Universität Wien

240034 VS Counter-power: Revolutions, struggles, and protests (3.3.2) (2020S)

Prüfungsimmanente Lehrveranstaltung

Participation at first session is obligatory!

An/Abmeldung

Hinweis: Ihr Anmeldezeitpunkt innerhalb der Frist hat keine Auswirkungen auf die Platzvergabe (kein "first come, first served").

Details

max. 40 Teilnehmer*innen
Sprache: Englisch

Lehrende

Termine (iCal) - nächster Termin ist mit N markiert

  • Dienstag 03.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 10.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 17.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 24.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 31.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 21.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 28.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 05.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 12.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 19.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 26.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 09.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 16.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 23.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock
  • Dienstag 30.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal C, NIG 4. Stock

Information

Ziele, Inhalte und Methode der Lehrveranstaltung

Over the last years, it seems that protests have become the new normal, from yellow vests struggling for a decent life in France, to Fridays for Future demonstrating in name of the environment in Vienna (and elsewhere), students in Hong Kong hoping to maintain their freedom, and so forth. Notwithstanding that there may be a global wave of protests, indeed, power struggles have long been essential parts of human history. The French Revolution, decolonisation movements, but also long forgotten peasant wars have shaped the development of our societies – for better and for worse. To better understand the logics, (internal) dynamics, grievances, actors, symbolism, etc. involved, we will, in this course, deconstruct various forms or counter-power, such as revolutions, resistance, and protest. More particularly, we will explore what an anthropological perspective has to contribute to the understanding of a large variety of struggles and their impacts around the world.

Course aims:
1. To gain a historical and contemporary understanding of various forms of counter-power.
2. To obtain relevant theoretical insights about revolutions, struggles, protests, and other forms of resistance.
3. To be able to apply the theoretical insights.
4. To better understand the particular qualities an anthropological perspective has to offer to the understanding of a variety of (historical and contemporary) struggles.

Content:
After discussing what power (and related structural violence) is, we will look into various struggles (revolutions, protests, etc.). We will explore what concerns mobilise groups of people to resist, i.e. what are their grievances? We will study why some movements use violence and others not and analyse the extent to which this explains their success – or lack thereof. We will discuss the variety of actors involved, the (internal) dynamics between them, and the relevance of lived experiences. We will equally address the position of women in protests movements, the symbolism and ideologies involved, as well as how struggles feature in popular memory. Moreover, we will explore the positionality of anthropologists in studying all kinds of struggles and protests, such as in the case of activist ethnography. Together, this will help to get a better understanding of the contribution anthropology can make to explaining and interpreting counter-power.

Methods:
Reading literature, presentations, discussions, and individual papers.

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel

1. Each group of students will select a particular (historical or contemporary) struggle, be it a revolution, independence movement, non-violent protest group, etc. The group will represent ‘their’ respective struggle in one (or more) of the online sessions and share their insights (and reflections upon the literature). This will count towards 20 points of the final mark.
2. A file with information of, and reflection on, the respective struggle – in relation to the various themes discussed – is kept and submitted on Moodle. This will count towards 40 points of the final mark.
3. Each student will write an individual reflection of 2,000 to 3,000 words on their respective struggle (with a proper research question), to be handed in at the end of the course. This will count towards 40 points of the final mark.

NB. Please note, all written assignments will be checked with anti-plagiarism software.

Mindestanforderungen und Beurteilungsmaßstab

1. Presence and active participation in the seminar.
2. With prior notification and a valid reason, an absence of a maximum of 20% of the total hours, i.e. two sessions, will be allowed.
3. All assignments have to be completed successfully.

The lecturer can invite students to a grade-relevant discussion about partial achievements. Partial achievements that are obtained by fraud or plagiarized result in the non-evaluation of the course (entry 'X' in certificate). From winter term 2019/20 the plagiarism software 'Turnitin' will be used for courses with continuous assessment.

Prüfungsstoff

Literatur

TBA

Zuordnung im Vorlesungsverzeichnis

Letzte Änderung: Mo 07.09.2020 15:21