Universität Wien
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210063 SE BAK11: European Union and Europeanisation (2020W)

The European Union & Crises: Disintegration or Resilience? (engl.)

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

Die Lehrformate für das WS (digital, hybrid, vor Ort) befinden sich in Entwicklung. Die Lehrenden werden die geplante Organisationsform und Lehrmethodik auf ufind und Moodle bekannt geben. Aufgrund von Covid19 muss mit kurzfristigen Änderungen in Richtung digitaler Lehre gerechnet werden.

Nicht-prüfungsimmanente (n-pi) Lehrveranstaltung. Eine Anmeldung über u:space ist erforderlich. Mit der Anmeldung werden Sie automatisch für die entsprechende Moodle-Plattform freigeschaltet. Vorlesungen unterliegen keinen Zugangsbeschränkungen.

VO-Prüfungstermine erfordern eine gesonderte Anmeldung.
Mit der Teilnahme an der Lehrveranstaltung verpflichten Sie sich zur Einhaltung der Standards guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis. Schummelversuche und erschlichene Prüfungsleistungen führen zur Nichtbewertung der Lehrveranstaltung (Eintragung eines 'X' im Sammelzeugnis).
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. 40 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 06.10. 18:30 - 20:00 Digital
    Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 13.10. 18:30 - 20:00 Digital
    Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 20.10. 18:30 - 20:00 Digital
    Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 27.10. 18:30 - 20:00 Digital
    Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 03.11. 18:30 - 20:00 Digital
    Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 10.11. 18:30 - 20:00 Digital
    Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 17.11. 18:30 - 20:00 Digital
    Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 24.11. 18:30 - 20:00 Digital
    Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 01.12. 18:30 - 20:00 Digital
    Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 15.12. 18:30 - 20:00 Digital
    Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 12.01. 18:30 - 20:00 Digital
    Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 19.01. 18:30 - 20:00 Digital
    Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock
  • Tuesday 26.01. 18:30 - 20:00 Digital
    Hörsaal 1 (H1), NIG 2.Stock

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

This seminar engages with the multiple crises Europe witnessed in the past decade starting from the financial crisis in 2008, to the migration/Schengen crisis, Brexit and now Covid-19. Did this 'polycrisis' produce a fundamental political crisis of the European project or did it open up windows of opportunity that in the long term can help to deepen European integration?

This course is designed to be interactive. To facilitate a lively exchange among participants during class and to guarantee a high learning outcome, for each teaching session a list of readings is assigned. Readings are usually book chapters, or journal articles. Short summaries of each of these readings have to be prepared by the participants of this course. These summaries need to address the following questions: What is the main argument of the text? What is particularly interesting about this text? Which questions did it stimulate when reading it? The course also requires students to give a short presentation, and to constructively comment on presentations of their peers. Participants are asked to deliver a short opinion piece at the beginning of the course to stimulate a fruitful debate, and to submit a short essay on this question after the end of the course to apply the knowledge and skills gained during the course.

Learning objectives:
By the end of this course, students are expected to:
• Demonstrate independent and critical understanding of the different crises of the EU in the past decade, its causes and its effects on European integration and European societies
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of the most important aspects of political responses to and perception about these crises
• Demonstrate appropriate cognitive, communicative and transferable skills, including understanding complex concepts and theories, exercising critical judgement, problem-solving skills; making effective oral and written presentations, utilizing specialist primary and secondary sources, and deepening the capacity for independent learning
• Write essays/opinion pieces with a coherent argument that are referenced in accordance with established academic practice

Preconditions to take part in this course:
Students have to be able to read and discuss academic texts and clearly formulate ideas in English to participate in this course, and to be graded positively. I have a strict citation policy; academic standards of citing have to be followed rigorously. Any instances of plagiarism (or any other dishonest forms of relying on other people´s work to obtain a grade) will be reported to the respective authorities of the department.

This course is demanding but rewarding. You will have to devote time and energy to it beyond the teaching days. In return, you will gain expertise in an extremely exciting and highly relevant research field.
THE SEMINAR WILL BE HELD DIGITALLY via LIVE-VIDEOCONFERENCING. We will use the tool Collaborate. You can find instructions here: https://wiki.univie.ac.at/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=101484831

Assessment and permitted materials

Assessment:
Essay (including discussion of the essay): 40%
(In class) Assignments 20%
Presentations & participation 40%

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Your grade will be based upon the following criteria/tasks:
Submission of a short opinion piece on the issue/question: Polycrisis- an opportunity or a dead end street for the European Union? You have to submit this discussion piece (about 800 words, +-80 words) to moodle until the 12th of October 2019, midnight.
[The opinion piece has to be based on academic readings (!)
Tips on how to write a good opinion piece can be e.g. found here: https://www.murphycentre.ca/trudy/English3201/HandoutWritingtheOpinionEssay.htm
https://uctlanguagecentre.com/blog/writing-opinion-based-essays/
Look also at good blog outlets to see how a good opinion piece is written (LSE blogs, MPC blogs, The Conversation, Open Democracy).]

Regular attendance

Completion of reading in advance of the teaching days

Timely submission of short summaries of key texts. Summaries have to be submitted weekly on Monday till midnight.
[Per text half a page to a maximum of one page of summary is requested addressing the following questions: What is the main argument of the text? What is particularly interesting about this text? Which open/critical questions did it stimulate when reading it? Do not forget to name the title, author and source of the piece in your summary. Do not rewrite the original piece, but use your own words to briefly describe the main ideas of the text. Respect the deadlines for submitting these summaries to moodle!]

Active participation in the discussions in class

Presentation

Acting as a discussant of a colleagues´ presentation

Submission of one essay (approximately 3000 words in length including introduction, main part, conclusion and references) until the end of January
[In order to be marked with the highest grade (1) essays are required to exhibit a clear, academic, and relevant research question; a high degree of analytical skill of answering the research question; an excellent critical understanding of the relevant literature & evidence of wide reading around the question; the ability to develop a well, clear structured, and logical answer to the question and the ability to write according to the rules of standard English]

An oral, individual discussion of the essay (online) with the lecturer after submission (10 minutes, summarizing the major arguments) might be requested in cases in which the line of argument of the essay is unclear

Examination topics

Students are expected to engage with the inputs provided by the lecturer and are required to engage independently with the literature in the field. The list of core readings below and the reading list for the teaching sessions provided in the syllabus offer a range of core readings whilst giving a flavour of the breadth and scope of the literature, but other additional sources are available. In preparation for coursework (opinion piece, essay and presentation), students will need to supplement the readings listed by the lecturer.

Reading list

Zeitlin, Jonathan & Nicoli, Francesco (2020). The European Union beyond the polycrisis? Integration and politicization in an age of shifting cleavages. Taylor and Francis.

Hooghe, Liesbet and Gary Marks 2019. Grand theories of European integration in the 21st century, Journal of European Public Policy 26(8): 1113-1133.

Webber, Douglas 2019 European Disintegration? The Politics of Crisis in the European Union. London: Macmillan

See also LSE EUROPP blog https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/ (Also very helpful to understand how to write a good opinion piece)

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Fr 12.05.2023 00:19