College for Advanced Studies in Social Theory

The College for Advanced Studies in Social Theory is the second oldest college of its type at the Corvinus University of Budapest

Corvinus University of Budapest

The Corvinus University of Budapest is one of the most prestigious Hungarian universities located in Budapest, Hungary. The university offers degrees in multiple disciplines, but it is characterised by its programmes in economics and management. -History:...

as well as in Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

History

TEK is the second oldest, still operating, college in Hungary. It was founded in 1981 by young researchers and students. Its orientation can be divided into two parts: vocational work and community life. The first is well documented, the latter is somewhat more distorted, due to the effects of collective memory

Collective memory

Collective memory refers to the shared pool of information held in the memories of two or more members of a group, and was coined by the philosopher and sociologist Maurice Halbwachs. Collective memory can be shared, passed on and constructed by groups both small and large...

1981–present

TEK seceded from the first established college in Hungary, the Rajk László College for Advanced Studies.
However in the beginning - before the fall of the iron curtain - the College's main topic was the reinterpretation of Marx's ouvre, since liberal and alternative thinking was only possible if it was related to Marxist studies. With the fall of the iron curtain, this coercion disappeared, and since the College's main profile was its diversity and openness to new ideas, philosophies and theories, the College's profile now freely and rapidly ramified into diverse - and pioneering among the Hungarian colleges at that time - topics: environmentalism

Environmentalism

Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...

, sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

, postmodernism

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...

, anarchism

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

, postmarxism, sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...

, phenomenology, post-structuralism

Post-structuralism

Post-structuralism is a label formulated by American academics to denote the heterogeneous works of a series of French intellectuals who came to international prominence in the 1960s and '70s...

, Buddhist economics

Buddhist economics

Buddhist Economics is a spiritual approach to Economics. It examines the psychology of the human mind and the anxiety,aspirations and emotions that direct economic activity. Its understanding aims to clear the confusion between what is truly harmful and beneficial in Economics and ultimately tries...

, feminism

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

, sociology of minorities

Minority group

A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...

, queer studies

Queer studies

Queer studies is the critical theory based study of issues relating to sexual orientation and gender identity usually focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people and cultures. Universities have also labeled this area of analysis Sexual Diversity Studies, Sexualities...

, postcolonialism

Postcolonialism

Post-colonialism is a specifically post-modern intellectual discourse that consists of reactions to, and analysis of, the cultural legacy of colonialism...

, network theory

Network theory

Network theory is an area of computer science and network science and part of graph theory. It has application in many disciplines including statistical physics, particle physics, computer science, biology, economics, operations research, and sociology...

. The College also dealt with the topic of squatting

Squatting

Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....

, the sociological causes of poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

and since the establishment the farmost detailed analysis of critical theory

Critical theory

Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...

/Frankfurt school

Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...

among other colleges.

Criticism

TEK is providing a critical approach to the economical that Corvinus University has in its educational schedule theories – among others, focusing on the social inequalities human resources

Human resources

Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who make up the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations...

, structuralism

Structuralism

Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...

, neoliberalism

Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...

, functionalism, corporatism

Corporatism

Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...

inherently bares -.
TEK is also involved in highly regarded green activism, such as critical mass

Critical mass

A critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties A critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The...

, gay pride

Gay pride

LGBT pride or gay pride is the concept that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people should be proud of their sexual orientation and gender identity...

, many flashmob

FlashMob

FlashMob is a band formed in Nashville, Tennessee featuring Meghan Kabir. The band signed a record deal with Warner Brothers in spring 2010....

s, that are held in support of promoting a livable environment. Among the members of TEK are also permanent supporters of the anti-g8

The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for the governments of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1997, the group added Russia, thus becoming the G8...

anti-g20 demonstrations.

Commune

The TEK started a lifestyle experiment, by establishing - again firstly - the habit of an annual commune

Commune (intentional community)

A commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become...

, in which the members apply voluntarily. These communes give the participants the opportunity to experience such a lifestyle that is hard to experience among European capitalist societies. In these communities the members share all goods, live together in one place creating a highly tied community of a few.

Aims

TEK’s main aim is a critical approach to the topics taught in Corvinus University.
TEK is more of a theoretical college, putting theoretical approaches to the questions of the society in front of bare statistical analysis, processing of data.
However members of TEK – individually - are highly involved in diverse fields of practice – e.g. organizing conferences on behalf of the homeless, many voluntary work promoting the reintegration of gypsies into the labour market, helping the educational development of those from less developed areas -.

Tutorials

The base of the vocational work in TEK are the annual or semi-annual Tutorials. The topics of these Tutorials are given by the members of the College, which Tutorials are to be held by the tutors after compiling a schedule. The participants analyse, discuss the literature together with the tutor. As a conclusion, at the end of every tutorial, the participants are to hand in an essay of one of the topics that were discussed during the Tutorial.
The main frame for the Tutorials are based on 5 main fields: political economy

Political economy

Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...

, economics of globalization

Globalization

Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...

, Frankfurt School, green and ethical

Justice (economics)

Justice in economics is a subcategory of welfare economics with models frequently representing the ethical-social requirements of a given theory. That theory may or may not elicit acceptance...

economics, postmodern sociology.
Every fresher has to participate in the Ground Tutorial, which provides a brief insight to the work and schedule of all five fields.

Related works

Fordulat (meaning “facing” or “twist”) is the official periodical of the College, dealing with many critical and however yet not mainstream, but pioneering topics.

Conferences

Among many others, Claus Offe

Claus Offe

Professor Claus Offe is a political sociologist of Marxist orientation. Once a student of Jürgen Habermas, the left-leaning German academic is counted among the second generation Frankfurt School...

, one of the leading political sociologists and of the second generation Frankfurt School attended one of the conferences held by the College.

External links

official website – in Hungarian
Corvinus University of Budapest - in English
official periodical – in Hungarian

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