Research Projects at Department II: Social Sciences
Current projects
Mixed-methods study of digital transformation and its impact on the prevalence and experience of loneliness in Saxony-Anhalt
Duration: 01.09.2025 to 31.12.2028
Previous research projects on “Risks and Opportunities of Loneliness in the Digital Work and Living Environment of Saxony-Anhalt” as well as “Housing Forms and Social Networks and Their Influence on Experiences of Loneliness” have already produced initial findings on the burdens of loneliness for specific population groups in the federal state. The current research project builds on these insights and investigates potential links between digitalization processes, mental health, and loneliness.
Within a mixed-methods research design, a theory-driven, representative survey for Saxony-Anhalt will be developed and conducted. The aim is to examine overall loneliness burdens in the state, to analyze urban-rural differences and variations by educational background and age, to identify factors that promote or mitigate different forms of loneliness, and to explore the political dimensions and consequences of loneliness. In addition, qualitative approaches—particularly guided and ethnographic interviews—will provide in-depth insights into the contexts in which loneliness arises and into individuals’ concrete experiences of loneliness.
Based on these findings, a loneliness-focused and milieu-specific mapping of the social space in Saxony-Anhalt can be produced as a publication format grounded in scientific evidence. This mapping will serve as a basis for developing strategies for policy and society to address loneliness.
Mixed-methods study of digital transformation and its impact on the prevalence and experience of loneliness in Saxony-Anhalt
Duration: 01.09.2025 to 31.12.2028
Previous research projects on “Risks and Opportunities of Loneliness in the Digital Work and Living Environment of Saxony-Anhalt” as well as “Housing Forms and Social Networks and Their Influence on Experiences of Loneliness” have already produced initial findings on the burdens of loneliness for specific population groups in the federal state. The current research project builds on these insights and investigates potential links between digitalization processes, mental health, and loneliness.
Within a mixed-methods research design, a theory-driven, representative survey for Saxony-Anhalt will be developed and conducted. The aim is to examine overall loneliness burdens in the state, to analyze urban-rural differences and variations by educational background and age, to identify factors that promote or mitigate different forms of loneliness, and to explore the political dimensions and consequences of loneliness. In addition, qualitative approaches—particularly guided and ethnographic interviews—will provide in-depth insights into the contexts in which loneliness arises and into individuals’ concrete experiences of loneliness.
Based on these findings, a loneliness-focused and milieu-specific mapping of the social space in Saxony-Anhalt can be produced as a publication format grounded in scientific evidence. This mapping will serve as a basis for developing strategies for policy and society to address loneliness.
RehaWege - Vocational rehabilitation at a crossroads? Causes, challenges and new ways of participation
Duration: 01.01.2025 to 31.12.2027
The RehaWege research project is dedicated to the question of why people with health restrictions do not take advantage of benefits for participation in working life (LTA), i.e. vocational rehabilitation measures, even though they are entitled to do so. Against the backdrop of far-reaching structural change in the world of work, demographic change and new health problems, the project is investigating both the structural and individual causes of this phenomenon.
The aim of the project is to identify gaps in care, to better reach underserved groups of people and to provide impetus for the further development of occupational rehabilitation services. To this end, the LTA risk index (RI-LTA) is being developed as part of the project. This index is based on routine data from the German Pension Insurance (DRV) and the Federal Employment Agency (BA) and is intended to make it possible to identify people with a high risk of occupational rehabilitation or reduced earning capacity at an early stage, even if they have not yet applied for rehabilitation. As a prognostic tool, the RI-LTA is intended to help identify needs in a targeted manner, facilitate access to rehabilitation and tailor advice and service structures more precisely. Furthermore, the project uses a mixed-methods approach and a cross-agency approach to investigate whether LTA services are up-to-date and take sufficient account of the needs of, for example, a) a changing demographic population and increased female labor force participation, b) a pull effect of the labor market and c) changing expectations of social policy. The motives for not claiming social policy benefits, such as LTA, are explored qualitatively.
Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (OvGU) is responsible for the qualitative research in the project. The Chair of Microsociology is conducting interviews with those affected who do not make use of rehabilitation services despite being entitled to them, as well as interviews with those involved in vocational rehabilitation (e.g. from job centers, pension insurance or educational institutions) and group discussions with stakeholders from the field. The aim is to make the subjective interpretations, motives and hurdles associated with (non-)utilization of LTA visible. Particular attention is paid to the question of whether and how trust in socio-political institutions, knowledge of existing benefits or new employment orientations influence behavior.
An innovative element of the project are future workshops, which are carried out in cooperation with practitioners and stakeholders in vocational rehabilitation. These participatory events serve to reflect on the research results and jointly develop practical solutions. The focus is on how the risk index can be applied in practice to improve access to rehabilitation, for example by addressing people at an early stage, providing targeted information and developing new service formats.
The project is a cooperation between the OvGU, the University of Lübeck and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). While the partners in Lübeck and Nuremberg are responsible for the quantitative analyses and the development of the risk index, the focus of the OVGU is on the qualitative survey and evaluation as well as on the dialog with practitioners.
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A Union of Equality? An Examination of the Gender Equality Strategy 2020 - 2025
Duration: 01.03.2022 to 01.04.2027
Cumulative dissertation on the topic: A Union of Equality? An Examination of the Gender Equality Strategy 2020 - 2025.
This cumulative dissertation examines the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 of the European Union, with the aim of assessing the progress and challenges in terms of gender equality at European level.
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transSCAPE - Cultural Spaces of Knowledge
Duration: 01.03.2024 to 28.02.2027
The initiative transSCAPE - Cultural Spaces of Knowledge - promotes the development of Magdeburg's Port of Science through culturally supported transfer formats into an open and diverse place of knowledge.
With a view to developing the Port of Science into a modern urban quarter and ecosystem, transSCAPE is playing a key role in developing the quarter into an attractive urban space, cultural hotspot and an interesting and sustainable residential landscape. The scientific approaches anchored in transSCAPE from spatial, culture-led transformation for the spatial, social and ideational structural change to the new high-tech ecosystem in the Port of Science also provide suitable innovative transfer formats. Tailor-made spatial design and urban curatorial elements are intended to bring urban culture and knowledge culture together physically and materially in the overall transPORT initiative and allow them to grow together innovatively. A cultural annual program to be developed specifically for the Port of Science with its various social transfer formats always serves the exchange and development of knowledge. The focus here is on the identity-creating potential generated by the participation of all transPORT participants from science, society and business in the planned events.
The aim is to stimulate the interdisciplinary exchange of knowledge between culture, medicine and technology on the one hand, and to promote the transfer between science, business and society on the other. To this end, the various interests and needs of local people are actively addressed and numerous stakeholders are involved in the visionary revitalization of the district. The Port of Science opens up as a think tank and space of opportunity and invites everyone interested to shape the future of the Port of Science with a strong network. Ultimately, this is about designing and practicing new forms of collaboration.
transSCAPE is one of ten sub-projects of the overall initiative transPORT - Transferhafen Magdeburg, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the program line T!Raum - Transfer Spaces for the Future of Regions.
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Success factors in vocational rehabilitation and integration processes - an analysis of individual trajectories in vocational training centers
Duration: 01.01.2022 to 31.12.2026
[The project, funded by the German Federal Pension Insurance (DRV), aims to make a practical contribution to increasing the effectiveness of LTA measures by avoiding discontinuous courses of two-year qualifications (retraining) in vocational training centers (BFW). The question of the prevention of such discontinuous courses and the restoration of continuity in the event of premature termination of measures with an unclear participation perspective will be examined from the perspective of all those involved in the process (participants, rehabilitation providers, BFW specialists). During the 5-year period, the data basis will be developed using a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches and relates the results to each other. Initially, a retrospective perspective will be taken by looking at completed cases of rehabilitants. Subsequently, a more process-accompanying, prospective perspective is adopted, in which rehabilitants are accompanied at critical points in the course of the measures and enriched by the perspective of BFW specialists and other experts in vocational rehabilitation. The results of the various surveys and methodological approaches are used to develop recommendations for action for process design in the participating BFWs in regular participatory future workshops - also with the involvement of external expertise. The focus on discontinuous processes opens up the perspective of previous research efforts on the topic of dropout processes in BFW. Generalizable findings are expected beyond the type of institution BFW. The BFW Bad Wildbad and Birkenfeld represent the practical fields of the model project and provide comprehensive support for the research.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025
Success factors in vocational rehabilitation and integration processes - an analysis of individual trajectories in vocational training centers
Duration: 01.01.2022 to 31.12.2026
The project aims to make a practical contribution to increasing the effectiveness of LTA measures by avoiding discontinuous courses of two-year qualifications (retraining) in vocational training centers (BFW). The question of the prevention of such discontinuous courses and the restoration of continuity in the event of premature termination of measures with an unclear participation perspective will be examined from the perspective of all those involved in the process (participants, rehabilitation providers, BFW specialists). During the 5-year period, the data basis will be developed using a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative and quantitative approaches and relates the results to each other. Initially, a retrospective perspective will be taken by looking at completed cases of rehabilitants. Subsequently, a more process-accompanying, prospective perspective is adopted, in which rehabilitants are accompanied at critical points in the course of the measures and enriched by the perspective of BFW specialists and other experts in vocational rehabilitation. The results of the various surveys and methodological approaches are used to develop recommendations for action for process design in the participating BFWs in regular participatory future workshops - also with the involvement of external expertise. The focus on discontinuous processes opens up the perspective of previous research efforts on the topic of dropout processes in BFW. Generalizable findings are expected beyond the type of institution BFW. The BFW Bad Wildbad and Birkenfeld represent the practical fields of the model project and provide comprehensive support for the research.
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Beruflicher Eingliederungsweg umfassend neu gedacht [BEWEGUNG]
Duration: 15.02.2022 to 31.10.2026
Das Forschungsprojekt "Beruflicher Eingliederungsweg umfassend neu gedacht" [BEWEGUNG] ist Teil des Bundesprogramms rehapro. Es wird gefördert durch das Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales (BMAS). Im geplanten Förderzeitraum eröffnet das Modellprojekt für Kund*innen aus dem Rechtskreis SGB II mit einer komplexen, arbeitsbiografischen und sozialräumlichen Problemlage ein neuartiges Leistungsangebot in Form des beruflich-medizinischen Integrationsmoduls. Prägendes innovatives Element ist die Schaffung eines beruflich geprägten Settings, in dem individuell notwendige rehamedizinische Leistungen in den Maßnahmeverlauf eingebettet sind und ein berufsbiografische Orientierung mittels biografischen Coaching ermöglicht wird. Das Ziel besteht darin die aktive Teilhabe am Arbeitsleben und Arbeit unter den gesundheitlichen Gegebenheiten zu ermöglichen und die Wahrnehmung und Nutzung der Potenziale von Arbeit als Resilienzfaktor zu stärken.
A comprehensive rethink of the vocational integration path [BEWEGUNG]
Duration: 15.02.2022 to 31.10.2026
The research project "A comprehensive rethink of the vocational integration pathway" [BEWEGUNG] is part of the federal rehapro program. It is funded by the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS). During the planned funding period, the pilot project will open up a new range of services in the form of the occupational-medical integration module for clients from the SGB II legal system with complex, work-related and socio-spatial problems. The key innovative element is the creation of an occupational setting in which individually necessary rehabilitation medical services are embedded in the course of the measure and occupational biographical orientation is made possible by means of biographical coaching. The aim is to enable active participation in working life and work under the health conditions and to strengthen the perception and use of the potential of work as a resilience factor.
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Repertory of the German royal palaces, vol. Saxony-Anhalt
Duration: 01.10.2024 to 30.09.2026
As part of the project, all residences (royal palaces) of the German kings of the Middle Ages (up to 1250) in the territory of present-day Saxony-Anhalt will be recorded. This will provide a reliable tool for further research, enabling comparative studies in particular. At the same time, the existing research gap for the central royal landscape of the 10th century will be closed.
Project management: Prof. Dr. Stephan Freund
Project collaborators: Dr. Christoph Mielzarek; Alena Reeb; Michael Belitz
The project is being carried out in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History (Frankfurt am Main) and the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments and Archaeology (Halle/Saale). A sub-project concerning the archaeology of royal palaces is being carried out at the Martin Luther University in Halle (Prof. Gärtner).
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"Brockenhexen. From the historical witch hunts in the Harz Mountains to tourist marketing", edited by Christoph Eydt ...
Duration: 31.03.2018 to 31.05.2026
The research is intended to describe and explain the change in the image of witches in the Harz Mountains in the form of a longitudinal section. Taking into account socio-cultural, mental, political, religious and economic motives, it is about the change in meaning of the witch figure and ideas. As the witch is increasingly becoming a symbol of the Harz Mountains in the present day and many tourist centers are drawing on mythological elements and witches, it seems necessary to research the tradition of the belief in witches, taking into account the tourist leitmotif. Specifically, the question must be asked as to whether and to what extent there is a connection between the witch tradition and popular piety/folk magic of the early modern period and the modern image of witches. What tradition is the modern witch in the Harz based on? Did the Brocken witch possibly come to the Harz Mountains independently of traditional witchcraft beliefs? The formation of legends plays a major role here. For this reason, local legends and myths, literature and pictorial representations will also be examined for historical facts, symbolic content and the creation of meaning. Even at the risk of shaking up the self-image of some Harz people, it is important to ask critically what the marketing of the Brpcken witches is all about: Folklorism, tourism, nostalgia or a mixture of these elements to create a new identity figure?
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Socio-ecological Inequalities in Intra- and International Comparison
Duration: 20.04.2023 to 01.05.2026
As a product of reflexive modernization (Beck, 1986), climate change produces specific forms of inequalities that manifest themselves between social groups within nations on the one hand and between countries of the global North and South on the other. The cumulative doctoral project explores and systematizes these inequalities on the basis of empirical quantitative data. It analyses along which fault lines socio-ecological conflicts are to be expected and in which areas climate change as a modernization risk can trigger transformative social dynamics.
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Birth - Childbirth - Motherhood. Historical developments from the 16th to the 20th century. Book project
Duration: 02.06.2025 to 31.01.2026
The volume is based on the conference of the same name held in April 2023 and brings together the historical findings on the topic to date. It does not include the latest developments from 1945 to the present day. It is an anthology of the latest and most recent research on the development of childbirth as a socio-cultural practice and on the genesis of initially all-female, then female and male obstetrics (midwives, obstetricians/accoucheurs, gynecologists).
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Rise, fall or transformation of the experience society? A quantitative-empirical study for Germany and Europe
Duration: 01.10.2022 to 31.12.2025
More recent diagnoses of the times paint a rather gloomy picture of social conditions, such as "Escape to the future: the culture of success of the present" (Neckel 2008), the "society of fear" (Bude 2014) or the "descent society" (Nachtwey 2016). The contrast to the social diagnoses before the turn of the millennium is remarkable. Paradigmatic for the optimism of the 1980s and 1990s was Gerhard Schulze's (1992) thesis of the adventure society: in view of the material abundance for broad sections of society, modernization had turned from the outside in, away from an orientation towards status and material success towards the almost playful "project of the beautiful life". As a result, social inequalities have also become largely irrelevant in people's everyday lives, which Schulze describes as subjective de-verticalization. Confronted with the latest diagnoses of the present and the increasing economic inequality and insecurity discussed there, the exciting question arises: Is the adventure society history again? Or are we still - and perhaps even more than ever - living in an adventure society? Or has society recently developed in a completely different direction in the face of new socio-ecological crises and challenges (keywords: sustainability and post-growth)? In this field of tension between diagnoses of the times, the proposed project aims to determine the position of German society against the backdrop of the theory of the experience society, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2022. We are investigating whether the shift towards the experience society is still intact despite the increasingly fragile framework conditions (scenario "rise of the experience society") or whether it has reversed again (scenario "fall of the experience society"). The project is also open to the possibility that society has taken a new direction of development with the new existential problem of "sustainable living" (scenario "transformation of the experience society") In order to be able to determine this position, the project focuses on two basic assumptions of Schulze's theory: that of inward-looking modernization in the direction of experience orientation and that of the subjective de-verticalization of society. We examine these basic assumptions in a population-representative way over time (from approx. 1980 to the present) for Germany and additionally with current cross-sectional data in an international - especially European - country comparison (from approx. 2000 to the present). The research project is largely based on secondary analysis; we are only planning an explorative primary data collection for the topic of transformation. Our project is not only highly relevant to the diagnosis of the times but, apart from a few isolated studies, has long represented a sociological research desideratum.
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/465345673
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The outside within. Welfare State Dynamics of Social Abjection in Basic Security for Jobseekers.
Duration: 01.04.2022 to 31.12.2025
Dissertation project as a monograph on welfare state change in the basic security for jobseekers since 2003. Using a qualitative research design (content analysis), legal texts, plenary minutes and social court/constitutional court rulings on SGB II are analyzed.
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Success Climate Go! Success factors for regional climate governance in Saxony-Anhalt
Duration: 01.07.2023 to 31.12.2025
The question and scientific objective of the research project is to identify political framework conditions and success factors that positively influence regional climate protection. In addition, a transdisciplinary project design should ensure that the transfer of knowledge in the project runs in both directions: On the one hand, political science findings on success factors from science into regional practice, and on the other hand, experiences of the relevant practical actors from the regions and municipalities into the research project in order to find new success factors or improve the theoretically described factors. Networking within the framework of workshops is also intended to promote the exchange of knowledge between the regions and their stakeholders.
The aim is to expand the state of scientific research on political processes in the context of regional climate governance, to support regional actors with concrete advice on success factors and to improve a method for self-assessment of one's own process so that this can ultimately be made available to all interested parties, even beyond the project. In addition, successful and innovative climate protection projects and processes are to be documented.
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Otto von Guericke's world view between faith and science, edited by Patrick Janocha
Duration: 01.01.2019 to 31.12.2025
The research question is to examine Otto von Guericke's philosophical treatises in the Experimenta Nova of 1672, who is particularly well known and scientifically researched as a natural scientist. Since Guericke, as a natural scientist, provided new explanations for the workings of forces in this world and beyond, the question arises as to how he, as a devout Lutheran and Magdeburg patrician and mayor, was able to reconcile the associated philosophical and theological questions, such as the existence and workings of God and many theological assumptions about heaven, with his new scientific findings on the vacuum or air pressure. The connections between theology and natural science are examined on the basis of
a) the world view at the time of Otto von Guericke and the corresponding influencing factors
b) the state of science and the (experimental) exploration of nature, the environment and space
c) the compatibility that O v G found between the religious and the natural sciences and the world view that he developed from the construction of the world and his understanding of nature and faith
d) the significance and impact of Guericke's philosophy between theology and science for the scholarly world of the 17th century
Source basis: printed works by Guericke, correspondence and other writings by Guericke to the Magdeburg City Council, private, political and diplomatic writings by Guericke, contemporary source material
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The plague in Magdeburg 1680-1682: a microhistory, edited by Prof. Dr. Eva Labouvie
Duration: 01.12.2019 to 31.12.2025
The project examines how urban residents dealt with an existentially threatening danger - in this case the plague in Magdeburg - from different perspectives. On the one hand, crisis and catastrophe behavior in the early modern period will be examined more closely, including the basis on which knowledge was gained, communicated and interpreted (medical knowledge, ideas about the contagium, risks of infection, etc.). On the other hand, concrete measures, their compliance or ignorance, behaviors in the exceptional situation of an epidemic, transformations of the "normal" (family life, religiosity, burial culture, trade, housing, mentalities, etc.) as well as the distribution of tasks in the city (hiring special plague servants, plague preachers, plague doctors, plague preachers, plague preachers, plague preachers) will be examined: Plague preachers, plague doctors, plague midwives, hospital staff, nurses, etc.) will be the subject of investigation. Using a large collection of sources from the Magdeburg city archives, the project traces the events from the perspective of the authorities (sovereign, administrator, civil servants), the city council, the church (preachers, parishes), the citizens and other urban groups from the beginning of the first assumptions about the outbreak of the plague to the release of the city by decree of the authorities.
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Failed marriages in the nobility. Separations and divorces in German aristocratic houses in the 18th and 19th centuries, edited by Kathrin Gäde
Duration: 28.02.2019 to 31.12.2025
The project attempts to gain an insight into the everyday and cultural history of the German nobility at the transition from the 18th to the 19th century by examining the failed marriages of aristocratic couples. In addition to the analytical study of 'separations from table and bed' and divorces as legal, economic, power-political and family law phenomena, the study focuses in particular on the different conflict resolution strategies and options for action and thus also the 'inner worlds' of men and women of the German (high) nobility. Last but not least, the examination of failed noble marriages is also an attempt to get closer to gender relations in the European aristocracy.
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Life at war. Encounters with the "unleashed" and "tamed" Bellona (1618-1763) Editing: Stefanie Fabian
Duration: 01.01.2016 to 31.12.2025
The research project uses historical-anthropological, micro-historical and gender studies approaches to examine the living conditions of women, men and children during the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) and the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). By analyzing various types of sources - including personal testimonies, diaries and chronicles, but also official correspondence and militaria - the living conditions and war experiences, people's confrontation with violence and their perceptions are deciphered. By contextualizing these encounters and experiences with everyday life during the war, i.e. by placing them in the specific background of the war and the circumstances that caused it, the aim is to relativize, correct or deepen the scientific findings on the Thirty Years' War and the Seven Years' War that have so far only been obtained through macro-historical studies. The project attempts to close research gaps by using source-based analyses to address the question of whether the postulate of the "tamed Bellona" of the enlightened age, which was first taken up by Gerhard Ritter and has hardly been questioned to date, is true or whether the wars that have apparently been "contained" since this time continued to be characterized by massive violence, and not only on the battlefields. It represents a first micro-analytical focus on the Central German region and aims to make an important and critical contribution to the re-evaluation and reassessment of wars and catastrophes on the path of Germany and Europe into the modern age.
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"Turning the joy we have already achieved into grief." Infant death in the Ernestine dynasty from 1600 to 1800, edited by Anita Henneberger
Duration: 01.07.2017 to 31.12.2025
On the one hand, the analysis planned from different perspectives and with different methodological approaches offers the possibility of a concentrated application of novel theoretical and methodological approaches that have so far been little tested in historical studies, such as symbol and ritual analysis, self-testimony research, historical gender, mentality and emotionality research. Death and dying as basic constants of human life can be analyzed through this combined methodology and multifaceted questioning not only as rites of passage, as interruptions of continuities in a continuously conceived and maintained aristocratic hierarchy, incisions and crisis situations in the power-political to familial sphere, but also as moments of affective consternation, symbolic and ritual overcoming, the crossing of boundaries or phases of collective and individual shock. In particular, the changes in the relationship of parents or other relatives to their children and thus also in the way they dealt with their dying and death, the way they talked and wrote about it, the changes in burial, transitional and replacement rituals, which the project would like to examine in the period from 1600 to 1800 against the background of first reformatization/confessionalization, then enlightenment, rationalization and the time of the so-called "church struggle", will help to explain the developments towards our current relationship to dying and the modern functions of burial customs. Above all, however, they will shed light on the pre-modern understanding and its genesis up to the present day beyond aristocratic culture. The death of a child descendant, which must be distinguished from the death of an adult in terms of both custom and symbolism, generally called into question the dynastic succession and thus the transfer of power, territorial ownership and rule from one generation to the next, but also symbolized far more than that: a lack of divine blessing and divine punishment, the susceptibility of the noble house to illness, imperfect family fertility, and so on. The doctoral project will be able to present completely new, above all interdisciplinary findings on the entire complex of dying, death, funeral culture and mourning in cases of infant death in the narrower sense, and on the concept of childhood, the treatment of and relationship to one's own children and their death. This applies, for example, to gender research, theology and the history of religion, the history of medicine (illnesses, body constellation as a cause of death) or folklore studies/European ethnology (research into customs), but also to the social sciences. For the historical sciences, the "inner views", i.e. the emotional situations, feelings, dreams, wishes and imaginations of people from earlier to some of today's societies, have so far been virtually unexplored, especially for the relationship between adults and children.
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Storms. Dealing with the forces of nature in pre-modern times, edited by Prof. Dr. Eva Labouvie
Duration: 31.03.2023 to 31.12.2025
The project deals with the pre-modern population's (16th-19th century) mental approach to storms as phenomena of uncontrollability and interpretability. The aim is to examine how the systems of explanation for natural disasters, including coping strategies, changed between the 16th and 19th centuries; the main concern, however, is to explore the mental transformation process from personal communication with nature to the transfer of protection to material proxies. The theoretical justifications for natural threats as well as the practical forms of dealing with them from the perspective of the rulers, the churches, the educated classes as well as the urban and rural population will be examined.
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Subjective reactions to growing inequality
Duration: 01.11.2022 to 30.11.2025
One trend in recent decades has been growing economic inequality. What are people's subjective reactions to this? Do they also perceive society as generally more unequal? How do they locate themselves in the status structure? And how does inequality influence their subjective well-being? The project examines these questions from the general perspective of subject-centered inequality research. Against the background of structural changes in post-industrial societies, particular attention is paid to class-specific reactions. The research in the project is quantitative-empirical and uses survey data from all major European and international survey projects.
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Modern social cohesion
Duration: 01.11.2022 to 30.11.2025
Due to various developments, the social cohesion of today's societies is considered to be at risk. This raises the question of how it can be strengthened. There are various socio-political concepts that all claim to promote cohesion: liberal, social democratic, communitarian, conservative and nationalist. The project deals systematically with these socio-political concepts. Firstly, their intellectual origins are described and it is worked out which structural prerequisites and cultural resources are emphasized as promoting cohesion in each case. A comparison of European countries in particular then examines the extent to which these assumptions are covered by social reality: Do we find a connection between the respective postulated structural or cultural preconditions on the one hand and a strong social community on the other? And if so, for what kind of cohesion? The aim of the project is to determine the right socio-political strategy for modern social cohesion.
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Completed projects
Female political participation in Saxony-Anhalt. Women in local politics, 1893 to 1933.
Duration: 01.11.2022 to 31.10.2025
The research project relates to 100 years of women's suffrage in Germany and Saxony-Anhalt. In a pioneering study, it aims to make the first scientific and explicitly state-historical contribution in Germany to the participation of women in politics and society, the emergence of the modern community and the promotion of the democratization process in Saxony-Anhalt between 1893 and 1933. The aim is to make politically active women visible through their involvement in the "First German Women's Movement", in the women's suffrage movement that emerged from it, through to the elected female politicians in urban and rural communities. In this field of activity, they were hardly noticed from the perspective of contemporary gender-specific standardization - even to this day. Individual female personalities from the Saxony-Anhalt region, known in historical analysis as leading figures of the German and in part international women's (suffrage) movement, and early contacts with the initiators of the "First Women's (Suffrage) Movement" in Leipzig point to a very special role in Saxony-Anhalt and a considerable female political-participative potential that has not yet been scientifically analyzed. The new findings of the project will serve to establish the identity of the inhabitants of Saxony-Anhalt. They will be published in a monograph, but some of them will be made available to an interested public in advance via a project website.
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Female political participation in Saxony-Anhalt 1883 - 1933
Duration: 01.11.2022 to 31.10.2025
The research project relates to 100 years of women's suffrage in Germany and Saxony-Anhalt. In a pioneering study, it aims to make the first scientific and explicitly state-historical contribution in Germany to the participation of women in politics and society, the emergence of the modern community and the promotion of the democratization process in Saxony-Anhalt between 1893 and 1933. The aim is to make politically active women visible through their involvement in the "First German Women's Movement", the women's suffrage movement that emerged from it and the elected female politicians in urban and rural communities. In this field of activity, they were hardly noticed from the perspective of contemporary gender-specific standardization - even to this day. Individual female personalities from the Saxony-Anhalt region, known in historical analysis as leading figures of the German and in part international women's (suffrage) movement, and early contacts with the initiators of the "First Women's (Suffrage) Movement" in Leipzig point to a very special role in Saxony-Anhalt and a considerable female political-participative potential that has not yet been scientifically analyzed. The new findings of the project will serve to establish the identity of the inhabitants of Saxony-Anhalt. They will be published in a monograph, but some of them will be made available to an interested public in advance via a project website.
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Rise, fall or transformation of the experience society? A quantitative-empirical study for Germany and Europe
Duration: 01.10.2022 to 30.09.2025
More recent diagnoses of the times paint a rather gloomy picture of social conditions, such as "Escape to the future: the culture of success of the present" (Neckel 2008), the "society of fear" (Bude 2014) or the "descent society" (Nachtwey 2016). The contrast to the social diagnoses before the turn of the millennium is remarkable. Paradigmatic for the optimism of the 1980s and 1990s was Gerhard Schulze's (1992) thesis of the adventure society: in view of the material abundance for broad sections of society, modernization had turned from the outside in, away from an orientation towards status and material success towards the almost playful "project of the beautiful life". As a result, social inequalities have also become largely irrelevant in people's everyday lives, which Schulze describes as subjective de-verticalization. Confronted with the latest diagnoses of the present and the increasing economic inequality and insecurity discussed there, the exciting question therefore arises: Is the adventure society history again? Or are we still - and perhaps even more than ever - living in an adventure society? Or has society recently developed in a completely different direction in the face of new socio-ecological crises and challenges (keywords: sustainability and post-growth)? In this field of tension between diagnoses of the times, the proposed project aims to determine the position of German society against the backdrop of the theory of the experience society, which will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2022. We are investigating whether the shift towards the experience society is still intact despite the increasingly fragile framework conditions (scenario "rise of the experience society") or whether it has reversed again (scenario "fall of the experience society"). The project is also open to the possibility that society has taken a new direction of development with the new existential problem of "sustainable living" (scenario "transformation of the experience society") In order to be able to determine this position, the project focuses on two basic assumptions of Schulze's theory: that of inward-looking modernization in the direction of experience orientation and that of the subjective de-verticalization of society. We examine these basic assumptions in a population-representative way over time (from approx. 1980 to the present) for Germany and additionally with current cross-sectional data in an international - especially European - country comparison (from approx. 2000 to the present). The research project is largely based on secondary analysis; we are only planning an explorative primary data collection for the topic of transformation. Our project is not only highly relevant to the diagnosis of the times but, apart from a few isolated studies, has long represented a sociological research desideratum.
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Gender, War and Popular Culture
Duration: 01.10.2017 to 01.01.2025
This research deals with the interconnectedness of popular culture, world politics and gender. It is situated within the Popular Culture and World Politics field of study, which has examined the importance of popular artifacts such as films, video games, comics, etc. in shaping international political events. It also contributes to the feminist research in international relations by recognizing the crucial role played by gender in international relations. More specifically, it explores the multiple interactions between gender and conflict, following Cynthia Enloe's assertion that the personal is political is international.
Empirically, the focus of this project is on films and videos. It examines the significance of these popular and visual media for the gendered representation of armed conflict. At the heart of the investigation is the question of how gender is represented in popular culture and in relation to war and militarization, and more specifically, how militaristic ideas and beliefs become embedded in our everyday lives. To answer these research questions, I mainly work with visual methods and film analysis within a feminist post-structural framework.
This doctoral thesis is divided into several thematic areas.
- A first article, already published, deals with women involved in political violence and examines the representation of Kurdish women fighters in French films. It discusses how their struggle is simplified and instrumentalized within the Kurdish freedom movement, contributing to gender essentialism, nationalism and Islamophobia.
- The second article is dedicated to the TikTok videos posted by Ukrainian soldiers at the onset of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. It examines several TikTok videos posted by soldiers at the beginning of the conflict and reads them in the context of the upheaval of gender neo-traditionalism underway in Ukraine and against the conceptual framework of militarized masculinity. It concludes that while the soldiers' portrayals challenge models of military masculinity, they do not completely disrupt the gender order.
- The third article is in preparation.
Promotion of digital teaching offerings in the EPOS network, 2024
Duration: 01.01.2024 to 31.12.2024
The project is concerned with the further development of the AGEP online learning program of the EPOS network. The MA Peace and Conflict Studies program is part of this network and regularly opens seminars for other programs throughout Germany. At the same time, our students benefit from the courses offered at other universities. The financial resources come from the TH Köln via a forwarding contract and are used for the administrative processing of participation in seminars.
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Networks, paradigms and careers in the academic field
Duration: 01.01.2024 to 31.12.2024
The project, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), examines the change in the logic of academic fields from a competition for knowledge to a competition for third-party funding and visibility. Three aspects in particular are of interest: the narrowing of paradigmatic diversity in an academic field, the changing patterns of cooperation between academics, and the transformation and increasing standardization of academic career paths. The project examines these developments for the field of sociology in a comparative empirical study in which the changes in US and German sociology are analyzed in comparison for the period 2000 to 2019. In order to test our research hypotheses and generate hypotheses related to the study of changes in the academic field at the levels of countries, institutions and researchers, we combine different types of data: Publication data (e.g. article abstracts on SCOPUS), network data (collaborations, e.g. co-authorship and citations between researchers, appointment data), CV data, institutional data (e.g. financial resources of departments) and interview data generated in qualitative surveys of sociologists, which should provide insights into the personal experience of the assumed change. Methods of geometric data analysis, network analysis, quantitative text analysis, sequence analysis and qualitative-reconstructive social research are used to evaluate this data.
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Social space, habitus types and milieus in Germany and Europe
Duration: 01.04.2015 to 31.12.2024
Development of an integrated qualitative and quantitative empirical habitus analysis and its implementation within the further development of classical milieu indicators in internationally comparable population surveys (habilitation project).
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Global Knowledge Networks in Sustainability Governance
Duration: 01.01.2021 to 01.09.2024
Under what conditions do scientific findings flow into global sustainability policy and what role do transnational networks of experts play in this? I am investigating these questions in my habilitation project using comparative studies. After all, which experts politicians listen to and which knowledge is used for political decisions is the subject of extremely controversial debate in research and society. In addition, the number of initiatives aimed at integrating science more strongly into sustainability policy has not only increased rapidly in recent years, but they also seem to be increasingly steering the processes at the interface between science and politics. However, today we know very little about who is behind these initiatives, how scientific policy advice is organized there and how they influence political decisions.
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Scientific monitoring of the Housing First approach as part of a concept for assisted living in the state capital Magdeburg
Duration: 01.01.2022 to 31.07.2024
The Housing First concept is designed to make it much easier for homeless people to move into their own home . In contrast to previous support programs for homeless people, which require them to have their own apartment at the end of the support measure, the Housing First concept provides them with their own apartment at an early stage. Only when the housing situation is clear and secure are the social problems of the person concerned dealt with. The concept is already being used successfully in other European countries to combat homelessness. The Chair of General Sociology/Microsociology is evaluating the implementation of the Housing First concept as part of a concept for assisted living in a pilot project in the state capital of Magdeburg over a period of around 2.5 years and supporting it with accompanying research. Qualitative and quantitative data on the target group's living situation will be collected and analyzed. Through a participatory research approach, the perspectives of homeless people will be incorporated into the research and evaluation process.
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The Power of the European Parliament in European Trade Negotiations
Duration: 01.06.2021 to 01.06.2024
The PhD project aims at investigating the relationship between power and influence in the case of the EP in the CCP. Investigating whether and under which conditions the increase of EP powers translates in influence in the CCP, this PhD will thus contribute to the literature on EP empowerment and more specifically the literature on the EP’s empowerment in trade policy. In addition, it will make a theoretical contribution to the question how institutional empowerment connects to influence.
First of all, the project conceptualises power and influence. Hereafter, the EP’s influence on trade agreements will be measured as the dependent variable. The dependent variable will be measured through a thorough analysis of the negotiation process of trade agreements in two steps: First, the dependent variable, influence, shall be measured by quantitative text analysis. Second, the so far under-researched mechanisms of how empowerment translates to influence will be investigated through process tracing. In this second step, intervening variables will be identified. The empirical base of the PhD project are trade agreements that have been negotiated since the enforcement of the Treaty of Lisbon.
Recognition in International Relations
Duration: 01.04.2018 to 31.03.2024
Within the framework of this dissertation project there will be an examination of recognition in international relations, especially with regard to the (non-) recognition of states. In the context of current cases, state-of-the-art considerations are also being considered for (non-) denying statehood.
Cosmopolitan responsibility and North-South borders
Duration: 01.10.2018 to 31.01.2024
At North-South borders, hegemonic structures become particularly clear when border crossing becomes a privilege and permeability is unequally distributed depending on direction and passport.
At the same time, concepts of cosmopolitan responsibility are also focusing more on post- and de-colonial contexts and North-South dynamics without, however, being able to clarify the problem conclusively.
This is where the thesis comes in and attempts to propose a solution in the field of tension between cosmopolitan responsibility and North-South borders in an empirical and theoretical examination of the problem.
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Imagining Post-Liberal Peace(s) or Peace Without Domination - An Anarchist Intervention to International Relations Theory and Critical Peacebuilding in Particular
Duration: 01.01.2021 to 31.12.2023
Whilst anarchism is gaining more and more traction in the social sciences (Havercroft and Prichard 2017, 5; see: Levy 2019, 4) critical peacebuilding has not yet explored this field of thought. Anarchism, theorizing a social order without domination (Gordon 2007, 37-38), could for example navigate two dilemmas critical peacebuilding faces, being: (1) Recommending a certain vision of a peace for others and thereby being oppressive[1] and (2) the danger of bottom up peaces to be oppressive in themselves (Richmond and Mac Ginty 2015). The aim is to address "the lack of a critical alternative” (Chandler 2010, 153) a need for which also Seyferth sees, as according to him, postmodern approaches tend to have sometimes cynical and hopeless tendencies (Seyferth 2015, 30). The anarchist contribution acts thereby as "a more positive theoretical project of proposal and the study of alternative practices” (Reedy 2014, 652). The question of my research shall therefore be: How can anarchist philosophy contribute to critical theory in international relations? The closest attachment point here might be in the radical approaches to peacebuilding, which will therefore serve as first field to test my argument on, which can then be translated to the wider debate within international relations. This means that this research asks what more emancipatory[2] forms of peace could look like? A question to which anarchist theory, which sees violence as antithetical to its idea, as it’s a further form of domination (Springer 2011, 532; Llewellyn 2018, 262), is most suitable to answer and thereby foreshadow how post-liberal peace(s) might look? And what are guiding principles and how can such peace(s) be build and sustained?
[1] Or as David Graeber described anarchism’s potential: "Contemporary anarchist ‘theory’, such as it is, is most explicitly not intended to provide a comprehensive understanding that will instruct others in the proper conduct of revolution. It is not an ideology, a theory of history. It tends, rather, towards a kind of inspirational, creative play. It is more than anything else an extrapolation from and imaginative projection of certain forms of practice” Graeber (2009, 221).
[2] Emancipation is understood as a normative conceptualization that attempts to envision society outside any form of oppression Booth (2005, 183). It is thereby analogous to the concept of positive peace by Galtung as Llewellyn (2018, 261) argues, as Galtung sees violence as the force that increases the distance between an individual’s potential and actual life quality Galtung (1969, 168). Llewellyn (2018) and Prichard (2013, 159) contend that anarchism can contribute to the same project of emancipation or positive peace.
SmartProSys Research Cluster
Duration: 01.09.2022 to 31.12.2023
The Magdeburg research initiative SmartProSys (Smart Process Systems Engineering) researches methods and approaches for the transformation of chemical and biotechnological production processes towards a sustainable circular economy.
Scientists from the fields of logistics, mathematics, sociology, political science and psychology are involved in SmartProSys.
The research network pursues the goal of excellence as defined by the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments. The Chair is involved in the "Societal Support & Individual Appropriation" sub-cluster and is leading the sub-project: Institutional and technical options for transforming bioeconomy to circularity. New ways for decarbonization and de-fossilization through policy integration and novel conversion pathways.
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BMBF Research Training Group "Science management and science communication as research-based practices of science system development"
Duration: 01.07.2019 to 31.12.2023
The Research Training Group focuses on science management and science communication. These are central topics for a research-based practice of science system development in the context of social transformation.
The two framework topics thus defined concern both the internal and external relations of science. The projects pursued in the research training group are guided by the assumption that (a) the internal relations of science must also be shaped and researched with regard to the external contacts of science and (b) the external communication of science can only succeed if its internal functioning is taken into account.
The problem of the collegial orientation can unfold in various directions. Interested parties can develop and pursue project ideas within the following six thematic corridors:
- Conflict governance in science: To what extent do steering instruments have beneficial, neutral or counter-intentional effects with regard to scientific performance and quality development?
- Digitization-driven organizational change: Which organizational adjustments to digitization are necessary, which "digitization policies" produce supportive vs. counterintentional effects?
- Academic teaching as communication about science: How can the organization and content of academic teaching and learning be most effectively adapted to transformation requirements and changing social expectations?
- Globalization and internationalization: How can science deal with the tension between the internal scientific orientation towards global (universal) validity claims on the one hand and the role as a regionally and nationally effective driver of innovation on the other?
- Digitally delimited science communication: How can the necessary "translation service" for the transfer of scientific knowledge between different addressees (within and outside science) be most effectively achieved?
- Scientific advice as science communication: Science is caught between the conflicting priorities of non-research-related purpose on the one hand and lack of influence while maintaining scientific standards on the other. The question is whether practical influence can only be achieved at the price of opportunistic entanglement or whether scientific integrity can only be achieved by accepting the lack of influence .
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Gendercompetent Education for Sustainable Development - Development, testing and evaluation of a digital micro class on "Gender & Sustainability
Duration: 01.03.2023 to 31.12.2023
Project Idea
The project "Gender Competent Education for Sustainable Development (GBNE)" represents the development, testing and evaluation of a digital teaching-learning format, the Micro Class "Gender & Sustainability", which integrates international students and is transferable into diverse teaching contexts of the OVGU. In this format, students can deal with the basics of gender-competent sustainable development with a focus on gender(er) justice and sustainability.
The teaching units of the project are designed in such a way that they can be taken as digital self-learning units by students within the framework of the sustainability certificate of the OVGU. Elements of the Micro Class can also be used by teachers in the partner universities of the green European university network EU GREEN as supporting teaching material in their own teaching.
There is no sustainability without gender equality!
In the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015, both gender and education play a central role: gender equality and the systematic inclusion of the gender perspective in all dimensions of sustainability are considered the decisive touchstone for sustainability in general: "There can be no sustainable future without gender equality" (cf. UNECE 2022). Gender is relevant both as a cross-cutting issue and as a goal in its own right. Gender-oriented sustainability research has meanwhile proven to be an internationally recognized and respected field of knowledge and has demonstrated the high importance of taking gender into account for a wide variety of fields such as mobility, climate, nutrition, waste, water, etc. Education, meanwhile, is considered a key prerequisite for achieving the SDGs. Education for sustainable development (ESD) and gender-competent sustainability research are equally understood as a holistic, transformative approach to knowledge generation and the teaching of important competencies aligned with the understanding of lifelong learning.
In this sense, the project "Gender Competent Education for Sustainable Development" aims at contributing to future-oriented, integrative, equal opportunity and high quality education at OVGU and in the green European university network EU GREEN. Through the conceptual development, testing and evaluation of a so-called Micro Class on the topic of "Gender & Sustainability", aspects of gender justice and sustainability are to be systematically integrated reciprocally and at the same time perspectives of ESD are to be expanded.
Changing landscapes: From humour and/in politics to humour as politics
Duration: 01.01.2022 to 31.12.2023
Social Sciences and other disciplines recently discovered the funny side of politics as topic worthy of scientific attention. The trend of using strategic humour in political communication, campaigns or attacks of adversaries is of special interest, especially in times of uncertainty, crisis and autocratization. Humour has for a long time been associated with resistance and being a weapon of the weak and therefore, often positive characteristics are ascribed to it. While it has previously been seen as revolutionary it is increasingly seen as counter-revolutionary due to its disincentivising and camouflaging effects. For example, researchers have become increasingly interested in strategies involving satire and comedy which play a key role in the transformation of the public sphere and the self-representation of new authoritarian and populist leaders ascribed to. Others have started looking at the role of emotions in humour used by political leaders, movements and parties. Overall, the project wishes to contribute to this increased interest by bringing together research which examine the (new) role and function of humour in public culture and politics.
Amongst others, following questions are of interest:
How can various disciplines contribute to a systematization of different styles and genres of humour?
- What can we learn from a performative lens on humour?
- How can political humour be investigated from an aesthetic perspective in performance and popular culture?
- How is humour connected to the debate about emotions in political communication and how can humour cause emotions?
- What can be said about the role of satirists and comedians in politics?
- How can humour be integrated in theoretical concepts like carnival, populism, authoritarianism, liberalism?
- How is humour used by the powerful in politics, society and various forms of organizations as a form of defence/insulation against criticism?
- How does humour contribute to uncertainty and the (de-)legitimation of (political) ideas?
- How can the recently successful figure of be tricksters and clownish figures connected to legitimacy?
- How is humour related to fake news, post-truth, attention and shareability?
- How does humour work in times of crisis? Does political humour decrease or increase uncertainty and ontological security?
- What does humour do in times of uncertainty and autocratization and how does it function in debates?
- How can the changing landscape of humour in the public sphere be transferred to fields like conflict resolution, tolerance, feminism, anti-racism and migration?
The project is interdisciplinary and we hope to address scholars who explore questions regarding the politics and constitution of humour form various disciplines such as political science, sociology, linguistics, literature theory, visual anthropology as well as film studies, media studies and visual culture. The end result should be a Special Issue in a leading international peer review journal.
Radicalization and Variations of Violence - New theoretical insights and case studies
Duration: 01.01.2021 to 31.12.2023
In this project, we first address the most pressing issue, the nexus of violence, conflict and radicalization The second section focuses on deradicalization and forms of prevention, while the third and last part looks on new case studies. The edited volume allows for a contribution of new insights through case studies in all the three parts.
DFG Network - Qualitative Return to Work Research
Duration: 01.11.2019 to 31.12.2023
It is a national network of scientists who conduct qualitative research on the topic of RTW in chronic diseases. The aim is to review, evaluate and synthesize the national and international state of research. The existing qualitative RTW research is to be systematically recorded and critically reflected upon.
The research interest lies in particular in the following areas:
- Review of previous results of qualitative RTW research
- Identification of key factors promoting and barriers to RTW
- Derivation of practical recommendations regarding RTW interventions
- Systematization of qualitative RTW research; critical analysis of previous
critical analysis of previous theoretical concepts
and methodological approaches
- Positioning of national in international research
- Identification of research gaps/needs
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Handbook Environmental Policy
Duration: 01.11.2019 to 31.12.2023
The project serves to process the current international state of the art of environmental policy research. The results are published in the form of a "Handbook Environmental Policy", which presents the state of research in around 40 chapters in cooperation with numerous international authors.
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Dynamics of bioenergy policy in Germany. A policy field analysis against the background of bioeconomy, climate protection and circular economy (PhD project)
Duration: 01.10.2017 to 30.11.2023
The role of bioenergy in the energy system is being renegotiated at the beginning of the 2020s against the backdrop of debates on the bioeconomy, climate protection and the circular economy. This dissertation analyzes bioenergy policy in Germany from a political science perspective, on the one hand as a conceptual sub-area of the currently emerging bioeconomy policy and on the other hand as a regulatory field of the institutionally already established energy policy. The focus is on political processes in the electricity and heating sector in the period from 2000 to 2020. The work emerges from the research project "Political processes of the bioeconomy between economy and ecology - Bio-Ökopoli" (BMBF, funding line "Bioeconomy as social change") and aims to identify and describe specific dynamics of bioenergy policy in Germany on the basis of qualitative case studies at European, national and sub-national level.
The work is categorized as policy field analysis and political science sustainability research. It is based on literature and internet research, on theory-led, qualitative content analyses of transcribed expert interviews and primary documents as well as on the exchange with experts in the form of lectures, poster presentations and discussions at specialist events and beyond (method triangulation). Michael Böcher and Annette Elisabeth Töller's approach of self-dynamic political processes (AEP) serves as a theoretical framework. The analysis is presented in the paper along the AEP explanatory factors of problem structures, situational aspects, institutions, actors and their actions as well as instrument alternatives. Using the example of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED, case 1), political processes at European level are traced in detail, using the example of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG, case 2) and the Renewable Energies Heat Act (EEWärmeG, case 3) at national level. Analyses of bioenergy policy at sub-national level (Master Plan 100% Climate Protection Magdeburg, Case 4; Bioenergy Villages, Case 5) are included in the cross-case presentation of results. One focus is on the AEP explanatory factor problem structures.
The work empirically proves the basic assumption of the AEP that political processes are not pure problem-solving processes and shows which factors and dynamics of their own shaped bioenergy policy in Germany in the period from 2000 to 2020: highly complex problem structures, their cross-cutting nature, path dependencies, a diverse, small-scale actor landscape and a system of political regulations in various policy fields that is difficult to keep track of. In the 2000s, win-win narratives, the introduction of political support programmes, a bioenergy boom at all levels and an increasing Europeanization of energy policy were decisive factors; in the 2010s, critical and emotional debates about (alleged) environmental impacts and social consequences of bioenergy promotion, the introduction of new political instruments such as sustainability certificates, bonuses and tendering procedures, as well as the increasing professionalization of the work of bioenergy associations. In some cases, political decisions and measures in bioenergy policy were diametrically opposed to overarching goals in the areas of bioeconomy, climate protection and the circular economy. For the 2020s, a stronger alignment of bioenergy policy in the sense of smart bioenergy with these overarching goals and thus a stronger focus on a cross-sectoral view of the energy system, on an understanding of bioenergy as part of the carbon cycle and on the discussion of negative emission technologies can be expected.
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Shared Society - Diverse Community
Duration: 01.10.2018 to 30.09.2023
"Shared Society" is a new approach in a dynamic field of research at the interface of peace and conflict research and sustainability research on social development. A shared society program focuses on enabling all social groups and individuals to participate equally and fully in society and is thus a sustainable model for the challenges facing democracy in the 21st century.
This new and innovative approach is equally suitable for examining challenges and dilemmas in multi-ethnic or multilingual societies against the background of increasing migration (e.g. Germany and Italy), conflicts within society (e.g. Ireland or Kosovo) and discrimination against minorities (e.g. Israel).
The aim of the five-year project is the critical examination and further development of knowledge, innovative methodological approaches and the establishment of a network of experts in the context of "Shared Society - Diverse Community". The project brings together renowned experts from five countries to advance their scientific and practical work in an international learning community. The partner countries include Germany, Israel, Belgium, Norway and Northern Ireland.
As part of the project, an international summer school for experts from academia and practice, students and young researchers will be held in a different one of the five partner countries each year. The first summer school will take place in October 2018 at the Givat Haviva Campus in Israel and is also the start of the multi-year project.
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Humour in International Relations
Duration: 01.01.2019 to 30.06.2023
The projetc deals with the growing use and importance of humour in International Relations. Humour is used by state and non-state actors for specific reasons. Topics include humour and satire as a tool for criticism, the stabilizing function of humour for society and its instrumentalization for political reasons.
Gender and violence in the past and present. Interdisciplinary approaches to old and current affinities, edited by: Prof. Dr. Eva Labouvie, Dr. Mareike Fingerhut-Säck, Susanne Klose, Stefanie Fabian
Duration: 01.12.2020 to 29.06.2023
The topic of violence is more topical than ever these days due to the metoo movement and discussions about domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic. Looking back in history, acts of public, official and family/domestic/private violence have always been present, but have changed their societal, legal, social and cultural-mental location over the centuries. To date, little research has been conducted in historical studies on gender-specific violence and acts of violence committed by people of different genders outside of individual thematic focuses (history of crime, military history, sexual violence and incest, infanticide, etc.). In particular, there is a lack of an analytical view from the perspective of gender studies.
In the context of the topic, the conference planned for February 2022 will address questions about the popular and (criminal) legal attributions of violence and forms of violence that are still common today and often depend on gender, about discourses on violence and their changes since the 16th century, about the prevention, use or perception of violence, but also about the legitimacy, forms, structures, intensities and potentials of violence from an interdisciplinary and gender-historical perspective up to the present day. Its aim is to trace the "langue durée" of gender-centered discourses on violence, to clarify and question current attitudes, stereotypes and ways of dealing with violence, not least against the background of a present that is diverse, especially with regard to "sex" and "gender".
The research and conference project will culminate in a publication.
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Multimodal threat constructions - Practices of visual securitization in the climate change documentary films "An Inconvenient Truth - A Global Warning” (2006) and "Before the Flood” (2016)
Duration: 01.10.2019 to 31.05.2023
With advancements in information technology and growing interlinkages between the international media landscape and world politics, the discipline of International Relations has recently taken up questions of visuality and representation (Bleiker 2018; Schlag/ Heck 2020). Scholars in the field of Critical Security Studies in particular have begun to explore the influence of visual artefacts, like films, maps, satellite images, cartoons and graphs, on contemporary security discourses and policies (e.g. Kearns 2017; Hansen 2018; Vuori/ Andersen 2018; Massari 2021). The thesis contributes to this evolving field of research and zooms in on the role of visualizations in the definition and communication of climate change as a threat to peace and security.
Taking the approach of the theory of securitization as a starting point, the study puts forward the argument that our understanding of what constitutes a threat is fundamentally influenced by the way an issue is (re)presented and mediated through different channels of communication. Seen through this prism, security and insecurity have no essential quality of their own, but the content of those terms is constantly negotiated and contested in discursive processes reflecting distributions of power in society (Buzan et al. 1998; McDonald 2008; Stritzel 2014). Although much research has been conducted on security speech acts and verbal forms of security discourse, little is known about other modes of securitization. However, visual representations constitute an important part of today’s political landscape and security discourse. Images, films and other visual artefacts can convey security messages in a much more visceral, emotional and direct way than written or spoken words. Therefore, understanding their role in global politics warrants more systematic scholarly attention.
The project follows an interdisciplinary research design to accomplish two main goals: On a theoretical level, the study builds a heuristic framework to analyse processes of visual securitization in film material. Incorporating concepts from the field of film studies, visual culture and media und communication studies the thesis sets out to widen the scope of applicability of the original model of securitization. In the second part of the study the utility of the analytical framework is demonstrated in two case studies. The topic of climate change is considered one of the most pressing challenges of the coming decades with considerable implications for international politics. Media and visual representations are crucial ways through which the public interprets climate science. Conversely, films are hugely relevant and influential in shaping public discourse surrounding the climate crisis. In an analysis of the two documentaries "An Inconvenient Truth - A Global Warning” (2006) and "Before the Flood” (2016) the thesis shows how specific ways of filmic representation can contribute to a visual securitization of climate change.
The study’s original contribution to knowledge lies in providing an applicable model of visual securitization that can be used for different topic areas. This allows for a more thorough reflection of current media discourses of security and a deeper understanding of the interlinkages between visual representations and policy effects.
Keywords: critical security studies, visual securitization, climate change, film analysis
Body magic - magic bodies - magic of bodies - magic bodies, edited by Prof. Dr. Eva Labouvie
Duration: 01.01.2020 to 01.05.2023
In the early modern period, the body formed a unit. Each of its parts was imagined to be interrelated with all other parts of the body and in a dynamic exchange with its environment. The composition of bodily fluids, external influences and living conditions through to lifestyles and ways of working together determined the state and condition of the body and explained phases of health and illness. This concept of the body once included the idea that the body was susceptible to magical influences and could even be particularly vulnerable to magical or magical powers in certain contexts or phases of life. This was particularly true for the weakened, sick, pregnant, not yet fully developed infant body or the body exposed to particular exertions. On the other hand, magical powers, both positive and negative, were attributed to the bodies and body parts of special people, especially those who had lost their lives in unnatural ways (deceased pregnant women, executed, murdered, suicides). This assumption of special powers in the bodies and limbs of people whose transition from this world to the afterlife had not taken place in the usual way and with the necessary rituals of detachment was also transferred to ideas about the bodily characteristics of people who lived in an exceptional state: on the one hand to menstruating or pregnant women, child murderers or people who had allegedly made a pact with the devil, and on the other hand to people who were endowed with special gifts of healing, divination or banishing. Either their bodies themselves - even after their death - were regarded as 'transmitters' of magical energies for healing or harm, which they could transfer 'ad personam' through touch, looks or so-called "blowing on". Or they were assumed to have the ability to magicalize other people's body parts or substances by transferring their own body magic in special rituals. When assuming the ability to directly transfer magical influences from one body to another, the evaluation of the orifices and their excretions played a special role. The fact that something emerged from them - saliva, urine, excrement, blood, tears, afterbirth - not only symbolized the permeability between the inner body and the outside world, but also made these areas of the body contact points for a direct, powerful exchange: The thought of harm struck its victim unfiltered through the eye by means of the 'evil eye'; the imprecation uttered through the mouth penetrated the body through the ear; the terrible appearance perceived through the eye could imprint itself on the unborn child, and the sexual act with the devil sowed the seed of evil in the body of the devil's wife.
In analogy to and in addition to these extraordinary forms of body magic, ideas about the magical use of initially neutral body substances and body parts also developed within popular healing and defensive magic. Rituals of person-independent body magic and 'organotherapy' became established here, primarily on the basis of the 'doctrine of signatures'. Far more than in the case of body magic 'ad personam', the origins of which were far more often interpreted in connection with devilish or demonic than divine influences, the use and ritual magization of body substances or parts in popular magic also permitted their use for 'white magic'.
The project deals with all these different ideas and their consequences for early modern coexistence in a face-to-face society.
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Lecture series: Gender - Nature - Culture - Environment: Interrelationships between gender, ecology, climate and sustainability, together with the Equal Opportunities Office of Otto von Guericke University, Dr. Mareike Fingerhut-Säck
Duration: 31.07.2022 to 30.04.2023
Climate change, environmental disasters and sustainability crises are by no means gender-neutral. Women, men and diverse people contribute to them in different ways, deal with their effects in different ways and are affected unequally by their consequences. This raises questions about the links between gender and climate or environmental crises, and indeed about gender-specific perspectives. Questions can also be asked about the connections between gender affiliation or gender order and environmental diseases, environmental factors, sustainability, resource distribution, ecological rights or gender aspects in environmental and climate protection or design, right up to the positions of a recently much-discussed eco-feminism.
The lecture series planned at Otto von Guericke University in the coming winter semester 2022/2023 aims to focus on all of these diverse aspects and examine how they are interwoven with the category of gender and with "doing gender" - also outside of the binary discourse.
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Project and conference: Birth(ing) - Childbirth - Motherhood. Interdisciplinary conference at the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg
Duration: 01.02.2022 to 30.04.2023
The conference aims to shed light on how birth, childbirth and motherhood are socially and societally constructed, how ideas, practices and regulations on birth, childbirth and motherhood developed and how they continue to present themselves today in breaks and continuities, across a long historical arc from the 16th century to the present day. At the same time, the conference aims to contribute to an understanding of why, particularly from the 18th to the 19th century and especially in the second half of the 20th and in the 21st century, sometimes immense shifts took place - for example within the group of people around the woman giving birth, with regard to the place of birth, the meaningfulness of the birth of a child or the localization of motherhood.
More recently, birth, childbirth and motherhood have increasingly become the focus of social attention because not only have the cultures of childbirth changed, but the obstetric professions are currently undergoing a profound transformation with the academization of midwifery and the orientation towards the model of "woman-centred obstetrics". Even in the pre-modern era, there was intense debate about the right way to give birth, the training of "women's mothers" and later of licensed midwives, from the late 18th century onwards about the role of male medical obstetricians, the places of childbirth and about motherhood as a "natural" destiny of "the" woman. However, it was only with the popular discourse on "gentle" childbirth in the 1980s that interest in researching birth experiences and motherhood grew in a wide range of scientific disciplines, so far with a focus on the 20th/21st century. However, a transdisciplinary overview, such as that planned for the conference, has so far been lacking, as has a "longue durée" perspective that takes into account the historical change and its consequences for a modern European culture of childbirth and birth assistance as well as for today's concepts of motherhood and motherliness.
The conference "Geburt(-hilfe) - Gebären - Mutterschaft" will take place from 20 to 21 April 2023 under the joint direction of Prof. Dr. Eva Labouvie and Prof. Dr. Tina Jung at Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg.
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Digital programming in a team - Adaptive support for collaborative learning (OVGU sub-project)
Duration: 01.02.2020 to 31.01.2023
Collaborative programming is a core component of everyday professional life in computer science. These complex processes on a technical and social level are often treated abstractly in computer science studies and play a subordinate role in specialist concepts for learning programming. In the context of group work, learners have to organize, coordinate and regulate their learning processes - cognitively demanding activities. In order to exploit the potential of collaborative forms of learning for learning programming languages and promoting social skills, learners must receive didactic support as required, both before and during the learning process. In the DiP-iT-OVGU sub-project, we will develop and evaluate a digital subject concept for collaborative programming learning based on empirical studies and supported by the project partners, which contains relevant (media) didactic approaches. In doing so, we aim to enable transfer to other universities. At the information technology level, a process model will be developed for this purpose that enables the reusability of research data and the transferability of data models (e.g. for adaptive didactic support) to other courses or teaching-learning systems. The sub-project is part of the overall project with the following objectives:
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Fat Feminism in the field of tension between doing gender and biopolitics. An analysis of its agency and impact in the German online community
Duration: 15.01.2020 to 15.01.2023
The body is not just a body, it has social power. This power is linked to the classification of body weight into underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese and the associated evaluation and stigmatization. This is done using the Body Mass Index (BMI). The BMI is therefore the gatekeeper between the healthy and pathological body and thus the bearer of biopower. In this context of structural oppression, a globally active community has developed online, which has so far mainly been researched in the US. The research project aims to investigate the impact these developments can have on the everyday lives of affected individuals in Germany. The community that formed in Germany from the 2000s onwards with the emergence of online forums offers a particularly good opportunity for this analysis. Of particular interest is whether the pathologized body and its pictorial visualization on social media using self-descriptive terms such as "fat", "plus size", "curvy" or "body positivity" show possible interweavings with feminisms, whether and how a possible digital emancipation of the "fat body" has an impact on the reality of life of those affected and to what extent the gender of the person influences the possibility of emancipation. By focusing on the aspect of what consequences this could have for the triad of social inequality sex, class, race, the planned dissertation aims to expand basic theoretical positions in gender studies. The aim is to locate forms of agency in order to be able to subsequently analyze whether this is an expression of emancipatory resistance.
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Establishment and development of political education in transition societies since 1990
Duration: 01.01.2015 to 31.12.2022
Civic education can be a central element and instrument in the democratization of societies. Particularly in transition societies after the end of the East-West conflict in 1990, the question arises as to how the concept of democracy has been and is being implemented in the education system, as well as which state and civil society, internal and external actors are active in this field.
It is examined whether and how political education influences the political awareness of the populations in these transition countries and what effects this has on the social system and the respective state. In other words, how is the stabilization of a democratic system of rule communicated to the populations of different states with the help of political education? First of all, an international inventory of active measures for democratization through education will be undertaken in order to shed light on the developments of the countries selected so far (Poland, Romania, Hungary, Mozambique, Namibia, Republic of South Africa), also with regard to criteria of good governance; the possibility of the failure of democracy will also be taken into account.
The aim of the project is to develop best-practice models and future fields of action and options that will advance political education in transition societies in terms of stable and comprehensive democratization.
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Talent HRM Management
Duration: 01.01.2019 to 31.12.2022
The aim of the TALENT Erasmus+ project (2019-2021) is to establish a two-year master programme in HRM in six universities in Central Asia.
Coached by EU universities in Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany and Greece, two universities in Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Uzbekistan are developing an innovative academic environment to teach and study HRM insights and practices adapted to the needs and specificities of the socio-economic challenges the Central Asian region is confronted with. The first cohort of students is expected to start its education in September 2020.
Through its various objectives and activities, such as teacher trainings and seminars, the TALENT project intends to develop a network between universities and public and private actors allowing for a long-lasting exchange of expertise in HRM as well as to create the incentives for mobilities between the partner universities of students, teachers and researchers interested in HRM in Central Asia.
Working Title: Responsiveness in Governmental Position Formation in Times of Crisis
Duration: 01.01.2020 to 31.12.2022
The thesis aims at exploring why member state governments vary in their responses to the preferences of citizens when forming their positions for EU-level crisis decision-making. Given the high public salience of European policy issue in times of crisis, why are some national governments responsive and others not, even though population opinion is similar across member states?
Heroes and hysterics. The treatment of the mentally disabled of the First World War in psychiatry and in families, edited by Petra Kaiser
Duration: 01.01.2019 to 30.11.2022
The dissertation uses gender-historical and medical-historical approaches to examine patient files and ego documents of mentally disabled people from the First World War and their family members. It poses the question of the genesis of images of masculinity in psychiatry and society from the Wilhelmine period to National Socialism and asks about the changes in these ideas and attributions of masculinity and the image of men among soldiers after the onset of war-related disability. In order to investigate the "emasculation" of the soldier heroes, medical records, ego documents and other writings on soldiers who were admitted to a psychiatric ward and medically examined are examined; in addition to the medical records, letters or records of the affected persons themselves and their family members, especially their wives, are also included. Above all, ego documents such as letters document changed or reversed gender relations (women as family breadwinners, men as helpless sick people) and the deconstruction of images of masculinity, which can even be grasped through language. Conspicuous consequences include divorces and the certification of marital incapacity or a hereditary disease. However, discrimination as an "insane husband" also had social and other psychological consequences: The stigma of unmanliness, weakness and neurosis was joined by the official treatment of those who were denigrated as "hysterical" ("war tremblers"), whose illnesses received no recognition and whose relatives received no state support. The mentally ill war heroes lost their status in society and the family, and were even feminized through language and "emasculated" through the way they were treated or the characteristics and behaviour attributed to them and their social role.
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Introduction of the Reformation in Quedlinburg Abbey and town (1517-1580)
Duration: 01.07.2015 to 03.11.2022
The planned dissertation takes up a topic that has not yet been dealt with in previous research, but which can make a decisive and very innovative contribution to Reformation research, to the coexistence of imperial, papal, sovereign, monastic and municipal power and to the coexistence of top and bottom in the transformation of history. The example of the town and monastery of Quedlinburg provides a paradigmatic illustration of how the process of introducing the Reformation took place in parallel over decades in both a (central German) town and an ecclesiastical monastery, which was also directly subordinate to the emperor and had imperial immediacy. It is not yet known why Abbess Anna II von Stolberg-Wernigerode (1516-1574) introduced the Reformation in the Quedlinburg monastery and chapter in 1539, nor what influences, conflicts or discourses within the town's population must have led to a pro-Reformation attitude from as early as 1517 and how the two related to each other. Even the most recent research on the Reformation and confessionalization usually ignores the course of the complex and often by no means spontaneous change from Catholicism to Protestantism by mentioning the key date of the official introduction of the Reformation, so that we ultimately have little knowledge of the forces, networks, communication processes or power calculations at work here over a longer period of time. In contrast, this study aims to use a combination of micro-, meso- and macro-perspectives to focus not only on the Reformation of the monastery by the authorities in 1539, but also in particular on the Reformation from below (town and monastery population, clergy, brotherhoods, council families, monks, nuns, inhabitants of the surrounding area, etc.) from 1517 onwards, which prepared for and followed the official change and lasted until the Formula Concordia in 1780, the official adoption of Lutheranism. Of particular significance in the overall context is the work and position of the abbess appointed by the emperor, who, with the introduction of the Reformation, exposed herself and her monastery to the danger of losing their imperial status, mediatization by (Electoral) Saxony and a new legitimization of her office and the tasks of the monastic community (founded by Henry I, Henry I, responsible for the sacred memoria of the Ottonians), but at the same time was given the opportunity to consolidate the monastery economically by secularizing the monasteries and to emancipate itself from the emperor, pope and diocesan bishop.
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Who’s Laughing Now? Humour, Anxiety and Crisis in global politics
Duration: 01.01.2021 to 01.10.2022
Recent years have seen a growth of interest in the role of humour and joking in global politics. While there is a venerable tradition of critical inquiry on the resistant and subversive potential of humour (Hart 2007, Sorensen 2008), less research has been conducted on the questions of how jokes are playing an increasingly regrettable role in ‘normal politics’. Politicians joke, comedians ‘become’ politicians, and public messaging on issues as diverse as military recruitment, Covid lockdowns and Brexit are relayed in humorous terms. Due to the mediatised nature of modern political campaigning where domestic and international politics is increasingly subject to the demands of the 24hrs news and social media cycle, humorous memes and Instagram posts have been one avenue by which politicians can promote their message. Indeed, the theory and practice of new diplomacy and nation branding has embraced the everyday capacity of jokes to cut through the traditional silos of modern politics to generate a sense of authenticity, approachability and relevance. Yet, insofar as such jokes promote the laughter of identification for those who share a political message, the ambiguity of humour - both its meaning and reception - can also raise important questions about inclusion and exclusion Who gets to joke, about what and whom? From the use of memes by populist politicians in the US and UK, to the (in)direct use of irony and pranks in the hybrid warfare of Russia, the ‘comed-ification’ of global politics can present some serious diplomatic challenges. More reflexively, insofar as certain forms of humour like satire are associated with liberal ideals of democracy and free speech, events like the Danish Cartoons crisis and Charlie Hebdo point to further dilemmas of how jokes circulate within and beyond borders. Humour is a widely used and resonant form of everyday political communication that can both construct emergent forms of political identity and community, while excluding, ridiculing, or otherwise humiliating subjects and groups it performs as ‘other’.
The aim of this project is to draw together and define the contours of this emerging set of research questions on humour and global politics. The focus will however NOT be on humour as a form of resistance and critique of the state and those in power (which already is fairly well established), but as a form of legitimation and means of establishing ontological security in situations of crisis and anxiety by (authoritarian) governments and populist movements. Here the research questions the project will be concerned with are:
- How is humour used by states and those in political power and how does this differ from humour used by those challenging the status quo?
- What methodological framework is suited for the analysis of humour in politics?
- What role does humour play in situations of political anxiety and crisis?
- What does the use of humour by authoritarian regimes and populist do politically? How does is contribute to ontological security, anxiety and crisis?
- How can humour by authoritarian governments and populist movements be addressed by democratic governments and civil society actors?
- What role are the various societal and immediate contexts playing for the success of humour?
Building on the previous research on humour and ontological security, political legitimation, and everyday geo-politics, the research group will make a timely and significant contribution to the study of humour in global politics. This project will therefore provide a twofold contribution that defines and elaborates the terms of inquiry. First, the applicant and co-applicants will refine and consolidate the theoretical and methodological framework for analysing the everyday geopolitics of humour. This will ultimately yield to a series of case studies that will serve as the basis of papers and publications. Second, the applicant and co-applicants will use the project workshops (UK and Germany) and related conference panels (EISA and ISA) to generate innovative research results as well as disseminate these research findings to a broader public where humour us still seen as "inherently good” (Billig 2005). This process will also help to bring together an emerging network of researchers concerned with humour and global politics We elaborate on these points below:
Theoretical and Methodological Framework: Humour cuts across established perceptual divides of the private/political, the individual/societal, the domestic/international, and especially, the everyday/geopolitical. To capture humour’s interaction and movement across these divides the project will utilise and further refine emerging work synthesising theories of humour with theories of ontological security management (Brassett et al. 2021; Croft 2012; Steele 2021) and research on political communication by authoritarian states and populist movements (Gil and Brea 2021)
While theories of humour emphasise how jokes can function as a form of (i) stress relief, (ii) community building/bordering, and (iii) resistance to (or reassertion of) power relations, these all speak directly to ontological security theorising’s concern with the ability of agents to manage extant anxieties, not least through the maintenance and cultivation of coherent and satisfying biographical narratives of self-identity. Rendered as an everyday practice of ontological (in)security management an empirical focus on humour can help to animate the contemporary (geo)politics of anxiety. In some cases, jokes will assure and affirm established notions of identity (e.g. when populists joke about nationality or ‘woke’ intersectionality), yet also, and especially where such humour tries to be ‘edgy’ or transgressive, jokes can work to activate anxieties in others especially in situations of crisis. For example, when President Trump deployed Game of Thrones memes, he not only utilised an everyday reference from popular culture, but did so precisely to frame emerging anxieties about a an emerging trade war with China. Equally, China has mobilised well-circulated western jokes about both Trump’s incoherent bombast and Biden’s old age to position its own geopolitical imaginary of Chinese power and influence.
The originality of this approach is to think of humour as a productive component of world politics. Very often, the humour of authoritarian leaders and populists or the right is dismissed as ‘offense comedy’ or ‘merely unfunny’. On one hand, this could risk overlooking the vast empirical archive of jokes, memes, and humorous aesthetics such as comic book allusions (e.g. Boris Johnson as ‘the Hulk’) that now form part of the everyday stuff of global politics. How populists mobilise irony and humour to both spread their message and disarm potential criticism is a crucial ethical and political question. On the other hand, we argue, by rendering certain case studies of humour in global politics as active (if uncertain) practices of ontological security management our project can discern important dynamics in everyday geo-politics. For example, the use of irony can be a way for certain states to affirm their reflexive or postmodern status as post-national polities. Conversely, the Russian Embassy in London sent a series satirical tweets about the Salisbury poisoning which arguably fell flat in the UK and Europe, but which affirmed a vision of Russia-phobia that circulated well with Putin’s base. In this regard, NATO has argued that the strategic use of humour is now a central part of Russian strategies of ‘hybrid warfare’, in which humour also manifests as a form of ‘anxiety geopolitics’ (Eberle and Daniel 2021); cultivating Western anxieties about Russian efforts to undermine social cohesion, democratic legitimacy and public support for Western foreign policy.
Consolidated International Network and Outreach: This is an intellectually driven research project cutting across cultural studies (humour), sociology and IR (ontological security), political science (legitimation dynamics) and communication/media studies (nation branding a public diplomacy). It is focused on addressing the (geo)political implications of everyday contemporary practices of humour with a particular emphasis on exploring the relationship between humour and the politics of anxiety, while in turn considering what humour does to practices of ontological security management. This will be achieved via a related set of case studies focused on comedy in the intersections between (new) public diplomacy, nation branding, and popular geopolitics. These will be organised around a more specific focus on humour as a form of (populist and authoritarian) (de)legitimation and where populism is seen to be creating a mood and set of dynamics particularly attuned to the deployment of humour as a mechanism and manifestation of the new ‘anxiety (geo)politics’.
In concrete terms, the project brings together two established teams of researchers that each are about to established an important early ‘proof of concept’ for the study of humour in global politics. The interdisciplinary project aims to culminate in a research monograph on the topic aimed at the scientific community as well as a set of pod-casts in the form of interviews and discussion, aimed at a general public, with some of the leading comedians in the UK and Germany on the results of the project on the dark side of the relationship between humour and politics. f. Moreover, the project will further consolidate the emerging network of scholars working on humour and global politics in Germany, the UK, the US, Sweden and Denmark. Crucially, this network will be the basis for organising and disseminating research progress and findings via the 2 workshops and 6 conference panels proposed in this project.
Party and Elite Positions in Environmental Policy
Duration: 01.10.2020 to 30.09.2022
The research project deals with the foundations of classic partisan theory by examining its fundamental causal mechanisms. Central questions are: how do causal mechanisms actually unfold in the partisan theory? Who are the relevant groups for party positioning in the field of environmental policy (party elites, members, voters)?
For the research project we aim to integrate research perspectives of policy analysis and political sociology in order to enrich the overall debate on party positioning.
Values in Crisis - a Crisis of Values? Moral Values and Social Orientations under the Imprint of the Corona Pandemic
Duration: 01.03.2021 to 30.09.2022
Departing from theories of existential security, our research question is how the Corona pandemic impacts on people’s values and social orientations. This is analyzed in a panel design on individuals from two countries which have been differently affected by the pandemic, Germany and the UK. Our project generates unique insights into how the crisis may alter otherwise deeply held values. Moreover, the nature of the change in belief systems has strong repercussions for support for democracy and international co-operation. We engage beyond academia to disseminate our findings widely.
Energy autonomy - An interdisciplinary dialog on challenges, potentials and limits for local climate policy
Duration: 01.01.2021 to 30.06.2022
The German and French governments have committed to achieving a high share of renewable energy by 2030. The project aims to gain a better understanding of the economic, social and political issues at stake, as well as the conditions that influence the energy autonomy sought by some sub-state actors through the use of renewable energies.
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NKI joint project "LAND - CIRCLE - COMMUNITY - strategic climate protection planning, focusing on economic efficiency and value creation"
Duration: 01.11.2018 to 30.06.2022
Climate protection is also regional development. Through cooperation between municipalities, rural districts and other regional players, a regional scope can be achieved that enables cooperative "climate protection business models". Regional governance approaches tested in model projects for rural regional development should be used to promote cooperative climate protection in partner rural districts. Rural districts can play an important mediating and multiplier role in orchestrating the interaction between municipal and regional levels. Regional governance stands for the guiding star of a development that would relieve the burden on the federal level and support it in achieving its climate protection goals if successful pilot projects are perpetuated.
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DFG Network - Qualitative Return to Work Research
Duration: 01.11.2019 to 31.01.2022
It is a national network of scientists who conduct qualitative research on the topic of RTW in chronic diseases. The aim is to review, evaluate and synthesize the national and international state of research. The existing qualitative RTW research is to be systematically recorded and critically reflected upon.
The research interest lies in particular in the following areas:
- Review of previous results of qualitative RTW research
- Identification of key factors promoting and barriers to RTW
- Derivation of practical recommendations regarding RTW interventions
- Systematization of qualitative RTW research; critical analysis of previous
critical analysis of previous theoretical concepts
and methodological approaches
- Positioning of national in international research
- Identification of research gaps/needs
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Becoming a mother and being a mother - motherhood yesterday and today, edited by Prof. Dr. Eva Labouvie
Duration: 01.03.2019 to 31.12.2021
Becoming a mother is no longer a social necessity or a biological automatism, but a freely chosen life concept. However, there is always a motivation to perform, regardless of the mother identity. Ambivalent feelings, indeed a series of paradoxes, always characterize the relationship between the roles of women and mothers and the experience of motherhood. Whereas in the past motherhood involved a collectively integrated change of status with a simultaneous increase in status, today it is an individual social and psychological achievement of every single woman, associated with restrictions and loss of autonomy. Whereas in earlier centuries women were under pressure to become mothers at all costs, today, if they are mothers, they are under pressure to be or want to be a "good mother". "Mothers' fears and feelings of guilt," explains Elisabeth Badinter in her volume on motherly love, "have never been as great as they are today" (Elisabeth Badinter, Die Mutterliebe. Die Geschichte eines Gefühls vom 17. Jahrhundert bis heute, Munich 1981, p. 34).
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People with disabilities in the former GDR. A regional study for the area of Saxony-Anhalt and the city of Magdeburg
Duration: 30.04.2018 to 31.10.2021
The research project intends to be the first to examine the living situation and treatment of disabled people in Saxony-Anhalt with an in-depth focus on the city of Magdeburg and its surrounding area. With regard to the state perspective (1), the apparent paradox resulting from a political system that, on the one hand, emphasized the workers' and peasants' state and, on the other, the socialist community in which everyone should have their place, will be analysed in more detail. With a view to social conditions (2), the focus shifts to aspects of dealing with difference, which can be examined between the poles of integration and isolation on the basis of selected areas of life (work, social participation, living and housing situation). Through the perspective of disabled people and their environment (3), the research project aims to shed light on the living situation and social position of people with disabilities in the GDR and especially in the Saxony-Anhalt region.
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Social acceleration, time scarcity and democracy. Time as a resource and instrument of political decision-making processes. [Working title]
Duration: 01.10.2018 to 30.09.2021
Political responsiveness can be understood as a normative ideal of democracy as a form of governance, society and life. It is closely related to representation and participation. The three dimensions combine to form a triad that constitutes democracy.
But responsiveness takes time. However, time is a scarce commodity for humans, since as natural beings we are subject to time. As cultural beings, we try to rise above our natural temporality, but in doing so we set systemic acceleration processes in motion. Social acceleration in turn leads to a scarcity of time as an overload of experience through expectation. This excessive demand induces stress both at the individual level of each person and in the political system. According to the thesis on which this work is based, the reaction to this stress is the subjugation of democratic processes to constraints at the expense of responsiveness. The result is a "tyranny of the now", i.e. a short-term orientation of politics, which inevitably leads to an acceleration dynamic of democratic processes. This connection between acceleration, time scarcity and democracy is to be examined in the research work on the basis of institutional analyses.
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Body politics, bio-power and the value of human life. National Socialist forced sterilization on the territory of today's federal state of Saxony-Anhalt
Duration: 01.04.2015 to 01.09.2021
The research project intends to investigate both the medical-psychiatric and the social diagnostics of National Socialist forced sterilization practice, but in particular also the assessment of social value and the associated exclusion procedures of so-called inferiority in women and men. The aim of the research project is not only to analyze and publish the implementation of forced sterilizations for the entire area of the present-day federal state of Saxony-Anhalt for the first time, but also to examine this subject area, which is fundamental to the understanding of National Socialist policies of violence, from a gender-historical perspective for the first time. The psychiatric institutions Altscherbitz, Bernburg, Haldensleben and Uchtspringe and the cities of Halle and Magdeburg, where forced sterilizations were carried out between 1934 and 1945, will be analyzed. By incorporating questions of gender and cultural history in particular and applying new research methods, a decisive contribution is to be made to the historical reappraisal of a regional research desideratum and to the intensification of gender-related university research. The research project, which focuses on the investigation of National Socialist forced sterilization, which has been neglected in regional research to date, places the gender-related and gender-specific assessment and procedural criteria, the treatment of affected men and women and their families and the National Socialist construction of male and female inferiority at the center of the investigation.
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Saxony-Anhalt. A political regional study (2nd expanded edition)
Duration: 01.01.2020 to 01.04.2021
The "Politische Landeskunde" was produced in cooperation with the Saxony-Anhalt State Center for Political Education. In the second edition, the articles are supplemented by municipal developments at local authority and district level and a comprehensive socio-structural analysis of Saxony-Anhalt parliamentarians since 1990.
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Religious offenses and Roman law
Duration: 01.01.2018 to 31.12.2020
For the period of the late Roman Republic, the study examines what was considered a religious offense in law and society. It can be assumed that there was no legally established sacred law, so that the Senate and priesthoods sought to make amends for such offenses through atonement measures if necessary.
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Political science research on sustainable development
Duration: 11.11.2017 to 10.11.2020
Research and academic collaboration in the field of political science sustainability research with a focus on international knowledge transfer, social transformation and the further development of inter- and transdisciplinary research approaches to sustainable development.
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Le droit saisi par les "profanes". Les sciences sociales face aux pratiques juridiques des non-spécialistes dans le contexte franco-allemand
Duration: 01.07.2018 to 31.10.2020
Ce projet de recherche voudrait consolider l'intérêt récent des sciences sociales pour le droit en favorisant un dialogue entre chercheurs francophones et germanophones. Il entend le faire en centrant l’analyse sur une question jusqu’à présent peu abordée par les sciences sociales, celle du rôle actif ou agency des non-juristes dans les pratiques juridiques. Cette question nous
semble de nature à éclairer sous un jour nouveau les mutations générales des rapports entre droit et
société. Compte tenu de la problématique générale, il y aurau une conférence interdisciplinaire et internationale en Janvier 2019, organisée en coopération de l'université Magdeburg avec le Centre Marc Bloch - centre franco-allemand en sciences sociales de la Humboldt Universität Berlin. La conférence est particulièrement innovante dans la mesure où le rôle actif des non-juristes dans la pratique du droit n'a jusqu'à présent guère été sérieusement étudié. Ce projet de recherche entend alors proposer un premier état des lieux sur les pratiques juridiques « profanes » et, ce faisant, reformuler plusieurs hypothèses centrales des sciences sociales au sujet des relations entre droit et société.
Cross-location ring seminar on conflict analysis in the summer semester 2020
Duration: 01.10.2019 to 30.09.2020
The overall aim of the project is the further development of a teaching project, which is realized across locations and using digital possibilities in a joint ring seminar of several universities.
The aim of the project to improve teaching essentially consists of two elements. On the one hand, a framework is to be created that facilitates the long-term development, continuation and transfer of the project, and on the other hand, effective short-term improvements are to be made for the teachers and students involved.
This includes the further development of the blended learning concept, which includes a more comprehensive preparation of learning videos and event recordings. The aim is also to increase the proportion of asynchronous learning and further internationalization.
In addition to these short-term sub-elements, the aim is also to fundamentally revise the course and redesign parts of it, which includes a redesign of the common and thus completely transparent assignment handbook for students at all locations, in which students can read the exact requirements, but also the specific contact person and submission deadlines, etc., among other things. In addition, the overall concept of the course is to be further revised based on the experiences of the current semester.
The aim is therefore also to develop a corpus of teaching and learning materials that will support the further development of the project and at the same time enable the focus on other subtasks in the long term, thus allowing capacities to be shifted in favor of other sub-aspects.
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Accessibility in housing policy - an analysis at federal state level
Duration: 01.05.2017 to 30.09.2020
This dissertation deals with the state policy control of barrier-free or barrier-reduced housing. The first point of interest is the extent to which the 16 federal states use the political measures ("policies") available to them in this area of housing policy. Building on this, the origins and concrete form of these policies will be explained. To this end, two policy field analysis case studies examine the political processes in Saxony-Anhalt and Hesse. The approach of self-dynamic political processes (AEP) according to Böcher/Töller (2012) forms the basic theoretical assumptions. As a result, the 16 federal states control barrier-free or reduced-barrier housing to varying degrees, with Bavaria, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate being particularly active. Saxony-Anhalt and Hesse are neither extraordinarily active nor extraordinarily reluctant in a state comparison. The dynamic interplay of problem structures, institutional regulations and actors' actions can explain why the political processes of the two states nevertheless differ significantly from one another. In Hesse, they are more conflict-oriented and based on the conflicting goals of affordable and barrier-free housing, whereas barrier-free or reduced-barrier housing is higher on the political agenda in Saxony-Anhalt due to the aging and vacant housing markets there and is addressed more consensually as a political problem
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"Recognition, devaluation and striving for success"
Duration: 01.06.2018 to 31.05.2020
The project is a follow-up project to "Inequality, status anxiety, quality of life. A review and extension of the spirit level theory for Europe. The new project is divided into two components: The first building block, "Everyday experience of recognition and devaluation", examines in which concrete situations people experience inferiority. In doing so, we want to decipher the "social grammar" of these episodes - who feels underestimated where by whom and why? Secondly, positive status experiences are also to be investigated for the first time. Who experiences appreciation from others, in what situations, and with what consequences for subjective well-being? The aim is to obtain a comprehensive picture of status-related everyday experiences with its negative and positive facets. The data basis is an already acquired and realized survey on "Everyday experience of recognition and devaluation" as part of the SOEP Innovation Sample 2016.
The second component of the project, "Striving for success - the status anxiety of the middle class?", explicitly addresses a form of status anxiety that is presumably particularly widespread in the middle class and has far-reaching consequences there. We define the desire for success as the personal importance of being recognized by others for one's social status and achievements. Based on data from the European Social Survey (ESS), we want to compare countries to find out how widespread striving for success is in European societies and in which stratum. Which contextual determinants influence this orientation? Secondly, we want to know whether people with a pronounced striving for success have a lower subjective sense of well-being.
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The Politics of Bio-Economy
Duration: 01.02.2017 to 30.04.2020
The research investigates processes of bio-economy politics on different state levels. The aim is to assess potential environment-related effects of bio-economy and political conflicts in bio-economy politics.
Media and Militarization
Duration: 01.10.2018 to 31.03.2020
The project deals with audio-visual content produced by armed forces. The spreading of the content leads to a militarization of society, which means that military values are seen as normal and the military becomes part of the everyday life.
After the crisis: War management and the post-war period of the Thirty Years' War in selected German regions 1648 to 1700
Duration: 01.12.2013 to 23.03.2020
The thesis aims to examine the question of how people's lives and reconstruction were shaped in the aftermath of the Thirty Years' War and which factors played a role, for example in the reconstruction or abandonment of settlements. Furthermore, the traces of the Thirty Years' War that it left on the people are to be investigated. The following focal points of the work will be considered at the micro level:
1. coping with the material damage caused by the war
2. coping with the mental damage caused by the war (including the spirit of optimism)
3. coping with the human damage caused by the war (the sheer lack of people)
4. dealing with nature
5. dealing with domination
6. changes in culture as a result of the war
Above all, it is interesting to find out in which system of order people found their footing in order to come to terms with the destruction of their world and the setbacks. It is important to note that they continued to be plagued by fires, plagues of soldiers, war burdens and plague epidemics.
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Protestantism - school education - literacy. The elementary school system in Saxony-Anhalt from the Reformation to 1800
Duration: 01.10.2014 to 30.09.2019
The topic of the doctorate represents a true desideratum in the birthplace of German Protestantism and beyond. By examining both the elementary school landscape from the Reformation to the 18th century in what is now Saxony-Anhalt, a pioneering achievement, and the question of the much-claimed but never fundamentally verified affinity between (school) education and the Reformation and Protestantism, Ms. Tempelhoff can be a valuable contribution to history, but also to educational science and theology, especially theology. In this way, Ms. Tempelhoff can arrive at new assessments, and possibly also relativizations or corrections, for historical studies, but also for educational science and theology, and especially for gender research: On the one hand, with regard to the little-researched development of literacy for both boys and girls over three centuries Melanchthon, and later Luther, were the first to demand education for girls and founded the first girls' schools in Europe in what is now Saxony-Anhalt , on the other hand, with regard to the practical implementation of a new educational claim developed from the Protestantism of the first hour, the effects of which can be traced back to the 18th century at the Dessau Philanthropist. Its effects can be traced back to the 18th century at the Dessau Philanthropin, Europe's first school of enlightenment. Only by examining for the first time the actual school landscape in Saxony-Anhalt, its concepts, conditions, its acceptance by the population, its teachers and its first female teachers - not just in the 18th century, but as early as the 16th century - and, above all, its sustainability, can the unquestioned assertion of a higher level of education and literacy in Protestant regions be adequately examined and compared with approaches in Catholic countries. The area under investigation provides very special source conditions for this, as the first sources on the school system, which was still supported by the Protestant church at the time, also exist in the land of the Reformation, so that only in Saxony-Anhalt is it possible to actually analyze the initial conditions and difficulties as well as the changes.
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Militarization through Humor on Social Media
Duration: 01.10.2018 to 30.06.2019
This project deals with a selection of recruitment videos by the Swedish and the British Armed Forces. A narrative analysis uncovers which type of humor is used and how the use of humor contributes to a militarization.
Preventive health strategies - learning from BEM. A reconstructive-qualitative analysis of occupational biographical and health risks
Duration: 15.11.2016 to 31.05.2019
In view of the changes in the world of work, such as work intensification and subjectivization on the one hand and the ever-lengthening career biographies due to demographic change on the other, issues relating to safeguarding the employability and health of employees are becoming increasingly important. Company integration management (BEM), which since its legal introduction in 2004 has functioned as an instrument for the reintegration of employees with long-term illnesses (§ 84 SGB IX), has become increasingly established in recent years, especially in large companies.
The project examines how previous experience with BEM can be used to develop early preventative measures to secure the employability of employees and how the design of BEM processes can be optimized. The focus is on reconstructing the professional biographies of employees whose employability is at risk (ongoing BEM procedures) or was at risk (completed BEM procedures), flanked by a structured document analysis of BEM files. In addition, the project focuses on company and inter-company actors as BEM alliances through expert interviews. In particular, the focus is on SMEs, as there are hardly any institutionalized procedures for occupational health management and co-determination. The stakeholders must therefore rely heavily on situational solutions in the event of health restrictions that call the employability of employees into question. Based on the reconstruction of occupational biographies of BEM cases, central episodes, events, critical stages and communicative negotiation requirements can be worked out, which can be used as a starting point for preventive strategies and, if necessary, to optimize BEM processes. In the second part of the study, participatory workshops are used to ensure the transfer of theory to practice.
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Preventive health strategies - learning from BEM. A reconstructive-qualitative analysis of occupational biographical and health risks
Duration: 15.11.2016 to 31.05.2019
In view of the changes in the world of work, such as work intensification and subjectivization on the one hand and the ever-lengthening career biographies due to demographic change on the other, issues relating to safeguarding the employability and health of employees are becoming increasingly important. Company integration management (BEM), which since its legal introduction in 2004 has functioned as an instrument for the reintegration of employees with long-term illnesses (§ 84 SGB IX), has become increasingly established in recent years, especially in large companies.
The project examines how previous experience with BEM can be used to develop early preventative measures to secure the employability of employees and how the design of BEM processes can be optimized. The focus is on reconstructing the career histories of employees whose employability is at risk (ongoing BEM procedures) or was at risk (completed BEM procedures), flanked by a structured document analysis of BEM files. In addition, the project focuses on company and inter-company actors as "BEM alliances" through expert interviews. In particular, the focus is on SMEs, as there are hardly any institutionalized procedures for occupational health management and co-determination. The stakeholders must therefore rely heavily on situational solutions in the event of health restrictions that call the employability of employees into question. On the basis of the reconstruction of occupational biographies of BEM cases, central episodes, events, critical stages and communicative negotiation requirements can be worked out, on which preventive strategies can be based and BEM processes can be optimized if necessary. In the second part of the study, participatory workshops are used to ensure the transfer of theory to practice.
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How does the refugee movement change the everyday working life of police officers? - A qualitative-empirical study on subjective experiences of stress and strain and their patterns of interpretation
Duration: 01.05.2016 to 30.04.2019
The discussion of the working conditions of the police has been increasingly echoed in the course of the refugee movement, especially since 2015. The latent lack of personnel, faulty or inadequate equipment and an immense accumulation of overtime were repeatedly criticized in the course of the increased workload due to the escorting of border crossings, the distribution of refugees among the federal states, the protection of properties at asylum seekers' homes and the escorting of political demonstrations (GdP 2015). This was preceded by various structural reforms and successive cost-cutting measures in the police force. The persistently high sickness rate in the police force is also seen as a factor in the relatively high health burden on duty. The sickness rate in the police force in Saxony-Anhalt has been increasing since 2004 and stood at 8.3 percent in 2013 (MI LSA et al. 2013). In comparison, the sickness rate for statutory health insurance companies was 4.0 percent (DAK Gesundheitsreport 2014). However, the significance of determinants such as sickness rates for the police and the mechanisms behind them remain largely unnoticed. In view of the already increased sickness rate, the deteriorating working conditions and the additional workloads that have piled up in recent years due to the refugee movement, the question now arises as to whether the intertwining of stress potentials is particularly evident in the phase of increased professional demands due to the "refugee crisis".
The dissertation examines the effects of the refugee movement on the everyday working lives of police officers, the subjective stresses and strains that become apparent for officers and the patterns of interpretation they use to meet the demands of their everyday working lives.
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Sociological needs analysis and scientific evaluation in the "open doors" project
Duration: 01.01.2017 to 28.02.2019
The aim of the "open doors" pilot project is to analyze the (association) work of the volunteer fire department with a view to identifying starting points for further structural development of the association in order to enable the integration of new target groups (especially people with a migration background).
As part of the sociological sub-project (sociological needs analysis), the situation and needs of the Saxony-Anhalt State Fire Brigade Association in three model regions of Saxony-Anhalt will be recorded and analyzed.
The following empirical materials are collected:
- Qualitative-empirical expert interviews (with biographical-narrative parts) with actors from the volunteer fire departments of Saxony-Anhalt
- group discussions with actors from the volunteer fire departments of Saxony-Anhalt
- ethnographic observations during regular activities of the volunteer fire departments outside of operations, especially at service meetings and festivals
- Questionnaire survey with 100 women and men with a migration background
The qualitative-empirical data collected will be transcribed or processed in observation protocols and then evaluated using sociolinguistic process analysis (Fritz Schütze).
The results of the needs analysis are intended to provide the basis for the tailor-made development of instruments for the specific field of the volunteer fire department in order to enable people with a migration background to join the association.
In the second phase of the overall project, the instruments used will be evaluated as part of the sub-project (formative and summative evaluation).
The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
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Saxony-Anhalt. A political regional history
Duration: 01.07.2017 to 30.01.2019
Politische Landeskunde" was produced in collaboration with the Saxony-Anhalt State Center for Political Education. In 16 informative articles, the reader learns what makes up, moves and shapes Saxony-Anhalt. An appendix lists the state's governments from 1990 to 2017.
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Important women from Saxony-Anhalt from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. A biographical-bibliographical encyclopedia
Duration: 01.01.2015 to 31.12.2018
The encyclopedia examines important women from the Saxony-Anhalt region, i.e. women who have achieved something special on very different levels, who have distinguished themselves in an outstanding way as artists, politicians, writers, entrepreneurs, as bearers of ideas, creators of new ways of thinking and acting or as office holders in their time and who have been committed to their time and the people. These women achieved something special, but even if a glance at many historical and regional books suggests this, because you can hardly find any details about the women, it was not a peculiarity that women of earlier centuries, like women today, achieved something special. On the one hand, the encyclopaedia thus performs a kind of "revival", i.e. a retrieval from oblivion for the purpose of adequate consideration and recognition in regional and supra-regional historical memory; on the other hand, it is particularly concerned with giving the many previously nameless but significant women a place in history. In terms of content, the entries refer to women of the so-called pre-modern era of the 16th to 19th centuries, and to women of the Middle Ages.
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Women in Saxony-Anhalt. A biographical-bibliographical encyclopedia from the 19th century to 1945 (vol. 2)
Duration: 01.06.2016 to 31.12.2018
The encyclopedia presents women from the beginning of the 19th century to 1945 who, in the area of today's Saxony-Anhalt and in some cases far beyond, achieved something special in very different areas or led a life that was unusual for women. In over 130 biographical-bibliographical portraits and over 140 short portraits, the lives and commitment of well-known women and celebrities such as Käte Kruse, Louise Aston, Elisabeth von Ardenne, Fontane's "Effi Briest", Jenny Marx or Hedwig Courths-Mahler, protagonists of the First Women's Movement such as Gertrud Bäumer, Elisabeth Gnauck-Kühne, Jenny Hirsch and Lily Braun, entrepreneurs such as Selma Rudolph or the actresses Henny Porten and Lia Wöhr are presented in a new way. For the first time, the merits of previously unknown, forgotten or not yet researched women lawyers, politicians, resistance fighters, scientists, women's rights activists, writers, educators, doctors, artists, sportswomen, directors or entrepreneurs are also honored and given a place in history. The articles, written by experts in the field, provide specific suggestions for further research by citing literature and archive material.
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Faith and gender. Interdisciplinary research and conference project. OvGu contribution to the anniversary of the Reformation, research and book project
Duration: 01.07.2017 to 31.12.2018
The project comprised a major international conference (Faith and Gender - Gender Reformation) from 29.6.2017 to 1.7.2017 and will be documented in a conference volume to be published by Böhlau Verlag in 2018.
The Reformation was driven by the religious commitment of the laity, an awakening that opened up completely new opportunities for women to act and permanently changed the gender order in European countries. It therefore not only brought about a radical change through the first opportunity to choose between faiths, but also had a lasting impact on the roles of men and women, mothers and fathers and the ideas of how the sexes should live together through the marriage teachings of Martin Luther and other reformers. Despite ecumenism, gender issues and the inclusion of women still form the repeatedly emphasized difference between Catholicism and Protestantism today - as the last bastion of one denomination and the liberal figurehead of the other.
The interdisciplinary and international conference "Faith and Gender - Gender Reformation" aims to examine this fundamental topic of the Reformation, particularly from the perspective of the interrelationships between "faith and gender". It looks at relationships that were first established and lived by women and men in the Reformation movement of the 16th century and which, beyond denomination and personal faith, still represent a cultural asset of the Western world today. In doing so, she examines the contributions of men and women to the church and religiosity as well as their roles, spaces, tasks and paths in life that were founded or conditioned by religion, their gains, losses and lines of continuity up to today's society.
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Luther Reception and Reformation Remembrance in the 20th and 21st Centuries"
Duration: 01.12.2013 to 28.11.2018
Represents a sub-project in the "Spurenlese" program of the "Reformation Anniversary 2017" research network founded in 2011.
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The Europe of the people. Interaction and identity of EU citizens between nation state and global society
Duration: 01.10.2015 to 30.09.2018
In line with transactionalist integration theory, it can be assumed that European social integration arises from the transnational actions and experiences of Europeans. Against this background, sub-project 4 of the Horizontal Europeanization research group examines the cross-border actions and attitudes of EU citizens in order to investigate the extent to which Europe is establishing itself as a specific level of socialization or communitarization between nation and global society. On the basis of survey data (mainly Eurobarometer), the extent, social stratification and social driving forces of transnational action and thinking of Europeans were researched in the first funding phase, primarily at the individual level for the EU-27 countries.
While the first funding phase pursued a country-comparative approach to individual transnationalization, the second funding phase will focus on a relational, network-analytical approach. European socialization and communitarization are to be analysed and explained via cross-border flows of people and communication (socialization) and mutual perceptions and attitudes (communitarization) of the populations. Using the method of social network analysis, which allows a differentiated investigation of transnationalization and Europeanization via dyadic data, the concrete form of cross-border transaction networks and their determining factors (geographical proximity, political regulation, cultural similarity, sympathy, economic relations) will be investigated. Particular attention will be paid to the development of transnational/European practices and attitudes over time, to the internal structure of the European social space (e.g. center-periphery relations) and to the influence of the euro and financial crisis.
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Inequality, Status Anxiety, and Quality of Life. An Examination and Extension of the Spirit-Level Theory for Europe
Duration: 01.04.2015 to 31.03.2018
The Spirit-Level theory as recently developed by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett claims that egalitarian societies have less social problems and allow their citizens better lives than inegalitarian societies. The assumed causal mechanism is inequality-induced status anxiety, which leads to behavior by which individuals harm themselves and society at large. However, neither Wilkinson and Pickett s book nor follow-up research has provided convincing evidence for this causal mechanism. To fill this gap, this project proposes to examine the impact inequalities have on status anxiety and further on individual and societal quality of life, in a cross-national perspective involving the member states of the European Union. The following key questions are addressed: (1.) How widespread is status anxiety in Europe, and which groups of people are especially affected by it? (2.) Which societal conditions cause status anxiety, and how important are social inequalities in this respect? (3.) Which consequences does status anxiety have for individual and societal quality of life? (4.) Provided status anxiety does not mediate between societal conditions and (low) quality of life: what else could be the key socio-psychological mechanism? The project is designed as a quantitative cross-country comparison, covering the member states of the European Union. The main data source is the European Quality of Life Surveys (EQLS) from 2003, 2007 und 2011/12. The project promises to provide new insights into how society should be organized so that all citizens feel respected.
Magical curses as enforcement of law.
Duration: 01.09.2017 to 31.03.2018
Extension of the project that ran from 01.01.2015 to 31.08.2017.
The project examines the overarching motive of the authors to enforce their subjectively perceived rights with the help of supernatural forces on the basis of all ancient curse tablets.
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Medical lectures and their contribution to "coping with illness" - a microsociological study of medical group mediation and counseling settings for breast cancer
Duration: 03.03.2014 to 03.03.2018
Due to increased life expectancy and far-reaching advances in medicine, doctors today are much more confronted with the treatment of chronically ill patients than they were just a few decades ago. Medical lectures have therefore proven to be an important instrument in both acute and, above all, rehabilitation clinics in order to impart knowledge to chronically ill patients in the sense of secondary and tertiary prevention within the framework of collective and thus time-saving settings and thus to train them in accordance with the demands for an "informed patient" and to advise and guide them with the aim of empowerment so that social participation and a certain quality of life can be ensured and the illness can be "managed".
Looking at the current state of research, however, it is clear that the role of medical lectures during and for the treatment of patients as well as the different interaction strategies of doctors and patients during these group mediation and counseling settings are still largely unexplored. In addition, interviews with patients show that the influence of the lectures on coping with the illness can hardly be reconstructed - mainly because the memory of the treatment process is often obscured by the direct discussions with the doctor, thus preventing reflection on the influence of the lectures.
The qualitative dissertation research therefore focuses on the interaction strategies and, in particular, the doctors' mediation and counseling activities as reflected in the lectures. In particular, the various mediation dimensions, the lines of work that emerge and the methods and mechanisms of medical presentations are examined. The role of the patients during and for the medical-educational setting "medical lecture" is also examined in more detail.
For this purpose, 12 medical lectures to breast cancer patients at acute and rehabilitation clinics were observed and recorded, logged and transcribed and analyzed using sociolinguistic process analysis (Fritz Schütze).
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Opportunities and barriers to starting a career in the child and youth welfare sector
Duration: 01.01.2017 to 01.03.2018
The starting point of the sociological study is the systematic analysis of what young professionals in (inpatient and outpatient) child and youth welfare encounter as a field of work. The study focuses on the following aspects, among others:
- Barriers to entry and socialization in the professional field
- Systematic difficulties and paradoxes at work
- Sources of meaning in the field of child and youth work
The sociological analysis is based on the perspective of interactionist sociology of work, which focuses on social reality as a processual reality of negotiation and organizations as an interactively produced social reality - as a process of permanent interactive production and maintenance of order (Anselm Strauss).
The following instruments are used in the qualitative-empirical data collection:
- Career biographical-narrative interviews with career novices in child and youth welfare
- Guideline-based expert interviews with employees in child and youth welfare
The empirical data is transcribed and analyzed using sociolinguistic process analysis (Fritz Schütze).
The results of the sociological analysis will be discussed in participatory workshops with child and youth welfare staff and further developed with a view to transferring them into practice.
Based on the data analysis, personnel selection procedures and induction strategies for the child and youth welfare sector will be developed and tested in practice.
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"War and Media: Narratives of War in 'real' and 'virtual' War in the 20th and 21st Century: Agents - Interests - Constructs"
Duration: 01.01.2013 to 01.01.2018
This interdisciplinary and transnational research platform has been networking history, media and communication scholars in Central Europe since 2013; member of the Advisory Board and cooperation partner with a focus on gender and war
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Dynamic relationism, values and intentions in the context of cultural identity
Duration: 01.04.2013 to 14.09.2017
The current refugee crisis has primarily led to a confrontation with our own culture. Since the late summer of 2015, we have not been discussing with the Syrians, Afghans and people from Equatorial Africa, but we have been arguing about them. The subject of the work is therefore not the nature of intercultural encounters, but the intra-cultural clash of divergent and competing values, i.e. the struggle for the right world view, the lines of tension that were inherent in our own culture and have now broken out in the context of the debate about multiculturalism, which has become unimaginable. In the mirror of foreigners, our own cultural image is fragmented, so to speak, and we have to find (new?) answers to the question of who we are, where we come from, who we want to be in the future and what our cultural assets are. Which way of life is worthy of recognition, good or even desirable? Which cultural characteristics can and would we like to identify with and come to terms with, which can we accept or at least tolerate? In the context of these questions, which have become unavoidable, our 'own' cultural assets that provide meaning and orientation are put to the test - in one way or another! In this context, it is less revealing to ask along which socio-structural borderlines the debate takes place, but rather how these supposed ideological demarcations are actually created, solidified - or (can) be kept open?
The answer to these questions presupposes a reflection on the constitution of cultural identity - more precisely: the relationship between cultural background and identity formation. Charles Taylor in particular has focused on this connection in his examination of multicultural problems. His thesis is that an actor can only provide information about who he wants to be and how he wants to live, what is good, desirable or despicable, by drawing on a culturally colored background language. In other words, it is the reference to the moral topography of a cultural community that enables the individual to determine the parameters of their lifestyle in the first place. Karl Mannheim also focuses on the connection between the socio-cultural positioning of an actor and their way of relating to themselves, to things and to other people. However, he emphasizes the dynamic structure of this interrelationship much more strongly than Charles Taylor does. Karl Mannheim works out that actors are not only placed in a socio-cultural space, but above all in a socio-historical space in which they are affected by historical conditions specific to their age, class and milieu and in this sense are faced with different challenges. This social embedding produces unequal experiences and the associated heterogeneous ways of perceiving, thinking and acting, which are supported by a practical commitment to life, a will to the world.
While Charles Taylor primarily emphasizes the evaluative aspect of cultural identity formation, Karl Mannheim works out that identity-forming commitment to a worldview is constituted in the relational reference to other worldviews, which is unavoidably based on a socio-historical connectedness of being. The thesis of this work is that, firstly, the socio-moral self-positioning (values) and the socio-historical connectedness (wills) that are constitutive of cultural identity formation are inextricable and of the same origin and, secondly, that intra-cultural disputes, i.e. the socio-culturally bound ideological commitment to a way of life, can only be understood from the dynamic relationality of different states of being.
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Faith and gender. International and interdisciplinary conference, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, 20.6.-1.7.2017, on the occasion of the Reformation anniversary 2017 - Conference
Duration: 01.08.2016 to 31.08.2017
The Reformation was driven by the religious commitment of the laity, an awakening that opened up completely new opportunities for women and permanently changed the gender order in European countries. It therefore not only brought about a drastic change through the possibility of choosing between faiths for the first time, but also had a lasting impact on the roles of men and women, mothers and fathers and the ideas of how the sexes should live together through the marriage teachings of Martin Luther and other reformers. Despite ecumenism, gender issues and the inclusion of women still form the repeatedly emphasized difference between Catholicism and Protestantism today - as the last bastion of one denomination and the liberal figurehead of the other.
The interdisciplinary and international conference "Faith and Gender - Gender Reformation" aims to examine this fundamental topic of the Reformation, particularly from the perspective of the interrelationships between "faith and gender". It looks at relationships that were first established and lived by women and men in the Reformation movement of the 16th century and which, beyond denomination and personal faith, still represent a cultural asset of the Western world today. In doing so, it examines both the role of men and women in the church and religiosity as well as their roles, spaces, tasks and life paths based on or conditioned by religion, gains, losses and lines of continuity up to today's society.
From a variety of perspectives, the book examines controversial and much-discussed developments, such as the current deliberations on the introduction of a female diaconate in the Catholic Church, as well as the interactions between faith and gender in other religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Islam. Against the backdrop of recent migration movements, the discussion about the possibilities and limits of reconciling non-Christian religions in particular with the social and gender systems of Christian European countries is likely to be one of the most topical issues of the present day.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025
University-wide lecture series: The Reformation - a religious, cultural and political movement, SS 2017 on the anniversary of the Reformation April 4 - June 27, 2017
Duration: 01.01.2017 to 15.07.2017
This interdisciplinary lecture series traces the origins, course, development and impact of the Reformation in German-speaking countries and selected European countries. It focuses on the Reformation movement, its representatives, theology and ethics, political concepts as well as more recent research approaches to the history of the Reformation and Protestantism. The lecture series places particular emphasis on the transformative character of the new religious and social teachings with regard to social and cultural life and coexistence, the use of new media communication practices and the political development in European history that has always been associated with everyday social, cultural and religious culture. By bringing together a unique concentration of lectures by researchers from the fields of church, art and legal history, history, theology and philosophy, it offers an interdisciplinary prism of current academic reflection in the context of the Reformation anniversary.
Students can complete the lecture series with an examination in the form of a written exam on 4 July 2017 (HS 6, 17:15-18:45) and, if they pass the exam, receive a maximum of 5 CP (ungraded). In FHW degree programs that include a module that requires attendance of an interdisciplinary lecture series, credit can be given in this module (e.g. MGerm 22); in all other OvGU degree programs, the lecture series can be credited in the respective optional area of the degree program (please consult the program coordinator of your degree program).
The program of the lecture series:
04 APRIL
Ilse Junkermann, Bishop of the Protestant Church in Central Germany
Prof. Dr. Jens Strackeljan, Rector of the University of Magdeburg
Greetings
Prof. Dr. Eva Labouvie, University of Magdeburg: Introduction
Prof. Dr. Athina Lexutt, Church History, University of Giessen
Fundamentals of the Reformation - A first fact check
11 APRIL
Prof. Dr. Luise Schorn-Schütte, History, University of Frankfurt/M.
The Reformation as upheaval? Religion and politics in the early modern period
APRIL 18
Prof. Dr. Thomas Kaufmann, Church History, University of Göttingen
Book printing and the Reformation
25 APRIL
Prof. Dr. Eva Labouvie, History, University of Magdeburg
No "disenchantment of the world" (M. Weber).
Superstition and Protestantism since the Reformation
19.30, Wallonerkirche:
The Protestant University Advisory Board invites you to the Academic Service
02 MAY
Prof. Dr. Anselm Schubert, Church History, University of Erlangen
Reformation as conflict. The dispute over the Lord's Supper
09 MAY
Prof. Dr. Martin H. Jung, Historical Theology, University of Osnabrück
Were there also female reformers among the reformers? The significance and role of women in the confessional changes of the 16th century
MAY 16
Prof. Dr. Matthias Asche, History, University of Tübingen
From church reform to reformation - the emergence of Protestantism in France
23 MAY
Dr. Friedrich-K. Unterweg, English Studies, University of Düsseldorf
Henry VIII and his break with Rome. The beginning of the Reformation in England?
MAY 30
Prof. Dr. Heiner Lück, History of Law, University of Halle
Breach of law through reformation?
06 JUNE
Prof. em. Dr. Christoph Kaehler, New Testament, University of Leipzig
"Ah, interpreting is by no means an art for everyone."
Luther's Bible translation and its 2017 revision
JUNE 13
Dr. Bettina Seyderhelm, Art History, Protestant Church in Central Germany
Help for the poor and comfort for orphaned parents. New research on 16th century pictorial testimonies from the heartland of the Reformation
20 JUNE
Prof. Dr. Héctor Wittwer, Practical Philosophy, University of Magdeburg
The influence of the Reformation on moral philosophy
Afterwards, the Protestant University Advisory Board invites you to an Academic Table
in the foyer of lecture hall 6
27 JUNE
Jana Tempelhoff, M. A., University of Magdeburg
Dr. Carsten Nahrendorff, German Studies / History, University of Erfurt
Reformation and education. The elementary and scholarly school system of the 16th century in what is now Saxony-Anhalt
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Pietism "from above". Its introduction and consolidation in the county of Stolberg-Wernigerode by the count and countess Sophie-Charlotte (1695-1762) and Christian Ernst (1691-1771).
Duration: 30.06.2015 to 29.05.2017
The aim of the doctoral project is to investigate for the first time Pietism as a form of faith and religious piety in the county of Stolberg-Wernigerode, where a special, far-reaching and influential form of Pietism was established in the 18th century in the form of "Wernigerode Pietism". At the same time, the project pursues a novel and hitherto unresearched investigation into the process of the introduction and manifestation of a "manorial pietism", which was established "from above" in the county of Stolberg-Wernigerode during the reign of the count couple Sophie-Charlotte (1695-1762) and Christian Ernst (1691-1771), i.e. in contrast to the pietist claim to be a popular religious movement. Using social and cultural-historical methods, the aim is to show how this alternative form of faith was introduced specifically through the initiative of a couple of counts and was not mainly based on the initiative and commitment of missionary theologians or the population, as is known from studies on Pietism. The processes and interactions that made it possible to achieve such success with the introduction of a new form of religion not just within half a decade, but at the very end of the heyday of Pietism in the Holy Roman Empire, will be analyzed and interpreted with the help of special methods of historical social and cultural research. The results of the research project will not only contribute to the expansion of European Pietism research, which to date has mainly focused on "bourgeois" Pietism. Overall, the project will examine the special nature of a "second" variant of Central German Pietism, which was extremely influential alongside the well-known Halle Pietism (August Hermann Francke) and which has not been researched to date.
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Policy Coherence for Development - From a vague idea towards a global norm?
Duration: 01.04.2013 to 12.05.2017
This study examines the emergence and promotion of the “policy coherence for sustainable development” concept in international cooperation. It demonstrates that individual and collective actors within the EU and the OECD have facilitated the circulation of new and controversial ideas on policy coherence for development and promoted its integration not only into the prevailing policies of their member states but also into the global framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 17).
Evidence from member states focuses on institutional approaches, interactions of actors and experiences from France, the United Kingdom and Germany between 2005 and 2015.
Drawing on those insights, I identify three central frames of the concept. Paradoxically, the concept’s alleged weakness – its ambiguity – has contributed to its development as an international soft norm. This analysis shows that centralized policy entrepreneurs have played an important role in international transfer of knowledge within multi-stakeholder networks and in an emerging international epistemic community on policy coherence for sustainable development.
Important women from Saxony-Anhalt from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. A biographical-bibliographical encyclopedia
Duration: 01.01.2013 to 31.12.2016
The encyclopedia examines important women from the Saxony-Anhalt region, i.e. women who have achieved something special on very different levels, who have distinguished themselves in an outstanding way as artists, politicians, writers, entrepreneurs, as bearers of ideas, creators of new ways of thinking and acting or as office holders in their time and who have been committed to their time and the people. These women achieved something special, but even if a glance at many historical and regional books suggests this, because you can hardly find any details about the women, it was not a peculiarity that women of earlier centuries, like women today, achieved something special. On the one hand, the encyclopaedia thus performs a kind of "revival", i.e. a retrieval from oblivion for the purpose of adequate consideration and recognition in regional and supra-regional historical memory; on the other hand, it is particularly concerned with giving the many previously nameless but significant women a place in history. In terms of content, the entries refer to women of the so-called pre-modern period of the 16th to 19th centuries and to women of the Middle Ages.
Vol. 1: Women in Saxony-Anhalt. A biographical-bibliographical lexicon from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, Cologne/Wiemar/Vienna 2016 has been completed
Vol. 2: Women in Saxony-Anhalt. A biographical-bibliographical encyclopaedia from the 19th century to 1945 will be published in summer 2018.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025
Otto von Guericke's world view and his relationship to religion and the church
Duration: 01.11.2013 to 31.12.2016
In a number of writings that far exceed his scientific works (3 vols.), Otto von Guericke dealt with questions about the world view, the image of man and the image of God of his time, on the one hand against the background of his scientific discoveries, which meant that many previously accepted beliefs and world views were no longer tenable or only tenable to a limited extent, on the other hand, against the background of his own deep Lutheran faith and as mayor of a city which, as "Our Lord's Chancellery", became a symbol of orthodoxy and, with its destruction in 1631, a symbol of the destruction of all order in the course of the confessional conflicts. Otto von Guericke's reflections on religion, church, denomination, the image of God and the universe, which have not yet been scientifically investigated, touch on central questions of the change in world views in the course of the emergence of the modern natural sciences and in the wake of the Reformation era; The new insights he expressed in writing in this context are on a par with the revolutionary ideas of Giordano Bruno or Galileo Galilei, contemporaries who had been executed or banished for their statements just a few years before Guericke's writings were written and published. or banished for their statements. The research project is therefore part of the important investigation of the interactions between the Reformation and confessionalization process and scientific knowledge as well as the resulting consequences, examined not only at one of the most important focal points of the Reformation and its effects during the Thirty Years' War, but also on the basis of the previously unknown writings of a Magdeburg man who can be regarded as one of the most important border crossers between confessional-religious commitment and the scientific urge for knowledge.
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European Integration and Employment Relations [EIGER]
Duration: 01.12.2013 to 30.11.2016
The partners of this project contribute to the modernization of the education system in Georgia by introducing a Master's program on European Integration and Employment Relations. The aim is to train specialists in labor relations in order to play a transformative role in society and bring Georgia closer to the EU and international labor standards (see also the negotiations between Georgia and the EU DCFTA). Labour relations are understood here as a broad concept that encompasses legal, labour market, economic, industrial and organizational aspects of the world of work. The aim is to ensure that working conditions have a positive effect on the quality of life. A consortium of three universities in Tbilisi has agreed to introduce such an innovative two-year Master's program in accordance with the Bologna Process after the completion of the three-year project phase. Twenty-five courses and related teaching materials will be developed. For the teachers, an East-West mobility for training purposes to the three European partners will be made possible. In addition to teaching, particular emphasis will be placed on a research-based educational environment. Stakeholders such as ministries and other state institutions, private sector companies, employer and employee organizations and other civil society institutions will be involved in this project (as well as students and representatives of the university administration) in order to implement the project objectives and create sustainable conditions for this Master's program.
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"God in the war of annihilation"
Duration: 01.01.2013 to 28.11.2016
The project examines how Wehrmacht soldiers came to terms with the discrepancy between their Christian upbringing and their experiences in the total war of annihilation against the Soviet Union. Their image of God serves as a fixed point, which is extrapolated through content analysis using field post letters, diaries, interception logs and pastoral care reports. The final aim is to provide an insight into the soldiers' experiences.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025
Katharina von Bora. The noble and learned woman at Luther's side
Duration: 01.10.2012 to 01.11.2016
In connection with the anniversaries of the Luther decade and the celebrations leading up to the anniversary of the posting of the theses in 2017, the project will examine the woman at Martin Luther's side, about whom very little research has been done in historical scholarship to date. In addition to the personality and commitment of Katharina, the question of the establishment of the pastor's wife and the question of her role and tasks beyond those of housewife, wife and mother will also be addressed.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025
"The Tower" - The appropriation and authentication of GDR history on television by young viewers
Duration: 01.08.2011 to 31.07.2016
The doctoral project takes an empirical look at the reception of contemporary historical narratives in feature films. Using the example of the novel adaptation The Tower (Uwe Tellkamp 2008), individual appropriations of GDR history on television will be examined. In addition to the perceived images of history that young viewers see in the fictional literary adaptation, the authenticity of TV history is a central research interest. How authenticity as a central category of historical representation and cinematic narrative is perceived and attributed by young viewers in equal measure is to be investigated qualitatively with the help of open guideline interviews in order to better understand how contemporary history television, which is omnipresent today, is dealt with. In particular, the dissertation project focuses on various processes of how viewers give the narratives of TV events the seal of approval of "authenticity".
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025
Marienborn - place of pilgrimage, nunnery and noble ladies' convent. A spiritual community as reflected in its chronicles (1191-1910)
Duration: 01.01.2016 to 31.07.2016
The chronicle of the pilgrimage site, monastery, monastery and estate of Marienborn in present-day Saxony-Anhalt, which spans nine centuries and has been preserved in Marienborn itself in manuscript, represents a pool of information on past life, cultures and events surrounding a spiritual women's community from the Middle Ages to modern times. The research project evaluates the chronicle and also explores the question of whether a monastery chronicle can be understood as a self-testimony of its writers and as a work of history
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Social Cohesion Radar in Asia
Duration: 01.06.2015 to 01.07.2016
This project aims at mapping social cohesion in Asian societies in a theoretically meaningful and empirically sound manner. The concept and methodology used is based on the Bertelsmann Cohesion Radar, which has been developed in a previous project for the EU/OECD countries. The Cohesion Radar will enable us to meter the level of cohesion in 21 Asian countries, to track trends over time, to learn about specific strength and weaknesses (cohesion profiles), and to investigate key determinants and consequences of strong or weak social cohesion.
"The Marienborn German Partition Memorial as a medium of remembrance culture. A historiographical-social science reception study"
Duration: 01.01.2012 to 31.12.2015
Memorials play an important role in the culture of remembrance in modern societies. As media for conveying history at the historical site, they are able to visualize the past, which is of fundamental importance for public and private remembrance. This is made possible by the existence of spaces and objects from the period that have survived at the site, which are arranged and presented by the institutions in order to use them for historical and political education. But how exactly do which groups and "generations" of visitors use and encounter these historical and historicizing environments and arrangements? What horizons of meaning do they associate with the offerings? Until now, there has been a complete lack of scientific analyses that look at the perceptions and evaluations of a memorial site by its visitors. This doctoral project aims to close this research gap by examining the interplay between visitors, spaces and objects using classical historiographical source analyses in combination with sociological-ethnographic field research, taking the German Division Marienborn Memorial as a case study.This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025
"The effect of GDR representations in film on the historical awareness of pupils - an empirical study"
Duration: 01.01.2012 to 31.12.2015
With the help of an empirical reception study, research gaps regarding the impact of cinematic representations of history, especially feature films with historical content on the subject of GDR history, are to be closed. The results of the study will then be used to draw conclusions about the use of feature films in history lessons and to develop appropriate teaching concepts.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025
"From contemporary witness to professional actor. Personalization strategies of the historical on television at the threshold to the 21st century"
Duration: 01.01.2013 to 31.12.2015
The project is part of the research network "History Mediation in the Media Society" of the Institute of Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Vienna, the Institute of History at the University of Jena, the Institute of Media Research at the Braunschweig University of Art and the Institute of History at the University of Magdeburg in collaboration with Johannes Dicke, Program Planning Department ZDF/3sat (Mainz), and Dr. Katja Wildermuth, Editor-in-Chief of History and Society at MDR (Leipzig).
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Pietism from above. Its introduction and consolidation in the county of Wernigerode by the count and countess Sophie Charlotte (1695-1762) and Christian Ernst (1691-1771) between 1714 and 1771
Duration: 01.07.2012 to 31.12.2015
The aim of the doctoral project is to investigate for the first time Pietism as a form of faith and religious piety in the county of Wernigerode, where a special, far-reaching and influential form of Pietism was established in the 18th century in the form of Wernigerode Pietism. At the same time, the project pursues a novel and hitherto unresearched investigation into the process of the introduction and manifestation of a manorial Pietism, which was established in the county of Wernigerode during the reign of the count and countess Sophie Charlotte (1695-1762) and Christian Ernst (1691-1771) from above, i.e. in contrast to the Pietist claim to be a popular religious movement. Using social and cultural-historical methods, the aim is to show how this alternative form of faith was introduced specifically through the initiative of a couple of counts and was not mainly based on the initiative and commitment of missionary theologians or the population, as is known from studies on Pietism.
This text was translated with DeepL
Research, exhibition and book project: In the shadows. Women's lives between Altmark and Unstrut Valley
Duration: 01.01.2012 to 31.12.2015
- Traveling exhibition "SchattenRisse. Women's lives between Altmark and Unstruttal" with accompanying material (leaflet and posters); opening on December 14, 2005 in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt by the president of the state parliament
- Book publication: Elke Stolze, Parlamentarierinnen im Landtag der preußischen Provinz Sachsen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Halle 2007 (Mitteldeutscher Verlag)
- Continuation of the "FrauenOrte" project with the creation of 9 plaques
- Supervision and support of the traveling exhibition 2005-2013
A brief cultural history of birth
Duration: 01.01.2012 to 31.12.2015
The project deals with the history of birth and obstetrics in Europe. It deals with birth as a meaningful event and space of experience for and among women (birth in a circle of women, as an initiation and transition ritual. Risks and rituals) as well as female obstetrics (midwives, midwifery) and its professionalization (licensed midwives, district, county and official midwives, midwifery courses, schools and maternity clinics), the medicalization of childbirth and the emergence of male obstetrics (accoucheurs) and gynaecology. The project explores developments and changes from the 15th/16th century to the present day and also deals with the new mechanization of childbirth in the hospital system.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025
Geschichtsvermittlung in der Mediengesellschaft
Duration: 01.12.2010 to 30.11.2015
Im Winter 2008/9 gründete sich ein internationaler und interdisziplinärer Projektverbund, um die Problemhorizonte einer Geschichtsvermittelung in der Mediengesellschaft vor allem unter rezeptionsanalytischen Auspizien aufzuarbeiten. Ein sogenannter Paketantrag einer Forschergruppe wird im Dezember 2010 bei der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) eingereicht.
Different actors in the systematic monitoring of the transit route. Continuities and ruptures
Duration: 01.08.2012 to 31.07.2015
The research project examines the cooperation (or rather the interaction) of the various civilian and military actors in the surveillance of the interzone and transit route between Hanover and Berlin, including the border crossing points at Marienborn and Drewitz (Drewitz II). In addition to the increasingly sophisticated technical surveillance of the transit route by the armed organs of the GDR and the civilian forces involved, continuities and breaks or problems in the cooperation of the various actors will be examined in the period under investigation from July 1945 to the time of the political upheaval in 1989/90. In addition, it will be examined who was under surveillance and for what reasons, what security concepts were behind the surveillance of the transit route in the broadest sense and to what extent these were influenced by the political relations between the two German states.
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Water Conflicts and Water Management Institutions in Southern Africa and Central Asia
Duration: 01.01.2011 to 01.05.2015
The project compares the problems of supranational water management in Southern Africa and Central Asia. It looks at the water management institutions and their social, economic and political impact in the regions and targets the main factors influencing water cooperation in order to improve water management problems.
Partly funded by the Saxony-Anhalt State Scholarship
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Drivers of Urban Livestyles in Low Income Urban Habitats of Pune and Mysore/India
Duration: 01.04.2014 to 31.03.2015
11 students and two teachers investigate the living conditions of low-income households in two Indian cities, Pune (7 million inhabitants) and Mysore (1 million). In 5 projects on urban planning, health and education, garbage, informal sector and representation of slum dwellers, students gather data by qualitative interviews and observation to map the living conditions of slum dwellers and urban problems. Field research (September 2014) takes place as action research - gathering data on different topics by division of labour within a short period.Cooperation partners:
Institute of Environment Education and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Pune, and Cenre for Renewable Engery and Sustainable Technologies, The National Institute of Engineering, Mysore.
"denkwerk" - pupils research the local history of the First World War
Duration: 01.08.2012 to 31.12.2014
Since September 2012, there has been a school project in which pupils from Magdeburg Cathedral Grammar School and Stadtfeld/Wernigerode Grammar School have been researching aspects of World War II history relevant to local history and presenting them to the public in their own exhibitions.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025
1914-1918: Home in the war. Youth competition on the everyday history of the First World War in Saxony-Anhalt
Duration: 01.01.2013 to 31.12.2014
[2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War. Reason enough to take a look "back", right?To mark this anniversary, the youth competition "1914-1918: Heimat im Krieg" offers young people aged 14 to 22 the opportunity to look at the changes and upheavals for the region of Saxony-Anhalt during the First World War.
The youth competition on the everyday history of the First World War in Saxony-Anhalt is a cooperation project of the lkj Sachsen-Anhalt e.V. and the Institute of History of the Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg..
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Körperpolitik, Bio-Macht und der Wert menschlichen Lebens. Nationalsozialistische Zwangssterilisation auf dem Gebiet des heutigen Bundeslandes Sachsen-Anhalt
Duration: 01.01.2010 to 31.12.2014
Das Forschungsprojekt beabsichtigt eine Untersuchung sowohl der medizinisch-psychiatrischen als auch der sozialen Diagnostik nationalsozialistischer Zwangssterilisationspraxis, insbesondere aber auch der Beurteilung des gesellschaftlichen Wertes und der damit einhergehenden Ausschlussverfahren von so genannter „Minderwertigkeit“ bei Frauen und Männern. Damit hat das Forschungsprojekt nicht nur die erstmalige Analyse und Publikation der Durchführung von Zwangssterilisationen für den gesamten Raum des heutigen Bundeslandes Sachsen-Anhalt zum Ziel, sondern möchte diesen für das Verständnis nationalsozialistischer Gewaltpolitik grundlegenden Themenbereich zugleich erstmals auch unter geschlechtergeschichtlichen Aspekten untersuchen. Einer Analyse unterzogen werden sollen hierbei einerseits die psychiatrischen Einrichtungen Altscherbitz, Bernburg, Haldensleben und Uchtspringe und andererseits die Städte Halle und Magdeburg, in denen zwischen 1934 und 1945 Zwangssterilisationen vorgenommen wurden. Unter Einbezug vor allem geschlechter- und kulturgeschichtlicher Fragestellungen und unter Anwendung neuer Forschungsmethoden soll damit ein entscheidender Beitrag zur historischen Aufarbeitung eines regionalen Forschungsdesiderats und zur Intensivierung der genderbezogenen universitären Forschung geleistet werden. Das Forschungsprojekt, das seinen inhaltlichen Schwerpunkt auf die ohnehin in der regionalen Forschung bisher vernachlässigte Untersuchung nationalsozialistischer Zwangssterilisation legt, stellt hierbei die geschlechtsbezogenen und geschlechtsspezifischen Beurteilungs- und Verfahrenskriterien, den Umgang mit betroffenen Männern und Frauen sowie ihren Familien und die nationalsozialistische Konstruktion von männlicher und weiblicher „Minderwertigkeit“ in den Mittelpunkt der Untersuchung.
Important women from Saxony-Anhalt from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, conference and book project
Duration: 01.10.2013 to 31.12.2014
The encyclopedia examines important women from the Saxony-Anhalt region, i.e. women who have achieved something special on very different levels, who have distinguished themselves in an outstanding way as artists, politicians, writers, entrepreneurs, as bearers of ideas, creators of new ways of thinking and acting or as office holders in their time and who have been committed to their time and the people. These women achieved something special, but even if a glance at many historical and regional books suggests this, because you can hardly find any details about the women, it was not a peculiarity that women of earlier centuries, like women today, achieved something special. On the one hand, the encyclopaedia thus provides a kind of revival, i.e. a retrieval from oblivion for the purpose of adequate consideration and recognition in regional and supra-regional historical memory, and on the other hand, it is particularly concerned with giving the many previously nameless but significant women a place in history. In terms of content, the entries refer to women of the so-called pre-modern era of the 16th to 19th centuries, and to women of the Middle Ages.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025
Magdeburger Biographisches Lexikon des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts
Duration: 01.06.2010 to 31.12.2014
Das Lexikon erfasst die für die Stadt Magdeburg bedeutsamen Persönlichkeiten des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, die hier wirksam waren, in Magdeburg geboren wurden oder verstorben sind. Dabei werden sämtliche Berufsgruppen, Ämter, Formen der Tätigkeit und des Wirkens im Interesse und zum Wohle der Stadt berücksichtigt. Die bisher erstellte Lemmaliste enthält ca. 600 Personen.
Lebensführung und Lebensqualität in Kasachstan
Duration: 11.12.2009 to 10.12.2014
Mit der Systemtransformation vor nunmehr 18 Jahren gilt es zu untersuchen, wie sich die Lebensqualität und Lebensqualität in Kasachstan an die Marktwirtschaft angepasst haben. Hierzu werden verschiedene soziale Schichten in einer qualitativen Untersuchung befragt.
Teilweise Landesstipendium Sachsen-Anhalt
Henning von Tresckow. A scientific biography
Duration: 01.12.2012 to 30.11.2014
The aim is to develop a biographical-systematic study that incorporates new sources or sources that have so far only been analyzed to a limited extent. Based on the cultural-historical approach of a network-like interweaving of structural connections, essential individual-biographical perspectives are to be contextualized with structural-political and social circumstances in the overall view of Tresckow's work.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025
Regionale Entwicklung kleiner und mittelständischen Unternehmen (KMU) in Karkalpakstan/Usbekistan
Duration: 01.04.2010 to 01.11.2014
Die überwiegend ländliche Region mit hoher Arbeitslosigkeit zeigt, dass KMU Probleme des Überlebens haben. Es sollen die Gründe analysiert werden, um eine regionale Entwicklungsstrategie für KMU vorzuschlagen
Historical experience and the psychosocial life situation of war children. An interdisciplinary study
Duration: 01.10.2012 to 30.09.2014
In the spring of 1945, the Allied troops marched into Germany. Nine months later, the first "occupation children" were born. It is estimated that around 400,000 children were born in the first post-war decade whose fathers were occupying soldiers; only in the rarest of cases did they officially acknowledge their paternity. The "occupation children" carried a double stigma: they were born out of wedlock and children of a relationship with the "enemy". Their social environment discriminated against and marginalized them, they were ridiculed and sometimes physically abused. Today, almost seventy years after the end of the Second World War, those affected are beginning to articulate themselves in public and semi-public forums and to assert themselves. The reasons for these search movements lie in the advanced age of their mothers and fathers, but also in the age of the "occupation children" themselves. The research project uses this situation of "ego-historical" openness to realize three cardinal goals: Firstly, the observation of individual psychological and psychosocial developmental dynamics of the occupation children will be interlinked with the elucidation of their social and political horizons of meaning. Secondly, a new type of transdisciplinary survey and analysis instrument is to be developed, which will subsequently be available to the scientific community for further cross-border projects. Thirdly, the research findings on the group of occupation children of the Second World War are to be interpreted for the benefit of stigmatized and discriminated "children of war" in the present and the future and made politically effective through expertise and regulations.
This text was translated with DeepL on10/11/2025
Nepal
Duration: 01.08.2011 to 31.07.2014
Research applies biographical analysis to investigate the life world of female shamans of different ethnic groups in Nepal. It aims at investigating changing knowledge systems and practices under the influence of urbanization and globalization.
Konfessionelle Konversionen von Frauen im deutschen Adel (16.-18. Jahrhundert)
Duration: 01.08.2010 to 31.07.2014
Das Forschungsvorhaben beschäftigt sich mit den ? zumeist anlässlich der Eheschließung ? erfolgten Konversionen adliger Frauen im deutschen Reich ab der Zeit der Reformation und behandelt sowohl Konversionen vom Katholizismus zum Protestantismus als auch solche vom Protestantismus zum Katholizismus. Dabei sollen vor allem die Motive der Frauen selbst als auch die Überzeugungsstrategien und die Reaktionen von Familie und Verwandtschaft bei Konversionen im Mittelpunkt stehen. Ebenso wird nach dem konkreten Verlauf einer Konversion und ihren Folgen für die weiteren Lebenswege der Frauen, nach Unterschieden zwischen den Konfessionen, zwischen Konversionen von Männern und Frauen und zwischen äußerer Konfessionszugehörigkeit und innerer Glaubensüberzeugung gefragt.
The People's Republic of Poland and the German Democratic Republic in the biographical experience and working through of the post-war generation from 1945 to 1955: a biographical-analytical-sociological comparison
Duration: 16.04.2012 to 15.04.2014
The project is dedicated to the life-historical experiences and collective-historical perspectives of the post-war generation (born 1945 to 1955) in the social formation of state socialism in the People's Republic of Poland and the GDR. The empirical basis are forty autobiographical-narrative interviews each in Poland and East Germany with non-prominent everyday people of this generation: with (1) workers and (2) farmers, (3) business people of the time, (4) professional freelancers and scientists, (5) representatives of the local administrations of the time and with (6) representatives of the opposition and the counterculture who were active in local communities and discourse arenas. In terms of basic theory, our research project is based on the assumption, to be empirically examined and differentiated, that the long collective-historical epoch of state socialism in Poland and East Germany had a particularly profound and transformative impact on the relationship between biographical identity development and surrounding collective entities (such as the state and its organizations). In the course of the project, the ongoing transnational comparison will take place in joint bi-national research workshops (including advanced students). Some of the interviews and their results are to be prepared for history exhibitions, popular history workshops and publications aimed at laypersons in order to safeguard the communicative memory of the long state socialist era and thus serve the two national cultures of remembrance, while at the same time making the European dimension of the biographical experiences of state socialism and its formative collective-historical constellations of events clear through transnational cooperation.
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Home at war - the regional history of the First World War
Duration: 01.10.2012 to 31.01.2014
2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, the proverbial "primal catastrophe of the 20th century". The project aims to develop a traveling exhibition on the effects of the war on the region of today's federal state of Saxony-Anhalt by the beginning of 2014 in close cooperation with the Saxony-Anhalt Museum Association. From the private history of individual contemporaries in the "homeland" and at the "front" to questions of institutional history, such as the role of the church, schools and associations, to overarching problems of social and economic history and aspects of the culture of remembrance, new topics are to be explored. It is therefore about a research contribution and its practical implementation in an effective public form of history communication. 24.01.2013 - Magdeburg in the First World War - a city on the "home front".
Colloquium in cooperation with the Magdeburg City Archive.12.07.2013 - Growth from catastrophe. Central Germany's industries in the context of the First World War. (6th Economic History Colloquium Wolfen).colloquium in cooperation with the Film Museum Wolfen.Magdeburg in the First World War - a city on the home front.
A comprehensive anthology will be published in summer 2014 in the series "Magdeburger Schriften" (ed. Stadtarchiv Magdeburg), in which some IGES staff and students are involved.
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Magdeburg Jewish front-line soldiers in the First World War
Duration: 01.04.2012 to 31.01.2014
Among the German citizens who volunteered to "fight for the fatherland" at the beginning of the First World War in 1914 were thousands of young Germans of the Jewish faith. "I went into the field as a German to protect my oppressed fatherland. But also as a Jew, to fight for the full equality of my fellow believers." This confession in the will of Josef Zürndorfer, a lieutenant pilot who died in 1915, stands for the attitude and hopes of many Jewish soldiers at the front. Using Magdeburg as an example, the project aims to shed light on the regional dimension of the participation of Jewish citizens in the First World War, which is still a research desideratum. With a view to 2014 - the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War - an exhibition on Magdeburg's Jewish front-line soldiers is being developed.
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Mütter und Töchter. Weitergabe von Kriegseinsatzerfahrungen nach 1945
Duration: 08.12.2010 to 31.12.2013
Es ist communis opinio, dass der Zweite Weltkrieg als in jeder Hinsicht Totaler Krieg aufzufassen ist. Für die Frauen der kriegführenden Nationen bedeutete dies eine territorial bezogene und soziologisch fassbare Totalität der Inanspruchnahme sowie eine neue Qualität der physischen und psychischen Mobilisierung. Als Soldatinnen beteiligten sie sich erstmals in großem Umfang am Töten. Die tiefe Bruchstelle, die der Totale Krieg der Erfahrung dieser weiblichen Generation schlug und ihre Lebenswege auch nach Kriegsende bestimmte, lenkt die Frage auf die Erfahrungsverarbeitung innerhalb der Nachkriegsgesellschaften sowie auf den Erfahrungstransfer an die nächste Generation. Das Forschungsprojekt fragt, ob die seit den späten 1960er Jahren anwachsenden Artikulationen des Feminismus nicht zum Teil auch eine generationell verschobene Folge weiblicher Kriegserfahrung im Zweiten Weltkrieg sein könnten.
From duke to Reich governor. Anhalt's path into the "Age of Extremes" 1871-1949.
Duration: 01.01.2012 to 31.12.2013
In 2012, Saxony-Anhalt is celebrating the 8ooth anniversary of the second part of its name. On February 9, 1212, Duke Bernhard I, founder of the Saxon-Ascan line of the Dukes of Saxony-Wittenberg, died. His youngest son, Albrecht I, became duke. The eldest, Henry I, received the Anhalt lands and thus founded the line of the Princes of Anhalt. This marked the beginning of a centuries-long, eventful history, which came to an official end with the liquidation of the state of Saxony-Anhalt in the local state parliament on July 25, 1952. The celebrations, events, exhibitions and scientific conferences in the "Anhalt 800" program in 2012 focused on the medieval, early modern and more recent history of today's Anhalt region. The more recent and recent past was largely ignored. The colloquium aimed to compile more recent research results, to identify the research desiderata all the more clearly and to introduce further questions and methods of cultural history and the history of memory to Anhalt's recent history. It was intended as a stimulus for further research and to create a closer network of scholars working on "Anhalt's path into the 'Age of Extremes'".from Duke to Reich Governor.
Published by Justus H. Ulbricht on behalf of the Research Center for Modern Regional History at the Institute of History at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and in cooperation with the Saxony-Anhalt State Agency for Civic Education.
Halle 2013 (forthcoming).
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Livelihood strategies of private households in Central Asia: A comparative urban-rural analysis in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (Co-project leader Eckhard Dittrich)
Duration: 01.04.2011 to 31.12.2013
With the system transfer, market economy institutions were implemented. Now, after 18 years of transformation, the question arises as to what extent the actors have also adopted market society actions and behavior and how this affects earlier patterns of action. With the help of quantitative and qualitative methods, market action is examined in a country and urban-rural comparison with regard to personal responsibility and planning (old-age provision, unemployment, etc.). The focus here is on the question of whether family and friendly security mechanisms are being replaced by organizational ones (banks, insurance companies, etc.). Theoretically, the project is based on the sustainable livelihoods approach.
The aim of the project is to analyze the action patterns of private households of lower and middle income groups in urban and rural regions in order to understand their livelihood strategies. Data is collected by three research groups in the study countries. In addition, the focus is on the further qualification of young researchers. In addition to the applicants (Prof. Dittrich/Prof. Schrader, Univ. Magdeburg), the research group consists of: Dr. Denis Gruber (St. Petersburg State University), Dr. Markus Kaiser (OSCE Academy Bishkek), Prof. Zabirova (Eurasian National Univ. Astana), Prof. Shedenova (Al-Farabi Univ. Almaty), Dr. Gorborukova (American Univ. of Central Asia, Bishkek); Nigina Avganova, Aikokul Maksutova and Batima Mambetalina (Magdeburg).
Publication:
Eckhard Dittrich, Heiko Schrader (Eds.)
"When Salary is not Enough…"
Private Households in Central Asia
Series: Gesellschaftliche Transformationen/Societal Transformations
Vol. 20, 408 p., 44.90 EUR, 44.90 CHF, br., ISBN 978-3-643-90525-3
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Maria Theresia von Österreich. Eine Biographie
Duration: 01.11.2010 to 31.12.2013
Das Forschungsprojekt versucht eine kulturhistorische Aufarbeitung der Persönlichkeit und der Leistungen Maria Theresias und beleuchtet die vielseitigen Facetten dieser Frau unter Bezug auf die Theorie und Methoden der Genderforschung sowie der historischen Kulturforschung.
Working as a minority in a patriarchal society: women entrepreneurs in Tajikistan
Duration: 01.11.2011 to 30.11.2013
The main focus of the research is on women entrepreneurship in Tajikistan (small and medium entrepreneurs). According to the latest national statistics, there are only 3% of such women entrepreneurs. The country suffers from high unemployment and labor migration. In addition, it is not only the country's entrepreneur-unfriendly conditions (laws and policies) that prevent the development of entrepreneurship, but also the patriarchal and Islamic tradition and "unwritten" social rules and moral norms that hinder the motivation and survival and success strategies of women entrepreneurs in a male-dominated economic sector. Since these women entrepreneurs not only provide jobs and employment, but also create sources of income for themselves and others, it is very important to examine their motives for action and performance factors as well as their strategies for asserting themselves in the market and society. The questions investigated in this research are: What are the main factors and key values that influence the survival strategies of Tajik women entrepreneurs? What effect does entrepreneurial activity have on the self-confidence of these women and Tajik women in general, also with regard to the societal gender hierarchy?
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"Resistance fighters" and "illegalists" as constructs of collective memory in Romania and the GDR
Duration: 01.08.2012 to 31.07.2013
The doctoral project deals with the cinematic construction of collective memory in Romania and the GDR. The question of the negotiation of the past is at the center of the investigation. The processes and forms of memory that come to light in both countries are critically examined through the exemplary analysis of the "communist resistance fighter" and the "illegalist".
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Napola- und Parteikader. Elitebildung im Nationalsozialismus und in der DDR am Beispiel der Bildungsstätte Ballenstedt
Duration: 01.07.2010 to 30.06.2013
Das Projekt fragt nach der Geschichte des nationalsozialistischen Schulungsortes sowie der nach 1945 eröffneten sozialistischen Parteischule Ballenstedt. Anhand dieses konkreten historischen Ortes und seiner Kontinuitäten und Brüche vermag es darüber hinaus, generelle Erkenntnisse über Elitebildung in Diktaturen zu gewinnen.
Qualitative-empirical graduate study at the Faculty of Human Sciences of the OvGU
Duration: 01.09.2012 to 30.04.2013
The study focuses on the career entry of graduates of the Faculty of Human Sciences at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. In topic-centered narrative interviews, the study, the immediate transition to working life and the career entry phase of the first years after graduation are recorded and evaluated biographically.
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Die Kulturgeschichte der "Pille"
Duration: 01.04.2010 to 31.03.2013
Das Projekt untersucht die spezifischen gesellschaftlichen Konstellationen, die in der DDR als erstem Ostblockstaat die Entscheidung für eine hormonelle Empfängnisverhütung ermöglichten. Die Pille wird dabei als ein Produkt im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes in den Blick genommen, an dessen Einführung, Verbreitung und Gebrauch zahlreiche politische und gesellschaftliche Akteure beteiligt waren, die unter den spezifischen Bedingungen der staatssozialistischen Diktatur und der stummen Anwesenheit des Westens auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen und mit unterschiedlichen Intentionen interagierten und kommunizierten.Wissenschaftliche Tagung „Kulturgeschichte der Fertilität von der Frühen Neuzeit bis zur Gegenwart“ In Kooperation mit der Universität Jena und gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Die Tagung fand vom 10. bis 12.1.2013 in Imshausen statt.
DDR-Geschichte im Medienkoffer
Duration: 01.10.2009 to 31.03.2013
Um den Geschichtsunterricht zur DDR-Geschichte an den Sekundarschulen und Gymnasien des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt künftig noch nachhaltiger und vor allem handlungs- sowie kompetenzorientierter gestalten zu können, hat der Landesbeauftragte die Zusammenstellung eines entsprechenden Medienkoffers in Auftrag gegeben. Die Teilnehmer des Projekts stellen den Inhalt dieses Koffers zusammen, erarbeiten zu den jeweiligen Medien Begleitmaterialien und zeigen konkrete pädagogische Einsatzmöglichkeiten auf. Der komplette Medienkoffer soll für alle Medienstellen des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt und darüber hinaus ggf. für alle Schulen produziert werden.
Das Stalag XI-A Altengrabow 1939-1945
Duration: 01.07.2010 to 01.01.2013
DasStalag XI-A Altengrabow war eines der größten Kriegsgefangenenlager Mitteldeutschlands, welches während der gesamten Kriegsdauer genutzt wurde. Das Forschungsprojekt fragt nach der politischen, wirtschaftlichen, sozialen, militärischen und der Kulturgeschichte des Lagers sowie seinen vielfältigen Einbindungen in Kommune, Region und Land.
„Soldatinnen im Zweiten Weltkrieg und die Folgen. USA, England, Sowjetunion und Deutschland im Vergleich“
Duration: 01.01.2008 to 31.12.2012
Die Mobilisierung und Selbstmobilisierung von Frauen, ihre Erwartungen an den Einsatz und ihre Erfahrungen im Krieg, die kurz- und langfristigen Folgen für die zivilen und militärischen Geschlechterverhältnisse sowie für die Art und Weise der Kriegführung, sind die Schwerpunkte mit denen sich das Projekt beschäftigt.
On the role of the Leipzig auction houses Klemm and Thiemig in the realization of the property of emigrants and deported Jewish citizens between 1933 and 1945
Duration: 01.10.2011 to 30.11.2012
From 1939 to 1945, the Hans Klemm company in Leipzig conducted auctions of so-called "non-Aryan property" on behalf of the Gestapo and the Chief Finance President of Leipzig. The records document auctions on behalf of the Gestapo and the Chief Finance President as well as estate auctions and household liquidations. On the basis of comprehensive research in the relevant archives, the project is investigating the involvement of the auction houses Hans Klemm (Leipzig) and Hermann Thiemig (Leipzig) in the "Nazi-confiscated cultural property, especially Jewish property" process and, on this basis, is creating a database with all relevant data on the sale and acquisition of assets from these documents in the period from 1933 to 1945.
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Ärztliche Vermittlungs- und Beratungsmuster im Kontext lebensbedrohlicher Erkrankungen und ihre pädagogigsche Sensibilität. Die pädagogischen Komponenten der ärztlich-professionellen Informations-, Beratungs- und Betreuungsarbeit (Herzinfarkt, Brustkrebs)
Duration: 01.04.2009 to 30.09.2012
Das Ziel des Projektes ist es, Prozesse der verständnissichernden pädagogischen Wissensvermittlung des Arztes an den Patienten und der identitätsverändernden und -sichernden Beratung über für den letzteren existentiell wichtige Fragen seiner Krankheit und des gesundheitsfördernden Umgehens mit dieser samt der damit verbundenen Unterstützung von grundlegenden Gesundheitshaltungs- und Lebensstilveränderungen als wichtigen Teil der professionellen Arbeit von Ärzten mit Patienten zu untersuchen und diese pädagogischen Handlungskomponenten in ihren medizinsoziologisch, gesundheitswissenschaftlich und erziehungswissenschaftlich relevanten Dimensionen zu beschreiben. Hierbei wird der Arzt – neben seiner dominanten Rolle als Diagnostiker und Behandler - nicht nur als informierender Wissensvermittler, sondern auch als Pädagoge, der die Veränderung der inneren Haltung des Patienten zu seiner chronischen Krankheit, zu sich selbst, zu seinem Leben und zur Welt gesundheitsfördernd anregen und insbesondere auch die Prüfung und Neubestimmung der fragwürdig gewordenen bisherigen Beziehung zwischen der biographischen Identität des Patienten und dem durch die chronische Krankheit geschädigten Körper unterstützen will, in den Mittelpunkt des Forschungsinteresses gerückt. Die ärztlichen Handlungsschemata der Vermittlung von krankheits-, behandlungs- und gesundheitsrelevantem Wissen in biographisch-fallspezifischer Zuspitzung, der pädagogischen Anregung von Anpassungsprozessen im Bereich der alltäglichen Lebensführung und der Ingangsetzung und Unterstützung von Prozessen der biographischen Arbeit bezüglich der Identitätsveränderung bei Patienten unter Berücksichtigung ihrer einschneidend veränderten Körper-Performanz werden am Beispiel von Ärzten untersucht, die maßgeblich an der Behandlung von Brustkrebs bzw. Herzinfarkt beteiligt sind. Durch die Erfassung und Analyse ärztlicher Orientierungsmuster (auf der Grundlage von Experteninterviews und Gruppendiskussionen) und Handlungsmuster (auf der empirischen Basis von interaktionsgeschichtlichen Fallerzählungen in Verbindung mit den Experteninterviews und von Problemfokussierungen in Gruppendiskussionen sowie von behandlungs- und bewältigungspädagogischen Vorträgen und Schulungen der Ärzte und von entsprechenden kommunikativen Reaktionen der zuhörenden bzw. mitmachenden Patienten auf diese) werden Einsichten in die spezifischen pädagogischen Aufklärungs-, Vermittlungs- und Beratungsaktivitäten von Ärzten generiert.
Lehrplan Geschichte
Duration: 01.01.2009 to 31.08.2012
fachwissenschaftliche und fachdidaktische Beratung bei der Erstellung des neuen Lehrplans für das Unterrichtsfach Geschichte an Sekundarschulen des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt in den Klassenstufen 5 bis 10 + Überarbeitung der Erprobungsfassung
Die Wirkung von DDR-Darstellungen im Film auf das Geschichtsbewusstsein von Schülern Eine empirische Untersuchung
Duration: 01.07.2009 to 30.06.2012
Historische und politische Bildung in der Schule müssen sich vermehrt audiovisueller Medien bedienen, um Aufmerksamkeit zu wecken und Akzeptanz zu heischen. Vor dem Hintergrund der höchst emotional geführten gesellschaftlichen Debatten um eine Bewertung der DDR als Unrechtsdiktatur oder als Sozialparadies , vor dem Hintergrund auch, dass sich Ostdeutsche und Westdeutsche immer noch (oder schon wieder) als die jeweils Anderen ausmachen, scheint es geradezu zwingend, die heranwachsenden Generationen differenziert aufzuklären. Dabei dürfen wir die Vermittlung nicht allein den Eltern respektive den spezifischen Regeln gehorchenden öffentlichen Medien überlassen. Vielmehr müssen wir die dort angebotenen, hoch erfolgreichen Produkte , allen voran die Filme, moderiert zur Aufklärung der Schüler nutzen. Wenn wir wissen, welche Wirkung welche Filmformate auf Schüler zeitigen, werden wir in einem zweiten Schritt in der Lage sein, Handlungsrichtlinien für Schulen und für Lehrer zu entwickeln, damit diese die Filme ihrerseits erfolgreich im Unterricht nutzen können.
Research, exhibition and book project: Im Schatte. Women's lives between Altmark and Unstrut Valley
Duration: 31.12.2011 to 01.04.2012
- Traveling exhibition "SchattenRisse. Women's lives between Altmark and Unstruttal" with accompanying material (leaflet and posters); opening on December 14, 2005 in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt by the president of the state parliament
- Book publication: Elke Stolze, Parlamentarierinnen im Landtag der preußischen Provinz Sachsen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Halle 2007 (Mitteldeutscher Verlag)
- Continuation of the "FrauenOrte" project with the creation of 9 plaques
- Supervision and support of the traveling exhibition 2005-2013
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"Besatzungskinder". Zur Sozial-, Diskurs- und Biographiegeschichte einer in beiden deutschen Nachkriegsgesellschaften beschwiegenen Gruppe
Duration: 01.04.2008 to 31.03.2012
Das Projekt rekonstruiert die Geschichte dieser besonderen Gruppe von „Kriegskindern“ sozial-, diskurs- und biographiegeschichtlich. Es will einen Beitrag zur Kultur- und Gesellschaftsgeschichte der beiden deutschen Nachkriegsgesellschaften sowie zu einer europäischen und transatlantischen Beziehungsgeschichte liefern.
Aus- und Aufbaustufe: In Vorbereitung ist derzeit eine Erweiterung des Forschungsprojektes auf den Raum Europa: Soldaten der deutschen Wehrmacht sowie der alliierten Truppen zeugten in ganz Europa und darüber hinaus „Besatzungskinder“, die in „fremden“, nicht selten gar feindlich gesinnten Nachkriegsgesellschaften groß werden mussten.wissenschaftliche Tagung „Besatzerkinder. Spätfolgen des Zweiten Weltkrieges in Deutschland und Österreich“ In Kooperation mit dem Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institut für Kriegsfolgenforschung Graz und gefördert durch die Fritz Thyssen Stiftung sowie dem National Center of Culture Warschau. Die Tagung fand am 27.9.2012 in Wien statt.
Method project "Gustav Adolf Spengler"
Duration: 01.01.2011 to 31.03.2012
With the introduction of the trial version of the curriculum for history in secondary schools in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in 2010, methods internships were introduced as a new form of teaching. Materials specially tailored to the exhibition at the Spengler Museum and Spengler House in Sangerhausen have been developed to enable pupils in years 5 and 6 to carry out the "History in factual testimonies" methods internship. These include instructions for carrying out the practical course as well as working materials and will be handed over to the museum in February 2012.
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Method project "Contemporary history in an exhibition"
Duration: 01.01.2011 to 31.03.2012
With the introduction of the trial version of the curriculum for history in secondary schools in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in 2010, methods internships were introduced as a new form of teaching. Materials specially tailored to the exhibition at the Spengler Museum in Sangerhausen were developed to enable pupils in grades 9 and 10 to carry out the "History in an exhibition" methods practical. The focus is on the history of Sangerhausen during the First World War.
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Plan to Establish Research-Science -Enterprise orientated Universities
Duration: 01.03.2009 to 28.03.2012
Es geht um die institutionalisierung der Kooperation von Universitäten und Unternehmen. Abgezielt wird auf die Entwicklung von lernenden Regionen in verschiedenen Ländern des postsowjetischen Raums. Dazu werden transnationale Forschungsdatenbanken und interactive websites entwickelt.
Forschungs-, Ausstellungs- und Buchprojekt: Im Schatte. Frauenleben zwischen Altmark und Unstruttal
Duration: 01.01.2009 to 31.12.2011
- Wanderausstellung "SchattenRisse. Frauenleben zwischen Altmark und Unstruttal" mit Begleitmaterial (Faltblatt und Plakate); Eröffnung am 14.12.2005 im Landtag des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt durch den Landtagspräsidenten
- Buchveröffentlichung: Elke Stolze, Parlamentarierinnen im Landtag der preußischen Provinz Sachsen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Halle 2007 (Mitteldeutscher Verlag)
- Weiterführung des Projektes "FrauenOrte" mit der Erstellung von 9 Tafeln
- Betreuung und Begleitung der Wandersausstellung 2005-2013
Die touristische Entdeckung des Harzes Ausstellungs- und Publikationsprojekt
Duration: 01.01.2010 to 31.12.2011
Das seit 2008 laufende Forschungsvorhaben hat das Ziel, erstmals die frühe touristische Entwicklung des Harzes von der Mitte des 17. bis zum Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts zu rekonstruieren und zu dokumentieren. Ausgangspunkt des Projekts ist die Gegenwartsbedeutung des Tourismus als entscheidender Wirtschafts- und Imagefaktor im Harz. Die Forschungsergebnisse werden in einer Monographie sowie in einer Sonderausstellung präsentiert. Letztere findet in den Räumen der Galerie 1530 in Wernigerode von April bis Dezember 2011 statt.
Walpurgisfeiern im Harz Ausstellungsprojekt
Duration: 01.09.2010 to 31.12.2011
Das Projekt widmet sich den seit Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts kommerziell betriebenen Walpurgisfeiern auf dem Brocken und im Harz. Ziel ist es, die Hintergründe und Abläufe dieser alljährlichen Feste zu dokumentieren und in den Kontext der touristischen Entwicklung des Harzes einzuordnen. Das Sonderausstellungsprojekt, das im Harzmuseum Wernigerode zwischen Frühjahr und Herbst 2011 realisiert wird, versteht sich als Korrespondenz zu der zeitgleich in der Galerie 1530 stattfindenden Ausstellung zur Geschichte des Harztourismus.
Erarbeitung eines Methodenpraktikums Zeitgeschichte in einer Ausstellung und Vorbereitung einer Lehrerfortbildung
Duration: 01.10.2010 to 30.06.2011
In dem neuen kompetenzorientierten Lehrplan für das Fach Geschichte für die Sekundarschulen Sachsen-Anhalts sind erstmals sog. Methodenpraktika integriert. Diese erfordern einen grundsätzlich anderen fachdidaktisch-unterrichtlichen Zugriff sowie eine enge Kooperation der Schulen mit außerschulischen Partnern. Im Rahmen des Projekts erarbeiten die Teilnehmer konkrete Ablaufpläne und Materialien für die Umsetzung des Methodenpraktikums Zeitgeschichte in einer Ausstellung in der Gedenkstätte Marienborn. Gleichzeitig bereiten sie eine einführende Lehrerfortbildung vor, die vom 4.-6. Juli 2011 in der Gedenkstätte stattfinden wird.
Zeitgeschichte im Schulbuch II
Duration: 01.10.2010 to 28.03.2011
Die Einführung eines neuen kompetenzorientierten Lehrplans für das Fach Geschichte an den Sekundarschulen Sachsen-Anhalts stellte die Schulbuchverlage vor die Aufgabe, die bisherigen Lehrwerke gründlich zu überarbeiten bzw. völlig neu zu konzipieren. In dem laufenden Projekt erarbeiten die Studierenden unter Anleitung für das Lehrwerk Die Reise in die Vergangenheit ein neues, komplettes Schulbuchkapitel für die Klassenstufen 9/10 zum Thema Zeitgeschichte im digitalen Medium .
Zeitgeschichte im Schulbuch I
Duration: 01.01.2010 to 28.02.2011
Die Einführung eines neuen kompetenzorientierten Lehrplans für das Fach Geschichte an den Sekundarschulen Sachsen-Anhalts stellte die Schulbuchverlage vor die Aufgabe, die bisherigen Lehrwerke gründlich zu überarbeiten bzw. völlig neu zu konzipieren. In dem laufenden Projekt erarbeiten die Studierenden unter Anleitung für das Lehrwerk Die Reise in die Vergangenheit ein neues komplettes Schulbuchkapitel für die Klassenstufen 9/10 zum Thema Zeitgeschichte in einer Ausstellung .
Beziehungs- und Kommunikationskulturen von Frauen im 18. Jahrhundert unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Raumes Sachsen-Anhalt
Duration: 01.11.2007 to 31.12.2010
Das Forschungsprojekt nimmt Bezug zum Themenjahr 2008 der Initiative Sachsen-Anhalt und das 18. Jahrhundert , das unter dem Motto Frauen im 18. Jahrhundert stehen wird. Es untersucht die Beziehungs- und Kommunikationskulturen verwandter und freundschaftlich verbundener Frauen, insbesondere von Schwestern und Freundinnen unter geschlechtergeschichtlichen Fragestellungen und unter Anwendung neuer Forschungsmethoden. Dabei wird die anvisierte Thematik auf einer interdisziplinären und internationalen Ebene im europäischen Kontext angegangen und die Beziehungs- und Kommunikationskulturen von Frauen unterschiedlicher sozialer Milieus, aber auch grundlegende Fragen zu Freundschaft und Geschlechtszugehörigkeit, zur Beziehung von Schwestern und verwandten Frauen, zu weiblichen Schreib- und Briefkulturen und der (sozialen, politischen, mentalen, kulturellen, emotionalen usw.) Bedeutung weiblicher Netzwerke analysiert. In Planung ist eine zweitägige Konferenz zum Thema: Schwestern und Freundinnen. Zur Kommunikations- und Beziehungskultur zwischen Frauen in der Vormoderne .
Getrennt und doch verbunden. Zur Kommunikations- und Beziehungskultur adliger Frauen im Raum Sachsen-Anhalt auf der Basis ihrer Korrespondenzen
Duration: 01.11.2007 to 31.12.2010
Das Forschungsprojekt wendet sich einem von der geistes-, kultur- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschung stiefmütterlich behandelten Themenkomplex, der Beziehungs-, Kommunikations- und insbesondere auch der Briefkultur von und unter Frauen im regionalen Kontext zu. Von der Geschichtswissenschaft wurde die Analyse von Frauennetzwerken bisher sowohl auf regionaler wie europäischer Ebene ausgeblendet, selbst die Geschlechterforschung hat sich mit dieser Thematik erst vereinzelt auseinander gesetzt. Weibliche Beziehungsmuster und -medien sowie ihre Ausgestaltung können aber nicht nur bislang unbekannte Einblicke in den Alltag und das Selbstverständnis von Frauen, sondern zugleich neue Erkenntnisse über inner- und außerfamiliäre sowie geschlechtsspezifische Beziehungsstrukturen geben, in denen sich die jeweiligen Korrespondenzpartnerinnen befanden. Insbesondere für adlige Frauen stellt sich die Frage, welche Bedeutung der schriftlichen Mitteilung zukam, zumal gerade für die weiblichen Angehörigen aus Adelsfamilien eine ausgesprochen umfangreiche Korrespondenztätigkeit nachgewiesen werden kann. Sich über Jahre oder sogar Jahrzehnte erstreckende Briefwechsel unterhielten Frauen der Adelsschicht aber nicht nur mit zahlreichen verwandten oder befreundeten Frauen aus den eigenen Adelskreisen, sondern auch mit Frauen aus dem bürgerlichen Stand. Besonders Briefe waren als Medien der Informationsvermittlung, zur Überbrückung von Distanzen und zum Austausch von Neuigkeiten unerlässlich und erlangten mit der Entstehung breiter Informations- und Kommunikationstechniken und ihrer Optimierung im 18. Jahrhundert eine unvergleichliche Bedeutung. Sie ermöglichten die Ausbildung und Verstetigung von Vernetzungen, den Austausch ständiger und damit aktueller Informationen, die Schaffung und dauerhafte Aufrechterhaltung von Beziehungen. Da adlige Frauen anders als Frauen anderer sozialer Stände und auch im Gegensatz zu ihren vor Ort verbleibenden männlichen Verwandten durch Verheiratung in eine zumeist große räumliche Distanz zu ihrer Herkunftsfamilie gerieten, dürfte ihren Aktivitäten im Briefeschreiben und Korrespondieren gerade im Kontext der Beziehungspflege und -stiftung eine spezifische Bedeutung zukommen.
Erarbeitung eines Lehrerbegleitmaterials für das Medienpaket Sachsen-Anhalt ´89. Die unbekannten Geschichten der Wende
Duration: 01.10.2009 to 30.09.2010
Das Medienpaket, das auf Basis von Zeitzeugeninterviews vom MDR ursprünglich für Rundfunk und Fernsehen produziert wurde, wird im Rahmen des Projekts für die Bildungsarbeit im Geschichtsunterricht aufbereitet. Das von den Studierenden zu erarbeitende Begleitmaterial soll neben historischen Zusatz- und Hintergrundinformationen zu den vorgestellten Einzelschicksalen konkrete Einsatzmöglichkeiten in der unterrichtlichen Arbeit aufzeigen.
Erarbeitung eines Lehrerbegleitmaterials für das Medienpaket Da war immer nur Angst. Jüdische Schicksale in Sachsen-Anhalt
Duration: 01.10.2009 to 30.09.2010
Das Medienpaket, das auf Basis von Zeitzeugeninterviews vom MDR ursprünglich für Rundfunk und Fernsehen produziert wurde, wird im Rahmen des Projekts für die Bildungsarbeit im Geschichtsunterricht aufbereitet. Das von den Studierenden zu erarbeitende Begleitmaterial soll neben historischen Zusatz- und Hintergrundinformationen zu den vorgestellten Einzelschicksalen konkrete Einsatzmöglichkeiten in der unterrichtlichen Arbeit aufzeigen.
Repression, Haft und Geschlecht. Opferrolle und Täterschaft von politischen Häftlingen und Gefängnispersonal in der Untersuchungshaftanstalt des Ministeriums für Staatssicherheit Magdeburg-Neustadt 1956-1989
Duration: 01.08.2008 to 30.06.2010
Das anvisierte Projekt unternimmt den Versuch, insbesondere die Beteiligung von Frauen am Repressionsapparat, aber ebenso den Rekurs auf gesellschaftliche Rollenbilder für Frauen und Männer als auch die entsprechenden Umgangs -und Vorgehensweisen des Ministeriums für Staatssicherheit (MfS) zu analysieren. Unter Berücksichtigung genderimmanenter Fragestellungen wird zudem die Praxis der Repression anhand der Situation und dem Umgang mit männlichen und weiblichen Häftlingen der Untersuchungshaftanstalt Magdeburg-Neustadt erforscht. Die Täter- und Opferrolle von Frauen in MfS-Untersuchungshaftanstalten in der DDR bildet dabei einen Schwerpunkt des Forschungsprojektes. Dieser Untersuchungsansatz zielt auf ein Forschungsdesiderat der DDR-Geschichte. Bisherige Publikationen zum MfS grenzten die Frage nach Geschlecht und Mittäterschaft von Frauen weitgehend aus. Den Ergebnissen der wenigen Untersuchungen zu diesem Aspekt kann nur ein vorläufiger Charakter beigemessen werden, obwohl sie erstmals auf die Fruchtbarkeit der Gender-Perspektive hinwiesen. Das Vorhaben versucht diese Forschungslücke zu schließen. Indem die Frage nach dem Geschlecht, nach Rollenbildern, praktischen Verhaltens- und Handlungsweisen in den Mittelpunkt gestellt wird, ist es möglich, die Beteiligung und Mittäterschaft vor allem auch von Frauen am Repressionsapparat des MfS zu analysieren.
Führungsstile in Wirtschaftsorganisationen im Transformationsprozess Russlands und Ostdeutschlands
Duration: 30.06.2007 to 30.06.2010
Es handelt sich um ein empirisches Projekt,dessen Daten über Experteninterviews mit Managern gewonnen werden. Als Manager relevant für das Projekt sind solche, die sowohl Erfahrungen in Führungspositionen vor und nach der wirtschaftlichen Wende in den beiden Ländern haben. Das Projekt zielt darauf ab, die Unterschiede im Wirtschaftshandeln von Managern in Russland und Ostdeutschland herauszuarbeiten und deren kulturelle Einbettung nachzuweisen.
Geschichte der innerdeutschen Grenze
Duration: 01.01.2009 to 31.12.2009
Im Rahmen einer Lehrveranstaltung bereiteten Studierende des IGES zunächst eine mehrstündige, später unter fachlicher und didaktischer Anleitung eine dreitägige Lehrerfortbildung zur innerdeutschen Grenze vor. Im Ergebnis entstand eine Publikation von Darstellungen und Quellen zur Unterrichtsvorbereitung
Materialien zur Zeitgeschichte für den Einsatz im Unterricht
Duration: 01.01.2009 to 31.12.2009
Im Rahmen einer fachwissenschaftlich und didaktisch orientierten Lehrveranstaltung erarbeiten Studierende des IGES Begleitmaterialien für zwei DVD s (Geschichte der Juden in Sachsen-Anhalt zwischen 1933 und 1945 und Herbst 1989 in Sachsen-Anhalt), die auf den neuen Lehrplan der Sekundarschulen abgestimmt sind.
Doppelabschlüsse im BA/MA European Studies
Duration: 01.01.2009 to 31.12.2009
Doppelabschlüsse mit der Universität Klausenburg, Rumänien, sollen im Fach European Studies entwickelt werden. Das Projekt dient der weiteren Internationalisierung der Fakultät. Es ist interdisziplinär angelegt und soll integrierte Module für Sozial- und Kulturwissenschaften konzipieren. Das Projekt umfasst auch einen Lehrenden- und Studierendenaustausch.
Eine Analyse politischer Diskurse in Frankreich, Großbritannien und Deutschland: Auf dem Weg zu einer europäischen Identität?
Duration: 01.01.2007 to 31.12.2009
Das Projekt untersucht politische Diskurse im Hinblick auf die Herausbildung einer europäischen Identität. Dabei wird der politische Diskurs als diskursiver Raum betrachtet, in dem Identifikationsmöglichkeiten mit Europa und der Europäischen Union bereitgestellt, reproduziert und verändert werden. Zur Untersuchung dieser Identifikationsmöglichkeiten mit Europa werden Textkorpora zusammengestellt, die mit Hilfe lexikometrischer Computerprogramme untersucht werden. Diese Programme ermöglichen sowohl eine textstatistische als auch eine qualitative Analyse von Textkorpora. Als Untersuchungsgegenstand wurde zunächst ein Korpus aus Wahlprogrammen französischer, britischer und deutscher Parteien zu den Europawahlen zwischen 1979 und 2004 zusammengestellt. Eine Erweiterung des Korpus mit Protokollen aus Parlamentsdebatten und Pressetexten zu europapolitischen Fragen wird angestrebt.
Das Integrationsverhalten innerhalb multiethnischer Teams in Einrichtungen der stationären Altenhilfe
Duration: 19.10.2005 to 10.12.2009
Stationäre Altenhilfe ist ein wachsender Dienstleistungsbereich. In ihn drängen aufgrund diverser Gründe Arbeitskräfte mit Migrationshintergrund und Aussiedler aus den Gebieten hinter dem ehemaligen Eisernen Vorhang. Das wirft Fragen nach der Kooperation zwischen diesen Personen und den deutschen Mitgliedern in den Arbeitsteams auf. In verschiedenen Einrichtungen der stationären Altenhilfe in Bayern wurde eine qualitative Befragung durchgeführt, um die Integriertheit der Arbeitsteams einschätzen zu können.
Einsatz und Validierung eines Bewertungssystems zur Einschätzung der Kooperationskompetenz und der organisationalen Passung potentieller deutscher und indischer Kooperationspartner in Wirtschaftskooperationen
Duration: 01.01.2007 to 31.07.2009
Der Anteil suboptimaler oder gar gescheiterter interkultureller Wirtschaftskooperationen ist beträchtlich. Betriebswirtschaftliche Forschung erfasst aber ausschließlich marktrelevante Kompetenzen eines Unternehmens, daneben steht die Diskussion um weiche Faktoren aus individualpsychologischer und soziologischer Sicht. Reine Finanzbilanzen bilden nun aufgrund ihrer linearen Urteilsbildung die Erfolgsfaktoren internationaler Kooperation nicht ab, da Kooperationsprozesse nicht linear, sondern mehrdimensional ablaufen. Deshalb wird an der Uni Magdeburg ein interdisziplinär angelegter Ansatz zur Beseitigung bestehender Schwachpunkte rein zahlengeleiteter Bewertungsansätze für die Auswahl internationaler Kooperationspartner verfolgt. Konkret untersucht wird die Kooperationskompetenz kooperationswilliger deutscher und indischer Unternehmen sowie deren organisationale Passung untereinander. Die zentrale Forschungsfrage lautet: Kann ein soziologisch und psychologisch fundiertes Bewertungssystem unter Berücksichtigung kultureller Einflussfaktoren einen positiven Beitrag zur validen Messung und Beurteilung der Kooperationskompetenz potentieller deutscher und indischer Kooperationspartner sowie deren paarweisen Passung leisten? Vorgehen: Zunächst wurden unter Einsatz qualitativer und quantitativer Erhebungsmethoden zentrale Erfolgsfaktoren deutsch-indischer Koop. erhoben. Danach musste diskutiert werden, welche Erhebungsmethoden im Bezug auf die Auswahl int. Kooperationspartner praktikabel sind. Aus den Ergebnissen wurde dann ein Auswahlinstrumentarium erstellt, dass kooperationswilligen Unternehmen eine systematische Auswahl fremdkultureller Partner ermöglicht. Der Ansatz ist dabei nicht auf den indischen Kulturkreis begrenzt, sondern kann auch auf andere Kulturen übertragen werden.
Europa - ein soziales Projekt ?
Duration: 01.04.2008 to 03.07.2009
The project aims at development of a course book on the above mentioned topic. It is developed interactively with students.
Jenseits der Städte - Leben auf dem Lande in Bulgarien, Estland, Ostdeutschland und Russland
Duration: 01.10.2008 to 30.06.2009
Auf der Basis des im Rahmen einer über drei Jahre von der DFG geförderten qualitativen Untersuchung gesammelten Materials wird nun die Buchveröffentlichung vorbereitet. Die Untersuchung war qualitativ ausgerichtet. In Fallstudien wird die Veränderungen im ländlichen Raum untersucht, die die gesellschaftliche Transformation ausgelöst hat.
Räumliche Organisation von Prozessen kollektiver Identität (der Fall der Berliner linken Szene )
Duration: 01.01.2005 to 30.05.2009
Im Rahmen der Dissertation wurde ein theoretischer Entwurf vorgeschlagen, mit dessen
Hilfe räumliche Mechanismen der Konstitution kollektiver Identitäten in sozialen Bewegungen erfasst werden können. Dafür wurden bewegungs- und raumsoziologische Konzepte auf der Grundlage des Strukturierungsansatzes in Giddens` Variante verknüpft. Die Grundannahme war, dass die Räume und die geteilten Wir-Definitionen (also kollektive Identitäten) beide im Alltagshandeln von Bewegungsakteuren (re)produziert werden. Der Entwurf wurde empirisch am Fallbeispiel der Berliner ?linken Szene? überprüft. Die Praxis kollektiver Identität in der ?linken Szene? als Bewegungsmilieu wurde in einer ethnographisch orientierten Feldforschung mit Hilfe kombinierter explorativ-interpretativer Verfahren (teilnehmende Beobachtung, Frame-Analyse, qualitative leitfadengestützte Interviews) untersucht. Dies ermöglichte nachzuvollziehen, wie die Konstitution und Reproduktion alltäglicher sowie episodischer Räume in der Bewegungspraxis passiert und wie dadurch die kollektiven Identitäten konstruiert werden. Das theoretische und methodische Design hat sich bewährt. Der ursprüngliche Entwurf wurde allerdings differenziert und erweitert: eine stärkere Berücksichtigung fanden u.a. das emotionale und körperliche Engagement der Aktivisten, die Multiplizität räumlicher Konstruktionen und der ?verinselte? Charakter symbolischer Räume eines Bewegungsmilieus.
Erste Veröffentlichungen:
2006: Golova, Tatiana: Raum-zeitliche Ordnungen linker Identität. In: Krause, B. et al. (Hg.) Chronotopographien : Agency in ZeitRäumen. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang, S.161-172
Alkoholgegnerische Frauen im Deutschen Kaiserreich und der Weimarer Republik: Weibliches Selbstverständnis und Engagement innerhalb einer sozialen Reformbewegung
Duration: 01.01.2005 to 24.02.2009
Das Forschungsprojekt möchte aufgrund einer besonderen Quellenbasis den Fokus über die Vereinsaktivitäten der Alkoholgegnerischen Bewegung in Deutschland weit hinaus bis in die Familien von Alkoholabhängigen und deren zerrütteten Alltag legen und arbeitet daher zum einen zum Thema ?Alkoholgegnerische Frauen im Deutschen Kaiserreich und der Weimarer Republik. Hierzu werden, ausgehend von allgemeinen Überlegungen zur Rolle und Funktion der alkoholischen Trinkkultur und zur Entstehung eines Problembewusstseins für Alkoholkonsum, zunächst die äußeren Rahmenbedingungen der Entstehung einer weiblichen bzw. gemischten nationalen und international vernetzten Vereins- und Reformbewegungskultur betrachtet, um schließlich zu den Menschen, den weiblichen Mitgliedern und Aktivistinnen in den Vereinen und ihren konkreten Aktivitäten, aber auch den Betroffenen und Opfern der Alkoholsucht, den Trunksüchtigen beiderlei Geschlechts und ihren Familienangehörigen, vorzudringen. Das Forschungsprojekt versteht sich als Beitrag zur Frauen- und Geschlechtergeschichte, zugleich aber auch zur Geschichte, zum Wandel der Einstellungen und des Konsumverhaltens gegenüber alkoholischen Getränken. Zwar liegen bereits vereinzelte Untersuchun-gen zur Bewegungs- und Vereinsgeschichte der Mäßigkeits- und Abstinenzbewegung, konzentriert auf die zweite Phase der Bewegung zwischen 1883 und 1933, vor. Diesen geht es jedoch vor allem um Organisationsstrukturen und geographische Verteilungen sowie um vereinsbasierte Aktivitäten. Entgegen dieser bisherigen Konzentration auf Strukturen und die Vereinsgeschichte möchte das Projekt die alkoholgegnerische Bewegung zum einen aus einer frauen- und geschlechterbezogenen Perspektive analysieren, zum anderen als eine soziale Reformbewegung, deren erste Anfänge um 1800 zu verorten sind. Bisher sah die Forschung in der deutschen alkoholgegnerischen Bewegung eine vordergründig von Männern für Männer geschaffene Organisation und übersah den auch in Deutschland enormen und sogar in vielen Vereinen führenden Anteil von Frauen und ihr Engagement nicht nur gegen die Trunksucht von Männern, sondern ebenso gegen den nicht geringen Alkoholismus unter Frauen, ein bisher nicht thematisiertes Forschungsfeld.
Entwicklung eines binationalen Graduiertenkollegs zur Transformationsforschung
Duration: 01.01.2006 to 31.12.2008
In diesem Projekt geht es um die Entwicklung eines theoretischen Rahmens für ein binationales Graduiertenkolleg sowie um die Entwicklung von Forschungspfaden, die konkretisierte Forschungsprojekte zum wirtschaftlichen, kulturellen, sozialen und politischen Wandel ermöglichen.
Forschungs-, Ausstellungs- und Buchprojekt: Im Schatten. Frauenleben zwischen Altmark und Unstruttal
Duration: 15.10.2004 to 31.12.2008
- Wanderausstellung "SchattenRisse. Frauenleben zwischen Altmark und Unstruttal" mit Begleitmaterial (Faltblatt und Plakate); Eröffnung am 14.12.2005 im Landtag des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt durch den Landtagspräsidenten
- Buchveröffentlichung: Elke Stolze, Parlamentarierinnen im Landtag der preußischen Provinz Sachsen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Halle 2007 (Mitteldeutscher Verlag)
- Weiterführung des Projektes "FrauenOrte" mit der Erstellung von 9 Tafeln
- Betreuung und Begleitung der Wandersausstellung 2005-2011
Die Europäisierung nationaler Bildungsdiskurse. Zur hegemonialen Konstruktion transnationaler Diskursformationen
Duration: 15.06.2005 to 15.06.2008
Das Forschungsprojekt geht am Beispiel des Bologna-Prozesses der Frage nach, nach welchen Regeln und Mechanismen diskursive Formationen funktionieren, die den nationalstaatlichen Rahmen übersteigen. Mit den Methoden der französischen Diskursanalyse werden Reden, Interviews, Zeitschriftenartikel und Kommissionsberichte nach sprachlichen Formen abgesucht, über die der Text auf Kontexte zugreift. Ziel der Untersuchung ist es zu zeigen, mit welchen Techniken die technokratischen Diskurse des Bologna-Prozesses das Politische zurückhalten.
Sozialer Aktivismus in den Slums von Mumbai
Duration: 01.04.2007 to 31.03.2008
Dieses Projekt ist eine einjährige Lehrforschung. Sie besteht aus 3 Phasen: Projektvorbereitung (incl. Schreiben eines Forschungsantrags), Feldforschung, Datenanalyse (incl. Erstellung eines Forschungsberichtes).
Die Studierenden untersuchen zwei Schwerpunkte:Sozialen Aktivismus in Slums
- im Hinblick auf Bleiberechte, Räumungen und Lebensbedingungen
- im Hinblick auf Kommunalismus
Die Forschergruppe besteht aus folgenden Studierenden der Soziologie, Politikwissenschaft, Friedens- und Konfliktforschung und European Studies:
Nadine Brunsendorf, Paula Grobbecker, Daniela Fromm, Ina Fusko, AntjeWegner, Jessica Keil, Esther Mydla, Corinna Scholz, Matthes Kuech,Tobias Held, Jan Zalweski
Zuhause in Estland? Eine Untersuchung zur sozialen Integration von ethnischen Russen in Estland
Duration: 01.04.2006 to 31.03.2008
Die Untersuchung ermittelt, welche Auswirkungen sich durch Exklusionen aus bestimmten Subsystemen des estnischen Nationalstaats für die soziale Integration ethnischer Russen ergeben. Als Arbeitsmodell dient der migrationstheoretische Ansatz von Hartmut Esser (1999, 2001). Anhand Essers vier Formen der Sozialintegration (Platzierung, Kulturation, Interaktion und Identifikation) wird analysiert, ob ethnische Russen in der Untersuchungsregion über strukturelle, kulturelle, inter-ethnische und identifikative Assimilationsbestreben verfügen und wie sich diese bewerten lassen. Ein weiteres Ziel der Arbeit besteht darin, normative und interessengeleitete Zugehörigkeitsbindungen unterhalb der politisch-rechtlichen Ebene herauszuarbeiten. Einerseits frage ich nach der Inklusions- und Exklusionslogik des estnischen Staates, die verhindern kann, dass die Angehörigen der Minoritätengemeinschaft überhaupt zu vollwertigen Mitgliedern der Gesellschaft werden. Andererseits wird den Motiven und Orientierungen ethnisch-russischer Minderheitenakteure nachgegangen, sich überhaupt in die estnische Aufnahmegesellschaft integrieren zu wollen. Außerdem wird analysiert, ob bei ethnischen Russen Strategien beobachten werden können, die auf eine Selbstexklusion verweisen, und ob es nach dem Ende der Sowjetunion für die Angehörigen der russischen Minderheitengruppe zu Identitätsverschiebungen und infolge gefühlter oder erlebter Diskriminierungen zu einer Verstärkung der ethnischen Identität gekommen ist.
Familienbande - Familienschande. Geschlechterverhältnisse in Familie und Verwandtschaft
Duration: 01.03.2006 to 31.12.2007
Familie und Verwandtschaft stellen Ordnungsgefüge dar, die gesellschaftliche, soziale und kulturelle, aber auch die Geschlechterordnung einer jeweiligen Kultur und Zeit spiegeln. In besonderer Weise erlaubt es gerade der Mikrokosmos von Familie und Verwandtschaft, ge-schlechtsspezifische Rollen und Vorstellungen, Aufgaben und Umgangsweisen, das Zusam-menleben der Geschlechter auf engem Raum und die Geschlechterbeziehungen zwischen Fa-milienangehörigen gleichen und unterschiedlichen Geschlechts in den Blick zu nehmen. Zu einer solchen, hier angestrebten interdisziplinären wissenschaftlichen Diskussion können un-terschiedliche fachspezifische und fachübergreifende Sichtweisen beitragen. Vor dem Hintergrund der erheblichen Defizite aller Fachdisziplinen im Hinblick auf eine me-thodisch-theoretische und inhaltliche Verbindung von Familien- und Genderforschung möchte das Forschungsprojekt den vielfältigen Aspekten einer solchen Zusammenschau unter den folgen-den Hauptaspekten nachgehen: I. Familienbande 1. Familie und Verwandtschaft als Lebenszusammenhang 2. Familie als Arbeitszusammenhang 3. Geschlechterbeziehungen zwischen Familien- und Verwandtschaftsangehörigen 4. Symbolische Formen der Verwandtschaft II. Familienschande 1. Familienehre und verwandtschaftlicher Ehrenkodex 2. Familie und Verwandtschaft als Orte von Krisen und Krisenherden 3. Geschlechtsspezifische Gewalt in der Familie
Parlamentarierinnen in Sachsen-Anhalt 1918 bis 1945
Duration: 01.03.2007 to 31.12.2007
Das Projekt untersucht die parlamentarische Tätigkeit von Frauen seit der Ausübung des aktiven und passiven Wahlrechts im Raum Sachsen-Anhalt. Dabei bezieht es Parlamentarierinnen sowohl in der Nationalversammlung, im Landtag von Anhalt und im Landtag der Preußischen Provinz Sachsen (Privinziallandtag) mit ein. Über eine biographischeAnnäherung versucht das Projekt eine Annäherung an das Engagement dieser ersten Politikerinnen, die zumeist entweder aus der Arbeiterinnenbewegung oder der ersten Frauenbewegung langjährige Erfahrungen mit in die Parlemente brachten.
Ringvorlesung: Kultur und Geschlecht in Europa
Duration: 01.04.2007 to 30.09.2007
Es handelt sich um eine interdisziplinäre Ringvorlesung an der Otto-von-Guericke-Universität im Sommersemester 2007
Themen:
16.4.2007: Prof. Dr. Eva Labouvie, Adam, die Rippe und der Apfel: Eine Einführung
Prof. Dr. Lyndal Roper, Univ. Oxford: Luthers Körper, der Teufel und der Haushalt
23.4.2007: Prof. Dr. Claudia Opitz, Univ. Basel: Staatsräson hat kein Geschlecht. Über weibli-che Herrschaft in der Frühen Neuzeit
30.4.2007: Prof. Dr. Georg Lohmann, Univ. Magdeburg: Weibliche Kultur bei Georg Simmel
7.5.2007: Prof. Dr. Peter Fritzsche, Univ. Magdeburg: Muslime in Europa. Frauenrechte - Män-nerrechte - Menschenrechte
21.5.2007: PD Dr. Bernhard Jahn, Univ. Magdeburg: Schwache Männer um 1900
4.6.2007: Prof. Dr. Gudrun Goes, Univ. Magdeburg: Der geflügelte Eros. Frauen für und unter Stalin
11.6.2007: PD Dr. Haci-Halil Uslucan, HU Berlin: Gegenwelten von MigrantInnen
18.6.2007: Prof.Dr. W. Marotzki/Benjamin Joerissen, Univ. Magdeburg: Die unendliche Bürde mit den Optionen. zu Männer- und Frauenfiguren in Wong Kar-Wais Film 2046
25.6.2007: PD Dr. Eva brinkschulte, Univ. Magdeburg: Anatomie der Geschlechterdifferenz
2.7.2007: Dr. Michael Thomas, Univ. Magdeburg: Die Gymnastik Adolf Werners (1794-1866)
9.7.2007: PD Dr. Holger Dainat, Univ. Magdeburg: "Std. chem. Helene Willfüer" & "Menschen im Hof". Vicki Baum oder die 'Neue Frau' in der Weimarer Republik
14.5.2007: Prof. Dr. Martin Dreher, Univ. Magdeburg: Kultur und Geschlecht in der griechischen Polis
Demokratie und Umwelt in Russland
Duration: 15.06.2004 to 15.06.2007
In dem Projekt wurde die Transformation in Russland untersucht anhand der Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung in umweltrelevanten Entscheidungsverfahren. Die Ergebnisse basieren auf 40 Fallbeispielen zu Umweltverträglichkeitsprüfungen in ganz Russland über einen Zeitraum von drei Jahrzehnten. Sie geben Anlass, den Rückschritt in der Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung festzustellen und damit auch den Rückschritt in der demokratischen Entwicklung Russlands seit der Perestroika, die auch von einer Umweltbewegung motiviert wurde.
Kein Ende der Hierarchien
Duration: 15.06.2004 to 15.06.2007
Ergebnisse des Forschungsprojektes, das mittelständische Unternehmen fallanalytisch untersuchte, weisen darauf hin, dass ein Ende der Hierarchien nicht festzustellen ist. Der momentane Umbau führt eher zu Formen zentralisierter Dezentralisierung beim Umbau von Unternehmen.
Konferenz in St. Petersburg am 3. und 4. März 2007 - Equality, Equity and Justice
Duration: 01.12.2006 to 31.03.2007
Das ISOZ führte in Kooperation in Kooperation mit der Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg (Russ. Föd.), eine binationale Konferenz durch. Teilnehmer der OvGU waren: Prof. Dittrich, Prof. Schrader und Prof. Lohmann.
Adlige Gesellschaft und höfische Kultur im Raum Sachsen-Anhalt.
Duration: 01.04.2005 to 31.03.2007
Das Forschungsprojekt ging hervor aus einem Hauptseminar im WS 2004/05. Es wird getragen von Studierendes des Instituts für Geschichte der FGSE der Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg und ergänzt durch Untersuchungen von FachwissenschaftlerInnen. Ziel ist die Bearbeitung kultur- und geschlechtergeschichtlicher Aspekte, die bislang in der stark territorial- und herrschaftsgeschichtlich geprägten Adelsforschung für Sachsen-Anhalt keine Beachtung fanden. Beachtung finden u.a. Themen wie adlige Frauen- und Männerkulturen, männliche Bildung, Jagd und Militär als Männerdomänen, Eheschließungen, Ehen zur linken Hand, Witwen und Regentinnen, Feste und Feiern bei Hof, adlige Frauen und Männer als UnternehmerInnen, adlige Repräsentation (geschlechtsspezifisch), adlige Erinnerungskulturen.
Parlamentarierinnen in Sachsen-Anhalt 1918 bis 1945
Duration: 01.01.2006 to 28.02.2007
Das Projekt untersucht die parlamentarische Tätigkeit von Frauen seit der Ausübung des aktiven und passiven Wahlrechts im Raum Sachsen-Anhalt. Dabei bezieht es Parlamentarierinnen sowohl in der Nationalversammlung, im Landtag von Anhalt und im Landtag der Preußischen Provinz Sachsen (Privinziallandtag) mit ein. Über eine biographischeAnnäherung versucht das Projekt eine Annäherung an das Engagement dieser ersten Politikerinnen, die zumeist entweder aus der Arbeiterinnenbewegung oder der ersten Frauenbewegung langjährige Erfahrungen mit in die Parlemente brachten.
Gastdozentur von Herrn Dr. S. Michael
Duration: 08.10.2006 to 07.02.2007
Der indische Sozialanthropologe der Universität Mumbai, Dr. Michael, war als DAAD-Gastprofessor an das Institut für Soziologie eingeladen, um dort über di indische Sozialstruktur und Konflikge zu lehren.
Leben in der Stadt. Eine Kultur- und Geschlechtergeschichte Magdeburgs
Duration: 01.04.2002 to 30.06.2005
Das Forschungsprojekt untersucht das facettenreiche Stadtleben Magdeburgs vom frühen Mittelalter bis in die heutige Zeit. Dabei werden politische, rechtliche, wirtschaftliche und soziale Aspekte beleuchtet. Das Hauptaugenmerk liegt auf neuartigen kulturgeschichtlichen Fragestellungen sowie auf dem Einbezug von Theorien und Methoden der Historischen Anthropologie, der Mentalitäts- und Alltagsgeschichte, der Mikrohistoire und der Geschlechterforschung. In den Blick kommen sowohl das Zusammenleben der Geschlechter, der Einheimischen mit den Fremden als auch die Beziehungen zwischen den verschiedenen sozialen und religiösen Gruppierungen in der Stadt (Bürger, Soldaten, Fremde, Sinti und Roma, Häftlinde des KZ Rothensee, Prostituierte, KünsterInnen, Magistrat usw.). Das interdiszipliäre Projekt arbeitet in engem Austausch von GeisteswissenschaftlerInnen unterschiedlichster Disziplinen. Ziel ist die Erschließung neuer methodischer Zugänge und neuer thematischer Felder für die Stadtgeschichts- und Stadtraumforschung. Ein Buch zum Forschungsprojekt und zum 1200jährigen Stadtjubiläum Magdeburgs 2005 (ca. 400 S., 45 Abb., auch bunt) erscheint im November 2004 im Böhlau-Verlag.
Gender and Health
Duration: 01.10.2004 to 31.12.2004
Das Projet widet sich den Themen:1. State of Well-Being/Wohlbefinden2. Schutz der Gesundheit3. Gesundheitsförderung.Es handelt sich um ein interdiszilinäres Projekt mit Beteidigung von WissenschaftlerInnen aus der Geschichtswissenschaft, Politologie, Medizin, Volkskunde, Sportwissenschaft, Verwaltungswissenschaft, Psychologie und Geschichte der Medizin
Ökonomien des Lebens. Zum Wirtschaften der Geschlechter in Geschichte und Gegenwart
Duration: 01.11.2003 to 31.12.2004
Das Projekt beschäftigt sich mit der Vielschichtigkeit ökonomischen Gestaltens in unterschiedlichen historischen Zeiten und Bereichen (16. Jh. bis heute) unter geschlechtsspezifischen Fragestellungen. Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei Kulturen des Ökonomischen als auch die Möglichkeiten von Männern und Frauen, mit ihrem Leben und ihren Lebenschancen zu wirtschaften, häusliches gemeinsames Wirtschaften ebenso wie die Erwirtschaftung der existenzgrundlagen, das Wirtschaften mit der Geschlechterordnung (Arbeitsmarkt, Gesundheitswesen) ebenso wie Ökonomien des Begehrens, der Emotionen oder des männlichen Blicks.
Fernab der Städte: Leben auf dem Lande in Osteuropa; Ländliche Lebenswelten in Nord- und Südrussland, Estland und Bulgarien
Duration: 01.10.2002 to 30.09.2004
In dem Projekt werden die Auswirkungen der sozio-ökonomischen Restrukturierung agrarischer Regionen auf die Arbeits- und Lebensbedingungen auf dem Lande in osteuropäischen Transformationsgesellschaften untersucht. Fallbeispiele sind Dörfer in Nord- und Südrussland, Estland und Bulgarien. In diesen drei Ländern sind die Transformationsbedingten Voraussetzungen für den Wandel ländlicher Lebenswelten, etwa die Privatisierungs- und Restitutionsregelungen, sehr unterschiedlich und decken so eine grosse Bandbreite derzeitiger Reformmassnahmen ab. Forschungsleitend sind Fragen nach den sozialintegrativen Veränderungen, die nicht einfach als Folge von systemintegrativen Prozessen zu verstehen sind. Mit theoretischen Ansätzen zur (Re-)Produktion sozialer Ungleichheiten und zur Restrukturierung ländlicher Regionen werden folgende Aspekte untersucht: 1. Der Wandel ländlicher Lebenswelten infolge der derzeitigen Agrarreformen; 2. Die Sozialstruktur ländlicher Gebiete während des Privatisierungsprozesses; 3. Die Entstehengsbedingungen lokaler Akteure in den jeweiligen Siedlungseinheiten.
Umweltrelevante Entscheidungsverfahren in einem erweiterten Europa.
Duration: 01.10.2002 to 30.09.2004
Anhand von Fallstudien zu drei Regionen (Moskau, Westkaukasus, Baikal) beschäftigt sich das Projekt in einem ersten Schritt mit den Instrumenten der Umweltfolgenabschätzung und -bewältigung in der russischen Föderation unter dem Aspekt der Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung als Indikator für den Stand der Demokratisierung in Entscheidungsprozessen. Anschliessend wir in einem zweiten Schritt nach den Möglichkeiten einer Harmonisierung der russischen Instrumente mit den Standards in der Europäische Union gefragt. Die Projektleitung und -administration liegt bei Prof. Köppel, TU Berlin, Institut für Landschafts-und Umweltplanung. Kooperationspartner auf russ. Seite ist Prof. Dr. A. Drozdov, Institut für Geografie der Russischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Moskau
Pionierinnen, Wissenschaftlerinnen, Kämpferinnen: Dorothea Christiana Erxleben und die weibliche Seite der (Natur-) Wissenschaften"
Duration: 01.06.2003 to 31.07.2004
Tagung: "Dorothea Christiana Erxleben und die weibliche Seite der (Natur-) Wissenschaften", 19.04. 2004, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg Referentinnen: PD Dr. Eva Brinkschulte, OvGU Magdeburg; PD Dr. Katharina Fietze, Univ. Hamburg; Prof. Dr. Elke Kleinaus, Univ. Köln; Prof. Dr. Eva Labouvie, OvGU Magdeburg; Prof. Dr. Anne Lützenkirchen, Univ. Köln; Prof. Dr. Ortrun Riha, Univ. Leipzig; Ursula Schmiedgen, Neinstedt Podiumsdiskussion: "Frauenforschung - Frauenförderung: Wie männlich ist die Wissenschaft?", Schirmherrschaft: Prof. Dr. E. K. Pollmann, Rektor der Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg und Dr. Bärbel Freudenberg-Pilster, Staatssekretärin des Ministeriums f. Gesundheit und Soziales, 8.6.2004, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg Referentinnen: bisherige Inhaberinnen der Dorothea-Erxleben-Gastprofessur an der OvGU Magdeburg; Bärbel Freudenberg-Pilster, Staatssekretäron, Ministerium f. Gesundheit und Soziales LSA; Dr. Astrid Bühren, Präsidentin Dt. Ärztinnenbund; Dr. Gerlinde Weise, Ärztekammer LSA; Prof. Dr. Gabriele Kaczmarczyk, Charité Berlin; Dr. Irmgard Adam, Gleichstellungsbeauftragte, OvGU Magdeburg; Silke Janko, Redakteurin der Volksstimme Magdeburg; Elke Kuerschner, Journalistin MDR Wanderausstellung: "Weibliche Ärzte" (zus. mit PD Dr. Eva Brinkschulte, Med. Fakultät), Eröffnung: 8.6.2004 im Foyer der Universitätsbibliothek Magdeburg Buchveröffentlichung: Eva Brinkschulte/Eva Labouvie (Hg.), Dorothea Christiana Erxleben - Weibliche Gelehrsamkeit und medizinische Profession seit dem 18. Jahrhundert, Halle 2006 (Mitteldeutscher Verlag) Autorinnen: PD Dr. Eva Brinkschulte, FMED, OvGU Magdeburg: Annette Fulda, Dipl.-Bibliothekarin, Verbundsstelle GBV, Göttingen; Prof. Dr. Elke Kleinau, Univ. Köln; Prof. Dr. Eva Labouvie, OvGU Magdeburg; Prof. Dr. Anne Lützenkirchen, Univ. Köln; Prof. Dr. Ortrun Riha, Univ. Leipzig; Ursula Schmiedgen, Historikerin, Neinstedt Abendvortrag: Prof. Dr. Karin Stukenbrock, Dorothea-Erxleben-Gastprofessur, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg
Einzelprivatunternehmertum: Entstehungs- und Etablierungsmuster im Vergleich (Bulgarien, Tschechien, Russische Föderation)
Duration: 15.01.2002 to 14.01.2004
Vor dem Hintergrund der Transformation Osteuropas und der Bedeutung von Kleinunternehmen in diesem Prozess untersucht das Projekt, welche Formen von Kapital (ökonomisches Kapital, Bildungskapital, Sozialkapital, Informationskapital, politisches Kapital) für die erfolgreiche Etablierung von Kleinunternehmen notwendig sind. Mithilfe von qualitativen Methoden werden Biographien von Unternehmern und Unternehmenslebenszyklen in den drei Ländern untersucht. Hierbei wird von einem theoretischen Ansatz der Pfadabhängigkeit ausgegangen.
Einzelprivatunternehmertum: Entstehungs- und Etablierungsmuster im Vergleich (Bulgarien, Tschechien, Russische Förderation
Duration: 01.12.2001 to 30.11.2003
Für Klein-und Mittelbetriebe wird unterstellt, dass sie das Rückgrat moderner, kapitalistischer Marktwirtschaften in westlichen Demokratien bilden. Die zentrale Frage des Projektes lautet, ob dieses auch für Transformationsökonomien der Fall ist. Diese Frage wird empirisch vergleichend in den angegebenen Ländern überprüft und zwar mit quantitativen wie mit qualitativen Methoden.
Pfandhäuser in St. Petersburg: Der Pfandkredit als Strategie der Lebensbewältigung einkommensschwacher Haushalte?
Duration: 01.01.1999 to 31.12.2000
Pfandhäuser werden in der Litetatur als "Banken für die Armen" beschrieben. Diese Hypothese wurde aufgegriffen und mit verschiedenen Methoden quantitativer und qualitativer Forschung untersucht.
Themanschwerpunkte: Geschichte russischer Pfandhäuser, der Pfandhausmarkt in St. Petersburg, 100 quantitative Interviews mit Kunden über ihre Lebensbedingungen und den Pfandkredit, 5 Tiefeninterviews mit Kunden, vorstrukturierte Interviews mit Managern von Pfandhäusern, die Lebensgeschichte eines Pfandhausmanagers und einer besonders erfolgreichen Firma
Alltägliche Lebensführung und Reproduktion sozialer Strukturen in Rußland/Fallbeispiel St. Petersburg
Duration: 01.04.1999 to 30.09.2000
In dem Projekt wird die transformationsbedingte Neustrukturierung der Lebensverhältnisse in den sozialen "unteren Mittellagen" untersucht. Hier haben sich die konkreten Anforderungen an die alltägliche Lebensführung stark verändert und zum großen Teil verschlechtert. Neben der empirischen Beschreibung geht es um die Frage, welche Sozialindikatoren heute den Wandel der russischen Sozialstruktur adäquat erfassen.