Core fields in European Culture
The main objective of this component, which is divided in topic oriented units, is to acquire advanced knowledge and research skills related to European culture by developing insight into a selected number of themes and issues, focussing on interrelated fields. The aim is to make students acquainted with the main theoretical and methodological concepts and approaches and with most relevant knowledge concerning each field, as well as to learn them to reflect on core issues of these fields. The component starts as a multi-disciplinary set up and leads into an interdisciplinary approach by integrating subject related knowledge and skills regarding historical perspectives, cultural issues, social relations, political and legal issues and religious traditions.
Component A involves lectures, seminars and targeted assignments resulting in written and/or oral exams and the preparation of one or more papers and other forms of assessment. The content is tuned yearly by the teaching staff as well as the management committee of the Euroculture network during at least three meetings.
The units aim to train graduates to reflect in particular on the issue of relations and contacts between different cultures within and outside Europe. Borders do matter here; not merely in their political or economic dimension but as cultural constructions implying a much broader contextualisation. It turns the rather limited kind of studies about political relations into the field of cultural analysis of contact situations, aiming at a meso-level of analysis, which includes practices as well as concepts. Any kind of division in terms of separation or difference which constitutes the image and self-understanding of social groups or agents has to be taken into account in order to critically reflect the recent developments of an enlarging Europe within the world. For example, recent discussions about the ?clash of civilizations? have shown the political impact of even academically oriented interpretations of recent cultural contact situations and relations. In the programme, students are asked to think of the construction of ?culture(s)? as a phenomenon and product of coexistence, interrelations and separations. Thus, the perception of Europeans of themselves, how they perceive ?others? and how they are perceived by those others is a core issue of the programme.
In order to acquire basic knowledge and analytic competences to deal with these delicate and sensitive matters the programme focuses on four main fields. They include and cover a number of issues which are interrelated. The aim is to operate the interdisciplinary outline of the programme by thematic clusters which allow for a) a theoretical and methodological introduction in each field, b) the provision of relevant basic knowledge, and c) the reflection of core issues of the cultural processes in specific, but most important areas. These fields are:
(1) Mobility: As a consequence of (forced) migration or tourism, individual or group mobility have become a determining factor for the contact settings of European and trans-European relations. This field focuses on the socio-economic processes of Europe?s recent and future changes, including migration cultures, policies of migration and mobility (like ?Schengen?), or temporary mobility like travel practices within and outside Europe. These different kinds of mobility have led to fundamental changes in the social composition and the cultural horizons of European societies. Issues like ethnic identities, citizen values or religious attitudes are most often discussed in relation to mobility. In all cases cultural perceptions and concepts figure prominently in the policies and practices of mobility contacts.
(2) Transfer: Contact settings, either temporary or permanent, include cultural exchange and the exchange of cultures. ?Cultures? themselves are most likely a product of contact situations, at least their conceptualization and self-awareness. Cultural notions and concepts are subject to change through transfer processes. They can be observed at all levels of representation such as arts, literature or language, but also in popular and political culture. The aim of this field is to analyse cultural meanings as a variable result of social and cultural interrelations, direct or mediated contacts, perceptions and transmissions. It includes the study of media, discourse and other institutional settings in which transfers take place.
(3) Intervention: The catastrophic history of Europe?s twentieth century could be written alongside the different kinds of intervention during wars, civic wars or colonial intervention. But although ?intervention? for some has merely a negative connotation, in this programme it will be used and discussed as a concept to focus on the political and institutional sphere of contact regulation. This includes the role of European states and the EU in the adjustment of the world order according to humanitarian standards. It covers activities to promote and transfer certain cultural concepts, values and standards or even bureaucratic procedures. Since perceptions of these interventions vary significantly between European and non-European observers this is an indispensable area to analyse the sensitivity of cultural issues.
(4) Cooperation: Building a common Europe in the world after the clash of cultures and societies in two World Wars was the basic intention behind the EU project. But since a long time, cooperation is also an important matter for relations to non-European areas, in particular within the process of decolonization. Cooperation will be analysed in terms of institutional relations, visions and concepts of integration and interrelation, attitudes and perceptions of shared European and/or global identities, projects and examples of transnational and transcultural cooperation. It is the explicit aim of this field to discuss intentions, implications and hindrances of further integration processes with regard to its cultural elements.
The partner universities set up courses according to the above mentioned fields which are structured in the following way:
- Part I in each field consists of a number of shared texts about methodology, concepts and historical/institutional background. These texts are read and discussed by all students.
- Part II includes a number of examples with European and trans-European relevance. These examples are agreed upon in the curriculum discussions of the network and are shared as topics to be studies by all students.
- Part III of each course is structured by specific regional or national examples of each partner university. This makes the integration of the respective profile of each university possible.
In combination of both, shared and special issues, the students of the programme will be provided with considerable basic knowledge and different cases at the same time when they convene at the Intensive Programme. Specified by a yearly focus, the Intensive Programme is structured according to the four fields of the first semester. In its combination with the specialised topics this turns the Intensive Programme into a perfect platform for the students? orientation with regard to their Master thesis and their future projects.
The transnational network of partner universities, which offers or plans to offer the Euroculture programme in the very near future is currently made up of eight universities , which add a particular perspective of Europe, specifically through their faculty and students engaged in this programme.
This application concerns a consortium of the following six member institutions: the Universities of Deusto (Bilbao-San Sebastián), Göttingen, Groningen, Krakow, Olomouc and Uppsala. All these institutions have a strong and extensive tradition in offering study programmes and performing research in the broader field of European studies. The other institutions of the network, which are not included in the consortium which submits the application, strengthen the consortium in terms of staff and student mobility. They will become full members of the EM consortium after finalizing the formal process of accreditation.
