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Instructors: Prof. Dr. Dirk van Laak; Prof. Dr. Dmitri van den Bersselaar
Event type:
Seminar
Org-unit: 03-African Studies
Displayed in timetable as:
Subject:
Crediting for:
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
English
Official course description:
When seen from the perspective of "modernisation theory" at the start of the 20th Century the societies in Western Europe and the USA had reached a high technical and economic level to which societies elsewhere had to "catch up". During the century that followed, starting with Japan and the Soviet Union, allegedly "underdeveloped" societies made astonishing attempts to radically modernise their societies. This would usually concern the environment and the economy, and often also required the shaping of a "new man". In this seminar, starting from a critical engagement with the notion of "Modernisation", we will compare examples of such "great leaps forward" (Mao Tse-tung) from around the world and to which extent this involved the copying of "western" or other existing pattern, or whether an independent road to development was chosen. In addition to China and Soviet Union, we will look at countries such as Turkey, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Tanzania, Taiwan or South Korea.
Readings:
Thomas Mergel: Modernization, in: Europäische Geschichte Online (EGO), hg. vom Institut fu¨r Europäische Geschichte (IEG), Mainz 2011-04-27. URL: http://www.ieg-ego.eu/mergelt-2011-de (Verfügbar auf Englisch und auf Deutsch). James C. Scott: Seeing Like a State. How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed, New Haven/London 1998.
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