Elisabeth Conradi

Elisabeth Conradi is a professor of philosophy and social theory at the Cooperative State University Baden-Wuerttemberg in Stuttgart and teaches in the master's programs democracy and European Governance and Peace Research and International Politics and the Institute of Political Science of the University of Tuebingen in the field of political theory . Her main research interests are contemporary democratic theory and heterogeneity as well as social marginalization from the perspective of the history of ideas. Furthermore, Conradi develops an ethic of mindfulness .

Career

Elisabeth Conradi grew up in Hamburg. From 1984 to 1991 she studied philosophy, German and pedagogy, first at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg , later in Frankfurt am Main and completed her studies (Magister Artium) at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main with a philosophical thesis on Immanuel Kants "Metaphysics of Morals". In 1992 she was a Junior Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. In 1993 she carried out research at the Graduate School for Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh, funded by the DAAD .

Her doctoral studies took her to Basel, where she completed her doctorate in philosophy in 1999 at the philosophical-historical faculty of the University of Basel with the text "Take Care. Basics of an ethics of mindfulness" with distinction. In 2000, she initially worked as a research assistant in an interdisciplinary research project at the Institute for Ethics and History of Medicine at the Georg-August University in Göttingen . From 2002, she worked there as a research assistant at the Political Science Seminar in the field of political theory and the history of ideas. During this time she also worked as a visiting scholar at the Political Science Department of the University of Chicago . Since 2009 she has been a professor of social theory and philosophy at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Stuttgart.

Research priorities

Political theory and history of ideas

It characterizes Conradi's approach of analyzing current problems with the help of ways of thinking and terms of earlier centuries in order to systematically contribute to understanding and solving open questions of the present as well as to the formation of political theories. Accordingly, Conradi dealt in detail with the idea of cosmopolitanism in her habilitation thesis . This is an idea with a provocative nature: It is about a world perspective that implies transformation efforts. Conradi develops a concept of transformation that takes up ancient ideas of successful practice. Cosmopolitanism encourages people to cross the boundaries of national thinking and take a cosmopolitan perspective. The transformation of thinking affects individuals or states as actors, but also society. The inter-individual level relates to identity and social affiliation; Individuals claim to governments that concepts of political belonging ( citoyennet é) need to be transformed; at the intergovernmental level, it is a federation of local political institutions. Finally, the cosmopolitan claim also affects the question of new forms of government, world-state institutions and global democracy.

In terms of cross-sectional considerations, methodological reflections run through the majority of her publications. It corresponds to their understanding of science to develop metatheoretical considerations especially in the context of thematic questions. Thus she discusses the possibility of transformation through critical practice and the circumstances below which it may be necessary to infer from the particular to the general. In addition to metatheoretical reflections, Conradi presents the pariah concept of theoretical historiography, a procedure she has developed herself, and is also testing it for the first time.

Democracy theory

The democracy is a long-term focus of their scientific activity. Elisabeth Conradi examines theoretical problems of the right to vote and debates whether people who are part of the population but not the demos still have a legitimate right to vote in elections. Using the example of the conflict over the Stuttgart 21 infrastructure project , she discusses the tasks that citizens, guaranteed by the basic rights of political communication and association, have to do beyond the elections. Winfried Thaa , for example, explicitly deals with Conradi's contribution to democracy theory under the heading of “responsive democracy”; Renate Martinsen takes up this approach with a view to dynamising the concept of democracy.

She has also done theoretical research on new forms of participation and political representation . Conradi discusses how everyday communication can 'cultivate' the political debate and how this may contribute to increasing inclusion. She deals with various political gatherings in recent years and asks why there have been demonstrations around the world, for example in Gezi Park in Istanbul, on Tahrir Square in Cairo and on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, but also in the Capitals of Thailand, Ukraine and Spain. What the research questions described here have in common is the political dimension of living together and the question of changes in democratic practice.

Heterogeneity and social marginalization

Part of her research is devoted to dealing with heterogeneity and thematizes the area of ​​tension between societal and cultural diversity and political and legal equality. It is about questions of the ability to act out of marginality , about exclusion and a lack of social integration, about religious and cultural differences, about discrimination and disregard, also with regard to the question of what this says about the majority society. The scientific processing takes place with the help of a combination of sociological, cultural-scientific and ideological-historical approaches. The research is motivated by the promise of inclusion that was enlightened and its failure in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Conradi interprets texts from this period in which authors reflect on their own marginality in a theory-building manner in order to gain a deeper understanding of social problems. Her interpretation of these approaches enriches current discussions about religious and cultural differences as well as about exclusion and a lack of social integration.

ethics

→ Main article : ethics of mindfulness

One focus of her research is ethics . At the interface between ethics and political theory, Conradi's dissertation “Take Care” opens up normative justification questions, reflects on care activities and critically discusses the key terms autonomy, reciprocity, respect, mutuality and equality. For 15 years now, the study has received a broad interdisciplinary reception. Conradi is concerned with the establishment of norms and normativity, the relationship between ethics and politics, empirical studies and gender-related expectations in the field of moral development, as well as professional standards. It is important to her to determine the key concepts of mindfulness, attention, experience, relatedness, responsibility, interrelationality. Conradi is considered to be a representative of the care ethic , which she develops as an ethic of mindfulness . Mindfulness is defined between the terms respect and human affection and is differentiated from both autonomy and the attentive pause of Buddhist meditation.

Fonts

Monographs

• Cosmopolitan civil society. Inclusion through successful action. Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2011.
• Take Care. Basics of an ethic of mindfulness. Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2001.

As editor

• with Frans Vosman: practice of mindfulness. Key Terms in Care Ethics. Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2016.
• with Marian Barnes, Frans Vosman: Special Issue of the journal “Ethics & Social Welfare” on “Deliberation and Transformation: Challenges through the Ethics of Care”. Volume 9 (2015) Issue 2
• with Sabine Plonz: Active life. Plurality and Work in Hannah Arendt's Political Thought. Bochum: swi 2000.

Selected essays

• Lost Approaches to Care: Attention and Beneficence in the German Jewish Tradition of the 19th century. In: Franziska Krause, Joachim Boldt (Eds.): Caring about Care. Theoretical and Practical Challenges for Good Care in Healthcare. Palgrave & Macmillan 2016,
• The 'ethics of mindfulness' between philosophy and social theory. In: Elisabeth Conradi, Frans Vosman (Ed.): Practice of Mindfulness. Key Terms in Care Ethics, Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2016
• Redoing Care: Societal Transformation through Critical Practice. In: Ethics & Social Welfare Volume 9, 2015, Issue 2, pp. 113–129.
• Reconstructive source study and follow-up reception: How the history of political ideas can be enriched. In: Walter Reese-Schäfer, Samuel Salzborn (ed.): "The voice of the intellect is quiet". Classics of political thought outside the mainstream, Baden-Baden: Nomos 2015, pp. 85–111.
• Hannah Arendt as an intellectual and the controversy about "Eichmann in Jerusalem". In: Harald Bluhm, Walter Reese-Schäfer (Ed.): The intellectuals and the world run. Creators and missionaries of political ideas in the USA, Asia and Europe after 1945. Baden-Baden: Nomos 2006, pp. 75–93.
• To be different as a blemish or an award? Hannah Arendt's theses on the contradictory existence on the fringes of society. In: Elisabeth Conradi, Sabine Plonz (Ed.): Active life. Plurality and Work in Hannah Arendt's Political Thought. Bochum: swi 2000, pp. 21-43.
• The struggle of women for language and image. Margarete Susman on the gender ratio. In: Renate Heuer, Ralph-Rainer Wuthenow (Ed.): Counter-images and prejudice. Aspects of Judaism in the work of German-speaking women writers. Frankfurt am Main, New York: Campus 1995, pp. 160–188.

literature

• Birgit Althans u. a .: Care in primary school - a research desideratum ?, in: Katrin Liebers u. a. (Ed.), Facets of primary school pedagogical and didactic research, yearbook primary school research 20, Wiesbaden 2016, pp. 45–60.
• Hiltrud Hainmüller: Take Care! Aspects of an ethics of mindfulness, in: Ethics & Lessons No. 4/03, pp. 19–27.
• Sabine Schäper : Ethics under difficult conditions. Curative educational ethics as orientation in borderline situations, in: Blätter der Wohlfahrtspflege, 157 Jg., H. 1, 2010, pp. 24-27.
• Marianne Friese: Professionalization of Care Work. Innovations for personal vocational training and teacher training, in: Uta Meier-Gräwe (Hrsg.), Die Arbeit des Alltags. Social organization and redistribution. Festschrift for Marion Oberschelp, Wiesbaden 2015, p. 72.
• Margrit Brückner : The social way of dealing with human need for help, in: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 29th year, no. 2, 2004, p. 9.

Web links

• Literature by and about Elisabeth Conradi in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website of the DHBW Stuttgart

Individual evidence

1. ^ Elisabeth Conradi: Take Care. Basics of an ethic of mindfulness. Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2001.
2. ^ Website of the DHBW Stuttgart
3. ^ Elisabeth Conradi: Cosmopolitan civil society. Inclusion through successful action. Frankfurt am Main: Campus 2011.
4. ↑ Elisabeth Conradi: Reconstructing source study and subsequent reception: How the history of political ideas can be enriched. In: Walter Reese-Schäfer ; Samuel Salzborn (Ed.): "The voice of the intellect is quiet". Classics of political thought outside the mainstream, Baden-Baden: Nomos 2015d, pp. 85–111.
5. ^ Elisabeth Conradi: Right to vote for everyone? Belonging to the demos as a political-theoretical challenge. In: Lino Klevesath, Holger Zapf (ed.): Democracy - Culture - Modernity. Political Theory Perspectives. Munich: Oldenbourg 2011, pp. 133–146.
6. ^ Elisabeth Conradi: Civil Society and Democracy. Democracy-theoretical considerations on the conflict over the infrastructure project 'Stuttgart 21'. In: Journal of Political Theory, Volume 1 (2010a) Issue 2, pp. 221–232.
7. ↑ Winfried Thaa: Crisis or Repoliticization of Representative Democracy? PVS Jg. 54, H. 1, 2013, pp. 1-20, especially pp. 10-12.
8. ^ Renate Martinsen: Democracy, Protest and Change. To dynamize the concept of democracy in conflicts over large infrastructure projects using the example of Stuttgart 21. In: Dies.:Ordnungsbildung und Entbegrenzung, 2015, pp. 45–85.
9. ^ Elisabeth Conradi: Social change through everyday communication. The culture of debate in deliberative democracy. In: Peter Niesen (Hg): Between Democracy and Global Responsibility. Iris Marion Young's Theory of Political Normativity. Baden-Baden: Nomos 2013, pp. 135–150.
10. ↑ Elisabeth Conradi: A discussion of the "anti-Semite question" with Constantin Brunner. In: Irene Aue-Ben-David, Gerhard Lauer, Jürgen Stenzel (eds): Constantin Brunner in context. An intellectual between empire and exile. Munich: De Gruyter 2014b, pp. 230-253. For further evidence see section Selected Articles
11. ↑ Birgit Althans u. a .: Care in primary school - a research desideratum ?, in: Katrin Liebers u. a. (Ed.): Facets of primary school pedagogical and didactic research, yearbook primary school research 20, Wiesbaden 2016, pp. 45–60. - For further receipts, see the literature section
12. ↑ Frans Vosman, Elisabeth Conradi: Introduction - key terms of care ethics . In: Elisabeth Conradi, Frans Vosman (Ed.): Practice of Mindfulness. Key Terms in Care Ethics. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, New York 2016