Summer School - Course Archive
Block I June 16 - June 27, 2025 (10 - 14 Uhr, 10 am - 2 pm), Online reunion via Zoom 12.00 EDT, 17.00 GMT+1, 18.00 CEST on June 12th and July 15thTransnational Environmental Sociology
Prof. Lauren E. Eastwood
Course Description
As more and more natural science evidence points to the fact that humans are putting pressure and/or exceeding our planetary boundaries, exploring and analyzing the social systems that lead to environmental degradation becomes increasingly important. This course in transnational environmental sociology will address such topics as global economic systems and environmental degradation, and disparities between the global north and global south as we build up a better understanding of how sociologists have adressed the nexus between social systems and environmental degradation.
Block I June 16 - June 27, 2025 (10 - 14 Uhr, 10 am - 2 pm), Online reunions via Zoom at 14:00 CEST on June 13th and July 9thSociology of Religion: International Comparative Perspectives
Brian Conway, Maynooth university, England
Course Description
This module is an introduction to theoretical debates, empirical work, and methodological approaches in the sociology of religion. In the first week, we consider the distinguishing features of the sociological approach to religion and the major debates within the literature about the impact of modernity on religion, focusing on secularisation theories. Framed by this, the second week focuses on topics such as atheist identities and secularity, religiosity in Germany, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on religion. Throughout, the emphasis will be on developing an international comparative approach to understanding religion and society. This will be achieved through mini-lectures, brief reflection papers on readings, and in-class discussions.
Block II June 30- July 11, 2025 (10 - 14 Uhr, 10 am - 2 pm), Online reunions via Zoom 12.00 EDT, 17.00 GMT+1, 18.00 CEST on June 11th and July 16t
Social Construction and Reality: Alternative Facts and Truth
Georg Datler, University of Duisburg-Essen
Course Description
Four issues
#1 “I’m a truth teller”, says Donald Trump.(1) I am pretty sure you want to object. The course is about how (and how not to) argue with fake, alternative facts, and pseudo-science.
#2 Studies find that homeopathy is an effective treatment for depression.(2) I am pretty sure you want to know why this claim is flawed. We will gain some understanding of experimental designs und statistics and see how the hocus-pocus works.
#3 97% of published studies support the position that climate change is real and largely human-made.(3) I am pretty sure you approve of the message. The course will show why this statement entails a problem and consequences you may dislike.
[Hint: What would 49% support mean?]
#4 Science is descriptive and can’t or shouldn’t comment on normative issues, i.e. suggest what should be. I suppose you have heard of this guideline and maybe you have realised the challenge this imperative poses for scientists who do want to act for change. The course will show that sociology can – and in fact: has to – be in favour of social justice. The demand for social justice – to refer back to statement #1 – relates to facts that are – most likely – true. The course will deliver these facts.
In standard terms the course is about the philosophy of science and the sociology of knowledge. We will see that influential currents within the social sciences and humanities (social constructivism, postmodernism) have said or have been understood as saying: ‘Everything is socially constructed; there is no way to know objective reality; scientific knowledge is no more true than other kinds of knowledge.’ While every good theory has to be constructivist, not every constructivist theory is good theory. I suppose this may sound like non-sense. We will talk about (fashionable) non-sense. And make sense of what ‘social constructs’ really are. Working together, we will discuss philosophy of science not as an end in itself but in order to address the four issues (and other issues you may come across!) and every-day examples. The goal is twofold: (1) understand what we can know and do know about the (social) world (2) use this knowledge to have a say in the pressing issues of our times.
Block II June 30 - July 11, 2025 (10 - 14 Uhr, 10 am - 4 pm), Online reunions via Zoom 12.00 EDT, 17.00 GMT+1, 18.00 CEST on June 10th and July 23rdLabor in a Globalized World: Labor Regulation in Multinational Companies.
Prof. Thomas Haipeter, University of Duisburg-Essen
Course Description
In this seminar we will discuss the dynamics of economic globalization, the challenges this process poses for labor, and new ways of labour regulation that have developed in Multinational Companies (MNC). We will have a closer look at the dynamics of economic globalisation in terms of global trade patterns, foreign investments and the rise of MNC, including the geostrategic shifts that can be observed in recent years. The challenges these developments bring for labor in national political economies will be analysed from the different perspectives of political economies located in the Global North and the Global South, having a closer look at both organized labor and collective labor standards. Finally, we will discuss the attempts of organised labor to establish labor standards and to strengthen collective labor action within multinational companies in terms of Global Framework Agreements, trade union networks or European Works Councils.
Social Medias and Global societies
Prof. James Dean, Sonoma State University
Course Description
This course examines the relationship between society and the communication technologies referred to as “social media,” such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Twitch, and more. In this class we will develop conceptual tools, discuss methods of analysis, and take a global perspective to understanding social media apps and websites. In order to do this, we will read from sociology and the fields of communication and media studies to understand social media today. We will think about social media in terms of being part of the creation of a techno-social life. That is, in general the course develops a perspective that views technology and social life as integrated and overlapping in our everyday lives and our global social institutions and structures. The course advances the perspective that technology as seen through apps and websites creates new sets of social norms for the community of users of that app and/or website. Students will be introduced to key concepts and research in the field of digital phenomena with the aim to have them develop their own critical responses, active engagement in class discussions of readings, and in their writing and presenting of an original research paper on the topics of social media in particular and techno-social existence in global societies in general.
Towards more Sustainability? Promises and Pitfalls of Transnational Standard-Setting
Prof. Sigrid Quack, University of Duisburg-Essen and Max Plank Institute for the Study of Societies
Course Description
This seminar will explore whether and how transnational standards, such as for example those for fair trade products, fair labour conditions and “green” forest cultivation can contribute to more sustainability. We will also discuss the limitations and downsides of regulation through standard-setting undertaken by a variety of actors, including states, businesses and civil society organizations. We will develop conceptual tools and discuss methods to study the links between standard-setting and sustainability. Students can choose case study examples to explore specific initiatives more in depths. The sessions will deal with trends in economic globalization; actors, forms and processes of transnational institution building and development and their intersections with national institutions; normative and empirical issues of their accountability and legitimacy; and conceptual frameworks to compare and make sense of them.
Global Social Policy
Prof. Tao Liu, Zhejiang University
Course Description
Modern social policy emerges within the constitutional framework of nation-states to protect the well-being and basic living standards of citizens within a nation's territory. As the trade and circulation of goods around the world and the process of economic globalization deepen, concepts about social solidarity, justice and redistribution have gradually spread to all parts of the world. This block seminar is based on the basic conceptual framework of modern social policy and welfare state, focusing on how international governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations have influenced the reform of pension insurance and the establishment of medical protection systems around the world. At the same time, this block seminar also focuses on the issues of global income inequality and social inequality, discussing the economic and social gap between the global North and the South. In particular, it will focus on various welfare programs that shorten the North-South divide in the world society.
Urban sociology – Theoretical approaches and empirical research
Prof. Helen Baykara-Krumme, University of Duisburg-Essen
Course Description
How are individual experiences shaped by urban areas, and how do cities change in contexts of larger societal changes? These questions are addressed in the research field of “urban sociology” which is among the earliest and richest areas of sociological inquiry. This seminar offers a basic introduction to classical and contemporary urban sociological theories and an insight into current urban issues and problem areas, with a specific focus on issues related to international migration and the city of Duisburg. The seminar is divided into three parts: After an introduction to theoretical perspectives, specific urban issues (e.g. gentrification, segregation, housing, arrival infrastructures) will be addressed in student working groups and subsequently researched and analysed for the case of Duisburg. The seminar combines in-person teaching, independent work in working groups and topic-related fieldtrips and field work, respectively, in the city of Duisburg. The aim of the seminar is to enable students to develop a basic understanding of urban sociological research both with regard to theoretical approaches and empirical analyses.
Sociology of Religion: International Comparative Perspective
Dr. Brian Conway, Maynooth University
Course Description
This module is an introduction to theoretical debates, empirical work, and methodological approaches in the sociology of religion. In the first week, we consider the distinguishing features of the sociological approach to religion and the major debates within the literature about the impact of modernity on religion, focusing on secularisation theories. Framed by this, the second week focuses on topics such as atheist identities and secularity, religiosity in Germany, and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on religion. Throughout, the emphasis will be on developing an international comparative approach to understanding religion and society. This will be achieved through mini-lectures, brief reflection papers on readings, and in-class discussions.
Global inequalities and climate change
Prof. Dr. Anja Weiß, University of Duisburg-Essen
Course Description
Global inequalities far exceed inequalities within countries. Wealth in the Global North is based on expropriation to a significant extent. The political sphere is segmented into states and it is doubtful whether states are able to solve transnational problems. These problems have existed for a long time, but they are exacerbated by climate change, or even causing it. Still, climate change also is a “new” problem. Sociologists are, for example, challenged to reconsider divisions between materiality and the social.
The seminar will employ a global and transnational perspective on these problems. We will discuss Wallerstein’s world systems approach, postcolonial studies, and recent integrated proposals for the critique of capitalism (Fraser) or global systems (Walby). We will use these theoretical perspectives to discuss scenarios for potential futures. You will get to know (quantitative) data banks provided by international NGOs and activists. Based on an excursion to the Duisburg harbor, we will study global supply chains and extractivism as well as transnational labor markets.
Anthropology of Migration and Transnationality: An Ethnographic Walk through Marxloh
Dr. Besim Can Zirh, Middle Eastern Technical University
Course Description
The seminar aims to assist its participants in developing an inter-disciplinary perspective on the transnationalism approach by which they can develop an insight into contemporary social and political phenomena without being trapped by national borders, namely “methodological nationalism”. The seminar will also discuss how scholars from different generations attempted to understand border-crossing phenomena at different historical moments. In doing so, participants could develop a perspective on the nature of paradigmatic shifts in the social sciences at large. By specifically focussing on migration the the case of Marxloh, this seminar attempts to discuss border-crossing engagements and activities from a historical, inter-disciplinary, and case-specific perspective.
Super-Diversity and Institutional Whiteness in (Post-)Migration Society
Course Description
Beginning in the summer 2020, people in many parts of the world have begun to be actively engaged in the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) – more than ever in our recent history. BLM has long repercussions to date. For example, in this summer, Austria has witnessed citizens’ referendum “Black Voices”. In many Western European societies where a quarter of the population has a so-called migration background, mobility related diversity is just a banal everyday reality. In urban spaces some authors have argued that metropolitan cities have become even “super-diverse” (Vertovec 2007: 1024), rendering conventional normative notions, such as “integration” obsolete on the one hand.
But, on other hand: Why is it that migrant and racialized ‘Others’ are the ones to be named and talked about? While it continues to be important to scrutinize structural inequalities based on racialization along with gender, class and religion, scholarship just like political and social discourses often fail to problematize the dominant gaze through which racialized inequalities are looked into.
This seminar invites you to reflexively engage with issues related not only to racism but also to “institutional whiteness” in employment and higher education institutions, discussing both empirical and theoretical works in the European and Asian context. As a learning/teaching method, we will use a slightly adopted version of “Problem-Based Learning” to ensure lively discussions. We will also have an opportunity to listen to a guest lecture and watch a movie, in order to broaden and deepen our understanding of the seminar topic.
Social Medias and Global Societies
Prof. James Joseph Dean (Sonoma University)
Course Description
This course examines the relationship between society and the communication technologies referred to as “social media,” such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and more. In this class we will develop conceptual tools, methods of analysis, and a global understanding of social media apps and websites. In order to do this, we will read social theory from sociology and science and technology studies as well as examine the empirical research in the fields of communication studies, cultural studies, and media studies to understand social media today. We will think about social media in terms of being part of the creation of a techno- social life. That is, in general the course develops a perspective that views technology and social life as integrated and overlapping in our everyday lives and our global social institutions and structures. Specifically, the course advances the perspective that technology as seen through apps and websites creates new sets of social norms for the community of users of that app and/or website. Students will be introduced to key theories and research in the field of digital phenomena with the aim to have them develop their own critical responses, active engagement in class discussions of readings, and in their writing and presenting of an original research paper on the topics of social media in particular and techno-social existence in global societies in general.
Social inequality from national, transnational and global perspectives
Dr. Jenny Preunkert (University of Duisburg-Essen) and Dr. Brian Conway (Maynooth University)
Course Description
For a long time, social inequality was discussed primarily in a national context. However, even when nobody will deny that these national analyses are important, in recent years transnational or global analyses have gained importance in the academic field of social inequality. For instance, the prosperity of European societies can only be explained in the context of the global division of labour and the global economy. Furthermore, through transnational mobility opportunities, new transnational elites have developed that can no longer be classified in national “containers”. The seminar will pick up three selected areas of social inequality - economic, political and spatial inequality -, and will analyze them from a comparative, transnational and global perspectives. The seminar combines in-person teaching with topic related fieldtrips in the area of Duisburg and social events. The aim of the seminar is to enable students to develop their understanding of social inequality in a more and more globalized and transnationalized world.
Borders, Borderlands, Limits, Frontiers: Native Knowledge in Brazil and Latin America
Prof. Pedro Mandagará Ribeiro (Universidade de Brasília)
Course Description
Native people in Brazil and Latin America have a difficult relation to the national states of the region. They are both part and not a part of each nation; they live in a borderland between citizenship and destitution. National limits sometimes separate native communities from their relatives across the border. Several native peoples (like the Mapuche in Chile and Argentina or the Yanomami in Brazil and Venezuela) live in a borderland beyond national limits. Inside nation states, the demarcation of exclusive areas for indigenous peoples to live in is a major political conflict, as has been happening in Brazil, especially under the explicitly anti-indigenous policies of the Bolsonaro government.
In the first week of this course, we will review some theories about nationality and the formation of borders, as well as studying how the Constitutions of some Latin American countries deal with indigenous peoples. Authors read will include Friedrich Engels, Pierre Clastres, Jacques Derrida and Ailton Krenak. In the second week, we will discuss art works and films produced by indigenous peoples in Brazil and Latin America that touch on the questions of nationality and borders, including works by contemporary Brazilian artists Jaider Esbell, Denilson Baniwa and Célia Tupinambá.
Contemporary Global Social Movements
Dario Azzellini, Ph.D.
Course Description
The course rewiews major issues concerning new and contemporary global social movements and their core charasteristics. At the center of course are the movements that emerged with the crisis 2008 and after (square movements/Occupy, women´s and feminist movements, BLM, climate justice, workers´movements during the Covid-19 pandemic and movements in the global South). The course will discuss different approaches in social movement theory. It will analyze movements that can be considered precursors regarding content and practices of the social movements (for example the "anti-representational" movements in Latin America since the mid-1990s). The course will discuss shared characteristics and differences among the new global movements and compared to earlier social movements. These changes will be contextualized in an analysis of changing political and cultural circumstances (e. g, crisis of representation) and of new practices (non-representationaldemocracy, direct action...) and perspectives of social movements.