Civil Society in post-Communist Ukraine and pre-Communist Hong Kong 3620-LIC3-WMJA-CS

This lecture-based course for students of area studies compares civil society in post-communist Ukraine and pre-communist Hong Kong. That is precisely what the title suggests. But together we have the possibility for a deeper agenda.

What does it mean to have an area –whether Eastern Europe or East Asia—as the focus of our study? How does that knowledge enable comparison, sharpen understanding? How does our interdisciplinary work prepare us to understand our world in real time? What role if any are we ready to play in the lives of others? These are fundamental questions we will address together as we privilege the concept of civil society for investigation.

Civil society speaks to lofty expectations and everyday practices. It involves governments orchestrating systems and professionals working in offices as well as amateurs going about their business. It acts as a building block for democracy and a bulwark against tyranny; yet it is also a fragile commitment between strangers. It’s considered the world over and yet it emerges from particular cultures and sometimes not at all.

To appreciate such a slippery concept, we will set a creative agenda from the first day of class. Taking as inspiration historian Timothy Snyder’s graphic work, On Tyranny, we will produce a handbook On Civil Society informed by our readings and illustrated by our world. That means we will need to consider not only course materials written by economists and philosophers, political scientists and novelists, but news stories, interviews, field trips and even artifacts we collect including photographs, postcards, documents and objects. With each step we take to appreciate civil society, we will appreciate what we have learned from countless teachers.