Vorlesungsverzeichnis

Social Evolution, Cultural Change and Political Transformation (Seminar)

Dozent/in: Lennart Brunkert

Termin:
wöchentlich | Donnerstag | 10:15 - 11:45 | 06.04.2023 - 06.07.2023 | C 14.202 Seminarraum

Inhalt: The seminar expands on the same theme’s introductory module from the preceding winter term. Your understanding of the key issues in the fields of political sociology and political culture will deepen by a selection of literature that opens up a wider transdisciplinary perspective on how societies persist in certain vicious or virtuous configurations. These societal configurations can be located on a three-dimensional continuum between (a) struggling and prospering economies, (b) authoritarian and emancipatory cultures and (c) autocratic and democratic states. Within this broader setting, a guiding question in a majority of our readings addresses the societal and cultural conditions that help explain why some countries sustain autocratic states, while others sustain democratic states. Our readings also lay out the forces driving the evolution of these configurations. Specifically, we will gain insights into the patterns by which a society’s prevalent existential conditions (1), dominant psychological orientations (2) and lasting political institutions (3) correspond with each other and which forces drive this correspondence into a vicious or virtuous overall configuration. The readings covering these issues intersect the disciplines of political science, sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics and even socio-biology. Upon completion of this course, you will have gained a profound comprehension of the fabric, functioning and dynamic of human societies writ large, in the political dimension and beyond.

• Leuphana Bachelor - Major Politikwissenschaft (ab Studienbeginn WiSe 16/17) - Vertiefung: Politische Soziologie/ Politische Kultur: Politische Kultur