Annotation
Title: Youth as a catalyst of social change Content: Through human history, social protest have been a major feature of political life. This course aims to enable students to acquire basic knowledge about youth movements around the world. However, the major focus will be on selected youth movements in USA, Great Britain and East Europe. The course will introduce basic approaches to youth movements, examining the ways in which changing sociocultural and political conditions are interwoven with issues related to youth development and protest. Theoretical and historical materials will be examined during course. Themes:
1. Theoretical and historical background post-war generation, international situation – sociocultural, political and economic situation after WW2, individual vs society – person as a unique individual vs as a social being, understanding of self
2. Youth definition, teenager as terminus technicus, quest for identity, psychological development, roles in the society
3. Communities and groups definition of groups/communities, different types, their roles, similarity vs differences
4. Youth and subcultures Theoretical background, subculture vs counter culture, music as connecting element
5. Youth in Great Britain in the 60´s sociocultural, political and economic background, the Beatles/ Rolling Stones phenomena, subcultures like Mods, Rockers, Teddy Boys, Skins, …
6. The American Youth sociocultural, political and economic background, anti-war movement (Vietnam), Hippies, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, consciousness as social protest
7. Youth movements in Kádár´s Hungary sociocultural, political and economic background, youth movements of the 60/70´s, gangs and hooligans
8. Czechoslovakia in the 60´s constitution 1960, liberalization, cultural and reform movement, Prague spring, subcultures – “Máničky”
9. Czechoslovakia during Normalization Warsaw Pact invasion, Jan Palach, Gustav Husák, normalization – policy, social life, changes, censorship
10. The Czechoslovak underground culture definition, communities, activities, underground vs State police, differences – underground vs dissent
11. Opposition in Slovakia differences and similarities, underground? Slovak dissent
12. Charta 77 Helsinki Final Act and its significance, formations of opposition, VONS, Václav Havel
13. Youth movements of the
21. Century against child labour, dictatorship, for human rights, feminism, gender equality, … Form: seminar Credits: 5 Grading: Performance in class activities (30%) – students are expected to participate in class activities. They will be also invited to share their thoughts/ questions/opinions. Individual paper (30%) - students need to select a topic on a given list. Details about the paper options will be explain in depth in class. They need to write a short paper to explicate their own research of the chosen topic. Test (40%) – The test aim to assess student´s abilities to recall major concepts and theories introduces in the course. Reading list: ADORNO, Theodor W. Introduction to the Sociology of Music. New York: Seabury Press,
1976. COHEN, Anthony P. The symbolic construction of community. New York: Routledge,
2001. COHEN, Anthony P. Rethinking the Youth Question. Durham: Duke University Press,
1999. GEERTZ, C. Local knowledge: further essay in interpretive anthropology. New York: Bacis Books,
1983. HEBDIGE, Dick. Subculture: The meaning of style. London: Routledge,
1979. HORVÁTH, Sándor. Patchwork identities and Folk Devils: Youth subcultures and Gangs in Socialist Hungary. In Social History, vol. 34, no. 2, 2009, pp.163-183. KAPLAN, Karel: The Overcomming of the Régime Crisis after Stalin’s Death in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary. Köln : Index,
1986. POSPÍŠIL, Filip. Youth cultures and the disciplining of Czechoslovak youth in the 1960s, in Social History Vol
37., No.4, 2012, p. 477-500. RAMET, Sabrina Petra(ed.). Rocking the State: Rock Music and politics in Eastern Europe and Russia. Boulder: Westview Press,
1994. RISCH, William Jay. Soviet “Flower Children”. Hippies and the Youth Counter-culture in 1970s L´viv, p. 55-584. ROSZAK, Theodore. The making of counter culture. University of California,
1969. RYBACK, Timothy W. Rock around the Bloc: A history of rock Music in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. New York: Oxford University Press,
1990. SIEGFRIED, D. Between Marx and Coca-cola. Youth culture in changing European societies 1960-1980. New York: Berghahn,
2005. SKILLING, Harry Gordon: Charter 77 and human rights in Czechoslovakia. London : G. Allen and Unwin,
1981. TURINO, T. Music as social life. The politics of participation. Chicago: Chicago University Press,
2008.