Universität Wien

210038 LK BAK6: The Austrian Political System and the EU (2022W)

6.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 21 - Politikwissenschaft
Continuous assessment of course work
ON-SITE

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Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 50 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 13.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 3 (H3), NIG 2. Stock
  • Thursday 20.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 3 (H3), NIG 2. Stock
  • Thursday 27.10. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 3 (H3), NIG 2. Stock
  • Thursday 03.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 3 (H3), NIG 2. Stock
  • Thursday 10.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 3 (H3), NIG 2. Stock
  • Thursday 17.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 3 (H3), NIG 2. Stock
  • Thursday 24.11. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 3 (H3), NIG 2. Stock
  • Thursday 01.12. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 3 (H3), NIG 2. Stock
  • Thursday 15.12. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 3 (H3), NIG 2. Stock
  • Thursday 12.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 3 (H3), NIG 2. Stock
  • Thursday 19.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 3 (H3), NIG 2. Stock
  • Thursday 26.01. 15:00 - 16:30 Hörsaal 3 (H3), NIG 2. Stock

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Focus: The Twin Transitions: The EU’s Climate and Digital Policies

Course Description: Climate change and digitalization undoubtedly pose two of the most important challenges for the European Union. They will, as Commission President von der Leyen put it, "affect us all, wherever we live, whatever we do". Global warming is expected to cause (and is already causing) unprecedented disruptions to the earth's climate and may ultimately render parts of the globe inhospitable to human life. Digitalization, meanwhile, is transforming the ways we work, dwell, travel, consume, communicate, and inform ourselves; and promises - or threatens - to usher in even more fundamental changes. The EU has reacted to these challenges with a slew of policies and policy initiatives. The European Green Deal wants to make Europe climate neutral until 2050; the General Data Protection Regulation is meant to push back against 'surveillance capitalism' and make EU law the gold standard for data protection globally; and the Digital Services and Markets Acts are meant to rein in Big Tech. In this course, we will take a closer look at the EU's digital and environmental policies with a particular focus on the role of Austria and Austrian actors therein. After familiarizing ourselves with how the EU works, we will discuss recent political science research on the challenges of digitalization and climate change and on how the EU reacts to them. In our last session, we will hear directly from someone working at an Austrian ministry and their role in organizing and implementing EU industrial policy initiatives.

Learning Outcomes: The course aims to familiarize students with developments in the EU’s climate and digital policy. At the end of the course, students should be able to
- identify and describe the nature of and policy dynamics of the ‘twin transition’;
- summarize and critically assess central theoretical and empirical insights of the political science research on the EU’s digital and environmental policies;
- apply these insights to make sense of the politics of (EU) policymaking and the role of various politicalactors (including Austria) therein

Assessment and permitted materials

Students are required to attend classes and come prepared (i.e., having done and thought a bit about thereadings). In addition, there will be four types of assignments that together make up the final grade.

- First, for two sessions of their choosing, students need to write short response papers (half a page) that reflect on the readings. This will make up 15% of their grade. The response papers are NOT meant to summarize the reading but pick up on of or two key arguments and critically reflect on them.This can be done by connecting them to other readings, recent events in the news, or by criticizing their assumptions or conclusions.
- Second, there is a short exam towards the end of the seminar that tests whether students remember key arguments from the readings and the sessions. The test ensures that students actually do thereadings and pay attention in class. It will consist of around 15 short questions, most of them inmultiple choice format. The test will take place in the first 10-15 minutes of our session inweek 10-so you enough time over the break to go over slides and readings again. This will make up15% of your grade.
- Third, students are required to deliver a very short input presentation (around 5 minutes) for one session as well as prepare one or several discussion points to kick off the discussion (e.g., questions, provocative arguments). This will also make up 20% of their grade. Remember, the input presentationis not meant to be a comprehensive summary of the text (or the section of the text you were assignedwithin your presentation group). Rather, it is meant to pick up on key arguments, present and ideally discuss them critically, and connect them to real-world examples or theoretical debates. And again, the presentations can be really short, they don’t need to be longer than 5 minutes per person.
- Lastly, students need to write a relatively short term paper on a topic related to the course (2000-3000 words). This will make up 50% of their grade. The paper can be theoretical or empirical and is meant to hone in on one particular question that the students can pick themselves (although they should briefly discuss this with me in advance). The deadline for the term paper will be Sunday, Feb 19 2023.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

You need to submit all the required assignments to pass the course. Your final grade will be the weighted average of these assignments. What is important to me when it comes to grading are two things. First, stick to the task at hand. If your presentation is meant to be 5 minutes, make it no more than 6. It's almost a dad thing to say, but these skills are important not just at a university, but pretty much everywhere you want to end up at. Second, put a bit of effort into it, or at least make it look that way. Have some decent formatting, but also: try to be clear and crisp, which is often harder than writing long and convoluted sentences. Try to prepare a presentation that you yourself would like to listen to. Short, simple points, and make it clear if you found something unclear. You don't need to understand everything, have read a ton of additional literature, or write in a fancy way to get a very good grade. Just stick to the task and try to make sense.

Examination topics

Reading list

A full syllabus will be provided on Moodle.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: We 28.09.2022 12:28