Travellers, Rights, Nomadism, and Ethnicity

(2.5-3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Irish Travellers are a small indigenous ethnic minority. Despite their long history of nomadism and their unique cultural traditions, there has been limited recognition of uniqueness in political and social terms. They have been identified in numerous studies as the ethnic group that experiences the most intense discrimination in Ireland. Using a critical theoretical and transformative lens, the aim of this course is: a) to analyze the uniqueness of the of Travellers' ethnicity and culture; b) to examine the injustices and discriminations they experience across different social institutions, and c) to examine how their rights could be enhanced and protected in areas such as education, housing, health care, employment, and the legal system. The course will examine why nomadic people, including Roma and Travellers, are subjected to prolonged intense racism across Europe in the context of contemporary theoretical debates on racism and nomadism. The course has been designed in collaboration with a number of Traveller organizations (including Roma people), The focus is not only on analyzing injustices but on researching transformatively how best to address injustices experienced by nomadic peoples. Russia s attack on Ukraine shows once again the central role power plays in international relations. The observation that today s generation doesn't understand anything about power politics may sound exaggerated as one could read in a leading German daily newspaper these days. It is true, however, that power, as a central analytical category in international politics, has played a rather subordinate role in the debates over the past few decades. This also and especially applies to the perception and acceptance of military power as an element of politics. But as central as the concept of power still is, it is also essentially contested. It is not only the attainment and exercise of power that is disputed, but the term itself. While some define power as an opportunity to assert one's own will within a social relationship, even against resistance (Max Weber), Karl W. Deutsch defines power as an opportunity, not having to study. Others define power as control over policy outcomes (Robert A. Dahl). In the subject of international relations, the concept of power was initially claimed by realism; it is the core concept of theory formation there. In the meantime, however, the realistic concept of power (Hans J. Morgenthau, Kenneth N. Waltz, John J. Mearsheimer) has been subjected to fundamental criticism from an institutionalist perspective (especially Joseph S. Nye). In recent discussions, several strands of a modified understanding of power have emerged, which will be the focus of the seminar. In addition to the traditional, narrow understanding of power as coercive power, these include agenda setting, discursive power, and structural power. The aim of the seminar is to trace the genesis of power as a central analysis category of international relations, to work out the central theoretical perspectives on it and to empirically examine its destructive as well as formative effect.