LFU:online

Our interest for the particular will address questions about how the Europe of diversity really functions on the level of cultural praxis. Questions will be raised about the effects of this inner europeanization on the external borders of the European Union.

Luxembourg, with its geographical situation in the heart of Europe, is often referred to as a model for success: high economic performance, a mediator in european issues, a long immigration history, a cosmopolitan, at least trilingual population, a magnet for hundreds of thousands of border commuters, a land that has no xenophobic parties. The transnational interconnectedness in the greater region is seen as exemplary in Europe.

We shall investigate the reasons of these developments on a field trip to Luxembourg and the border region in Germany, France and Belgium. We will critically analyse the images mentioned above and discover ambivalences, contradictions, subtle distinctions and dynamics. One focus will be on the language situation and on social inequality within this society. The cultural praxis is in the centre of our interests. Which mecahnisms of exclusion, which processes of appropriation and practices of resistance occur in urban and suburban areas?

We will be alert about similarities and differences in respect to the Tyrol/ South Tyrol/ Trentino region (in respect to an upcoming seminar in winter term 2014/15).

Continuous assessment (based on regular written and/or oral contribution by participants).

Visits, perceptions walks, dialogue with experts, explorations of the border and the border area, conversations, thick descriptions

Course examination according to § 7, statute section on "study-law regulations"

Will be discussed in the first lesson.

Compulsory preliminary briefing and debriefing