Contemporary Mediterranean - JTM286

• Title: Contemporary Mediterranean
• Czech title: Současné Středomoří
• Guaranteed by: Department of European Studies (23-KZS)
• Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
• Actual: from 2021
• Semester: summer
• E-Credits: 6
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:1/1, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: 14 / unknown (16)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment; priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
• Guarantor: PhDr. Martin Mejstřík; prof. PhDr. Kateřina Králová, Ph.D., M.A.
• Teacher(s): prof. PhDr. Kateřina Králová, Ph.D., M.A.; PhDr. Martin Mejstřík
• Class: Courses for incoming students
• Incompatibility : JMM152

Annotation

Last update: prof. PhDr. Kateřina Králová, Ph.D., M.A. (10.02.2023)

The aim of this course is to closely follow the recent development of the Mediterranean region. The essence is to analyze the most important and problematic issues in the whole region, including Maghreb countries and Izrael. The course will follow a structure divided according to specific themes such as immigration, security, Arab Spring, the economic crisis, Greek-Turkish relations, and populism. The aim of the course is to provide a regional perspective on these issues and to show a strong connection between South European countries and their Mediterranean counterparts.

Aim of the course

Last update: prof. PhDr. Kateřina Králová, Ph.D., M.A. (10.02.2023)

The main objective of the course is to enable the students to approach the whole Mediterranean region in its complexity and connectivity and to offer them a combination of a factual approach with a theoretical one.

Course completion requirements

Last update: PhDr. Martin Mejstřík (10.02.2023)

Students will have an opportunity to actively participate in classes as well to develop their writing and presentation skills. For this reason, the assessments have been set as follows: 

1)     Presentation of the chosen topic (25%)

PPT presentation of 7 slides, max. 15 minutes

2)     Essay on the presentation topic (40%)

Each student will write an essay of up to 10 pages on the presented topic due to 15. 6. 2023

3)     Policy brief (25%)
Students prepare in groups of 3 or 4 a short policy brief (600 words) on the current regional issues in a chosen Mediterranean country. These briefs will be presented and discussed during the last lesson of the semester.

4)     Active participation (10%)

A minimum of 60% is needed to pass (all the above-mentioned points have to be accomplished)

Literature

Last update: Mgr. Jiřina Tomečková (13.02.2023)

viz Sylabus

Teaching methods

Last update: PhDr. Martin Mejstřík (10.02.2023)

In person teaching. All the readings are available here: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=3770

Requirements to the exam

Last update: PhDr. Martin Mejstřík (10.02.2023)

There is no exam. The final assignment of the course is writing an essay on the selected topic.

Syllabus

Last update: PhDr. Martin Mejstřík (14.02.2023)

Syllabus

1)      Introduction (14. 2.) – Martin Mejstřík

Course description and assessment, introduction to readings and course activities, introduction to Mediterranean region

 

2)      Is the Mediterranean “Achilles’ heel” of Europe? (21. 2.) – Martin Mejstřík

“Refugee crisis” in Mediterranean, case of Italy

Reading:

Pietro Castelli Gattinara. 2017. The ‘refugee crisis’ in Italy as a crisis of legitimacy, Contemporary Italian Politics, 9:3, 318–331.

 

3)      Securitization of the region (28. 2.) – Martin Mejstřík

EU response to address migration and securitization narratives

Reading: 

·           Panebianco, Stefania. 2020. The EU and migration in the Mediterranean: EU borders’ control by proxy, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

·           Léonard, Sarah and Christian Kaunert. 2020. The securitisation of migration in the European Union: Frontex and its evolving security practices, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

 

4)      Italy as the heart of the Mediterranean – what is a current role of former power? (7. 3.) – Martin Mejstřík

Development of Italian foreign policy and its impact on current regional issues

Reading:

·      Paoletti, Emmanuela. 2011. „Power Relations and International Migration: The Case of Italy and Libya“. Political Studies 59, 269-289.

·      Matteo Colombo & Arturo Varvelli. 2016. The Regeni case and Italy’s Mediterranean policy: a turning point?, Contemporary Italian Politics, 8:3, 277-288.

 

5)      Are democratic regimes in danger? Threat of populism to liberal democracies (14. 3.) – Martin Mejstřík

Growing populism in the Mediterranean a case of Italy

Reading:

·      Marco Tarchi. 2015. Italy: the promised land of populism?, Contemporary Italian Politics, 7:3, 273-285.

·      Manuela Caiani. 2019. The populist parties and their electoral success: different causes behind different populisms? The case of the Five-star Movement and the League, Contemporary Italian Politics, 11:3, 236-250.

 

6)      Politics of history and Europeanization of the Balkans (21. 3.) – Kateřina Králová

Reading:

Milosevic, Ana, and Tamara Trost. Europeanisation and Memory Politics in the Western Balkans. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020.

 

7)      North Macedonia and its Neighbours (28. 3.) – Kateřina Králová

Reading:

Nimetz, Matthew. “The Macedonian ‘Name’ Dispute: The Macedonian Question—Resolved?” Nationalities Papers 48, no. 2 (March 2020): 205–14.

 

8)      Environmental Echoes of the Past. The (Western) Balkans after World War II and the 1990s Yugoslav Wars (4. 4.) - Snežana Stanković

Reading:

·         Henig, David. 2019. “Living on the Frontline: Indeterminacy, Value, and Military Waste in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina.” Anthropological Quarterly 92 (1), 85-110.

·         Sendyka, Roma. 2016. “Sites that Haunt: Affects and Non-sites of Memory.” East European Politics and Societies and Cultures XX (X), 1-16.

 

9)      Israel and Europe (11. 4.) – Irena Kalhousová

Current relationship between Israel and Europe

Reading:

 

10)  Catalonia, Spanish or not? (18. 4.) – Martin Mejstřík

Interpretation of recent political development in Catalonia towards the independence

Reading:

·           Guibernau, Montserrat. 2013. “Secessionism in Catalonia: After Democracy”. Ethnopolitics 12 (4), 368-393.

·           Marti, David and Cetra, Daniel. 2016. “The 2015 Catalan election: a de facto referendum on independence?” Regional and Federal Studies 26 (1), 107-119

 

11)  Europe’s impact on the collective bargaining systems of the Southern European countries (25. 4.) – Dennie Oude Nijhuis (Leiden University)

Reading:

Fabio Bulfone and Alexandre Afonso. 2020. "Business Against Markets: Employer Resistance to Collective Bargaining Liberalization During the Eurozone Crisis". Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 53(5) 809–846.

 

12)  Looking towards radical right (2. 5.) – Martin Mejstřík

Growing support of radical right-wing parties (Vox, Chega) in Spain and Portugal

Reading:

·        Stuart J. Turnbull-Dugarte, José Rama & Andrés Santana. 2020. The Baskerville's dog suddenly started barking: voting for VOX in the 2019 Spanish general elections, Political Research Exchange, 2:1.

·         Lea Heyne & Luca Manucci. 2021. A new Iberian exceptionalism? Comparing the populist radical right electorate in Portugal and Spain, Political Research Exchange, 3:1.

 

13)  Closing seminar (9. 5.)