Contemporary Social Processes

The course is organised as a research seminar in which students improve their research skills in the study of contemporary and also recent and as yet unanalysed social phenomena and processes for which an appropriate conceptual apparatus should be developed. The topics, such as precarity, economic migration, social aspects and pedagogical challenges related to the Covid-19 pandemic and the anti-vaccination movement, or the shaping of political space in the election process and through polemics in social media, will be determined in consultation between the teacher and the students at the beginning of the semester according to their topicality. Special emphasis will be placed on aspects in which young people are interested and which are relevant to the teaching of sociology at secondary school. When a particular topic is introduced, the lecturer gives an overview lecture on its historical genesis and social contextualization, as well as on previous research findings. He presents literature selections and methodological instructions for collecting and analyzing of empirical material (media articles, social media posts, public statements, interviews, mass events, statistical data). The participants then collect study material and discuss it in seminars. At the end, students write individual seminar papers or group project reports.