240123 SE VM3 / VM6 - The ‘Silk Roads’ in the Past and Present (2019S)

Aims: The students understand the significance of exchange relations and mobility for societal development, know the main features of the historical ‘Silk Roads’ and their importance for Central Asia’s integration into transcontinental networks, and can critically assess the latest developments that are colloquially labeled as the ‘New Silk Roads.’
Content: For some time, the topos of the ‘Silk Roads’ has been used to link economic, cultural, and identity-related relations in Central Asia and neighboring regions to a positively perceived mythical past. Currently, China’s ‘New Silk Road’ project the ‘Belt and Rad Initiative’ is on everyone’s lips, and, oftentimes, critically discussed. This course deals with concepts of the ‘Silk Roads’ in the past and present, and focuses on topics like infrastructural development and new transport entanglements, economic relations and cultural exchange, and mobility and migration phenomena, as well as geopolitics from a trans-regional perspective.
Methods: Literature-based presentations and discussions, session minutes (protocols/memos), short written contributions (essays or reaction papers), and a scientific paper (Seminararbeit) about the topic that was chosen for their presentation.