Processes of transformation take place in social and political relations of power and violence. They create winners and losers. What promises freedom for some can mean exploitation and dispossession for others and even demands for equality are all too often accompanied by exclusions. In order to design transformations democratically, it is therefore crucial to recognize and name violence, inequality and injustice and to learn tactics and strategies to overcome or at least reduce them. On the path to such an ethics of transformation, we start this course with the common ground of human rights. We will shed light on their revolutionary history, their utopian promises and their practical application. Starting from struggles for human rights, we will develop a radically democratic understanding of human rights. We will then problematize them on the basis of queer-feminist, de-/post-/anti-colonial and ecological critiques: Who is this human being of human rights? What are the limits of their universalism? What can and can‘t be represented in the language of rights?

- Attendance of the lectures and discussions

- Reading of texts

- A short paper, that describes, analyzes and criticizes that struggles for/against human rights. For the papers it is required that you use the search enginge of the library, read some scientific research and write. (During the semester) Alternative: an art project or another project that relates to the topics of the course. (30h of work)

Transformations can always be understood as fights for political and social power. The course will help to critically analyze social and political drivers and consequences of transformations. We will start with different struggles for human rights and develop an understanding of the violence and the power structures of race, class, gender and ecology.

1) Basic understanding of the history and philosophy of human rights

2) Basic understanding of various critiques of human rights

3) Basic understanding of structures of power and violence: race, class, gender, ecology.

4) developing an ethics of transformation

5) Analyses of the social and political struggles of transformations