Welcome to European Political Sociology, a site of the Jean Monnet Chair in Sociology at Charles University Prague.
About
Jean Monnet Chair in European Political Sociology
The Jean Monnet Chair is funded by the European Commission, and held at the Institute of Sociological Studies,
Charles University in Prague. The focus of the Chair – Paul Blokker – is European Political Sociology and the key objectives are to highlight the importance of the European and transnational levels for contemporary analysis in sociology as well as to strengthen sociological research regarding Europe – in a comparative vein – and regarding EU integration in particular.
The Chair offers a set of innovative and topical courses in, or related to, a new and promising sub-field in sociology, the sociology of European Integration, including a course on European Cinema. The Jean Monnet Chair will further organize short, focused events on Teaching Europe and Debating Europe from the Fall of 2016 onwards, of interest to both students and professors, while additional international events are being planned in the coming years.
Activities
The JM Chair in European Political Sociology (Europos) offers a well—integrated and multifaceted course cluster in the Sociology of European Integration. This is new and promising sub-field in sociology,[1] which is highly relevant in the contemporary times of multiple crises and uncertainty reigning in European societies in general and on the EU-level in particular.
The Europos cluster offers introductory as well as specialized courses, attractive to local as well as international students from different disciplines (e.g. Sociology, Anthropology, Communications and Media, Economics and Finance, Public Policy and Administration, Law, Political Science, Humanities, Psychology, Geography). The emphasis is on European integration, human rights, constitutional politics, and the economy, and contention and protest. Also, an exciting new course in the Sociology of European Cinema is launched.
Europos organizes two events per semester: Teaching Europe and Debating Europe. It will further engage in research as well as the organization of international conferences.
[1]Cf. H.J. Trenz, C. Ruzza, C., & V. Guiraudon (eds) (2015). Europe’s Prolonged Crisis: The Making or the Unmaking of a Political Union. Palgrave Macmillan; Niilo Kauppi (ed.) (2014), A Political Sociology of Transnational Europe, ECPR Press.
Events
Summary
Events Jean Monnet Chair in European Political Sociology 2016-18
2018
Final Conference, 5th interim conference of the Political Sociology Research Network 32 of the European Sociological Association, Fragile Europe, Prague, 2 -3 November 2018. Convenors: Institute of Sociological Studies/Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University Prague & the Jean Monnet Chair in European Political Sociology.
Jean Monnet Series – Debating Europe. Zdeněk Kühn (Faculty of Law, Charles University), The decline of liberal constitutionalism in Central and Eastern Europe.17 May, 2018.
Jean Monnet Series – Teaching Europe. Alessandro Testa (Dept. of European Ethnology, University of Vienna), A short introduction to the anthropology of European identity/ies. 15 May, 2018.
2017
Jean Monnet Series – Debating Europe. Tanweer Ali (SUNY), Financialization and the Crisis in Europe, 13 December, 2017.
Jean Monnet Series – Debating Europe. Jan Komarek (LSE, UK), Why National Constitutional Courts Should Not Embrace EU Fundamental Rights. 11 April, 2017.
Jean Monnet Series – Debating Europe. Francis Chateauraynaud (EHESS), “Sociological pragmatism at the crossroads. Dealing with complexity and uncertainty in an era of multi-scale controversies”, 10 April, 2018.
Jean Monnet Series – Teaching Europe. Petr Agha (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Centre for Law and Public Affairs), The Politics of European Human Rights Culture, 11 May, 2017.
2016
Workshop “French pragmatism and the renewal of contemporary sociology”, organized by the Jean Monnet Chair in European Political Sociology/Institute of Sociological Studies (Faculty of Social Sciences), the Department of Historical Sociology (Faculty of Humanities), Charles University and the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES), 15-16 December, 2016.
Jean Monnet Series – Debating Europe. Prof. Christian Fleck (University of Graz), European public intellectuals during the campaign for the EU parliament, December 6, 2016.
Jean Monnet Series – Teaching Europe.Paul Blokker, Is Sociology Trapped in Methodological Nationalism?, 14 December, 2016.
Final event
The research network on European Political Sociology (RN32) of the European Sociological Association, in liaison with the Jean Monnet Chair in Political Sociology, held at the Institute of Sociological Studies, Charles University, announce an international event;, entitled Fragile Europe, which gathers scholars with political-sociological interests to discuss main challenges and developments in (European ) societies and politics.
The network’s Fifth Mid-Term Conference aims at continuing in-depth discussions on various major themes, such as populism; gender, feminism, and the conservative backlash; (transnational) social movements; and migration.
Keynote speakers at the conference will be Marta Bucholc (Käte Hamburger Kolleg „Law as Culture“, University of Bonn) and Andrea Peto, Dept. of Gender Studies, CEU, Budapest.
The final programme and further info can be found on the conference website.
Past events
Jean Monnet Debating Europe Series
“The decline of liberal constitutionalism in Central and Eastern Europe”
Zdeněk Kühn, Law Department, Charles University
Thursday 17 May, 2018 11.00-12.20am, Room J1031, Institute of Sociological Studies, Prague.
Jean Monnet Debating Europe Series
“Sociological pragmatism at the crossroads. Dealing with complexity and uncertainty in an era of multi-scale controversies”
Francis Chateauraynaud, director of research at EHESS (School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences), in Paris, founder and director of the Pragmatic and Reflexive Sociology Group
Organized in the context of the research project “Narrating Crisis”, coordinated by Simon Smith (Czech Science Foundation (16-20553S))
Jean Monnet Debating Europe Series
“Financialization and the crisis in Europe”
Tanweer Ali, Empire State College, State University of New York
Wednesday 13 December 2017, room 3015, Jinonice, Institute of Sociological Studies
With Tanweer Ali, lecturer at the Empire State College, State University of New York, and expert in finance, we will reflect on the future of Europe, the relation between financial capitalism and the on-going economic crisis, and, from a historical perspective, the recurrence of financial crises in the capitalist economy. The lecture on “Financialization and the crisis in Europe” is part of the Jean Monnet Series, Debating Europe, and is also held in the context of the course “Economic Sociology and European Capitalism“.
Jean Monnet Teaching Europe Series
Petr Agha, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Centre for Law and Public Affairs (CeLAPA)
“The Politics of European Human Rights Culture”
The lecture will engage with the recent headscarf case of the European Court of Justice as an example of the more general human rights world of the EU, and will discuss “qualified rights” and the relationship between human rights law and politics.
Thursday 11 May, 2017
Room J3015
11.00-12.20
Jean Monnet Debating Europe Series
Jan Komárek, Europe Institute, London School of Economics
‘Why National Constitutional Courts Should Not Embrace EU Fundamental Rights’
Tuesday 11 April, 2017, 16.30-18.20, Room J1037, Charles University, Jinonice
Workshop: FRENCH PRAGMATISM AND THE RENEWAL OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY
The 15th and 16th of December, a Workshop on the subject “French pragmatism and the renewal of contemporary sociology” will be organized by the Institute of Sociological Studies (Faculty of Social Sciences)/Jean Monnet Chair in European Political Sociology, the Department of Historical Sociology (Faculty of Humanities), Charles University and the French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES)
In the last two decades or so, a novel approach to sociology is increasingly used by sociologists and other scholars (e.g. historians, anthropologists, economists) in a range of research endeavours. The workshop will explore the 
fundamentals of this approach and the insights it has brought, and still brings, to contemporary sociological and interdisciplinary research. The upshot is to explore the rich potentialities of pragmatic sociology and to discuss its relevance and usage in Czech sociology. Prof. Laurent Thévenot will open the workshop with a lecture on the recent and current further developments in his work.
A workshop organized by:
Institute of Sociological Studies (Faculty of Social Sciences)
Department of Historical Sociology (Faculty of Humanities), Charles University
French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences (CEFRES)
Jean Monnet Debating Europe Series
December 6, 2016, 15.30-17.00, Jinonice
Lecture prof. Christian Fleck (University of Graz on “European public intellectuals during the campaign for the EU parliament”.
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International conference “Political, Legal and Economic Dimensions of Populism”
School of International Studies, University of Trento, 19-20 October, 2016
Organized by Manuel Anselmi, Paul Blokker, and Carlo Ruzza
In collaboration with:
Institute of Sociological Studies, Charles University in Prague,
Università di Perugia,
Associazione Italiana di Sociologia, Sezione Sociologia Politica
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European Political Sociology 