With its research, it holds up a mirror to society, so to speak: the "Genealogy of the Present" research centre. Americanist Martin Butler and sports sociologist Thomas Alkemeyer on diagnoses, narratives - and insights from German basketball gold.
How is our reality made? How do we perceive phenomena such as climate change, the coronavirus pandemic, migration or digitalisation, how does this perception in turn shape social reality - and why can it sometimes diverge between different regions, population groups and cultures? Oldenburg researchers from various disciplines have been investigating these questions for ten years under the umbrella of the WiZeGG, the Scientific Centre for Genealogy of the Present. The University Presidential Board recently confirmed the centre's existence for another five years. This Friday, the WiZeGG is celebrating its birthday from 7.00 pm with a science slam followed by a party at the Polyester (Am Stadtmuseum 15). The "Birthday Bash" is also the conclusion of this year's Oldenburg School for the Social Sciences and the Humanities.
Genealogy - what exactly is it? "Research into the formation of human groups", says the dictionary of foreign words in a nutshell. At the WiZeGG, this means understanding current conditions not as the result of a linear, i.e. straightforward development, but as the product of chance encounters between different elements and forces. Depending on the discipline, the associated perspective and personal research focus, analyses may well turn out differently, and this in turn benefits the joint work, according to Director Prof. Dr Martin Butler, an expert in American literary and cultural studies, and his predecessor, Prof. Dr Thomas Alkemeyer, founding director and expert in the sociology of practice and sport.
"We dock onto different theoretical points of reference," says Alkemeyer, referring to perspectives on society that are characterised by cultural history, sociology, philosophy or media studies, for example. "But there is a common style of thinking that holds the centre together. This genealogical style of thinking not only emphasises the dynamism, openness and randomness of social processes - in other words, the fact that history can neither be predicted nor explained in advance. It is also characterised by a constant change in the focal length of observation." The interplay between the micrological view of detail and the zooming out to the macro level of larger and longer-term changes is central. "The cultural dimension plays a key role here," adds Butler, "i.e. the question of how societies understand and thematise themselves, what models and ideas they have about what society can and should be."
The so-called diagnosis of the present is particularly important for modern societies' view of themselves: whether international education comparisons or early childhood development programmes, whether talent scouting in sport or deriving political measures from statistics on climate change or migration - people in the modern age are constantly developing or using diagnostic procedures to help them identify problems or recognise potential in order to make future-oriented decisions. Anticipated futures then determine political and everyday actions in the present. The WiZeGG researchers have been scrutinising the power of diagnoses to shape society for several years now, and have also been working with researchers from other universities in Germany and abroad in a network they have set up for this purpose. The German Research Foundation (DFG) is funding the network, which is coordinated by Alkemeyer and Butler together with WiZeGG Managing Director Dr Nikolaus Buschmann, until the end of 2024. Among other things, the joint work is expected to result in a concept for a new joint project.
Keyword potential - this is one of the patterns of interpretation, the so-called narratives, "that have been shaping our perception of reality for some time - with very real effects", as Alkemeyer explains. He is interested in the reasons why this narrative came into the world and which social reference problems are negotiated within its framework - for example, "problems of resource scarcity that lead to the idea that you have to identify all possible talents, for example in sport and science, and effectively utilise their potential in order to be prepared for an uncertain future". And this narrative has very real consequences: "Entire funding systems are being reorganised, and this can be observed wonderfully in elite sport," says Alkemeyer.
Past performance has become less important for the allocation of funds than the alleged potential. The recent performance of the German basketball players and the German athletics team at the respective world championships showed that such potential-oriented diagnostic systems do not always work: "In the German potential analysis system, basketball was recently placed in the lowest category - with the supposed lowest potential - while athletics was placed at the top." In the end, the national basketball team won gold, while athletics failed to win a single World Championship medal. Now the evaluation system is to be "reformed" again.
The WiZeGG researchers have identified "the so-called migration crisis" as a further example. The narrative associated with this diagnosis is one of threat, caused, for example, by the images of thousands of refugees landing on the Italian island of Lampedusa. "With the consequence that border controls are now also materialising within Europe and politicians are discussing upper admission limits." How the media "narrate migration", for example, and which visual and linguistic images are used by whom, is a question that particularly concerns Butler: "It makes a difference whether people talk about a 'wave of refugees' or 'refugees'."
This is why Butler, for example, has made it a principle of his teaching "to convey a critical-reflexive attitude that enables students to recognise the mechanisms of the production of reality. And the teachers we train in particular can be multipliers of such an attitude," he emphasises. At the same time, Alkemeyer adds, a reflexive attitude can also possibly "generate greater openness and tolerance towards different points of view in relation to one's own discipline. If people realise that their own point of view is based on contingent, i.e. random constellations, there is a greater chance that they will also be more relaxed about other points of view." However, recognising facts as anchor points in reality is essential, emphasises Alkemeyer with regard to fake news and conspiracy narratives.
But how and for what reasons which narratives - or their counter-narratives - prevail where, and why some diagnoses are more prominent than others: The WiZeGG researchers also want to find answers to these questions in the future. Anyone interested in the centre's work is cordially invited to the WiZeGG research colloquium, which will take place fortnightly on Wednesdays at 6.15 pm from November. The centre will announce the exact dates and location on its website in good time.
