Cultural Studies Institute Essen

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Institute for Cultural Studies Essen (KWI)
logo
founding 1989
Sponsorship University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr)
place eat
state North Rhine-Westphalia
country Germany
management Julika Griem
Website www.kulturwissenschaften.de

The Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI) is an interdisciplinary research college in the humanities and cultural sciences in the tradition of international Institutes for Advanced Study. As an inter-university college of the Ruhr University Bochum , the Technical University of Dortmund and the University of Duisburg-Essen , the institute works with the scientists of its sponsoring universities and with other partners in North Rhine-Westphalia and at home and abroad. Within the Ruhr area, the KWI offers a place where the results of ambitious cultural studies research can be shared and discussed with interested parties from the city and the region. In the future, the focus will be on the following research areas: cultural studies science research, cultural and literary sociology, science communication and a “teaching laboratory”. The projects in the research areas of culture of participation and communication culture as well as individual projects will also be continued.

About the KWI

The Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI) is an interdisciplinary research college for humanities and cultural studies in the tradition of international Institutes for Advanced Study. As an inter-university college of the Ruhr University Bochum, the Technical University of Dortmund and the University of Duisburg-Essen, the institute works with the scientists of its sponsoring universities and with other partners in North Rhine-Westphalia and at home and abroad. Within the Ruhr area, the KWI offers a place where the results of ambitious cultural studies research can be shared and discussed with interested parties from the city and the region. The KWI has always realigned its topics in the past in dealing with the topics of its fellows and directors. On April 1, 2018, the literary scholar Julika Griem took up her position as the new director. With the change, research will be organized in four new fields: Under the heading “Cultural Studies Science Research”, the role of language, symbols, images and media in the self-description and organization of science will be examined. In the field of "Sociology of Culture and Literature" we ask how convincingly combined methods and theories can be used to obtain data and knowledge with which philological and social science issues can be linked. The “Science Communication” section is devoted to the analysis of current communication problems in view of the challenge of populist science skepticism. A “teaching laboratory” is to be used to develop new formats and types of events in the humanities and cultural sciences, which can also be further modified as prototypes of research-oriented teaching at other universities.

In recent years, various research areas have been successfully established at the KWI, which will be integrated into the new institute concept and continue their work under Julika Griem's ​​direction. These include the projects that can be found under the keywords “culture of participation” and “culture of communication” as well as individual projects under the heading “other research projects”.

The Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (KWI) acts as an inter-university cooperation and networking platform and solicits additional third-party funding for new projects. The institute promotes practice-oriented cultural studies research, international exchange, intercultural dialogue and emphasizes young academics. Acting director of the institute is Dr. Armin Flender. After ten years in office of political scientist Claus Leggewie , modern historian Ute Schneider took over the provisional management of the institute on August 1, 2017. On April 1, 2018, she was followed by the new director of the KWI, the literary scholar Julika Griem .

The focus of future institute work will be on reflection on cultural studies research itself: What can it mean today to conduct cultural studies between disciplinary and interdisciplinary organized knowledge formations? What relevance expectations and requirements for creating meaning is it confronted with? How does it define its form of criticism and comment; their routines of reading and writing, showing and arguing? Under which social and economic conditions does our work take place? Which system constraints, funding logics and unwanted effects influence our cultural studies research? And can you finally analyze them in such a way that they can be changed and improved if necessary? With these questions about the practical and epistemic requirements, fundamentals and consequences of our work at KWI, the institute team marks a science and university policy focus that needs to be sharpened in cultural studies. As part of the University Alliance Ruhr (UAR) and its multi-layered institutional structure, we see the opportunity to invite open and fearless discussions about our working conditions and their social consequences. The situation of young colleagues, for whom the KWI is available as a meeting point and arena for discourse, will play a special role.

Another field in which the KWI will become even more active in the future is the in-house literary program. This will be carefully coordinated with the many successful organizers in the region in order to carefully supplement the existing with new ones. We are pleased that promising partnerships have already been agreed with the “Proust” bookstore and the Ruhr Literary Society.

history

The KWI was founded in 1989 on the initiative of the then North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Johannes Rau . The state government wanted to create a network of scientific institutions that would detect the new challenges of modern societies and provide orientation in the field of tension between science, society and politics. In the "Science Center North Rhine-Westphalia", which also includes the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy and the Institute for Work and Technology in Gelsenkirchen, the KWI took on the humanities and cultural studies.

Topics from the very beginning, which have continued to develop today, were: “Cultural history of nature”, “Topographies of the sexes”, “Memory” and “Territory culture - contemporary history and future”. In 1990, the KWI set up a branch in Leipzig dedicated to the repressed issues of the GDR experience. 2007, North Rhine-Westphalia state government , the KWI in a common support shaft of the Ruhr - universities transferred.

The founding president Lutz Niethammer was followed by historians Wilfried Loth from the University of Essen in 1992 and Jörn Rüsen from Bielefeld University in 1997 . From 2007 to 2017, Claus Leggewie was director of the KWI. The modern historian Ute Schneider has been acting as head of the institute since he left in August 2017 . In November 2017, the literary scholar Julika Griem was appointed head of the college, who began her service on April 1, 2018.

research

The research activities of the scientists at the KWI are currently divided into the overarching research areas of cultural science research, cultural and literary sociology, science communication, communication culture, participation culture and individual projects as well as a "teaching laboratory". Research is carried out in other humanities, social and cultural studies projects outside of the main focus areas. By changing its topics and fellows, the KWI is constantly changing its profile.

Cultural science research

Science not only gives us facts, and certainly no truths. Concepts of lack of interest, of freedom from value and purpose are important to delimit scientific knowledge; Again and again this demarcation had to be related to notions of usefulness and applicability. The theory, history and sociology of science have also been able to show that science does not arise and exist in a vacuum - it is rather closely related to historically and socially specific conditions for the production of that knowledge, which is called science.

At KWI, we assume that the classic disciplines of science research can be enriched with cultural studies approaches and methods. This brings media, linguistic, rhetorical, symbolic and performative aspects into focus: What role do recording and storage options play in the transmission of scientific knowledge; how are forms of publication changing? What possibilities of illustration, demonstration and proof are used to inform and convince peers and laypeople? From which sources can such changes be determined, how can they be represented in their not always linear progressions? How can we describe the many non-verbal and implicit factors that also determine how science is practiced, practiced, performed, and rewarded? And finally, does it make sense to speak of scientific cultures - if so, how can these be concretized historically and systematically? These questions are to be investigated at the KWI in order to supplement other approaches to science research. Research into science through cultural studies can also contribute to providing scientific policy debates with historical and comparative foresight.

Sociology of culture and literature

The German tradition of cultural sociology is received internationally and is currently being continued in a variety of ways. So far, however, the field of literature has been less intensively researched sociologically than other artistic forms and cultural fields. The KWI will try to close this gap in the next few years. There is sufficient reason to do so: The literary system and the literary business are subject to a momentous structural change - new formats, media and genres relativize aesthetic standards; new actors such as B. Agents and bloggers are shifting professional models and their roles. In any case, there are regular complaints about dwindling readers and a lack of appreciation for 'the good book'. In this situation we want to question culturally critical and technology-euphoric diagnoses and contribute to more precise analyzes. For this purpose, representatives of different subjects have to come together: Current reading behavior and its history can e.g. B. can only be described precisely if it is possible to bring together cognitive psychological, philological, cultural sociological and cultural economic expertise. Particular attention will be paid to the task of not only viewing literary texts as a “black box” in larger contexts of action, exploitation and distinction. Rather, it is important to describe these forms of expression in such a way that they also become attractive documents, knowledge stores and contexts of meaning for social science research. At the same time, it should be asked how literary sources, motifs, strategies and traditions are used scientifically in the social sciences and especially in sociology, or how they could be used even more intensively. A special focus of our work will be on the development of interdisciplinary methods and thus also on the import and export of literary terminology.

Science communication

Science has always been communicated. But at the moment there are increasingly clear invitations and obligations to intensify, renew and improve science communication: Many actors expect it to provide not only suitable information opportunities, but also more transparent research, better involvement of civil society and the curbing of skepticism and hostility towards science. At KWI, we assume that investing in science communication does not automatically solve complex social and political problems. First of all, we want to better understand how science communication has developed historically and how it can be described more precisely in different science systems. Only when their functions and, under certain circumstances, undesirable developments are really understood, are recommendations for new formats to be well justified.

We believe that cultural studies can make an important contribution to this. This also means that the analysis of science communication should not be left to communication science alone. Historians, cultural economists and sociologists, as well as experts in image composition, design, media use, storytelling, rhetoric and journalism can make important contributions. In this field of work, we do not leave descriptions and analyzes of science communication to commercial providers and consultants, but rather to comment critically on new business models and working methods. And to deal with long-term developments and system effects, especially popular measures.

Communication culture

The research area 'Cultures of Communication', established in 2015, examines the interdisciplinary communicative practices that members of different 'communication cultures' use to coordinate their actions. Are examined z. B. Communication cultures that are tied to languages ​​or nationalities or to religious or ideological orientations or to differently developed abilities of people to communicate their actions with each other (dementing or autistic people) or to different modes of communication (emotional, linguistic, interactive).

Communicative action does not 'automatically' result in understanding and obeying. Both depend on specific social and situational conditions. Here the communication power acquired in earlier communicative cooperation plays a special role. Even if the spoken word reaches everyone who is in the vicinity indiscriminately, and is thus apparently egalitarian and thus designed for equality, the power of communicative action is empirically measured according to the social power and the communication power of the speaker. Communicative action cannot force anything, it can only suggest and provide it with consequences. Communication power is always based on recognition.

Participation culture

The transdisciplinary research focus Participation Culture, established in 2013, is the first scientific competence center on the subject of citizen participation with a focus on technological innovations in Germany. Protests against new technologies, especially in the case of large infrastructure projects or public planning, can no longer be pacified by simply referring to decisions that have been made democratically or information campaigns. More than ever, citizens want to get involved in politics beyond elections and votes and have a say when it comes to the final storage of high-level radioactive waste, the construction of power lines or the widespread use of genetic engineering. The research focus on culture of participation analyzes, evaluates and tests citizen participation.

In 2015 the participation in the virtual institute "Transformation - Energiewende NRW" started .

Teaching laboratory

Institutes for Advanced Study create space for research. These can also give rise to new ideas for teaching. The KWI is therefore also open to students and addresses the three universities of the University Alliance Ruhr (UAR) with regular seminars in order to support cooperation within the UAR at the degree program level. In addition, employees and fellows are invited to reflect on their research projects from the perspective of research-based teaching: where and how can students be involved; How can these enrich the respective projects and in this way be familiarized with scientific methods early and independently?

The teaching laboratory is closely connected to all other work areas of the KWI. In this way, students can give important feedback on specific formats and strategies of science communication, because they have not yet internalized the routines of academic communication to such an extent that alternative and innovative possibilities are difficult to convey. The experiences of students are also valuable from a literary and cultural sociological perspective: They embody a variety of use and consumption, experience with popular forms and genres as well as special expertise that can only enrich our research into the art and media system. And finally, cultural science research can also be supplemented by the perspectives of learning and teaching: For example, there has not yet been sufficient research into how students absorb knowledge in reading and writing in different disciplinary and national contexts; and how these core competencies could be adapted even better to new learning environments and new adaptations without losing sight of the history of the origins and effects of central scientific cultural techniques.

Publications

  • Claus Leggewie, Patrizia Nanz (ed.): The consultative. More democracy through citizen participation. Wagenbach Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-8031-2749-5 .
  • Marten Düring, Ulrich Eumann, Martin Stark, Linda von Keyserlingk (eds.): Manual Historical Network Research. LIT Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-643-11705-2 .
  • Friedrich Jäger, Wolfgang Knöbl, Ute Schneider (Eds.): Handbook of Modern Research. Brill Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-476-02442-8 .
  • Bernd Sommer (Ed.): Cultural Dynamics of Climate Change and the Environment in Northern America. Brill Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-90-04-29883-5 .
  • Angelika Poferl, Jo Reichertz (Ed.): Paths into the field. Methodological aspects of field access. Oldib Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-939556-47-3 .
  • Claus Leggewie: Political Times. Observations from the sidelines. C. Bertelsmann, 2015, ISBN 978-3-570-10200-8 .
  • Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (Ed.): Building Europe's (Energy) Future. A manifesto for an European Community for Energy Transition. 2015.
  • Lea Schmitt: Climate, space and time in transition. An ethnographic study of adaptations and conflicts on the West Frisian island of Ameland. oekom, 2015, ISBN 978-3-86581-724-2 .
  • KWI report 2012/13. ed. by Claus Leggewie for the Cultural Studies Institute Essen (KWI). Druckhaus Köthen, Köthen 2014, ISBN 978-3-8376-1327-8 .
  • Frank Adloff, Claus Leggewie (Ed.): The Convivalist Manifesto. For a new art of living together. transcript Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8376-2898-2 .
  • Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen (Ed.): Potentials for energy-efficient modernization in Essen. Results of a 2014 population survey.
  • Wilfried Loth: Europe's unification. An unfinished story. Campus Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-593-50077-5 .
  • Hans-Georg Soeffner , Thea D. Boldt (Ed.): Fragile Pluralism. Springer VS, Knowledge, Communication and Society series, 2014, ISBN 978-3-658-03762-8 .
  • Andreas Ernst, Harald Welzer, Ramón Briegel, Martin David, Angelika Gellrich, Sophia Schönborn, Jens Kroh (eds.): Scenarios of Perception of Reaction to Adaptation. Final report on the joint project SPREAD. kassel university press, CESR Paper 8 2014, ISBN 978-3-86219-892-4 .
  • Wilfried Loth, Marc Hanisch (Ed.): First World War and Jihad. The Germans and the Revolution. De Gruyter / Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-85854-9 .
  • Volker Heins: The Diversity Scandal. History and concepts of multiculturalism. Campus, 2013, ISBN 978-3-593-39969-0 .
  • Claus Leggewie, Marcel Siepmann (ed.): Provocation over the cross - positions on the blasphemy debate. (= Global Dialogues of the Käte Hamburger Kolleg). Center for Global Cooperation Research, 2013. ISSN  2198-0403 .
  • Darja Reuschke, Monika Salzbrunn, Korinna Schönhärl (eds.): The Economies of Urban Diversity. Ruhr Area and Istanbul. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, ISBN 978-1-137-34650-6 .
  • Claus Leggewie: Visible in the south. edition Körber Foundation, 2012, ISBN 978-3-89684-093-6 .
  • Johanna Hoppen, Anne Lang, Claus Leggewie, Marcel Siepmann, Darius Zifonun (eds.): Key works in cultural studies. transcript, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8376-1327-8 .
  • Sonja Schnitzler: Sociology in National Socialism between science and politics. Springer VS, 2012, ISBN 978-3-531-18611-5 .
  • Stefan Reichmuth, Jörn Rüsen, Aladdin Sarhan (eds.): Humanism and Muslim Culture. V&R unipress, 2012, ISBN 978-3-89971-937-6 .
  • Franz Mauelshagen : Wunderkammer on paper. The "Wickiana" between Reformation and popular belief. bibliotheca academica, 2011, ISBN 978-3-928471-73-2 .
  • Marie Mualem Sultan : Migration, Diversity and Public Service Broadcasting. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8260-4523-3 .
  • Harald Welzer , Sönke Neitzel : Soldiers. Logs of Fighting, Killing and Dying. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-10-089434-2 .
  • Eleonora Rohland : Sharing the Risk. Fire, Climate and Disaster. Swiss Re 1864-1906. Carnegie Publishing, Lancaster 2011.
  • Claus Leggewie , Anne Lang : The struggle for European memory. A battlefield is visited. Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-60584-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.uaruhr.de/news/2017/news00312.html.de
  2. ↑ Press release of the University of Duisburg-Essen from November 2nd, 2017. Retrieved May 21, 2019 .
  3. ↑ KWI press release from November 3rd, 2017. Retrieved November 6, 2017 .