CEULearning : Search results (2024)

Instructor: Prof. Judith Aldridge (JudithAAldridge@gmail.com; AldridgeJ@spp.ceu.edu)

Teaching Assistant: LuciaSobekova (sobekoval@spp.ceu.edu)

Academic Unit: SPP

Semester/term, year: Fall 2017-18

Course level (MA, PhD): MA

The course examineschanges in illicit drug use and markets with a particular focus on the past 10years. We examine changes in the drug types being produced and consumed –including via a constantly emerging range of so-called ‘novel psychoactive substances’,alongside recent transformations in drug markets enabled by internettechnologies – particularly in the form of so-called ‘darknet’ drug markets. Wewill bring together multiple perspectives (political, sociological,criminological, historical, cultural, psychological and health) to the study ofdrug use and its construction as a problem at the micro and macro levels.Students will be encouraged to examine and challenge their own assumptions andvalues and beliefs about drug use, drug users and drug supply actors, in orderto enable them to critically evaluate drug prohibition and a range ofregulatory alternatives in a fast changing landscape.

The course assessment contains formative andsummative elements; the summative component is submission of a 2000 word blog post (70%, to be submitted by 13December) via Turnitin and a speech(30%, to be delivered in the last teaching session on 6 December). Full detailsin the separate moodle section on assessments. The formative element is an ungraded,learning diary that has to be submitted for students to receive their finalgrade. Students should come prepared to discuss their formal and/orimpressionistic understanding of drug use, markets and policy in their homecountries.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this course students will be ableto demonstrate

·A willingness tocritically evaluate one’s own values and beliefs around drug use, drug usersand drug supply activities

·An awareness of drug mythsand stereotypes and understanding of the inherently moral and political assumptionsthat cast drug use as a social problem

·Detailed understandingof changing patterns and trends in drug use globally

·Detailed understandingof the extent to which recent drug market innovations (e.g. the so-called‘darknet’) may be transforming traditional global drug supply\

·An understanding of whatwe can learn about regulatory alternatives to prohibition from recentdevelopments, including injecting rooms, alcohol and tobacco, cannabis,prescription drugs and informal regulation via darknet drug markets

·Identification ofregional variations in the changes identified on the course

FOR WHOM
This course is designed to help you (who has an English proficiency level of B2 as a minimum) write academic papers by familiarizing you with the conventions and stylistic criteria of academic genres. It will provide you with a LINGUISTIC toolkit that will enable you to meet the FORMAL expectations of academic writing assignments. You will receive individualized tasks and assistance depending on your level of academic commitment and English proficiency. It will teach you how to avoid false premises, logical errors and cognitive biases while planning your research and drafting your paper.

ASSISTANCE
For participants committing themselves to submit an English-language essay within the CEU-IUFU curriculum by the end of this term, the course can offer individualized linguistic support to develop and improve their theses. They can ask for support in the form of submitting sections of their papers for peer review. No full papers will be reviewed or corrected, though.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS DURING THE TERM
After each thematic section, we will practice what we have covered. You will be expected to do online exercises, review, proofread and write short segments of texts, each focusing on a specific skill.

PASS/FAIL CRITERIA
All participants are supposed to attend the online sessions and submit in-term assignments regularly. All participants are expected to submit a mock essay (of 3-4 pages, 700-900 words) on a freely chosen topic (by late-November) to prove that they have internalized the formal and stylistic conventions of academic writing. Students with writing commitments in other IUFU courses can be exempted from writing a mock-essay if they submit substantial passages of their paper for discussion. Your writing assignments will be based on the course material (as it appears in the HANDOUTs) and on the knowledge underlying the Quizlet exercises.

EXTENSION
If there is an interest, the course will provide information on how EU legal texts are drafted, edited, and adopted, and will familiarize you with some basic EU legal concepts. Such a thematic focus could serve as an orientation for those wishing to participate in the drafting/translation of EU legal documents (prospective legal assistants, lawyer-linguists, etc.) during their professional careers. If you choose so, you can get an insight here into the different kinds of PUBLIC political and legal documents the European Parliament has drafted on all matters related to Ukraine over the past years.

Elective Course, Media and Communications Specialization/Concentration

For years, the global journalism crisis has been viewed by scholars and policy experts as one problem among many – a troubling defect in the media system that may one day lead to problems for democracy but could be addressed in due time. Not any more.

Few doubt that the global march toward illiberalism punctuated by the election of Donald Trump is – in some way – tied to the collapse of legacy journalism and the concurrent rise of disaggregated, unverified fake news sluicing its way through social media platforms. Walter Lippmann’s words of 1920 are even more true today: “For in an exact sense,” he said, “the present crisis in western democracy is a crisis of journalism.”

This course explores the place of public interest journalism in a democratic society and seeks to enlist students in creating positive policy solutions to support it.

In the first segment of the course, we define terms — what do we mean by “journalism,” “journalist,” the “public interest,” “public-interest” or “accountability” journalism, “access journalism,” the “public sphere” — and explore journalism’s relationship to democracy and civil society. We will read and critique examples of public interest journalism (PIJ) from the present, past, the West and non-West. We will read critiques of journalism and explore the gap between the journalism ideal as a foundation of democracy and its limitations and failures. We examine questions such as: Is journalism a catalyst or product of social change? Why is it often subservient to power but sometimes a subversive force for social change and reform? We then explore specific issues of economic, legal, regulatory and technological suppression, surveillance, censorship, and violence. We will devote two sessions to the case of Hungary, a laboratory of sorts of press suppression both through legal and parliamentary means and through so-called “soft-censorship” and develop the concept of “market suppression,” by which governments in small markets control media advertising, the lifeblood of commercial media. We will explore examples of ‘hard censorship” via examples such as Turkey, Egypt and China; the problem of violence against journalists as well as harassment, threats, and trolling, particularly against women journalists, state surveillance and state prosecution and harassment of “whistleblowers” and other journalistic sources. We will explore the collapse of traditional business models for journalism and the resulting “brave new world” of information. The last segments will search for means to rebuild journalism through commercial models and public policy options.

Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this course, students should be able to:

— Define public -interest journalism, explain its evolution across time and national various national contexts, its current place in the journalism field, its limitations, its potential, its relationship to the public sphere, and its vital role in promoting and sustaining civil society.

— Critically discuss a range of critiques of the profession from a range of perspectives. Analyze competing ideas and practices within the profession.

— Analyze and critique legal and regulatory barriers to public-interest reporting in various national contexts.

—Analyze and explain the role of violence and other extra-legal means in suppressing journalism.

— Design policy solutions for protecting public-interest journalism from regulatory, legal, and extra-legal private threats.

—Design a rudimentary business model for a news organization.

Assessment:
Readings quizzes (20% of final grade)

Short paper or presentation (30% of the final grade). The work will introduce the status of public interest journalism in a country of the student’s choosing (including the student’s home country) or some other mutually agreed upon topic.

Final paper (50% of the final grade). Up to 2,000 words, on a subject to be discussed with the instructor. Students are encouraged to expand their presentation into a term paper.

Instructor: Márton Karsai and Gergely Ódor

Prerequisite:None

Term:Pre-term course (during two weeks before Fall term)

Level:MS

Course type:Elective

Module:Bootcamp

Brief course description:This course aims to introduce the basic concepts in computer science to students, who join the Social Data Science program without sufficient background. This course will introducemathematical modeling of computational problems, as well as common algorithms, algorithmic paradigms, and data structures used to solve these problems. It emphasizes the relationship between algorithms and programming and introduces basic performance measures and analysis techniques for these problems.The course is organized as a sequence of short lectures and tutorials.

Learning outcomes:By the end of the course the student will be able to

approach programming challenges with the basic algorithmic techniques

design effective algorithms for various computational problem

identify the appropriate data structure for the optimal implementation of a computational problem

evaluate the computational performance of the implemented algorithmic solution

What you will NOT learn in this course: This course is about the data structures and algorithms. It will not provide you advanced coding and data visualization skills, neither training on data handling and database management.

Learning activities and teaching methods:Lectures and tutorials.

Assessment:A students in this course will be evaluated as pass/fail through their performance and homework. Regular class attendance is required to pass the course. Active class participation is highly recommended.

Attendance:Attendance is mandatory for at least 70 percent of the lectures. Absence from more than 30 percent of the classes automatically leads to failure. In case on-site teaching is allowed, online participation does not count as attendance unless officially certified.

Assignments:In the end of tutorial sessions homework will be handed out.

Course reading:

The lectures are built on topics discussed in:Cormen, Thomas, Charles Leiserson, Ronald Rivest, and Clifford Stein.Introduction to Algorithms. 3rd ed. MIT Press, 2009. ISBN:9780262033848.

Software: Jupyter Notebook in the environment of Anaconda, freely downloadablehere(download the version, which contains Python 3.9) andPyCharm(Community edition)is an integrated development environment (IDE) for programming, also available within Anaconda.

Literature: Open book:Non-Programmer's Tutorial for Python

Youtube playlistPython for Beginners

Course topics:

Lecture 1: Introduction to Algorithms and Computing, Recursion

Tutorial 1: Basics of programming, control flow

Lecture 2: Program efficiency

Tutorial 2: Functions, local & global variables

Lecture 3: Searching and sorting

Tutorial 3: Strings, tuples, loops

Lecture 4: Introduction to data structures, sets & hashing

Tutorial 4: Modules and lists

Lecture 5: Linear sorting, heaps

Tutorial 5: Dictionaries and sets

Lecture 6: Binary trees, elementary graph algorithms

Tutorial 6: Object oriented programming

Schedule:

New productdevelopment is not a standard functional process: it crosses all main corporatefunctions and goes beyond its boundaries into global, multicultural markets.This course will introduce to several methodologies belonging to differentfields of expertise: design thinking, lean 6 sigma, organization, marketing,engineering management. It will furthermore allow participants to have a flavorof the complex soft skills required to manage such process. In order to fulfillsuch a complex learning experience, the course will balance lecture, cases and practicalexercises; it will be led by an experience manager combining 10+ years incorporate R&D (with specific focus on NPD), 10+ years in venture capitaland a diversified education in aerospace engineering and management.

This course aims to deepen understanding of how moralvalues underlie public policy debates, and to enhance students’ ability tointerrogate their own assumptions about values, by introducing some basic conceptsand methods of moral and political philosophy.

We will examine key normative questions in publicpolicy such as: When do legislators, civil servants, and citizens have specialduties to others because of their roles, and when should they act on theirprivate moral judgments? What ethical assumptions are made by widely-usedmethods of policy analysis, and how should we think about these? Can stateslegitimately control speech? Can states legitimately control borders betweencitizens and potential immigrants? How can we reasonably respond to moral disagreementand religious diversity in a pluralistic state?

Answering such questions involves making difficultvalue judgments. Through debate and discussion of a number of moral dilemmasfaced by governments and public, we will discover how analytic moral reasoningcan help us examine, adjust, and better defend the moral and politicalframeworks that ground our policy decisions – though it leaves us with seeminglyfewer clear, final answers than before we encountered it.

This course explores the politics of history in thecommunist era and beyond in Central and Eastern Europe. The course focuses onthe variety of ways history was approached and represented in the regionbetween the end of World War II and the fall of the communist dictatorships. Itscrutinizes the constant attempts to rewrite and revise historical narratives,rearrange exhibitions and reset monuments. To this end, the course investigatesvarious primary and secondary sources related to the representations of thepast, mainly museums, monuments, documentaries, artworks, political statements,and academic works. Special attention will be paid to the political uses ofhistory and memory in nation-building and state legitimacy, two key aspects tounderstand broader political cultures in contemporary Central and EasternEurope.

The course approaches thesethemes in a longer term historical perspective and a comparative framework. Itinvestigates the bewildering variety of the uses of the past in Central andEastern Europe and sets the emphasis on elucidating the heterogeneity ofhistorical cultures in the region. It explores the broader European context ofthe politics of history following WWII and puts special emphasis on ways ofmaking sense of the experiences of occupation and the war. Further, the coursepays special attention to the legacies of communist politics of history and itsrevisions after 1989 and investigates the main trends and paradigms ofpostcommunist politics of history and memory.

Course directors:

Kateryna Dysa (National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, All Souls College, Oxford): dysakl@ukma.edu.ua

Martin Kisly (National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy): Martin.oleksandr@gmail.com

Course coordinator:

Nataliia Shuliakova: shuliakovan@ceu.edu

The course will explore how various entities within Ukraine, including regions, cities, and landscapes, were conceived and constructed from the late eighteenth to the conclusion of the twentieth century. We will discuss how travellers, scholars etc. from both local imperial centres and Western perspective perceived, constructed, and described these entities. Additionally, we will explore how these perspectives evolved over time.

We plan to focus on numerous case studies, encompassing regions like Galicia, Sloboda Ukraine, Crimea, and Donbass, cities, as well as cities such as Kyiv and Dnipro. Furthermore, we will examine the perception of Ukraine as a whole. Throughout the course, we will discuss various methodologies used in the field of imagined geography, mental/cognitive mapping, othering etc.

Fromits humble beginnings in the aftermath of World War II, international trade lawhas risen to the forefront of global governance. Virtually all countries on theplanet are bound by its rules, which affect trillions of dollars’ worth of tradein goods, services, and intellectual property assets across the world. Thescope of such rules has vastly expanded in recent decades, and nowadays coversissues as diverse as market access, trade discrimination, cross-borderinvestment, labelling rules, food security, renewable energy subsidies,pharmaceutical patents, health measures, and GMOs. A robust institutionalstructure – comprising the World Trade Organization (WTO), the EuropeanCommunities (EC), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Mercosur,and many other bodies – has contributed to the consolidation of the worldtrading system at the global and regional level. At the same time, strongdispute settlement mechanisms have enabled the emergence of a tight andinfluential community of transnational practitioners. Despite its many successes,international trade law remains highly controversial: while many applaud it as amilestone in economic relations, others decry its intrusiveness in domesticpolicymaking; while many extoll the virtues of trade liberalization as a recipefor prosperity, many others see it as a tool for hegemony and unevendevelopment. For enthusiasts and detractors alike, the world trading system iswhere legal, economic, and policy discourses collide.

This course explores the core legal principles and the mostsalient challenges facing the international trade legal regime, with a focus onthe WTO and a number of selected regional mechanisms. We will begin byexploring the economic rationales behind trade law and consider theircompatibility with social development, human rights, and environmentalprotection. Next, we will delineate the institutional structure of the wordtrade regine, appraise its evolution over time, and discuss the features andperformance of its dispute settlement mechanism. We will then turn to thefundamental obligations set out in international trade agreements, includingthose concerning market access, quantitative restrictions, non-discrimination,technical regulations, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, subsidies,anti-dumping, trade in services, and intellectual property rights. We willconclude by appraising the recent developments running against global economicintegration, such as the US-China trade wars, Trump’s protectionist agenda, andthe future of the community of international trade experts.

Availability
This course is available on the BA and MA in International Relations. It is also available with permission to students on other programmes where regulations permit.
Course content
In the 21st century, humans exert massive influence on the earth, shaping a system of enormous complexity, dispersed agency, and the unknown rules of change and balance. Pandemics, famines, migration, and wars all result from these interactions among humans, their institutions, and nature. The concept of Anthropocene, also known as the Gaia Theory, summarizes contemporary anxieties about climate crisis; global pollution; droughts and famines in the global South; heat waves and melting of permafrost in the global North; oil curse and climate denialism; and other global, regional and (sometimes) national issues. One of the novelties of this course is claiming that Covid-19, and other pandemics, have also been parts of the Anthropocene. We will survey our capacity to create solutions solutions to the problems we face, from geoengineering to vaccinations to reducing consumption to “doughnut urbanism”. Moreover, we will discuss new ideas about the relations between decarbonization and digitalization in hope that the new digital means of the public sphere, education, entertainment and remote work, could give us new solutions for the issues of the Anthropocene. The new public sphere as a self-regulating mechanism of Gaia is another novelty of the course.
The Anthropocene is a broad, modern, and relevant context for International Relations. Responding to the crisis, all our decisions are political, and modern politics should be explored within the combined system of Gaia. This gives a new contextualization for the classical theories of IR. The course argues that a new paradigm of Climatism should complement the old debates between the Realism and Idealism in IR. Along with these theoretical issues, we will focus on the European and global plans of decarbonization, and explore their impacts on IR. How to estimate these projects from the IR perspective? Could we add value to the debate, providing an expertise, forecast, or advice that other disciplines cannot give?
Academic, political, and popular debates on the Anthropocene have exploded in recent years. This gives us rich material for readings, presentations, and discussions in the class. Students are expected to engage with a variety of resources including online publications, book chapters, blogs, and visual media. Reviewing the emergent interdisciplinary literature which spans the social and natural sciences, we focus on the IR implications of these insights. What are the relations between two major crises of our time, the climate and the political? Why the global governance has developed relatively efficient ways of dealing with the Covid, but is failing in its responses to the emissions and pollution? There is a spatial connection between the oil curse and authoritarianism – is there a temporal connection between the climate crisis and militarism? How does Gaia respond to the modern war?
Teaching
12 weeks of classes, two sessions a week. There is an assortment of readings for each session, with the requirement to choose and read at least two sources per session. In each class, the professor gives a short introduction to the issue and a review of the readings, followed by a couple of students’ presentations of the selected readings, and a general debate on the issue.

Course Director: Tetiana Vodotyka (Institute of History of Ukraine, NASU, Senior Research Fellow; Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Guest Researcher, vodotyka@mics.org.ua)
Course Coordinator: nadiya chushak (nadiya.chu@gmail.com)

Course Description
This course aims to examine how contested memory of the First and Second World Wars and mass violence was reshaped in Ukrainian and East European urban social space after 1989/1991, and how the Russian invasion of Ukraine and destruction of Ukrainian cities influenced current cultural perception of the twentieth-century past. The course starts with an overview of the dominant theoretical concepts of memory studies and then re-examines them by discussing specific features of the politics of memory and commemorative practices. It also seeks to deconstruct identity-driven interpretations of past events which aim to neutralize accounts founded on truthfulness. The course will address the role of the state, academia, public intellectuals and new mnemonic actors (including new business elites) in the reshaping of collective memory and will focus on selected urban sites of memory in this process. We will also explore how historical memory can be instrumentalized and used as a weapon, and how the Russian state managed to move the historical debates from the university to the real battlefield in Ukraine.
Contents. The course is structured into three modules, each covering specific problems such as basic theoretical issues of Memory Studies, spaces and places of memory, and finally, ways of instrumentalization of the memory (especially during Russia’s hybrid aggression). Each module opens with a theoretical lecture, explaining the basics of the problem (what is memory studies and how they had developed, the interconnection of urban space and memory, the basic principles of securitization of memory) followed by lectures on more specific topics or/and case studies.
The chronology of the course covers the XX-XXI centuries. The geography of the course is limited basically by Central and Eastern Europe.
Learning Outcomes:
The course offers an intensive learning experience, placing questions relevant for Ukrainian students into a transnational comparative perspective. It aims at familiarizing the students with various cutting-edge interpretative paradigms and methodological traditions. The program is not meant to replace or duplicate the existing online education in Ukrainian universities, but to support them and provide help for filling the lacunae that temporarily emerged due to the Russian military invasion. At the end of this course, students will have expanded their knowledge on key issues of political theory and history of principal political ideologies in a European and global transnational perspective and explored the applicability of these for the Ukrainian context. The course also develops the participants’ critical thinking and skills in academic discussion in English
Learning activities and teaching methods:
Each session will consist of approximately 60 minutes of presentation by two invited lecturers. It will be followed by 40 minutes of open discussions. Within two weeks after the class participants should send their overviews, based on the scheme “X-2-1”. Students analyse the lecture for X key points (3-5) the author makes in the paper; as well as 2 things that they have questions about, and finally, the reflection on 1 issue/topic/argument that was really interesting and encouraging for the further search/reading.
Each session will be recorded and downloaded to moodle.
During the course, participants will work individually and in groups, building on their individual experiences and learning, and sharing their progress and findings with other groups and members of faculty.
Preparation:
For each session, you are required to read the essential readings suggested by the presenter. Readings are available online and sorted in dedicated folders.
Assessment: This course is possible to take for grades or for a pass/fail grade. Those who write research papers at the end by default receive grades. Others can choose pass/fail or grades. Passing the course means that the students have participated in the classes actively.
Participation: Please, try to attend as many classes and seminars as possible: by skipping a class, you deprive the other students to learn from you. Class participants are expected to contribute actively in class discussions, building off on the comments from classmates and the class instructor to work towards understanding problems. A contribution is considered meaningful if a student added something new by sharing knowledge, asked a critical question, explained a tricky detail, raised a new possibility, synthesized from examples, or summarized arguments.
Lectures will be on Mondays at 5 P.M. CET in the digital classroom. The course starts on October 3 and finishes on December 19. Each session will be recorded and available online for the course participants afterwards. This, however, does not exempt you from personal attendance. Sessions are held in English and Ukrainian.

This course explores the world of literatureand learning during the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire, from thereconquest of Constantinople by Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261 to the city’sfall to the Ottomans in 1453 and the reign of Sultan Mehmed II (1451–1481). Theintricate political entanglements between Byzantines, Ottomans, and Latinsduring this period went hand in hand with cultural interactions that left theirmark on the different literatures of the time. By concentrating on majorliterary genres such as imperial oratory and epistolography, by studying theoeuvre of leading Byzantine intellectuals, and by analyzing key texts of thetime, this course explores a period of great cultural flourishing against thebackground of political tumult and territorial fragmentation. Specific themesto be addressed include: the (social) importance attached to learning andliterature; connections between literature and politics; the new interest inLatin in Byzantium and in Greek in Italy; the rise of the Ottomans and its impacton Byzantine literature; intellectual attitudes towards ecclesiastical debatesof the time. The syllabus includes the latestscholarship in the field to familiarize students with recent trends andcritical approaches in the study of Late Byzantium. Each tutorial takes acloser look at a selected primary source (in English) to delve deeper into thetheme of each session.

This course explores the world of literatureand learning during the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire, from thereconquest of Constantinople by Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261 to the city’sfall to the Ottomans in 1453 and the reign of Sultan Mehmed II (1451–1481). Theintricate political entanglements between Byzantines, Ottomans, and Latinsduring this period went hand in hand with cultural interactions that left theirmark on the different literatures of the time. By concentrating on majorliterary genres such as imperial oratory and epistolography, by studying theoeuvre of leading Byzantine intellectuals, and by analyzing key texts of thetime, this course explores a period of great cultural flourishing against thebackground of political tumult and territorial fragmentation. Specific themesto be addressed include: the (social) importance attached to learning andliterature; connections between literature and politics; the new interest inLatin in Byzantium and in Greek in Italy; the rise of the Ottomans and its impacton Byzantine literature; intellectual attitudes towards ecclesiastical debatesof the time. The syllabus includes the latestscholarship in the field to familiarize students with recent trends andcritical approaches in the study of Late Byzantium. Each tutorial takes acloser look at a selected primary source (in English) to delve deeper into thetheme of each session.

This course provides an intensive examination of the processes involved in constructing and reconstructing (national) identity and alterity, exploring (ethnic) ingroups and outgroups, along with the related social and symbolic boundaries.

Starting with an exploration of approaches focused on nationalism in everyday life, the course delves into sociological and social psychological perspectives on individual and 'collective' identity. It critically reflects on the considerations necessary when dealing with "identity" in empirical research, emphasizing the avoidance of essentialism and the significance of social-historical contextualization (e.g., postcolonial identities). Drawing on these insights the course further investigates the role of emotions in processes of identification and have a look at the complex interplay between emotions, identity, and power dynamics in social and political contexts.

In addition, the course examines the interconnection of Gender and Nationalism, leading into the second part that focuses on ingroup-outgroup differentiations. Drawing from sociological classics on “the established”, “the outsiders”, and “the stranger”, the course explores processes of stigmatization, majority-minority relations, and addresses prominent approaches to analyzing symbolic and social boundaries.

Throughout the course, theoretical discussions will be supplemented with examinations of empirical studies, highlighting key findings and respective methodological approaches, and students will have the opportunity to discuss their research interests, including various research designs, within the scope of the class. The course aims to equip students with a comprehensive (theoretical) understanding of nationalism, (national) identity, and national feeling while fostering critical thinking and research skills.

CourseDescription

This mandatory 2 credit courseexamines the policy process in different political and geographical contexts.The course considers how policy problems are identified and framed, and howresponses are formed and evaluated. Through interactive seminars based on coreliterature, policy material and case study work, students learn and apply keyconcepts in policy studies, deepen their knowledge of the policy cycle frominitiation implementation and evaluation, and examine the actors, interests andinstitutions (domestic and external) that shape policy processes and outcomes.Different traditions in policy analysis and normative aspects of the policy processare critically examined, as well as the impact different contexts (geographicaland political) have on policy-making.

LearningOutcomes

By theend of the course, students will be able to:

·identifypolicy problems and critically engage with them with various analytical toolsand methods.

·understandkey concepts in policy studies and apply them to/in specific problems/contexts

·understand,articulate and critically discuss how policy issues are problematized andpolicy responses are designed, implemented, monitored and evaluated indifferent political and geographical contexts 


·engagewith normative aspects of policy design, including strategies to mainstreamrights, evidence-based and gender and conflict sensitive approaches 


·identifykey actors and institutions and entry points for advocacy and engagement in thepolicy process in divergent policy contexts, 


·writeabout public policy for different audiences.


Course Requirements and Assignments

Seminarparticipation: 10%.

Participation inclass discussions and group work will be assessed on the basis of attendance,demonstration of engagement with the assigned readings, quality ofcontributions showing analytical insight.

Presentation/interactive studentinput: 30%

Smallteams of students (two or three depending on class size) will providestructured input at the beginning of each seminar, which can take the form ofpresentations (interactive formats are encouraged) or other formats thestudents find conducive for providing an illustration of the topic at hand and generatingdiscussion. Presentations should be no longer than 15 minutes (in the case ofmore interactive formats additional time may be negotiated with the instructorin advance). They are guided by the questions provided in the syllabus.Presentations critically assess indicated readings (required and recommended)and provide a clear added value consisting of an empirical example/case to theaudience, which goes beyond the arguments/facts provided in the specifiedliterature. Presentations are evaluated upon clarity and quality, time keeping,and upon the presenters’ ability to master the topic.

Draftpresentations or presentation outlines need to be sent to both the instructorand the TA at least 3 days before the session in which they take place so thatfeedback can be provided. Consultation with the TA is strongly encouraged.

Final Paper (policy brief): 60%

Thefinal paper is due at the end of the term (date TBA) and takes the form of apolicy brief. The length of the policy brief should not exceed 3.000 words, allinclusive. Policy briefs are written to advise a governmental ornongovernmental body on a topic of the students’ choice. Papers define a clearpolicy problem, are characterized both by empirical and analytical rigor, andprovide persuasive policy recommendations on the chosen topic. The paper isevaluated on the basis of its substance, insight, clarity, its link to policypractice, the quality of writing and overall presentation. The paper should besingle-spaced, appropriately referenced, and include the word count on thetitle page.

Allwritten contributions must be original, i.e. produced exclusively by thestudent who submits the work. Any text reproduction which is not clearly identifiedand attributed to the original source will be considered as plagiarism, withthe consequences described in the Student Handbook, CEU’s Code of Ethics andother relevant University policies and regulations.

Pleasenote that late papers will be marked down as per the penalty described in theStudent Handbook and that failing any one of the grade components results infailing the whole course.

Prerequisites:

None. The following texts are recommended as generalintroduction to policy studies:

·Bacchi, Carol.2009. Analysing policy: what's the problem represented to be? Frenchs Forest,N.S.W. : Pearson.

·Bardach, Eugeneand Eric Patashnik. A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis. The Eightfold Pathto More Effective Problem Solving. Los Angeles : CQ Press, 2016.

·Cairney, Paul.2011. Understanding public policy: theories and issues. Houndmills,Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York : Palgrave Macmillan.

·Fischer, Frank,Gerald J Miller and Mara S Sidney, 2007. Handbook of Public Policy Analysis:Theory, Politics and Methods, CRC Press.

·Hill, Michael.2012. The Public Policy Process. New York : Pearson, 2012.

·John, Peter.2011. Making Policy Work. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

·Knill, Christophand Jale Tosun. 2012. Public Policy. A New Introduction. Palgrave MacmillanMajchrzak, Ann M. Lynne Markus. 2014. Methods for policy research: takingsocially responsible action. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications, Inc,

·Parsons, Wayne.2005. Public Policy. An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of PolicyAnalysis. Edward Elgar.

·Peters, B. Guy.2015. Advanced introduction to public policy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

·Weimer, David Land Aidan R. Vining. 2011. Policy Analysis. Boston: Longman.

·ChristopherPollitt. 2016. Advanced Introduction to Public Management and Administration.Edward Elgar

The course is an introduction to contemporary politicaleconomy, both as an application of economic paradigms for explaining politicalphenomena and as a discipline focusing on the links between politics andeconomics. To put it differently, in one way or another the entire course willconcentrate on two fundamental questions from various aspects:

- How and to what extent dosocietal agents act rationally, and what are the societal consequences of suchbehaviour?

- How and to what extent do(political) institutions affect behaviour and thus economic performance?

During the course students will acquaint withdifferent alternative theories, concepts, and methodological approachesconcentrating on these questions.

The course discusses the development of recent and contemporary economic policy paradigms. More concretely, it analyzes the causes and consequences of the rise and fall of neoliberalism, as an economic doctrine and what have emerged on its ruins. To put it differently, the course concentrates on the history of the so-called "Washington Consensus" and survey what alternative 'consensuses' have been put forward.
The course introduce students to the concept of policy paradigms and of policy diffusion, identifying the domestic and external factors affecting economic policy choices. It also aims at providing an analytical framework for explaining development of and changes in mainstream policy paradigms. Last but not least it enable students to analyze specific policy episodes from a comparative perspectives.
The course does not require any background in economics.

In politics as wellas political science, there is much talk about “the global crisis ofdemocracy.” While its nature and even its very existence are controversial, thereis a consensus within the literature that the most common form of democraticdemise today is its stepwise subversion by elected governments.

After gaining powerin democratic elections, de-democratizing governments have all followed asimilar basic script. Act one: they gain control over rulemaking after winninglegislative majorities. Act two: they extend their controlling powers to thefinal settlement of conflict by subjecting supreme courts to partisan control.Act three: once they are in control of the legal system (the content,implementation, and adjudication of law) they are (legally) free to colonizethe entire state bureaucracy (including the management of elections) and todomesticate the media and civil society. They are free to pick from theauthoritarian “menu” of institutional and electoral manipulation at theirconvenience. Whatever they do enjoys legal sanction. The rule of men, not law,is established by law. The partisan control of the legal system allows for thelawful subversion of democracy.

Through itsreadings, debates, and written assignments, the seminar seeks to guide itsparticipants toward a structured, analytical understanding of the basic logicof such gradual transitions from democracy to electoral authoritarianism. Wewill be jointly reflecting on democracy and its enemies, types of regimes andregime change, paradigmatic cases of democratic subversion, structural explanationsand agent-based accounts, the corrosive force of polarization, the dilemmas ofdemocratic resistance, and the role of citizens.

The purpose of the course is to explore the evolution of asylum after the Second World War from a political and legal perspective, as well as a practical one, leading to the current complex and unequal situation, and what may be expected in the short and medium term.

Thus, the course aims at assisting the students develop and apply a rigorous as well as compassionate approach to analysing and understanding the complex nature of refugee and other forced movements, and the challenges -including difficult dilemmas-, that individuals in need of international protection, but also countries responsible for providing this protection and supportive organizations/institutions, face.

Ultimately, it should support students in acquiring the knowledge that may equip them to contribute to alleviate the suffering of refugees and other forcibly displaced people.
The course will start with an analysis of the legal framework and the political developments that led to the adoption of the 1951 Convention on the status of refugees.

It will then proceed to study the evolution of asylum through the analysis of paradigmatic past and current refugee situations including Afghanistan, Uganda, the Americas and Central Europe, and the roles played by the different stakeholders from diverse viewpoints starting with the refugees and other forcibly displaced people´s. This will be followed by the views of governments, humanitarian assistance providers, including civil society, faith-based entities, international organisations, and donors.

Is'development' an outdated construct, or an enduring imperative for humanprogress?

Thiscourse will provide a critical debate of the history, politics and the academicdiscourse of development politics and practice. We will discuss how questionsof economic growth, poverty and inequality are framed in terms of development;how international relations are labelled and perceived in terms of developmentaid and cooperation. Development is no longer merely in the domain of thestate, the neoliberal shift has led to the rise of national and internationalagencies which engage in ‘development’, both in the “Third World”, as well asin the west and postsocialist countries. We will follow through how doctrinesof Development and Progress are subject to and respond to criticism, adapt tothe failure of their own development programs, and how the gap between rich andpoor continues to grow despite –or because of- development policies. At the same time, the geographic distinctionbetween the ‘developed’ and the ‘developing’ has become increasingly obsolete.Urban centres form hybrid spaces where ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ are intricatelyintertwined, where ‘developed’ and ‘underdeveloped’ coexist.

CourseContent

As outlined, thiscourse will discuss the major theories and approaches in the anthro­polo­gicalstudy of development, and will take a specific look at rural-urban relations inthe devel­op­ing world. The intention is to critically review the history ofdevelopment theory, with a special attention to the political context andcontent of each model, alongside anthro­pological models of culturechange. The course will continue bylooking at the relation between anthro­po­logyand the development machine, and trace the paradigm shifts in develop­mentmodels. The debate will focus on the question if is to draw a line betweendevelopment cooperation and inter­vention. A special focus will lie onsouth-south alliances, which claim to provide development “from within”. Attentionwill be paid to the digitization of development, ‘financial inclusion’ and theproliferation of surveillance capitalism. A final part ties the threadstogether and looks at issues of urba­nization, investigate the impact of citieson rural livelihoods, look at informal econo­mies, and eventually scrutinizethe role of cities as the engines in a global develop­ment machine.

If we take a look backwards at the last fourty years of sociological theory, we may have mixed feelings. On the one hand, macro-sociological constructions ( in other words, «grand theory» ) seem to belong to a kind of metaphysical age of social sciences: it would be difficult to define oneself as a new Emile Durkheim or Talcott Parsons. A complete system of society would be hard to find today. On the other hand, there is a growing interest in social theory as such, Jeffrey Alexander being the best example of the revival of general theory.

As socio-anthropologists devoted to empirical research, we certainly do not dismiss the importance of theorizing in our disciplines: but, as Anselm Strauss said, it is possible to consider that the best theories are «grounded» in field research. Theories are means and not ends: they help us describe precisely the social worlds that we choose to study, and to develop general statements about them. We need theory to prevent us from over-interpretation, ethnocentrism and hasty generalizations, but we must be careful about pure theorizing.

The aim of this course is to propose a kind of «reconstructionist» approach to social theory, after decades of deconstruction. Of course, we have to take into account and to make use of deconstructionist approaches and of the various «turns» undertaken by sociology (linguistic, pragmatic, hermeneutic, historical and so on and so forth): but we must propose new frames for comparison and generalization of statements and observations. Those frames must be reflexive and non-«essentialists», according to the status of our objects (phenomenological and reflexive social worlds); they must contribute to the unended but unescapable discussion about the nature of the laws that we are able to determine in the social sciences.

A special attention will be given to theories that take into account their «grounded» dimension. After having defined conceptually the theorizing process, the seminar will draw attention on two types of theorization:

-the first may be called endogenous, is produced by sociologists who have to cope with the peculiarities of their field: Erving Goffman, Anselm Strauss, James Coleman, Andrew Abbott, Harrison White, Randall Collins, Pierre Bourdieu, Luc Boltanski and Laurent Thevenot, Margaret Somers.

-the second, I call it exogenous, is not produced by empirical sociologists, but by philosophers or other theoreticians who are interested in historical or sociological processes: Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth, Michel Foucault, Bruno Latour.

Based on intensive reading of texts and confronting them with various sociological fields, this course aims at providing an original framework: a post interactionist and processual approach to social theory based on a critical study of the logical processes that lead us to make general or universal statements about society.

At a time when disinformation and fake news corrupt information sources and channels, a state’s ability to project a persuasive narrative about its national security interests is at risk. This course examines the role of strategic narrative as an instrument of state power in the age of the Internet and the World Wide Web. We will look at strategic narrative concepts, practices, and the impact of the rapid transformation of information acquisition and dissemination paradigms. This course will then examine the dynamic between information empowerment and information control, followed by an investigation of specific challenges to state narrative authenticity in the form of fake news, propaganda and disinformation campaigns. We will also consider the erosion of public trust in state institutions and traditional media sources and how that undermines a state’s capacity to make its case in the public sphere. Finally, the course will undertake comparative assessments of strategic narrative content, implementation and impact to develop a set of lessons learned about the narrative projection of state power in a “post-fact” world.

Course Structure

Twelve interactive two-hour classes will serve to discuss the core course material and clarify the main concepts. The oral presentation and accompanying written assignment will serve two main purposes: to solidify students’ understanding of the course material and allow them to apply their knowledge to the analysis of specific public policy issues.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course, students will be able to:• Critically discuss the role and impact of strategic narrative as an instrument of power in the service of national security interests;• Analyze the interplay of foreign policy, public image and government/private sector relationships in the shaping of 21st century international politics and global communications;• Analyze how government, non-government, private and public sector entities use and integrate strategic narrative tools to assert power, advocate policy and convey identity in a complex and rapidly evolving information environment;• Design a focused and realistic strategic narrative strategy to advance a policy/issue/cause in the service of political, economic and social security interests on a local, national, regional or global scale in the “post-fact” environment

Assessment:

10%: Reports on assigned readings and active participation in seminar discussions.

30%: Presentation of an original strategic narrative campaign plan. Topic to be proposed by the fourth class meeting. A presentation lasts 20 minutes. It will demonstrate the mastery of strategic narrative development, to include the identification of strategic priorities, as assessment of target audiences attitudes and values, the elaboration of a plan ties to prevailing policy objectives, the selection and implementation of specific outreach tools, and impact assessment. It will make a persuasive case for its implementation in support of the originating institution’s security interests.

60%: Written briefing in support of original strategic narrative campaign plan. Topic to be proposed by the fourth class meeting. A good policy brief will address the identification of strategic priorities, as assessment of target audiences attitudes and values, the elaboration of a plan ties to prevailing policy objectives, the selection and implementation of specific outreach tools, and impact assessment. It will make a persuasive case for its implementation in support of the originating institution’s security interests. 1500-2000 words.

• Attendance is expected and will be checked regularly.• Given the concentration of material, students are encouraged to read the assigned readings prior to classes.• Make-up for assignments will be allowed only if there is a valid university excuse.• The presentation and briefing paper are prerequisites for passing the course.• The policy of zero tolerance to academic dishonesty (defined in the student manual and in CEU’s code of ethics) will be strictly applied.• It is the student’s responsibility to understand these rules and consult the instructor in case of any questions or concerns.

This course provides a critical debate of the history, politics and the academic discourse of recent development politics and practice. Development is a major framework for globalization on several levels: questions of economic growth, poverty and inequality are framed in terms of development and international relations being labelled and perceived in terms of development aid and cooperation. Development is no longer merely in the domain of the state, the neoliberal shift has led to the rise of national and international agencies which engage in ‘development’, both in the “Third World”, as well as in the west and postsocialist countries. Recently, however, faith in development and progress has been severely shaken by the environmental crisis, the failure of development programs, and the continuously growing gap between rich and poor. At the same time, the geographic distinction between the ‘developed’ and the ‘developing’ has become increasingly obsolete. The urban centres in the world ‘formerly known as the third’ form hybrid spaces where ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ are intricately intertwined, where ‘developed’ and ‘underdeveloped’ coexist.

The course will discuss the major theories and approaches in the anthro¬polo-gical study of development, and will take a specific look at rural-urban relations in the devel¬op¬ing world. The intention is to critically review the history of development theory, with a special attention to the political context and content of each model, alongside anthro¬pological models of culture change. The course will continue by looking at the relation between anthro¬po¬logy and the development machine, and trace the paradigm shifts in develop¬ment models. The debate will focus on the question if is to draw a line between development cooperation and inter¬vention. A special focus will lie on south-south alliances, which claims to provide development from within. The texts will also provide a methodological toolbox to analyse neo-colonial practice. Extra attention will be paid to the digitization of development and the proliferation of surveillance capitalism under the guise of ‘financial inclusion’. The third part ties the threads together and looks at the anthropological study of urba¬nization: We will investigate the impact of cities on rural livelihoods, look at informal econo¬mies in the shadow of banking towers, and eventually scrutinize the role of cities as the engines in a global develop¬ment machine.

Schedule: Mondays and Wednesdays, 14:30 - 16:40

Classroom: D-106

Credit Value: 2 credits (4 ECTS credits)

Elective Course for all UG Programs

The human mind and its cognitive processes are a subject of great interest and is the central point of inquiry for subjects like psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, philosophy, and behavioral economics. Using the aid of experimental paradigms, individuals are isolated in controlled settings and made to perform tasks, while scientists infer the processes underlying their behaviors. A crucial thing to inculcate at an early age is that a study of such cognitive processes cannot be carried out, not in a wholly satisfactory manner, by this purely scientific approach of experiments. On the other side we have cultural approaches to a study of the human mind, where human behavior is studied at an aggregate level, and understood as a function of cultural contexts, using interviews and observational methods. This is seen in the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, and human behavioral ecology. In the past few decades, there has been a fascinating pull and push between the individual and group levels of investigation, of quantitative and qualitative methods, with researchers from distinct fields coming together to formulate new models and paradigms.

The aim of this course is twofold:

• Convey the message that the human mind cannot be understood outside its cultural context and vice versa.

• Employ a plurality of methodological and theoretical tools to understand phenomena of (individual or social) behavior.

The field of cognitive anthropology, a recent and fast-growing discipline embodying these aims, will guide the teaching of this course. There is a growing recognition that the individual cannot be studied independently of the cultural context in which it develops, and that cultural knowledge and practices cannot be fully understood without peering into individual cognitive processes and biases. This interdisciplinary approach is crucial for understanding the concepts such as fairness beliefs, social justice, institutions, traditions and trust.

The course will be structured around three themes:

1. Enculturated minds: Does culture shape the way we think? To what extent?
2. Cultural transmission: How do ideas and practices spread in a community to form a cultural phenomenon?
   
3. Cross-Disciplinary methodologies: we explore how methods can be mixed to study cross-disciplinary topics such as morality, trust, traditions and institutions, essential dimensions of human sociality and culture.
   

Assessment Structure