When society observes itself: Diagnosing (in) the Modern Age" is the focus of a new scientific network coordinated at the university and funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for three years.
Diagnoses are made in doctors' surgeries - but also in many other areas of everyday life. "Diagnosis characterises modern societies," says Oldenburg historian Dr Nikolaus Buschmann. Whether international education comparisons or the assessment centre to fill a dream job, whether talent scouting in sport or deriving political measures from coronavirus statistics - people are constantly developing or using procedures to help them identify problems or recognise potential in order to make future-oriented decisions. "The state of a society, the environment or an individual, for example, should become calculable," says Buschmann. He is one of a total of 17 researchers from the humanities, social sciences and cultural studies who will be investigating how diagnostics shapes our everyday lives in a new DFG-funded network. They will be exchanging ideas with other experts, including international ones.
The interdisciplinary network is located under the umbrella of the Scientific Centre "Genealogy of the Present" (WiZeGG) at the University of Oldenburg. It was proposed by the current director of the WiZeGG, Prof Dr Thomas Alkemeyer, a sociologist at the Institute of Sport Science. Together with the Americanist and deputy WiZeGG director Prof. Dr Martin Butler and Buschmann as managing director of the centre, he will coordinate the exchange within the network over the next three years. Also involved is the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Delmenhorst (HWK), where the first and last of the six planned working meetings will take place.
"We want to find out more about how diagnosis shapes social discourse and how it affects everyday life," explains Buschmann. "Which diagnoses and therefore which topics are considered relevant or irrelevant by whom? How do modern societies visualise crises and challenges, such as the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, digitalisation or migration?" The network will also look at the historical, socio-political dimension, for example in terms of population policy and urban planning, and will also analyse national and regional differences. The aim is to increase the visibility of the topic - also internationally - and open up research perspectives for the participating young academics.
In the working meetings, the network will scrutinise concepts, fields, institutions, locations, techniques, forms of presentation and media of diagnostics. The high-calibre external guests include the Bamberg sociologist Prof. Dr Heike Delitz, the Düsseldorf historian Prof. Dr Achim Landwehr, the German scholar Prof. Dr Albrecht Koschorke from Constance, the Viennese literary scholar Prof. Dr Eva Horn and the geographer, philosopher and sociologist Prof. Dr Theodore Schatzki (University of Kentucky, USA, and Lancaster University, England). The aim is to produce a joint anthology and a research concept for a larger joint project.
In addition to Alkemeyer, Butler and Buschmann, cultural historian Prof. Dr Thomas Etzemüller, musicologist Prof. Dr Anna Langenbruch, social scientist Dr Andrea Querfurt and art historian Dr Anja Zimmermann are also involved from the circle of Oldenburg researchers and lecturers.
