Kristina Stoeckl
"Culture and religion as a source of conflict in contemporary Europe"
(fall term 2015, 2-credit-course)
Dates: Tuesdays 03/11/2015 until 08/12/2015, 9:00-10:40 and Thursdays 05/11/2015 until
10/12/2015, 9:00-10:40.
Course-content:
The aim of this course is to analyse religion and culture as a source of political conflict in Europe and
international relations beyond civilizational explanatory frameworks (“clash of civilizations”), drawing
instead attention to the fact that these conflicts exemplify tensions that are inherent to political
modernity (ex. liberalism vs communitarianism, negative vs positive freedom, the disconnect between
religion and everyday culture). We will analyse selected case-studies of religious-secular conflicts of
international dimension, for example controversies over free speech and blasphemy in the Danish
cartoon crisis, the Charlie Hebdo-attack or the Pussy-Riot case; conflicts over LGBT-rights in
different European countries; and notions such as "Eurasia" and "Russkij Mir", and we will look at
these cases through the lenses of domestic political theories and international relations theories in
order to reflect on the challenges of value-pluralism in present-day societies which are determined,
on the one side, by international human rights standards, and, on the other side, by claims to national
sovereignty. Students should, in particular,
(1) become familiar with debates on secularism, religion and culture in political theory and
international relations; and
(2) acquire the necessary theoretical and methodological skills to analyse these conflicts, including the
analysis of religious discourse and propaganda, and become sensitive to the international and
transversal (trans-national, trans-confessional, and even trans-religious-secular) nature of conflicts.
Syllabus
1.
03/11/2015 (Tuesday), 9:00-10:40
Introductory meeting
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2.
Course outline
Course requirements
Cases and examples in order to start discussion and imagination about the topic
05/11/2015 (Thursday), 9:00-10:40
Religion and Culture in International Relations Theory
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How and why culture and religion (re)enter IR theory
Thomas, Scott M. “Taking Religious and Cultural Pluralism Seriously: The Global Resurgence of
Religion and the Transformation of International Society.” Millennium: Journal of International Studies
29, no. 3 (2000): 815-41.
1
Shah, Timothy S. and Daniel Philpot. “The Fall and Rise of Religion in International Relations: History
and Theory.” in Religion and International Relations Theory, edited by Jack L. Snyder. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2011, 24-58.
3.
10/11/2015 (Tuesday), 9:00-10:40
Secularization and modernization
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Why we make a distinction between secularization and secularism
Religion and secularism in Europe
Casanova, José. “Secularization.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences,
edited by Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes. Amsterdam, Paris et.al.: Elsevier, 2001, 13786-91.
Hurd, Elizabeth S. “Secularism and International Relations Theory.” in Religion and International
Relations Theory, edited by Jack L. Snyder. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011, 60-90.
Katzenstein, Peter J. "Multiple Modernities as Limits to Secular Europeanization?". In Religion in an
Expanding Europe, edited by Timothy A. Byrnes and Peter J. Katzenstein. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2006, 1-33.
4.
12/11/2015 (Thursday), 9:00-10:40
“The West” and “the Clash of civilizations”
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The meaning and role of “the West” in theories of IR
Toynbee, Arnold Joseph. Civilization on Trial and the World and the West. New York: New American
Library, 1976, 188-197, 235-245.
Bull, Hedley. “The Revolt Against the West.” in The Expansion of International Society, edited by
Hedley Bull and Adam Watson. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984.
Huntington, Samuel. “The Clash of Civilizations.” Foreign Affairs 72, no. 3 (1993): 22-50.
5.
17/11/2015 (Tuesday), 9:00-10:40
Modernity and multiple modernities
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Beyond civilizations: From modernization to modernity to multiple modernities
Wagner, Peter. "From Interpretation to Civilization — and Back: Analyzing the Trajectories of NonEuropean Modernities." European Journal of Social Theory 14, no. 1 (February 1, 2011 2011): 89-106.
Wagner, Peter. “Modernity: History of the Concept.” In International Encyclopedia of the Social and
Behavioural Sciences, edited by J. Smelser Neil and Paul B. Baltes. Amsterdam, Paris et.al.: Elsevier,
2001, 9949-9954.
2
Eisenstadt, Shmuel N. “Multiple Modernities.” Daedalus 129, no. 1 (2000): 1-29.
6.
19/11/2015 (Thursday), 9:00-10:40
Post-secular society and multipolarity
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What is meant by “a post-secular society”
Pluralism and multipolarity in IR and political theory
Habermas, Jürgen, and Eduardo Mendieta. “A Postsecular World Society? An Interview with Jürgen
Habermas.” The Immanent Frame (2010): http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2010/02/03/a-postsecular-worldsociety/.
Kratochwil, Friedrich, and Mariano Barbato. “Towards a Post-Secular Political Order?” European
Political Science Review 1, no. 3 (2009): 317-40.
Stoeckl, Kristina. “European Integration and Russian Orthodoxy: Two Multiple Modernities
Perspectives.” European Journal of Social Theory 14, no. 2 (2011): 217-34.
7.
24/11/2015 (Tuesday), 9:00-10:40
The international human rights regime and national legal sovereignty I
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The Human Rights Discourse of the Russian Orthodox Church as a case-study
Human rights as a form of political morality
Stoeckl, Kristina. The Russian Orthodox Church and Human Rights. London, New York: Routledge,
2014, 13-30.
Namli, Elena. Human Rights as Ethics, Politics and Law. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 2014,
pages, 35-62.
8.
26/11/2015 (Thursday), 9:00-10:40
The international human rights regime and national legal sovereignty II
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Religious Freedom case-law in front of the European Court of Human Rights
Koenig, Matthias. “Governance of Religious Diversity at the European Court of Human Rights.” In
International Approaches to the Governance of Ethnic Diversity, edited by Jane Bolden and Will Kymlicka.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
Annicchino, Pasquale. “Winning the Battle by Losing the War: The Lautsi Case and the Holy Alliance
between American Conservative Evangelicals, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Vatican to
Reshape European Identity.” Religion and Human Rights 6 (2011): 213-19.
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9.
01/12/2015 (Tuesday), 9:00-10:40
The transversality of moral conflicts I
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Blasphemy
Brown, Wendy, Judith Butler and Saba Mahmood. “Preface, 2013.” In Is Critique Secular? Blasphemy,
Injury and Free Speech, edited by Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler and Saba Mahmood. New
York: Fordham University Press, 2013, vii-xx.
Hicks, Neil. “The Public Disorder of Blasphemy Laws: A Comparative Perspective.” The Review of
Faith & International Affairs 13, no. 1 (2015/01/02 2015): 51-58.
Roy, Olivier. Holy Ignorance: When Religion and Culture Diverge. New York: Columbia University Press,
2009, 109-120.
Additional Reading:
Uzlaner, Dmitry and Kristina Stoeckl. “Pussy Riot’s punk-prayer: Orthodox believers, protest and
religious freedom in Putin’s Russia”. Contemporary Journal of Religion, special issue edited by Slavica
Jakelic (forthcoming).
10.
03/11/2015 (Thursday), 9:00-10:40
The transversality of moral conflicts II
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LGBT-rights
Ayoub, Phillip M. “Cooperative Transnationalism in Contemporary Europe: Europeanization and
Political Opportunities for LGBT Mobilization in the European Union.” European Political Science
Review 5, no. 02 (2013): 279-310.
Bob, Clifford. The Global Right Wing and the Clash of World Politics. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2012, 36-71.
11.
08/12/2015 (Tuesday), 9:00-10:40
The transversality of moral conflicts III
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Religious Freedom
Sullivan, Winnifred F., Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Saba Mahmood, and Peter G. Danchin, eds. Politics of
Religious Freedom. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015, - (this book will be published only in
July, pages will be announced later).
12.
10/11/2015 (Thursday), 9:00-10:40
Concluding session and final discussion
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