Project Details
Projekt
EXC 16: Cultural Foundations of Social Integration
Subject Area
History
Social Sciences
Social Sciences
Term
from 2006 to 2019
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 24060127
The cluster of excellence brings together fundamental- and theory-oriented research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. On the one hand, processes of social integration and disintegration should be examined at all social levels. The topical spectrum will encompass the entire era since antiquity. Contemporary developments - European integration, global society, streams of migration, "failing states" - will be of particular concern. This makes it necessary to rethink completely the social-scientific problem of integration. On the other hand, a theory of culture should be worked upon in the transdisciplinary framework created by our mutual research, understanding the cultural as a constitutive element of the social. This will include a focus on the intellectual history of the Humanities as well.
The center of excellence is linked with the results of collective research over several years in Konstanz (Collaborative Research Centre "Norm and Symbol", Research Training Group "The Figure of the Third", Research Initiative "Cultural Theory," the postdoctoral group "Dynamics of Transnational Action", and the network "Transatlantic Cooperation", among others). The research structures that already exist in Konstanz should be consolidated and, leveraged together with other institutional measures, be further developed. Our goal is to enhance Konstanz's profile even more compellingly than before as a centre for basic research on cultural theory. For there is still a great need for explanations surrounding the concept and definition of "culture," the understanding of cultural processes in all realms of social and scholarly production, and the field of cultural semiosis as a whole.
Conceptual work in cultural theory has always been conducted in Konstanz on the basis of object-related research concerned with historical or contemporary phenomena. In its research, the centre will make a noticeable contribution to understanding and dealing with pressing social issues. In many of the acute conflict and problem situations on the global and nation-state level, it is clear that the formation, stability and breakdown of contexts of social order are significantly preconditioned by cultural factors. Correspondingly, social tensions have been increasingly observed and addressed as cultural oppositions in recent times.
The center of excellence is linked with the results of collective research over several years in Konstanz (Collaborative Research Centre "Norm and Symbol", Research Training Group "The Figure of the Third", Research Initiative "Cultural Theory," the postdoctoral group "Dynamics of Transnational Action", and the network "Transatlantic Cooperation", among others). The research structures that already exist in Konstanz should be consolidated and, leveraged together with other institutional measures, be further developed. Our goal is to enhance Konstanz's profile even more compellingly than before as a centre for basic research on cultural theory. For there is still a great need for explanations surrounding the concept and definition of "culture," the understanding of cultural processes in all realms of social and scholarly production, and the field of cultural semiosis as a whole.
Conceptual work in cultural theory has always been conducted in Konstanz on the basis of object-related research concerned with historical or contemporary phenomena. In its research, the centre will make a noticeable contribution to understanding and dealing with pressing social issues. In many of the acute conflict and problem situations on the global and nation-state level, it is clear that the formation, stability and breakdown of contexts of social order are significantly preconditioned by cultural factors. Correspondingly, social tensions have been increasingly observed and addressed as cultural oppositions in recent times.
DFG Programme
Clusters of Excellence
Applicant Institution
Universität Konstanz
Spokesperson
Professor Dr. Rudolf Schlögl
Participating Researchers
Professor Dr. Matthias Armgardt; Professor Dr. Jan Assmann (†); Professorin Dr. Aleida Assmann; Professor Dr. Bernhard Giesen (†); Professor Dr. Ulrich Gotter; Professor Dr. Kay Hailbronner; Professorin Dr. Silja Häusermann; Professor Dr. Thomas G. Kirsch; Professor Dr. Bernhard Kleeberg; Professorin Dr. Karin Knorr Cetina; Professor Dr. Albrecht Koschorke; Professorin Dr. Kirsten Mahlke; Professor Dr. Jurij Murasov; Professor Dr. Jürgen Osterhammel; Professor Dr. Andreas Reckwitz; Professor Dr. Hans Christian Röhl; Professor Dr. Gottfried Seebaß; Professor Dr. Wolfgang Seibel; Professorin Dr. Gabriela Signori; Professorin Dr. Ulrike Sprenger; Professorin Dr. Juliane Vogel; Professorin Dr. Dorothea Weltecke
