State-international-public: European values and norms determining interdisciplinary university module (STIPENDIUM)

Theme 1.State level

1. Social relations and social conflicts.

Philosophical and sociological “conflict paradigm”. The concept of “conflict situation”. Social contradiction as a cause of social conflicts. Specificity, stages, structure and dynamics of social conflict. Functions of social conflict. Theatricalization and carnivalization of social conflict. The concept of “victim” in a conflict. Formation of an “image of the enemy” in a conflict. Techniques and technologies of social conflict management. Post-conflict syndrome. State legal conflicts. Ethno-territorial conflicts. Ethnographic conflicts. Socio-psychological conflicts. Global conflicts of today’s world.

2. Riskological potential of the EU members.
3. Institutionalization and institutional differentiation of political risks.

Political risk: conceptual analysis. Risk and uncertainty. Risk society: characteristic features. Political risk factors. Types of political risks. External and internal political risks. Political risk management.

4. Globalization, assimilation and the associated risks.

The contradictory nature of globalization. Globalization as a factor of socio-political risks. Socio-cultural dynamics in the conditions of globalization. Global trends in socio-cultural sphere. The impact of globalization processes on identity construction. Perspectives of small states and peoples in the context of globalization. Assimilation theories. European policy of multiculturalism. The crisis of European multiculturalism?

Theme 2. International coexistence.

1. Basic approaches to the regional political analysis.

Region as a level of political analysis. Structural approach in the study of a region. Main stages of regional political analysis. The phenomenon of regionalism: basic approaches of research. Regionalization: concepts, models. Regional political conflicts. The concept of “secession” and “irredenta”. Consortium as a strategy for resolving regional political conflicts. Decentralization as an important factor in effective public administration. Federalism and federation. Devolution models.

2. Modelling the «centre-periphery» relations: the main approaches.

The concept of “center-periphery”. The evolution of relationship between the center and the periphery. Structural-functional, socio-economic, innovative, managerial approaches to modelling “center-periphery” relations. Typology of peripheries. Function distribution in the center-periphery model.

3. Algorithm for creation of the region political portrait.

Components of a political portrait of the region. Socio-demographic characteristics of the region. Regional features of a political regime. Political institutions in a regional political situation. Subjects of regional policy. Regional elites. Regional participation and regional political process. Regional identities and political culture.

4. Specificity of regional political monitoring in the EU.

Basic principles and main directions of European regional development policy. Aims of contemporary European regional policy. Indicators for monitoring regional integration processes. Three-tier system of regional division – «nomenclature of territorial units for statistics» (NUTS).

Theme 3.Public welfare and the era threats

1. Demographic change. Migration.

The main causes and functions of migration. Migration classification. Relationship between migration and demographic processes. Demographic significance of migration. Migration as a factor in the transformation of social norms and values.

2. Evolving nature of work and reshapes in university education.

Stages of university development (vertical university, matrix university, modern university, university-technopolis). Basic principles of the European Quality Assurance System for Education. Transformation of University Education in the Knowledge Society. Challenges, threats and risks for universities. Future outlines of university education.

3. The labour market flux: threats and opportunities.
4. Skills gap, reskilling, upskilling.

The Precariat is a new class of the globalized world. New challenges in the labor market. Megatrends for the transformation of the labor market. Crisis manifestations in the social and labor sphere in the conditions of globalization. Self-employment threats. Technological unemployment. Labor market regulation. Social dialogue as a tool for regulating the labor market. Adult learning.

 Theme 4. ICT and trapped values

1. Technologies and privacy

Privacy in the conditions of “supervisory capitalism”. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). European and American approaches to privacy. Moral principles of personal data protection (harm prevention, information inequality, information discrimination, encroachment on human dignity). Information technology and privacy protection.

2. Internet communications as the basis of e-democracy and e-governance.

Components of e-democracy (e-citizens, media, e-commerce and online transactions). Advantages and disadvantages of e-democracy. Conceptual foundations of e-government. Global Trends in E-Governance Technologiesand Applications.

3. Cyber security

The concept of cybersecurity. Types of cyber security incidents. Threats and vulnerabilities to cyber security. Cybersecurity safeguards. The EU’s action on cybersecurity.

4. 4. Blockchain: opportunities and challenges

Blockchain technology: definition and characteristics. Blockchain in education. Blockchain technology and revolutionising the electoral system. Blockchain technology capabilities to implement The Paris Agreement (PA) under the Climate Convention and Sustainable Development Goals.