Essentially Contested Concept

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An Essentially Contested Concept (English for "essentially controversial term") is an abstract idea or a term such as B. democracy , work of art or freedom , which or which can be interpreted and concretized very easily depending on the perspective, which is ultimately based on different values . This means that the content of meaning that goes beyond the core meaning of such terms is necessarily contested. Contested Concepts therefore leave a lot of room for ideological framing and reframing.

The Essentially Contested Concept goes back to the social scientist Walter Bryce Gallie (1956). He showed that people with sometimes different views and values ​​can agree on common terms. However, due to the different views and values, the terms are interpreted so differently that there is often no consensus on their applicability to specific political and social phenomena. There may also be a difference in the extent to which z. B. the idea of ​​democracy is realized. In these cases, an Essentially Contested Concept exists when a group deliberately uses its interpretation of the idea against the interpretation of other groups in a dispute about interpretative sovereignty .

Seven criteria

Gallie developed seven criteria that can be used to determine whether a term is an Essentially Contested Concept:

  1. the term must be assessed in the sense that it designates or recognizes something ("appraisiveness")
  2. the term must be complex in itself, i.e. have several distinctly defining components ("internal complexity")
  3. The term must be able to be described in different ways so that different weightings or arrangements of these components result in different meanings ("diverse describability")
  4. the term must be open, so subject to modifications z. B. in response to changing historical circumstances ("openness")
  5. those involved in the discourse recognize the controversial nature of the conceptual meaning ("reciprocal recognition")
  6. the different conceptual meanings are based on the meaning of a specific historical instance ("original exemplar")
  7. the ongoing discourse leads to an increased quality of the arguments and to a greater agreement on the historical authority ("progressive competition")

While the relevance of the first four criteria is largely accepted, this does not apply to criteria (5), (6) and (7).

In contrast to a “ contingently contested concept” - a term that is only contingent by chance or conditionally - it is assumed that a necessarily controversial term “will always be the subject of dispute and disagreement”.

Examples

For example, social justice , art , democracy , rule of law , neoliberalism , middle class , capitalism , Islam or Europe are interpreted as Essentially Contested Concept .

literature

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ G. Lakoff, E. Wehling: The necessary dispute of ideas: Essentially Contested Concepts. In: Ludger Hoffmann: Linguistics. 3. Edition. Walter de Gruyter, 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-022629-4 , p. 152.
  2. ^ William E. Conolly: Essentially contested concepts Sozialwissenschaften (1974) In: William E. Connolly: Democracy, Pluralism and Political Theory. Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2008, ISBN 978-0-415-43123-1 , p. 267.
  3. ↑ a b Elisabeth Wehling: Political Framing: How a nation persuades its thinking - and turns it into politics. Herbert von Halem, Cologne 2016, p. 161.
  4. ^ William E. Conolly: Essentially contested concepts. (1974) In: William E. Connolly: Democracy, Pluralism and Political Theory. Routledge Chapman & Hall, 2008, ISBN 978-0-415-43123-1 , p. 257.
  5. ↑ Jochen Walter: Turkey: 'The thing on the threshold' - (De-) constructions of the borders of Europe. VS, 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-15931-7 , p. 96.
  6. ↑ Collier, Hidalgo, Maciuceanu: Essentially Contested Concepts - Debates and Applications. In: Journal of Political Ideologies. 11 (3), 2006, pp. 211-246, here: pp. 216ff.
  7. ↑ Collier, Hidalgo, Maciuceanu: Essentially Contested Concepts - Debates and Applications. In: Journal of Political Ideologies. 11 (3), 2006, pp. 211-246, here: pp. 237ff.
  8. ↑ Cf. - with reference to the concept of power - Michael Maset: Discourse, power and history: Foucault's analysis techniques and historical research. Campus Verlag, 2002, p. 58.
  9. ^ WB Gallie: Essentially Contested Concepts. In: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. 56, 1956, pp. 167-198.
  10. ↑ Collier, Hidalgo, Maciuceanu: Essentially Contested Concepts - Debates and Applications. In: Journal of Political Ideologies. 11 (3), 2006, pp. 211-246, here: pp. 222ff.
  11. ↑ Taylor C. Boas, Jordan Gans-Morse: Neoliberalism - From New Liberal Philosophy to Anti-Liberal Slogan. In: Studies in Comparative International Development. 44 (2), 2009.
  12. ^ Robert D. Johnston: The Radical Middle Class , Princeton University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-691-09668-1 , 81.
  13. ↑ Jochen Walter: Turkey: 'The thing on the threshold' - (De-) constructions of the borders of Europe. VS, 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-15931-7 , pp. 71ff.