On 10 November, Dr Lukasz Zamecki and Mr Jaroslaw Szczepanski gave guest lectures as part of the DHSS Lecture Series. The topic was “China and The EU: A Silent Partnership”.
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| This lecture was arranged by DHSS |
The lecture was divided into two parts and Dr Lukasz Zamecki went first giving a lecture and a presentation on “EU-China: strategic partnership, without partnership?”. The title of the speech refers to the normative regulation of bilateral relations; however, the question is if this “strategic partnership” is real as partnership presupposes equality of the parties. The presentation discussed the history of relations, structure of relations, main problems, sources of misunderstandings and areas of potential cooperation and competition. Dr Lukasz Zamecki was the head of full-time studies at the Institute of European Studies during 2010-2012 and the deputy director of the Institute of European Studies since 2012. He managed several research topics concerning contemporary China and he is an author of publications in the field of recent Polish history, raw materials security, political theory and modern China.
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| Many students from International Journalism were in attendance |
After his lecture, Dr. Zamecki took questions and answered them. The students had many questions about Chinese and European relations with the recent trip of President Xi to the United Kingdom being mentioned.
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| The students asked many questions |
The next speaker, Mr Jaroslaw Szczepanski who is a political scientist and lawyer gave a lecture about "Kuhnian Impact on Political Theory. How to Overcome It with Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes". The presentation provided a background on Kuhn’s way of thinking about scientific research, its impact on the mainstream understanding of the development of political theory (such as institutionalism, elitism, pluralism) and internal contradictions that follow the introduction of Khunian philosophy into political science theory. The second part presented Lakatos research programs theory, how to apply it to current state of political science theory and what advantages it brings over traditional way of thinking about it.
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| Mr. Szecepanski talks about "Kuhnian Impact on Political Theory. How to Overcome It with Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes" |
Mr Szecepanski’s main field of interest is in political theory, political philosophy and methodology of social sciences. He is a founder and chief editor of Polish Journal of Political Science. Currently he is the plenipotentiary of the dean for editorial matters at Faculty of Journalism and Political Science, University of Warsaw.
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| Dr Lukasz Zamecki, Mr Jaroslaw Szczepanski and Assistant Professor, Dr Charles (Chong-Han) Wu |
The lecture was well received and was organised by DHSS.
Reporter/Photographer: Samuel Burgess (MPRO)
(with special thanks to the ELC)
