Modul: Sachthemen der Ethnologie (Bachelor's degree subject: Anthropology) Modul: Transfer: Europa interdisziplinär (Master's degree program: European History in Global Perspective) Modul: Vertiefung Politikwissenschaft M.A. (Master's degree subject: Political Science) Vertiefungsmodul Global Europe: Regional Integration and Global Flows (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) |
Assessment format | record of achievement |
Assessment details | The lecture will be graded (0.5 until 6.0). Students will be required to pass a final written exam, taking place in class, to validate the lecture. |
Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
Scale | Pass / Fail |
Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
Responsible faculty | University of Basel |
Offered by | Europainstitut |