Fakultätsübergreifende Wahlfächer WS 16/17

Within the last decades, anthropologists and sociologists have started to study financial markets from an ethnographic perspective. In doing so, they have stressed the importance to understand everyday human activities as a critical part of financial markets. Soon, attention shifted from a strictly actor-centered approach to also studying the infrastructure and the impacts of technology on the development of financial markets. This has created a considerable body of literature, addressing questions such as gender relations, recruiting processes, bodily performances, the role of technology, the construction and circulation of financial products, or the use of alternative currencies in a globalized economy. In this course, we will have a look at this growing body of ethnographic literature on finance. We will discuss the perspective they apply, the theoretical concepts they put forward and ask in what terms these ethnographies help us to gain new insights on how financial markets work in reality.

Childrens' books, captions, lecture performances, … We encounter the interplay of texts and images in many contexts, in our daily life, at work or in the arts. They mutually influence each other, shaping their respective meaning and creating a new narrative.
We will playfully explore a variety of collaborations of words and pictures. Through a series of short practical exercises you will look into ways of producing and using texts and images. You will work with photography, but not exclusively. Additionally, artists using text and works in their practice will be presented.
After this warm-up you will be embarking on individual projects. Using different approaches, you might work with your own words and images as well as using existing texts and pictures, creating your own narratives.
The workshop results in a public display of the individual projects, be it as a live event, a publication or an exhibition - depending on the participants' chosen media.

Of paramount importance for every presentation is the personality of the presenter, which can create an atmosphere of trust and real interest.
In this elective course, students will learn how to enter a room with presence and charisma and make a convincing first impression. In addition, body language plays a very important part and, very often, is used only unconsciously.
With the help of feedback, students will improve their presentation skills, learn how to structure their presentations and use media.
Another important theme we will explore is personal "Status". Usually, "Status" is connected with a certain position or power, which someone enjoys in an organization or in society. However, in everyday life, we constantly play with our personal Status, which is somewhat independent from our professional Status. Everyone prefers a certain Status. To raise your own Status yields more authority and assertiveness. To lower your own Status, thereby increasing the Status of someone else, conveys empathy and sympathy. Both raising and lowering your own Status are important and useful in different situations. Students will learn their preferred status and how to change it, if necessary.
In this course, students will also work with the methods of improvisational theater to enhance their spontaneity, creativity and ability to deal with unknown situations.

The concepts of gamification (the use of game-design elements like badges and leaderboards to increase user engagement) and serious games (training games that do not have entertainment as a primary purpose) have become popular in professional contexts, but conventional video games have not yet found their way into practice and research. While recent studies have confirmed that being adept at video games can be an indicator of skills and abilities beyond those required for gaming, our understanding of whether and how video games can be used for skill assessment and development remains incomplete. To contribute to filling this gap, this research seminar seeks to identify the managerial and architectural skills and abilities that can be measured and developed with the help of video games, and to understand the game mechanisms that facilitate skill assessment and development. Students will be required to play video games of various genres (e.g., simulation, strategy, and building games) and to demonstrate entrepreneurial and creative abilities alike. Based on their gaming experiences, they will reflect on the lessons learned from both a business and an architecture perspective.

Die Popularitätswelle von Essen, Nahrungsmittel und Kulinarik in Alltag, Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft ist gross: Streetfood-Festivals, Popup-Restaurants und Märkte mit lokalen Spezialitäten boomen. Diskussionen um Ernährungspraktiken (z.B. Fleischverzehr, vegane Küche), das richtige, gute Essen und Fast Food werden hitzig geführt. Figuren wie Foodies sind prominent in sozialen und populären Medien. Und, Spekulationen um Nahrungsmittel und nachhaltige Versorgung zählen zu global verhandelten Themen.
In diesem Einführungskurs nähern wir uns u.a. mittels symbolischer Erklärungsansätzen, (sozio-)ökologisch-ökonomischer und materialistischer Konzepte den Food Studies an. Wir arbeiten insbesondere entlang der drei Themen kulinarisches Erbe (z.B. Regionalität und Kulinarik), Ernährungstrends (z.B. nose to tail eating) und Esskulturen (u.a. in sozialen und populären Medien).
Dabei werden anhand von theoretischer, explorativer und anwendungsorientierter Auseinandersetzungen Fragen diskutiert wie z.B. Wie sind Globalisierung und regionale Nahrungskulturen miteinander verstrickt? Wie lassen sich kulturhistorische Kontexte, gegenwärtige Ernährungstrends und kulinarische Vielfalt deuten? Welche Rolle spielt Essen bei der Bildung von Identitäten und Communities? Welche Essgewohnheiten und -rituale werden vom wem in welcher Weise promotet, welche verschmäht? Was sieht es mit der Geschmackssache und Distinktion in Esskulturen aus und in welchem Zusammenhang stehen sie mit gesellschaftlichen Machtdynamiken?

The module includes a wide range of aspects related to international frameworks for higher education. It will start with a focused study of various academic systems of higher learning in various countries by developing a multiperspective analysis of academe. After a closer view of the mechanisms of various universities and their environments the module will turn to applying these to personal academic benefits. Finally, the various study programmes offered at institutions, in the international area around Lake Constance too, will give an exemplary insight into global higher educational systems. This module therefore offers a look behind the scene of academic work for students who want to be informed about careers in higher education, about management, administration and consultancy in the academic sector and for those who want to take part in think-tanks or keep up relationships with public bodies such as universities, NGOs or ministries of education, science and research.

Life shows that on the long-run personality often makes the difference to be successful both in business and your private life. That's why having a better understanding about yourself and managing your personal resources is crucial. In this module we focus on the three elements Mindset, Brain and Body and enable you with knowledge and self-experience to high perform on the long run.

The Liechtenstein Academy Foundation elaborated a unique offer together with three external lecturers that cover the following main topics:
1) Purpose & Mindset: Why is purpose and mindset so crucial for success in professional and personal life?
2) Brain: Do you know how your brain actually works and how you can positively influence your brain performance?
3) Body Resources: Are aware of the power that lays within a conscious management of your body resources?

Mapping has become a part of our everyday lives. Just think of the way we use phones: most apps want to know where you are. Do you ever turn 'location services' off? In this course, we will not geo-reference big data, but rather consider mapping as a critical practice. Taking the crowd-sourced research project "An Inquiry Into Modes of Existence" (AIME), conducted by the French sociologist Bruno Latour, as our starting point, we will map media as actor-networks: What is given in a media experience? Which actors play a role in it? How are these elements connected? To which need is this network responding? And what could an alternative response be? The given actor-networks and their alternatives ought to be visualized as maps and counter-maps. In this way, the students will both get to know sociological concepts and develop their creative skills.

This course looks at a wide range of philosophical topics that deal with human relations to the world from an ethical perspective. Those relations concern here in particular: the environment, art, political authority, and culture. Hence, topics touch on mainly:
- Environmental ethics (What are the moral status and value of environment? Do we have obligations to preserve nature? If yes, how are those obligations to be formulated? What are the principles of and arguments for sustainability?)
- Aesthetics (What is art? What is a work of art? What is an aesthetic experience? Can/should art be evaluated through moral standards?)
- Political Ethics (What is a state? What are the philosophical justifications for the state? What makes states legitimate? What is democracy? How to justify citizen's duties to obey and state's right to coerce?)
- Ethics of Culture (What is culture? How does culture participate in the individual's identity? Is the individual determined throughout by culture? Are values relative or universal? What is intercultural dialogue?)
Our focus will be on cornerstone philosophical theories and insights that are useful for understanding not only our relations to the world, but also our obligations and responsibility. To achieve that we'll engage with great philosophers and assess their arguments against the background of topical and concrete questions that we are confronted with in our daily lives.
Challenging reading materials will help access deep philosophical insights that are needed to understand complex moral and socio-political issues.

NB:
This course is meant to bring forth the relevance of a philosophical thinking in matters that concern our everyday practical lives. By investigating the foundations of the above-mentioned issues, we'll be better equipped to understand the world around us and formulate personal, clear and well-articulated answers and opinions about matters that concern us all.

What shapes our attitudes? Why are some people such great leaders? What leads us to like one person and dislike another? How do conflicts and prejudices develop, and how can they be reduced? These are just a few of the questions examined in the field of social psychology. This course looks at a wide range of social topics, including group behavior, social perception, leadership, nonverbal behavior, conformity, aggression, decision making, prejudice, and factors that promote health and well-being.

Our focus will be on surprising, entertaining, and intriguing concepts and research findings that are useful and applicable in our daily lives. Exercises and assignments in class and in home study will encourage you to experiment with your life, observe the results, and analyze what took place.

Digital technologies are not mere tools to achieve traditional business and marketing goals, but are considered as part of a profound paradigm shift in the construction market. Traditional roles and practices of consumers, architects and other agents in the housing business are disrupted and transformed into something new. Digital technologies are altering the ways in which consumers, architects, engineers, developers, builders and providers of materials inform, communicate and interact with each other to achieve the common goal of creating homes and new buildings. On top, the digital mapping of the design and building process and the digitalization of buildings themselves with the help of Building Information Modelling (BIM) open up new business opportunities for established market participants and new entrants.
The module explores this new paradigm in the construction industry fuelled by digital technologies from the perspective of building material providers. Acting as suppliers of building materials, these companies are especially challenged by building personal and close relationships to private home owners, designers, architects and technical engineers to make sure that their materials are being considered in the early phases of the decision making process. Furthermore, digitalization nurtures the transformation of the supply chain to gain in influence and productivity. Finally, new technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) might allow established players such as material providers to offer architects and technical engineers new digital services and to build competitive advantages through new business models by using their traditional skills and experience.

The contents of the module therefore tackle the challenges faced by established building material providers to market their products and services in the wake of this new digital paradigm. To reduce the complexity of these manifold changes, the module will strongly focus on the changes occurring in the relationships between architects, technical engineers, end customers of old and new buildings and building material providers. Thus, the module is built around two main themes: Aside from a general introduction to the digital transformation, the first theme gives students knowledge of the key digital marketing techniques (e.g. search engine marketing, analytics, mobile marketing and the use of social media for marketing purposes). The second theme centers on new business modeling encompassing new digital services that might help build competitive advantages by new forms of relationships and value adding services to end-users, architects and technical engineers.

The module will cover the following topics

• Trends and impact of digital media and technology on the construction industry and the traditional value chain in housing and construction
• Dimensions of digital transformations in the construction industry (disruptions in communications, distribution, developing and building management etc.)
• Reasons and drivers for rapid development, implementation and adaptation of new digital technologies (market, productivity, ecology, sustainability, public policy etc.)
• Customer segmentation for digital marketing of building materials
• Digital marketing strategies by established building and material providing companies
• Relationship marketing using digital platforms
• Definition of digital services that add value to end customers, architects and technical engineers when designing, planning and managing the building process
• New business modeling with a strong emphasis on Building Information Modeling (BIM)

Aside from providing a theoretical foundation in the digital transformation of the construction industry, this module will put a particular emphasis on practical and reflexive learning across information systems, architecture and entrepreneurship.

The main aim of this course is to examine the issue of terrorism by addressing the following questions:

• What is a terrorist, and how should terrorism be defined?
• How can we distinguish nationalist, ideological and religious terrorism from each other?
• What do terrorists want?
• What is the policy of the United Nations toward terrorism?

The course will deepen and enrich your enjoyment and understanding of art through engagement with some of the key theories and approaches that art historians have developed for interpreting and explaining works of art.

• Learn about Art Periods
• Get to know the highlights of European art from the 15th to the 21st century
• Explore fascinating questions about works of art, their function in society, their various meanings for viewers of the past and of the present
• Meet works of art within their social and cultural context
• Learn about methods used by art historians to analyse, interpret and explain works of art: Biographical approach, socio-economic/cultural approach, sociological approach, Iconographic approach, Iconological interpretation, architectural history, formalist/stylistic approach, aesthetic approach, semiotics, gendered approach
• A special focus is on social history of art since 1970