Germany

Revolutionary movements often times embed their actions in places where power is physically located, i.e., houses of parliaments, presidential palaces and so on. Aiming at the so-called nerve centers of powers can be crucial in successfully disrupting power. Throughout history public spaces have time and again served as playing fields for contentious politics: During the French revolution, the storming of the Bastille in 1789 held symbolic value, while the protest camp in Cairo’s Tahrir square was crucial for the overthrowing of the Egyptian regime in 2011. Beyond those, examples of the use of space for contentious politics by both resistance and repression actors can be found in Khartoum (qiyadah sit-in), Beijing (Tiananmen massacre) and Tirana (Skanderbeg Square) to name a few. But how do these squares and places become revolutionary – or not? Following this question, the seminar aims to explore the relationship between revolutions and space, delving specifically into the role of public spaces for revolutionary oppositions in mobilizing, building shared identities, and configuring spaces which embody their visions for a different future. 
 

This seminar takes a deep dive into histories and theories of rubbish, discards and waste, from the proposition that to be human is to make waste, through to the claim that humans can 'design out waste' in order to survive. Questions include when and where does something become rubbish, and how can its value be transformed? What does it mean to waste something, and when does waste become ’toxic'? This course examines how the politics of waste and its (mis)management lie at the heart of contemporary debates concerning environmental degradation, social and economic injustice, and the planetary crisis humans face. 

This course examines the empirical evaluation of (human resource) management practices in organizations. A brief introduction provides an overview of the fundamentals of experimental economic research. Subsequently, empirical studies on the causal effects of HR practices on employee behavior are discussed. The course trains students how to use experimental economics for the evaluation of causal effects of management practices in organizations. Students read, analyze and discuss various studies from organizational economics and practice their critical reflection. The reading list of the course includes studies on topics such as monetary and non-monetary incentives, leadership instruments, teams, feedback, recruitment, training. Tutorials are integrated into the lectures and the aim of the tutorial is to deepen the contents discussed in the lecture.

The course includes international hybrid workshops by lecturers of all partner countries on technologies and background information necessary to develop sustainable community-based projects. Topics include intercultural communication, PV training, CO2compensation, household biogas plants, clean cooking, biogas, social business; international student hybrid working groups developing CO2compensation projects for climate and SDGs tackling the needs of the local partner communities together with the partner NGOs; practical Service elements contributing to the success of the project for the partner community and to the climate action (including, e.g., training sessions in schools, fundraising events, activities in waste management, organic gardening, tree planting); and research and innovation opportunities to deepen the development and application of sustainable technologies and methodologies.

This course combines seminars and site visits to take students on a cultural, literary journey through the many layers of Berlin. The course takes a historical look at 1920s Berlin, the liberal republic and how the Fascist government came to be. It then goes on to post WW2, when it became a frontline of the Cold War. Students explore the fall of the Wall in 1989 and the birth of Berlin in a new era as a center of creativity. 

In this course, students gain insight into a variety of approaches to ensuring that children grow up healthy and with opportunities to become contributing members of society. The historical roots, current issues, and future challenges related to children’s well-being are addressed. Students gain diverse knowledge and form opinions on a broad spectrum of related topics, including family life, the influence of the turbulent 20th century on youth and education, regional and national differences in educational systems, preventive youth health care, public policy on social services and divorce support, parental leave, and day care provision. Students learn about alternative educational approaches, such as those developed by Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, Célestin Freinet, and A. S. Neill. Site visits to relevant museums and exhibitions deepens students’ theoretical learning. The course incorporates guest talks in order to foreground the place of family, schools and child development across societies and cultures.

This course explores how some of the myriad constructions and representations of sex and gender that emerged during the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), were performed in private, in public, and in the spaces where the two spheres intersected. Specifically, the course highlights how individuals and artists reacted to and expanded upon societal expectations concerning gender roles, during a period when Berlin became a global center of cultural innovation, artistic exploration, and scientific discovery. The stage and burgeoning film industry offer important documentation and a departure point to explore how German society grappled with the political implications of the First World War. In addition, both offer opportunities to explore how consumerism influenced the ways in which individuals chose to fashion their identities and the spaces around them.

This course examines different farm management and agribusiness management practices and approaches in the agricultural and horticultural sectors. Drawing from multidisciplinary perspectives, the course provides students with understanding of the key approaches, issues and themes relating to strategic management in agribusiness (theories, planning), organization theory (explanatory approaches, design principles), interorganizational coordination (cooperation, chain management), fundamentals of innovation and knowledge management, basics of information and knowledge management, and business ethics and corporate social responsibility.

This course consists of an introduction to the major authors and debates in the history of post-45 art. The seminar lays the basis for to further studies and is meant to familiarize students with a set of basic texts that have helped shape and transform our discipline since the mid-20th century. Students read classical and more recent texts by art historians, critics and theoreticians, such as, Claire Bishop, Benjamin Buchloh, T.J. Demos, and Rosalind Krauss, as well as discuss such central concepts as institutional critique, site-specificity, post-modernism, relational aesthetics, post-coloniality and the environmental turn.