Diagnosing (in) Modernity

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Alkemeyer
• Subject Area: Sociological Theory ; Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 496574095

Diagnosing is a mode of social self-observation and problematisation through which 'modernity' constitutes itself as an epoch that, in contrast to earlier epochs, conceptualises 'society' "as a threat, a space of possibility and a field of intervention" (Etzemüller 2019, p. 105). The network wants to pursue this working hypothesis in an interdisciplinary exchange. To this end, it understands diagnosis as a way of observing a present reality - the 'state' of a society, the environment, an individual, etc. – that specifically adresses the prospects it holds for the future and turns it into a shapeable resource. In this sense, diagnoses, more often than not, serve as an early warning system that is supposed to help adresss pressing problems and thus impact on the future: While possible threats are to be prevented, potentials are to be exploited. Diagnoses are made both explicitly and implicitly, in different areas of society, in various forms, and with the help of diverse techniques. The network focuses on the resonances and echo effects as well as on the dissonances and conflicts that can arise among this variety of diagnoses in contingent socio-historical constellations. It examines the concepts, fields, practices, narratives and hegemonies of diagnosing and is particularly interested in the interplay between 'large' diagnostic narratives (such as climate change or pandemic developments) and the numerous 'small', rather unspectacular practices of diagnosing (of one’s own ‘environment’, or the body, etc.) in everyday life. This research programme demands a systematic change of research perspectives between zooming in and zooming out (Nicolini 2012) combined with a historical-genealogical approach. Accordingly, the network builds on a collaboration of the social sciences, the humanities and cultural studies in terms of both content and methodology. It sets out to (a) deliver historically and empirically well-founded insights into the significance of diagnoses and practices of diagnosing for the self-constitution of modern societies and their subjects, (b) generate questions for follow-up research and (c) self-critically reflect the (e.g. Eurocentric) presuppositions and limits of the network‘s research agenda. The strategic goals of the network are 1. to increase the (international) visibility of the topic (also within the broader public), 2. to support the participating early-career researchers, and 3. to develop a concept for a larger collaborative research project.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Martin Butler