SoSe 2024

The seminar will look at the agrifood system through the lens of coffee from a feminist and social science perspective and deals with different dimensions of coffee production and consumption – the economic, ecological and socio-cultural.

Coffee production is mostly concentrated in the Global South and coffee has become one of the largest agricultural commodities. The production of coffee is highly embedded in colonial power relations: during the colonial period local food crops have for example been replaced in favor of the cash crop of coffee. However, coffee cultivation is also highly contested so that female farmers in Kenya, for example, resisted structural adjustment in the 1990s and refused to produce coffee by uprooting the coffee trees. Furthermore, many of the coffee-producing areas are affected by the climate crisis and the livelihoods of farmers are already impacted.  

At the same time, coffee consumption holds an important socio-cultural significance and plays a central role in consumers' food and drink habits, especially in Europe. Moreover, coffee shops and cafes often signal change in a region or city and are seen as drivers of gentrification processes. The consumption of specialty coffee and the use of certain equipment, roasting and brewing techniques can be linked to practices of class and social distinction.

The subject of coffee will provide an example to analyze gender relations in their intersection with other categories of social inequalities. We will, for example, discuss: How is the female coffee farmer constructed in coffee marketing? What is the potential of women cooperatives, can they decrease gender inequalities? How is gender produced and reproduced through coffee consumption in private and public spheres?

Brownhill, Leigh S.; Kaara, Wahu M., & Turner, Terisa E. (1997): Gender relations and sustainable agriculture: rural women's resistance to structural adjustment in Kenya. Canadian Woman Studies/les cahiers de la femme.

Kinyanjui, Mary Njeri (2015): Coffee Time. Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon.

Limburg, Aubrey (2013): Large Americano, Extra Masculine: How People Do Gender at The Coffee House. Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography, 3. Jg., Nr. 2, S. 1-11.

Stolcke, Verena; Chapman, Mark D. (1988): Coffee Planters Workers and Wives: Class Conflict and Gender Relations on Sao Paulo Coffee Plantations. Springer.

The content of this course is expanded by the course “Feminist Political Ecology and Ecofeminism: Theoretical debates and political strategies” (Wednesday, 4-6 pm) by Christine Bauhardt. However, students are free to take just one of the two courses.

Statistische Analysemethoden und theoretische Ansätze der Gender bzw. Queer Studies scheinen zunächst im unvereinbaren Gegensatz zueinander zu stehen. Wir setzen uns damit auseinander, wie diese Kluft teilweise überwunden werden kann. Dies ist ein Methodenkurs, was bedeutet, dass der Schwerpunkt auf dem Erlernen der Grundlagen der Statistik liegt, sowie auf dem Umgang mit dem Analyseprogramm SPSS. Vorkenntnisse sind hilfreich, aber nicht zwingend notwendig. Ausreichende Englischkenntnisse zum Lesen und Verstehen der überwiegend englischsprachigen Literatur wird vorausgesetzt. 

Who is represented in survey data and statistics and who´s struggles and needs are thereby acknowledged? The invisibility of people and perspectives in data is a problem. While the categorization of dimensions of social position in quantitative research is fraught with challenges, a sensitive and inclusive data collection through quantitative survey methodologies can be useful under certain conditions to address this knowledge gap. These conditions will be elaborated in this seminar. When is it important to collect socio demographic data in surveys and how can this be done sensitively? When is it superfluous? As a part of this evaluation, the role and position of the researcher, as well as their relation with the research objective will be reflected, critically. Possibilities to capture different dimensions of social positions will be weighed. Students will put the material into practice by developing an own questionnaire.

Im Alltag begegnet man dem Begriff der Gerechtigkeit überall: Klimagerechtigkeit, soziale Gerechtigkeit oder Geschlechtergerechtigkeit sind nur einige Beispiele. Doch so präsent der Begriff der Gerechtigkeit auch sein mag, so unklar ist zumeist seine Bedeutung. Was ist Gerechtigkeit eigentlich? Und was ist Ungerechtigkeit? In welchem Verhältnis steht Gerechtigkeit zu Konzepten, wie Freiheit, Solidarität und Verantwortung? Wen schließen verschiedene Gerechtigkeitstheorien ein und wer bleibt außen vor? Kann Gerechtigkeit universell sein? Muss sie stets im Konkreten verankert sein? Oder kann es Gerechtigkeit gar nie geben? Im Seminar wollen wir den Begriff der Gerechtigkeit aus feministischen Perspektiven kritisch beleuchten und diskutieren, ob der Begriff trotz alledem praktisch nutzbar gemacht werden kann. Ein Schwerpunkt des Seminars liegt dabei auf dem Gerechtigkeitsbegriff im Kontext von Gewalterfahrungen.

This course will investigate the ways in which the policing of gender and sexuality intersected with the policing of (ethno) national boundaries in Central-Eastern Europe, with a focus on the state-socialist period (1945-1990) but including the interwar period and the post socialist period as contextual bookends. At the same time, it will explore the ways in which the socialist ideologies of gender equality and internationalism were actually (and selectively) implemented in these countries, the effect this had on women and men from both ethnic majority and minority populations in these countries. Finally, it takes a transnational approach, looking at the role of gender and sexuality in positioning Central Eastern Europe within the (white) West, and in the West’s perception and ‘othering’ of the region.