300459 Global regions: Critical approaches (S) (SoSe 2026)

What defines a region? Is it about geography, shared history or culture? Or perhaps, continuous cooperation? Starting with these questions, the course will focus on the social, political and discursive construction of regions and sub-regions, power dynamics in defining regions and their ‘borders’, as well as viewing certain regions as political, social, or security projects. We will also discuss how states and international organizations approach specific regions in their policy planning and implementation; and how cooperation and competition between regions happen in today’s interconnected world.

The students will be offered a theoretical basis for analyzing and discussing the topic, including approaches such as critical geopolitics, postcolonial and decolonial studies (including the critique of Eurocentrism), feminism, critical political economy and critical security studies.

Empirical illustrations and cases will include:
- the construction and contestation of specific regions/sub-regions of the Global South and Global East;
- regional integration notions such as the ‘European project’ or Pan-Africanism;
- issues of security, borders, and migration in the context of regional construction.