Thorough grasp of world culture as an analytical tool to understand transnational civil society, religion and construction of selfhood.

World culture is a key term in sociological neoinstitutionalism. But how is it different from local or national culture? What are the various elements of world culture? How do they work to shape my perceptions, actions, and even beliefs about religion or sexuality in my ordinary life? While other courses in the program focus on policy-making, the nation-state, and the media, this course will focus on the “soft side”: the intangible yet highly significant culture of transnationalism. The course will help students see how sociological neoinstitutionalism can unpack otherwise complex, sometimes invisible, global processes through the concept of world culture.

The course begins with in-depth exploration of the concept of world culture. In the first application, students will see how that concept helps make sense of the growth and functioning of international and national civil society, as well as the place of the global human rights discourse. This will include discussions on world cultural aspects of local and global social movements, as well as ethnic constructions. In the second application students will see how religion and, in particular, religious conflicts and fundamentalism, are understood in the prism of world culture. Empirical case studies of cutting-edge research will help contextualize the contents of this module. Finally, in the third application, students will see how world cultural scripts pervade our everyday lives, from our individual sense of self and how to improve it, to the role of culture in our personal relations. This module will include cutting-edge case studies from research into constructions and transnational flows of modern selfhood, as well as Foucault’s texts on the Western self.

In addition to the lectures and seminar sessions in March - May, students are required to participate the visiting lectures by George Thomas and Sigrid Quack on 20 and 21 January.

Max 20 students. All students must complete the full course (10 ECTS). Students will be accepted to the course in the following order:

1. degree students of the MDP Global and Transnational Studies

2. degree students of the other Global Society programmes (MDP in in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research, MDP in Quantitative Social Research, MDP in Comparative Social Policy and Welfare)

3. other degree students of UTA

4. exchange students