The core goal of the set of project activities is to invite scholars to sociological rethinking of a concept of the wide Europe (from Gibraltar to Ural) via debates about visions and divisions of contemporary European society. The recent processes of EU enlargement challenged and modified the concept of Europe by including East-European post-communist space. The concept of Europe is also debated by the attitudes towards the possibilities of the EU integration for borderland post-communist countries like Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Russia, Georgia. This development challenges the basic concepts of sociology as a science studying complexity of society traditionally understood in terms of nation-state. Understanding post-communist countries of Europe as somewhat different but nevertheless European’ still has not become a common vision for “the mature” member states of the EU and social sciences reflecting that context. The project is aimed at developing such a vision via introducing comparative sociological study and debates between Senior and Junior scholars involved in research and teaching Sociology in Universities of wide’ Europe. This process will also require revising the basic undergraduate university Curriculum in Sociology and complementing it with the abovementioned approaches, research findings, relevant publications, reflective analytics, etc., that is an anticipated outcome of the proposed project.
In order to create advanced development of the subject-based teaching and learning for the undergraduate university Curriculum enhancement, the project is based on the following PRINCIPLES:
* Comparative approach to develop analytical & critical thinking – modifying courses by including wider comparative datasets and contexts; introducing courses on the analysis of comparative research findings to the undergraduate university curriculum; enriching the courses with new comparative visions to European societies;
* Research-based teaching – structuring teaching process as a research work done by participants on the course content; inclusion of the recent research findings and the related debates into teaching agenda;
* Faculty professional development – workshops for junior faculty skills training, development of the laboratory of ongoing comparative research” to attract the best scholars and participants to exchange experiences for further syllabi improvement; professional master-class training on how to teach difficult and debatable issues”.
MAIN PROJECT ACTIVITIES Within the frame of this project we intend to organize advanced learning and research environment for the selected group of the Junior Faculty from post-soviet European countries through:
* Discussions and debates on the challenges for new European visions and divisions, based on presentations by invited scholars (resource faculty) and analysis of comparative research findings;
* Intensive work at the workshops on developing syllabi for new courses and improving the basic courses within the current university undergraduate Curriculum;
* Implementation of the active teaching philosophy and methods,
* Inclusion into the work with databases of recent and ongoing comparative cross-national research projects.
* Development of new generation teaching & learning sources (web-base and published) handbook Sociology of Wide Europe (Sociology of New Eastern Europe)
The proposed project goals, objectives and expected outcomes are:
& To conceptualize the core framework for University the BA Curriculum in Sociology with the academic focus on European societies within the framework of globalization, localization, and regionalization of societal transformations;
& To develop the BA Curriculum based on the above-mentioned ideas aimed at the acquirement of the skills relevant for the description and explanation of the processes and events in the European societies within the context of the past and present of the social European space and leading trends of its changes and developments;
& To enhance the interdisciplinary approach into teaching sociology that supplies fundamental sociological knowledge with regard to social history and political science, including political economy, as well as comparative methodology, both quantitative and qualitative;
& to input the core findings of the recent empirical-based international comparative research into the university undergraduate Curriculum via the development and enhancement of the courses provided by the Junior faculty in their home Universities;
& to improve the teaching skills of the Junior faculty in post-communist Universities by implementing the comparative approach to the development of students’ analytical and critical thinking, to train them within the philosophy of the research-based teaching;
& to construct and translate a broader and more complete picture of the social complexity of wide Europe within the university undergraduate Curriculum in Sociology aimed at raising professional awareness with post-graduate students, their competitiveness at the European level of sociology development.
& To prepare participants to use available databases of comparative sociological research on Europe for their qualification papers (and following MA studies) through the courses based on debates about the research findings, recent discussions on comparative research projects by the target groups in their Universities.
Such approaches gradually enhance the current university undergraduate Curriculum in Post-Communist societies with more comprehensive visions of European societies displacing “methodological nationalism” in teaching sociology, enrich the content of the basic sociological courses with the recent European divisions study and comparative research findings.
In a long run, such developments may foster opening of a new specialization for the BA Program in Sociology of Europe that would include broader and more complete visions of social complexity of wide Europe.
