UCL - Government and Society : Questions for Reflection I

[HIST2381]

[60h] 12 credits

This two-yearly course is taught in 2007-2008, 2009-2010,...

Teacher(s): Claude Bruneel, Vincent Dujardin, Michel Dumoulin, Christophe Flament, Paul Servais, Laurence Van Ypersele, Jean-Marie Yante(coord.)

Language: French

Level: Second

Aims
Main themes
Content and teaching methods

Aims

Instruction will concentrate on students' choosing historical periods as " case studies ", to be examined in depth based on the theme " Government and Society " (this examination may be based on published or unpublished work). [a. Ancient Greece [3 cr.] ; b. Middle Ages I [3 cr.] ; c. Modern History I [3 cr.] ; d. The contemporary period I [3 cr.] These thematic areas are to be examined by means of current tendencies in historiography, the identification of problematics and the use of well-known or experimental techniques.

Main themes

This course is designed to allow students to make their own contributions, including lectures and active participation in seminar discussions.

Content and teaching methods

The prosographic study will be a discussion thread to discover and characterize the world of the high administration of the Austrian Netherlands, in the private life and the professional career. So, we will define some "profiles", as the servant with modest origins and many merits or as the persons for whom the birth is the most important. We will observe the case of the presence of some foreigners in this "belgian" high administration. Through these examples, we can observe strategies of career and the existence of a nominations policy defined by Vienna. In consideration of that, it will be important to measure the impact of various factors and their evolution in the 18th century, as nepotism, protections, sales of the offices and the "médianate".