Social History of East-Central Europe, 1914-Present

The course examines social changes in Est-Central Europe since 1914 against the backdrop of seismic political events, such as world wars, regional conflicts, revolutions, foreign occupations and the formations of alliance systems. The course covers a wide range of topics, such as: geographic mobility (expulsion, forced resettlement, urbanization, internation migration) and their social consequences; demographic developments (marriage and divorce patterns); sexual relations and child-raising practices; youth culture; homosexuality and the position of the LGBT communities; secularization; religion and religious groups; living standards and lifestyles; consumption and consumer culture; urbanization; urban and rural architectures; social classes and class identity; elites and elite formation in East-Central Europe after 1948; the rise of a middle-class society; the underclasses yesterday and today; the position of the Romas; feminism and the changing role of women in economic and social life; The course is mainly concerned with the modernization of the region in the short twentieth century: however, in the last two session we will cover social chances and developments since the collapse of the wall in 1989. The course tries to answer the question about the relative success (or failure) of modernization (relative backwardness) in the region in a global context. Whether the globalization process has followed, with some delay, the same (Western) pattern or it has charted a different path is the subject of this course.

The language of discussion will be English. However, students have the option to do their presentations and write their research papers either in German or English