Teaching the Transnationalization of Politics: Participant Observation of Public Events

Abstract

Most university courses on transnationalization encourage students to learn about the facets of the phenomenon only from selected readings. This article suggests using participant observation of public events as a complementary didactic means to reduce students' experiential distance from transnational politics. In a master-level course at the Freie Universität Berlin in the 2011 Summer term, our students undertook one day of fieldwork in the German capital on May 1, the International Workers' Day. The unusual design of our course allowed them to relate cognitive insights into transnationalization to affective, though methodologically informed, field experiences. There is thus significant didactic potential in designing courses with opportunities for experiential learning in the field.