EU424 The Idea of Europe
Download: Video
Contributor(s): Professor Maurice Fraser
Released on 15 April 2014.
This course examines the cultural and intellectual origins of Europe in Ancient Greece and Christendom; the emergence of a shared European cultural space in the Middle Ages and Renaissance; contested definitions of Europe's final frontier and eligibility for EU membership; rationales of empire and the distinction between 'civilisation' and 'barbarism'; the fissile interplay of rationalism and romanticism; the uses and abuses of instrumental reason; secularisation and the role of Christianity in the public space; the 'universal mission' of Europeans and the idea of rights; and definitions of the European 'project'.
EU447 Democracy, Ideology and the European State
Download: Video
Contributor(s): Dr Jonathan White
Released on 15 April 2014.
This course investigates democracy, ideology and the state as three core features of modern Europe. It charts their emergence as concepts, their historical evolution as political practices, and their fate in Europe today.
EU458 Identity, Community and the ‘Problem of Minorities’
Download: Video
Contributor(s): Dr Jennifer Jackson-Preece
Released on 15 April 2014.
The securitization of minorities and migrants in Europe has coincided with a growing rejection of multiculturalism in favour of new discourses that place a greater emphasis on social cohesion predicated upon a shared nation-state identity. This course will examine the ways in which different constructions of membership and belonging underscore contested narratives on diversity and the competing policy responses this has engendered.