Area Stud­ies 2 - Ger­man: Mar­kets, in­sti­tu­tions and glob­al­iz­a­tion pro­cesses

Course content

The second semester of Area Studies in German is built on two dimensions: Content and Language

The content dimension of the course builds on the themes presented in German 1 and focuses on markets, institutions and globalisation processes in the German speaking countries with a particular view to modern Germany.The topics, concepts and perspectives help students develop an understanding of different area specific viewpoints and narratives that enhance their cultural sensitivity and their understanding of the interplay between globalisation, international relations and developments specific to the German speaking countries.

Topics dealt with during the course include:  Economic and political integration, trade, the relationship between economic institutions and actors, political and socioeconomic reforms and associated cultural manifestations. Successive views backward in history provides the students with a background for understanding and analysing present values, practices and developments in the German speaking countries and their role in international relations.

The language dimension aims at improving the students’ grammar skills, pronunciation and fluency as well as their listening and comprehension skills. Emphasis is also placed on learning and exercising phrases needed in order to make presentations and participate actively in class discussions.

Integration

Building on the historical, geographical, political and cultural introduction to the German speaking countries of the first semester, the course seeks to illustrate and contextualise notions and debates that the student is familiar with from globalisation studies by means of examples from the German speaking countries.

The course integrates with the course in Globalisation and Sustainability by focussing on how globalisation processes and sustainability issues affect the economic, industrial and social development in the German-speaking countries. Special attention is paid to how these issues figure in the different political discourses in the German-speaking countries and how the different countries try to cope with issues of globalisation and sustainability in view of their different identities and historical background.

Nordic nine

In the course the students learn to detect patterns in empirical data and to reflect on different ways of addressing identical issues and topics linguistically in different cultures. They learn new ways to achieve communicative goals with linguistic knowledge and to reflect on their own tacit assumptions about countries and cultures to interact professionally with members of foreign cultures and to create and maintain networks across borders and cultures.