The point of departure in this dissertation is the situation in the Marzahn-Hellersdorf region of East-Berlin, where, 17 years after the political turnaround, only three new Christian communities have established themselves., However it is, known that there have been many attempts at church planting during these years. In this district there seems to be a high percentage of people who are resistant towards western theology or ecclesiology respectively. That is why the focus of the dissertation is on those people who live in an a-religious context surrounded by post-socialistic influences. Social scientific approaches and methods have been integrated and utilised as part of this practical-theological research project. The benefit of this was the developing of aspects of a practical-theological perspective that could be used for a specific ecclesiology with special reference to church planting. Ultimately, three hypotheses have been developed. The implications of these hypotheses could serve as essential material for prospective church planting efforts in the area. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. Missiology

The presented dissertation focuses on the large-scale privatization in Czechoslovakia in the early 1990's, on how it was pushed through and why. It analyses the political conflicts over its eventual form and means of realization, and reconstructs the contemporary expectations concerning the future development. It also pays attention to the roots of the 1990's conflicts in the relevant economic disputes of the previous decades. The dissertation identifies an establishment of a new type of liberal political language as a key moment for the implementation of a large-scale privatization. For the new political language, which can be labelled as "market without adjectives" (or "attributes"), the privatization was a flagship policy and it encompassed its key ideas. The language of market without adjectives was defined in a strong opposition to the principles of the so-called "economic democracy", which had been popular among the members of the Czechoslovak dissent, the numerous supporters of workers' self- governing bodies and some economic experts. The attempts to implement the principles of market without adjectives occurred during several political conflicts the dissertation tries to analyse. The delimitation of space for democratic decision making was one of them, with the liberal economists arguing...

Boom of the farmers' markets in 2010 represented a brand new phenomenon in the so far rather calm development of the Czech alternative food networks (AFNs). Unprecedented was the extent of political support at the local and state level as well as the interest of media and consumers. My PhD project originates in the desire to understand this phenomenon. I realized qualitative research of practice and discourse of the farmers' markets in the territory of Prague metropolitan area (PMA) during the years 2011 and 2012. The main research methods included interviews with organizers, observation at the markets, and the content analysis of the mass media. In the course of the research it became obvious that the current academic discourse, rooted primarily in the Anglo-American context, cannot be applied to the Czech reality. Also, the specific features of the farmers' markets in the PMA could only partially be explained by the differences between the Czech post-socialist context and "the West". An interpretation of the boom of farmers' markets in the PMA, consistent with the results of my research, was only enabled by an innovative approach which combines the concept of the travelling theory, postcolonial sensitivity to the mutual relations between source and target contexts, and the findings of the studies...

Post-socialist states are often linked to low political participation and weak civil society. Simultaneously, there is a visible rise in the phenomenon of urban movements. They serve not only as a platform for mobilization of citizens but also as a platform that builds a bridge between politics and society. Therefore, there is a need to study this phenomenon as an intriguing opportunity for research into the relationship between the civil and political sphere on a local level. The goal of this thesis is to show how city activists look at the civil and political spheres in comparison to the definition offered by theoretical conceptualizations. Research has demonstrated a transition in spheres, where activities are indicated as nonpolitical by activists. These findings are not supported by the presented theory which considers them political, and therefore, this study suggests that the boundaries of the spheres are shifted. Moreover, activists constantly engage in both spheres and therefore enter local politics through their activity. They prefer conventional methods to political actions, which they are not estranged to, but they do not frame them as political.

Die Studie „Restrukturierung nationaler Institutionen: Demokratisierung und Entwicklung in Laos“ untersucht die Auswirkungen von Normensetzung in der internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit, wie „Sustainable Development Goals“ (SDGs), auf Institutionen und Entwicklungspolitik in Laos. Untersucht wird wie die internationalen Entwicklungsnormen die Macht der laotischen Regierung sowie ihre Fähigkeit, Ziele in der Entwicklungspolitik erfolgreich umzusetzen, beeinflussen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen erstens, dass die Umsetzung der SDGs in Laos durch die Zusammenarbeit von internationalen Entwicklungspartnern und der laotischen Regierung in vier verschiedene Dimensionen eingeteilt wird: Wirtschaftliche Entwicklung, ökologische Nachhaltigkeit, soziale Inklusion und „good governance“. Alle haben dazu beigetragen, Institutionen und Entwicklungspolitik in Laos internationalen Standards anzugleichen. Gleichwohl ist es den internationalen Entwicklungspartnern unmöglich, die politische Macht der Partei als Regierung einzuschränken, indem sie die SDGs zur Verbreitung einer eigenen politischen Agenda nutzen. Zweitens: die Partei kann ihre Macht in der Innenpolitik und ihre Kontrolle über die Gesellschaft aufrecht zu erhalten. Diese umfassen Ideologien, die eine Mischung aus marxistisch-leninistischen und nationalistischen Elementen darstellen, die Betonung von Erfolgen in der Entwicklung des Landes sowie die Unterdrückung des revolutionären Potenzials. Dies führt zu einer Konservierung der politischen Struktur, in der sich die Macht der Partei in einer Institution manifestiert. Diese wird durch Parteimitgliedschaft, Regierung, Nationalversammlung und Volksgerichtshof konstituiert - ohne Beteiligung der Bürger. Drittens: trotz der Bemühungen der internationalen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit, die Kapazitäten des Staats im Bereich der Entwicklungspolitik auszubauen, dieser noch Schwierigkeiten in Bezug auf Finanzverwaltung, Personalwesen und institutionelle Leistungsfähigkeit aufweist. / The research titled “Restructuring Domestic Institutions: Democratization and Development in Laos” aims to analyze how international development norms, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), have shaped Laos’ domestic institutions and development policy. It also aims to investigate the influence of international development norms on Lao state power, as well as its capacity to achieve development goals. The research results show that: First, the development partners support the SDGs in Laos through international development assistance to the Lao government in economic development, environmental sustainability, social inclusion and good governance, all of which have helped shape Lao domestic institutions and development policy to meet international standards. However, the development partners cannot curtail the political power of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (the Party) or the Lao government in manipulating the SDGs to serve a political purpose. Second, the Party is able to maintain its power in domestic politics and control over Lao society. Second, the Party is able to maintain its power in domestic politics and control over Lao society. These include blending Marxist-Leninist and national ideologies, highlighting development achievements and suppressing the revolutionary potential. Therefore, the political structure in Laos retains the Party’s power in an institution overlapping between the Party member, the Lao government, the National Assembly and the People’s Court without the citizen’s participation. Third, even though the development partners seek to enhance the Lao state’s capacity to achieve the development goals, the Lao government has encountered difficulties in financial management, human resources, and institutional capacities.

Die Ethnographie basiert auf der Annahme, dass Kunstakteur_innen in Umbruchszeiten wesentliches Potenzial freisetzen können, um gesellschaftliche Prozesse mitzugestalten. Indem sie künstlerische und soziale Entwürfe formulieren, sind sie am Entwickeln von Strukturen und Debatten beteiligt. An Hand zweier Initiativen in Rumänien, der Künstlerinnengruppe h.arta und dem Kunstprojekt The KNOT, untersucht die Arbeit, wie diese Räume und Öffentlichkeiten herstellen. Dazu wird nach den Verständnissen der Akteur_innen von Öffentlichkeiten-Schaffen als politischem Handeln gefragt und nach ihren künstlerischen Praktiken und Strategien. Des Weiteren wird erörtert, inwiefern ihre Erfahrungen mit Transformation und prekären Bedingungen dabei von Bedeutung sind und welche Narrative hinsichtlich symbolischer Zuschreibungen ehemals sozialistischer Kontexte sichtbar werden. Die Arbeit verortet sich in der politischen Anthropologie. Sie verknüpft die Forschungsfelder „Kunst als soziales/politisches Handlungsfeld“ und „Transformation/Europäisierung“ und untersucht sie als eine „Formation des Politischen“ (Adam/Vonderau 2014). Dazu macht sie ein plurales Öffentlichkeitskonzept sowie feministische Perspektiven auf das Kunstfeld stark. Mit einem post-Kalter-Krieg-Ansatz erörtert sie zudem die Verflechtungen postsozialistischer und postkolonialer Prozesse. Abschließend werden die Praxen der Kunstakteur_innen aus einer dezentrierenden Perspektive auf Europäisierung analysiert. Dazu folgt die Arbeit Ansätzen, Europa von seinen „Rändern“ her zu denken und es somit zu dezentrieren und bezieht diese auf das lokale Kunstproduzieren im europäischen Kontext. Es wird gezeigt, wie die rumänischen Kunstakteur_innen, exemplarisch für die „Ränder“ (EU)Europas, aus ihrer oft prekären Situation heraus Räume der Selbstermächtigung schaffen. Diese sind in sich brüchig tragen jedoch zur Imagination und Dezentrierung eines europäischen Kunstfeldes bei und zeigen Alternativen zum neoliberalen EU-Europa auf. / The ethnography is based on the assumption that artists can unleash a substantial potential to contribute to social processes in times of upheaval. By formulating artistic and social conceptions, they participate in the development of structures and debates. This dissertation investigates how two Romanian initiatives, the artist group h.arta and the art project The KNOT, create publics and spaces respectively public space. It portrays the artists’ understandings of “creation of public as a political act” and analyzes their practices and strategies. Further, it examines the significance of the artists’ personal experiences with transformation and precarious conditions, and analyzes the narratives governing the ascription of symbolism to formerly socialist contexts. The dissertation is located in the field of political anthropology. It combines the research areas “Art as a Social/Political Field of Action” and “Transformation/Europeanization”, and investigates them as a “Formation of the Political” (Adam/Vonderau 2014). It thereby advocates a concept of plural publicities and feminist perspectives on art. Moreover, it explores the entanglement of post-socialist and postcolonial processes by adapting a post-Cold War approach. Finally, the dissertation examines the artists’ practices from a decentering perspective on Europeanization. It thus applies approaches, which understand Europe from its “margins”, to the local production of art in the European context. As a result, the dissertation illustrates how these Romanian artists, generic for the “margins” of (EU-)Europe, create spaces of self-empowerment out of their frequently precarious situations. Although fragile, these spaces contribute to the imagination and decentering of the European field of art and offer alternatives to neoliberal EU-Europe.

This research examines how the practice of curating has been used to further counter-hegemonic agendas in public art institutions since 1989. The central aim is to provide a fuller, contextualised, and medium specific understanding of the how the institutional exhibition might be used to challenge the hegemony of neoliberalism and the post-political consensus politics that sustains its dominance. It provides insights, through both historic case studies and reflective practice, that problematise the idea that the institutional art exhibition is a viable medium for counter-hegemonic critique, or represents the ideal space for the development of an agonistic public discourse. This thesis presents collaborative research undertaken with Tate Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University. The research presented both extrapolated from, and contributed to, the development of an exhibition, co-curated with Tate Liverpool, entitled Art Turning Left (8 November 2013 – 2 February 2014) and a supplementary publication of the same name. The first section investigates how the idea that curators can counter neoliberal dominance, through institutional exhibition-making, developed. It draws from analyses of previous exhibitions, and the theory of Chantal Mouffe, in order to critically evaluate the curatorial application of counter-hegemonic critique and agonistic practice. It also provides a review of how exhibitions (held in major art institutions since 1989) have articulated politics, in order to determine their relationship to neoliberal dominance, and to identify significant gaps in the dialogue facilitated by these institutions. These analyses provides the theoretical and contextual grounding for the final two chapters, which provide a rationale and critical evaluation of my own attempt to develop an alternative counter-hegemonic curatorial strategy for the exhibition at Tate Liverpool. They document, and analyse, the areas of dissensus, and the ideological and pragmatic limitations that emerged, in trying to realise these theoretical propositions (in practice) in a public art museum. The thesis therefore provides a critical framework for the development of an alternative practice that positions the exhibition as a form of post-political critique and specifically targets the hegemonic role that institutional exhibitions play in reinforcing class distinctions and devaluing nonprofessional creativity.