I am fleeing the country heading to Augsburg, Germany for the 2016 Summer Institute of Civic Studies. It is aimed at participants from Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland, but they are convening this summer in Germany (thanks to the generosity of the DAAD). The other organizers are my friends Dr. Tetyana Kloubert (Augsburg) and Prof. Karol Soltan (Maryland). I’ll paste the syllabus below; it may be interesting because of its European focus. It ends with a practical training on nonviolent resistance that should be particularly illuminating when experienced right after relatively abstract discussions of democracy and civic society. I will unfortunately miss that part because I’m coming back to the US on August 29, and I will resume blogging then.

Monday, July 25 9:00 – 9:30

9:30 – 11:00 Morning session

Introductions and Inspirations

Framing Statement for the Summer Institute
Seamus Heaney, “In the Republic of Conscience”
Images: fist of Otpor and open hand from Chandigarh
Vaclav Havel, Address at Wroclaw University (December 21, 1992)
Myroslav Marynovych “Civic virtues after Maidan”
11:30 – 13:00 Noon Session

Democracies: Constitutional, Illiberal and Façade

Fareed Zakaria “The Rise of Illiberal Democracy” (1997)
Viktor Orban’s Speech at the 25th Balvanyos Summer Free University and Student Camp (2014)
Attila Agh, “De-Europeanization and De-Democratization Trends in ECE” (2015)
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch break

14:30 – 16:00 Afternoon session

I. The main theoretical debate of civic studies: JürgenHabermas vs. Elinor Ostrom

1. Venue: Negotiation and Deliberation

Roger Fisher and William Ury, Getting to Yes (2d ed.), Chapter 1 “Don’t Bargain Over Positions” pp. 3-14.
Archon Fung, “Recipes for Public Spheres: Eight Institutional Design Choices and Their Consequences” in Journal of Political Philosophy, vol. 11, No. 3. (September 2003), pp. 338-67.
Bernard Manin “Deliberation: Why We Should Focus on Debate Rather Than Discussion.”
17:30 – 19:00 Reception at the Augsburg University

Tuesday, July 26 9:30 – 11:00 Morning session

2. Theorist: Jürgen Habermas

James Finlayson (2005), Habermas: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, (Chapters 1, 2, 4) pp. 1-27, 47-61
11:30 – 13:00 Noon Session

3. Key concepts: Pluralism

Peter J. Boettke et al. (2014), “Polycentricity, Self-governance, and the Art & Science of Association,” in The Review of Austrian Economics, Volume 28, Issue 3 , 311-335
Leszek Kolakowski (1990), “How to be a Conservative-Liberal-Socialist”, Modernity on Endless Trial (University of Chicago, 1990).
Isaiah Berlin (1988), “On the Pursuit of the Ideal,” in The Crooked Timber of Humanity, ed. Henry Hardy (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press)
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch break

14:30 – 16:00 Afternoon session

4. Theorist: Elinor Ostrom and the commons

Thomas Dietz, Nives Dolsak, Elinor Ostrom, and Paul C. Stern (2002), “The Drama of the Commons”, in Drama of the Commons, ed. Elinor Ostrom, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, pp. 3-26
Elinor Ostrom (1996), “Covenants, Collective Action, and Common-Pool Resources”, in The Constitution of Good Societies, ed. Karol Edward Soltan and Stephen L. Elkin, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 23–38
16:30 – 17:30 Evening Presentation (invited speaker)

Wednesday, July 27 9:30 – 11:00 Morning session

5. Key concepts: Social capital

Robert D. Putnam, “Community-Based Social Capital and Educational Performance,” in Ravitch and Viteritti, eds., Making Good Citizens, pp. 58-95;
Jean L. Cohen, “American Civil Society Talk,” in Robert K. Fullinwider, ed., Civil Society, Democracy, and Civic Renewal, pp. 55-85
11:30 – 13:00 Noon Session

II. Civic action and reflection: Education and Civic Education

1. Key concepts: Civic Education – The person in development as a citizen

Benson, Scales, Hamilton, and Sesma (2006), “Positive Youth Development: Theory, Research, and Applications”, in Theoretical Models of Human Development, ed. R. M. Lerner (Handbook of Child Psychology, Vol. 1., 6th ed.), pp. 894-941
Joel Westheimer and Joseph E. Kahne (2004), “Educating the ‘Good Citizen’: Political Choices and Pedagogical Goals”, in Political Science and Politics, 37,2, pp. 241–247
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch break

14:30 – 16:00 Afternoon session

2. Key concepts: Civic Education – Principles of German political (adult) education: Bildung and Mündigkeit as core categories

Hendrik Bohlin (2008), “Bildung and Moral Self-Cultivation in Higher Education: What Does it Mean and How Can it be Achieved?“, in Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table.
Zeuner, Christine (2013), “From workers education to societal competencies: approaches to a critical, emancipatory education for democracy”, in: European journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults 4, 2, p. 139-152
Martha Friedenthal-Haase (1996), “The Knowledge-Base of Democracy”, in Democracy and Adult Education, ed. J. Jug et al., Frankfurt am Main et al: P. Lang, pp. 133-138.
16:30 – 17:30 Evening Presentation (invited speaker)

Thursday,

July 28 9:30 – 11:00 Morning session

3. Theorist: Freire

Myles Horton and Paulo Freire (1990), We Make the Road by Walking, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, pp. 115-138
Paulo Freire (2000 [1970]), Pedagogy of the oppressed, New York: Continuum (Chapter 1. The justification for a pedagogy of the oppressed, Chapter 2. The “banking” concept of education as an instrument of oppression)
11:30 – 13:00 Noon Session

4. Re-education and Rethinking the Past

James F. Tent (1984), Mission on the Rhine : reeducation and denazification in American-occupied Germany, University of Chicago Press (Chapter: From Reeducation to Reorientation).
Richard von Weizsäcker (8. Mai 1985): „Zum 40. Jahrestag der Beendigung des Krieges in Europa und der nationalsozialistischen Gewaltherrschaft“ (English translation)
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch break

14:30 – 16:00 Afternoon session

III. Civic theorists respond to modernity

5. James C. Scott

James C. Scott Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, introduction and chapter 3, chapter 9.
16:30 – 17:30 Evening Presentation (proposed by participants)

Friday, July 29

9:30 – 11:00 Morning session

6. Modernity after Auschwitz

Theodor Adorno (2003), Can one live after Auschwitz? : a philosophical reader, Stanford University Press (Chapter 2: Education after Auschwitz)
Theodor Adorno (with Hellmut Becker): Education for Maturity and Responsibility
Daniel Lévy, Natan Sznaider (2005), The Holocaust and Memory in the Global Age, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1-39.
11:30 – 13:00 Noon Session

7. Theorist: Hannah Arendt

Hannah Arendt (1967): On Revolution. Excerpts.
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch break

14:30 – 16:00 Afternoon session

8. Roberto Mangabeira Unger and radical modernism

Roberto Unger, False Necessity, Chapter 1 (1-40)
Roberto Unger, Democracy Realized, “A Manifesto” (263-77)
Weekend : Free for private activities; optional sightseeing programs will be available

Monday, August 1, 9:30 – 11:00 Morning session

9. Theorist: Max Weber

Max Weber (1965), Politics as a vocation, Philadelphia: Fortress Press (Max Weber (1988 [1919]), Politik als Beruf, in ders.: Gesammelte Politische Schriften, hrsg. von Johannes Winckelmann, 5. Aufl., Tübingen: Mohr, pp. 505-560 – excerpts)
11:30 – 13:00 Noon Session

10.Theorist: Edmund Burke

Robert Nisbet (1986), Conservatism: Dream and Reality, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 1-46
William Ophuls (with A. Stephen Boyan) (1992), Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity Revisited, New York: Freemann (Chapter 8), pp. 222-249.
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch break

14:30 – 16:00 Afternoon session

11. Theorist: Friedrich von Hayek

Friedrich Hayek (1960), The Constitution of Liberty, University of Chicago Press, (Chapter 1, Chapter 4 and Postscript)
16:30 – 17:30 Evening Presentation (proposed by participants)

Tuesday, August 2, 9:30 – 11:00 Morning session

IV. Constitutional Democracy

1. Key concepts: Constitutional Patriotism

Müller, Jan-Werner (2008), A General Theory of Constitutional Patriotism, in International Journal of Constitutional Law, Vol. 6, Issue 1, 72-95.
11:30 – 13:00 Noon Session

2. Key concepts: Thinking constitutionally

The Federalist Papers, ? 10 (The Same Subject Continued: The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection, November 23, 1787), ? 51 (The Structure of the Government Must Furnish the Proper Checks and Balances Between the Different Departments, February 8, 1788).
Stephen Elkin (2004), “Thinking Constitutionally: The Problem of Deliberative Democracy”, in Social Philosophy and Policy, 21, pp. 39-75.
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch break

14:30 – 16:00 Afternoon session

3. Key concepts: Thinking about constitutions

Democracy Reporting International: Ukraine (2014), “The Promise and the Risk of Constitutional Reforms”, Briefing Paper 46, March 2014
Ackerman, Bruce (2000), “The New Separation of Powers”, 634-69, 685-94, 712-25.
16:30 – 17:30 Evening Presentation (proposed by participants)

Wednesday, August 3, 9:30 – 11:00 Morning session

4. Key concepts: Corruption

John Ackerman (2014), “Rethinking the International Anti-Corruption Agenda”, in American University International Law Review, 29, 2, pp. 293-333.
Creative Union TORO Ukraine and the UNCAC Coalition (2011), UN Convention against Corruption. Civil Society Review. Ukraine 2011
11:30 – 13:00 Noon Session

V. Toward a broader civic perspective

Venue: Civic Studies for European Union

Weiler, J.H.H. (2011): On the political and legal DNA of the Union and the Current European Crisis
Dahrendorf (1997), After 1989: morals, revolution, and civil society, Oxford (15. From Europe to EUrope: A Story of Hope, Trial and Error.)
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch break

14:30 – 16:00 Afternoon session

2. Global Civic Work

James Nickel, “Human Rights,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, online (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rights-human/)
Andrew Clapham (2006), Human Rights Obligations of Non-State Actors, Oxford University Press, pp. 535-48 (Section 11.1 “Dignity”)
James Speth (2008), The Bridge at the Edge of the World, Yale University Press, pp. 199-216
United Nations Organisations (1948), Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Earth Charter Commission (2000) The Earth Charter
16:30 – 17:30 Evening Presentation (invited speaker)

Thursday, August 4

9:30 – 11:00 Morning session

VI. Democracy from below

1. Venue: Community organizing and popular education

John Gaventa (1980), Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley, Urbana and Chicago: The University of Illinois Press, pp. 3-32
Saul Alinsky (1969 [1946]), Reveille for Radicals, New York: Vintage Books, pp. 76-81; 85-88; 92-100, 132-5, 155-158
11:30 – 13:00 Noon Session

2. Venue: Social movements

Charles Tilly (2004), Social Movements, London: Paradigm Publisher, pp. 1768-2004
Marshall Ganz (2004), “Why David Sometimes Wins: Strategic Capacity in Social Movements,” in Rethinking Social Movements: Structure, Meaning, and Emotion, ed. Jeff Goodwin and James M. Jasper, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp.177-98.
13:00 – 14:30 Lunch break

14:30 – 16:00 Afternoon session

3. Venue: Social Movements in the Shadow of Gandhi

Bhikhu Parekh (2001), Gandhi, Oxford University Press, (Chapter 4 “Satyagraha”) pp. 51-62
Timothy Garton Ash (2009), “Velvet Revolution: The Prospects,” New York Review of Books, December 3
16:30 – 17:30 Evening Presentation

Workshop: Nonviolent civic strategies (Dmytro Potekhin)

Friday, August 5

9:30 – 11:00 Morning session

Workshop: Nonviolent civic strategies (Dmytro Potekhin)

11:30 – 13:00 Noon Session

Workshop: Nonviolent civic strategies (Dmytro Potekhin)

13:00 – 14:30 Lunch break

14:30 – 16:00 Afternoon session

Workshop: Nonviolent civic strategies (Dmytro Potekhin)

17:30 – 22:00

Summary of the Summer Institute: Perspectives and Challenges in Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and Germany in international comparison

Farewell Evening – Social gathering