Institut für Sozialwissenschaften

"„In the late twentieth century, after all, we are ourselves literally embodied writing technologies. That is part of the implosion of gender in sex and language, in biology and syntax, enabled by Western technoscience.“
Donna J. Haraway (1991), Simians, Cyborgs and Women. The Reinvention of Nature. London: Free Association Books, p. 128.

These thoughts were the stimulus for this paper’s effort to treat the notions of ‘sex’, ‘gender’ and ‘identity’ through the controversial points of view, emerged among the feminist writings of the 1970s, the historians and psychoanalysts of the 1980s.While post-stucturalists like J. Butler are passing from gender denaturalization to the undoing of gender, brain scientists speak about a potential underestimation of innate biology at its equation with the anatomical sex; hormones and neurochemicals, constantly changing the brain state, not taken into account. ‘Gender’ constitutes in this sense the key term that is being posed and reposed, thought and rethought, done and undone. My paper will be thus divided into three parts that shall refer to a critical vision of gender categories in various discursive domains.
First part will treat the intrinsic introduction of gender as notion during the feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s in an effort to contest the naturalisation of the bipartite sex difference of men from women, male from female, in multiple arenas of struggle. Despite having passed from the ‘biological’ (sexual difference) to the ‘ontological determinism’ (desire) through the ‘social constructivism’ (power), the notion of “gender” remains trapped within the oppressive Western binarism culture/nature, and therefore the second part will explore the new ways of thinking gender that emerge in the 1990s towards a deconstruction or denaturalisation of this notion; that is, gender as representation and as subjective identity. Although Butler’s theory of performativity did succeed not only to disqualify normative analytical categories leading to univocity, such as sex or nature, but also to release both genders and their social frame of reference from any determinism, the third part will not only show in what extent this very notion of gender (as doing) is nowadays again in crisis but also inquire the possible explanations for the impoverishment of gender and therefore for the necessity of its undoing. A mysterious elsewhere will emerge as a sort of agency that motivates us and establishes our sexuality, whose full meaning we ignore. The innate neurochemical biology of Brizendine will thus broaden up the cognitive fields and open new perspectives of rethinking gender, the mysterious elsewhere and -why not?- biology itself.
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"For the first time in history and across much of the world, as an article in The Economist points out, to be foreign is a perfectly normal condition: ‘The dilemma of foreignness comes down to one of liberty versus fraternity – the pleasures of freedom versus the pleasures of belonging. The homebody chooses the pleasures of belonging. The foreigner chooses the pleasures of freedom, and the pains that go with them.’ Except that on the one hand, according to the philosopher Chul-Han, globalising means not merely that Here is linked with There; more likely, a global Here is produced, while There is being constantly moved and removed – and so is accordingly the figure of the Foreigner. On the other, the contemporary human turns into something more than a nomad: a touristic figure that experiences culture (Kultur in German) by travelling the terrestrial and cybernetic space with her home virtually or pragmatically ‘on tour’.
This paper seeks to explore not only the slippage from the Citizen to the Wanderer of a world in flux and flow, but also the conceptual shift from identity as continuity of a single dramatis persona to its instantaneous alterations, if not to the interrelationships between a particular space-time and the Self. ‘Depending on who is looking, the exotic is the other or it is me,’ writes inter alia Minh-ha in her effort to investigate travelling as the par excellence process of othering within this era of ‘identity crisis’. In fact, the Other constitutes not an off-shore figure anymore but part of our new larger family, global from scratch; she lingers in its core, whilst exoticising familiar events. By drawing on Bourriaud’s discourse of Alter-modernity, this paper wishes then to instead introduce the Alter as difference that is neither intrinsic nor distant but rather celebrates the alternative as such."

The scientific community in the humanities agrees that the work of the German post-war philosopher Hans Blumenberg is fascinating, compelling and inspiring, although the texts remain to some extent hard to understand. His extensive exchange with authors like Carl Schmitt, Jacob Taubes or Hannah Arendt show the often forgotten and sometimes systematically hidden political aspects of his philosophy. The theory of modernity, the theory of myth and of course his metaphorology are the main areas of debate which can be checked for their political implications and ramifications. However, the a priori exclusion of republican arguments and ideas points to a systematic problem in Blumenberg’s thought. All his thinking remains in the framework of what has been called “subject-philosophy”, it seems. While his early publications allowed a certain critique of ideology (from the perspective of metaphorology), this gesture almost disappears in his later writings. It is basically the single subject which works on myth, which seems to project “significance” (Bedeutsamkeit) into the world, which makes sense of his life in anecdotes. However, human self-assertion is always a common project, an inherited technique which creates not only myths but also institutions and law. The political aspects in Blumenberg’s work therefore also make transparent the limitations of his thought.

In vielen demokratischen Staaten scheint eine Krise, ja vielleicht sogar eine Erosion der Demokratie zu beobachten zu sein. Gerade das in populistischen Bewegungen ausgeprägte Misstrauen gegenüber Eliten ist jedoch demokratietheoretisch ambivalent. In seiner Monographie über die " Gegen-Demokratie " entfaltet Ro-sanvallon eine Analyse dieser Ambivalenz von Praktiken und Institutionen, die den Bürgerinnen und Bürgern in Demokratien die Möglichkeit geben durch Überwachung, Verhinderung und Klage Einfluss zu nehmen. Diese Versuche der politischen Einflussnahme auf jene Formen repräsentativer Politik, die sich durch Wahlen legitimieren, sind nach Rosanvallon genuiner Bestandteil von Demokratie. Sie bilden immer schon Formen aus und tragen dazu bei, den Prozess des Politischen zu organisieren. Im Falle pathologischer Übersteigerung ent-wickeln sich " gegen-demokratische " Praktiken zur populistischen Gefährdung der Demokratie, insofern sie das Prinzip der Repräsentation und der Gewaltenteilung in Frage stellen. Welche Konsequenzen ergeben sich im Einzelnen aus Rosanvallons Analyse für die Organisation des Politischen, vor allem im Vergleich zu der von John Keane unter dem Titel der " monitory democracy " angestellten Analyse? Im Gegensatz zu Rosanvallon ließe sich am Beispiel politischer Parteien zeigen, dass in diesen vermittelnden Institutionen " Demokratie " und " Gegen-Demokratie " immer schon ineinander verwoben sind. Ob eine Formgebung gelingt, die diese Konflik-te in produktive Bahnen lenkt, hängt wesentlich von der juristisch definierten Rahmensetzung ab. Rosanvallons neuste Vorschläge zur Etablierung neuer Institutionen zur Überwachung von politischen Repräsentanten sind vor diesem Hintergrund wenig überzeugend. Abstract: In many democratic states a crisis or even an erosion of democracy seems to be taking place. The intense mistrust towards political elites, which is a core element of populist movements, is however ambivalent concerning its democratic character. In his book on " Counter-Democracy " , Rosanvallon enfolds an analysis of this ambivalence. He reconstructs the practices and institutions which allow citizens in democratic regimes to gain political influence distinguishing the three elements oversight, prevention and judgement. These attempts to counter the classical forms of political power legitimized by elections are, Rosanvallon claims, a core-element of democracy. These practices of counter-democracy tend to take specific forms and thereby help to organize the process of the political. Only when they are used in an exaggerated and pathological way, can these counter-democratic practices turn into populism and threaten democracy by questioning political representation in general or the separation of powers. What exactly are the consequences of Rosanvallon's analysis of the organisation of the political, compared in particular to what John Keane discusses as " monitory democracy " ? In contrast to Rosanvallon's own view, political parties could serve as an example to demonstrate that " democracy " and " counter-democracy " are always intertwined. The laws which define the modus operandi of political parties are decisive in order to make sure that this conflict can be given a productive form. Therefore, Rosanvallon's most recent propositions concerning new institutions which are meant to allow citizens an even closer surveillance of political representatives, are not convincing.

The research on deliberation in Political Sciences has produced a vast amount of very elaborated empirical studies. The different modes of deliberation have from the beginning attracted a specific interest in the debate between more theoretical approaches on the one hand and empirical research on the other hand. The vast range of different modes of deliberation starts with reason-giving in specific settings, includes mechanisms of bargaining in real-world deliberation and narrative techniques such as story-telling. It ends with sophisticated rhetorical manipulation at the other side of the spectrum. Large parts of contemporary studies have focused on the institutional settings and conditions of deliberation. A common aim is to capture the effects these elements have on the modes and results of deliberation. The question of how and to what degree the object, the topic of the debate, co-defines the modes of deliberation, has rarely been raised. This paper follows the basic intuition that, e.g., questions of values are being discussed in a fairly different way than for instance questions of distribution. By proposing a framework based on Wittgenstein's concept of " language-games " the paper proposes to shed light on the complex interaction between modes and objects of deliberation and thereby hopes to inspire future empirical studies by delivering a framework which can be operationalized for empirical studies. The Discourse Quality Index (DQI) could thereby be complemented by a Discourse Content Index (DCI).

Zusammenfassung
Die politikwissenschaftliche Deliberationsforschung kann heute auf ein breites Spektrum an empirischen Studien verweisen. In der Verflechtung zwischen theoretischen und empirischen Ansätzen hat dabei stets die Frage verschiedener Modi der Deliberation ein besonderes Maß an Aufmerksamkeit auf sich gezogen. Von der idealtypischen Deliberation unter Laborbedingungen bis zum bargaining, story-telling und zur rhetorischen Manipulation in der Wirklichkeit lässt sich ein breites Spektrum von Verfahrensweisen unterscheiden. Die empirische Forschung konzentriert sich meist auf die Gelingensbedingungen von Deliberation: Gruppengröße, Gruppenzusammensetzung, Moderation oder Selbstorganisation, öffentlich oder nicht-öffentlich – all diese Faktoren, das " Wie " der Deliberation, werden auf eine mögliche Korrelation mit dem Rationalitätsniveau der Deliberation befragt. Bewusst ausgeklammert blieb dabei meist die Frage, inwiefern die Themen, das " Was " der Deliberation, die jeweiligen Modi mitbestimmen. Der Intuition, wonach beispielsweise die Deliberation über Wertfragen anders verlaufen wird als ein Austausch über Verteilungsfragen, versucht der Beitrag mit dem Vorschlag eines konzeptionellen Analyserasters gerecht zu werden, das es erlaubt, das komplexe Spiel zwischen Modi und Objekten der Deliberation zu durchleuchten. Wittgensteins Begriff des Sprachspiels wird dabei als konzeptioneller Rahmen zur Differenzierung von Sprachfeldern vorgeschlagen, die je eigene Argumentationslogiken implizieren. Aus dieser Perspektive ergibt sich zum einen ein spezifisches Verständnis des Sprachspiels der Politik; zum anderen eröffnet diese Heuristik die Möglichkeit, neben den Rahmenbedingungen und der Qualität von Deliberationsprozessen auch deren Objekte empirisch zu operationalisieren. Der Discourse Quality Index (DQI) könnte so durch einen Discourse Content Index (DCI) ergänzt werden.

Das Internationale Zentrum für Kultur-und Technikforschung (IZKT) lädt jährlich deutsche und französische Doktoranden zu einem interdisziplinären Forschungskolloquium nach Stuttgart. Die Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer bewerben sich mit ihrem Lebenslauf und einem Exposé ihres Beitrages, der in der Regel aus dem Dissertationsvorhaben erwächst. Moderatoren geben ihnen Hilfestellung und schlagen Brücken zwi-schen den Themen und Ansätzen. Die Reise-und Übernachtungskosten sowie die Verpflegung der Teil-nehmenden werden erstattet.

Le Centre International pour la Recherche Culturelle et Technique (IZKT) invite chaque année des doctorants et post-docs allemands et français à un colloque de recherche interdisciplinaire qui a lieu à Stuttgart. Les participants postulent par un CV et un bref exposé de leur présentation, issue en général de leur projet de recherche. Les frais de voyage, de logement et de restauration des participants invités sont pris en charge.

Ein dynamischer und zugleich intellektuell überragender Präsident hat das Bild unseres Nachbarlandes in Deutschland um 180 Grad gedreht. In Frankreich findet plötzlich eine Revolution statt, Macron will das Land und die EU reformieren. Doch wie tickt er, was sind seine Ziele?

Versuche, Heideggers Denken angemessen zu verstehen, verweisen im Falle von "Sein und Zeit" auf Aristoteles, Luther oder die Marburger Theologie. Beim späten Heidegger beginnt indes die Suche nach Quellen, die außerhalb dessen stehen was Heidegger als «die abendländische Metaphysik» adressierte: die von ihm selbst interpretierten Vorsokratiker oder gar die hebräische Tradition. Auch die Konvergenz zwischen der Spätphilosophie Heideggers und zentralen Motiven des ostasiatischen Denkens ist seit langem Gegenstand der Forschung. Neben dem Taoismus wurden vor allem gewisse Analogien zum Zen-Buddhismus diskutiert. Aber was genau hat es mit dem 'Zen im Schwarzwald' bei Heidegger, bei Dürckheim oder Herrigel auf sich? Indem er sich in einem nicht-souveränen, ja einen 'subjektlosen' Heroismus wiederzufinden glaubt, produziert Heidegger einen 'Rashomon-Effekt'. Ähnlich wie bei Herrigel wird ein Schuss ohne Schützen imaginiert. Wie in Kurosawas Klassiker lässt sich die Schuldfrage nicht mehr beantworten.

What if citizens freely choose a non-sustainable way of life, as individuals or for their political community as a whole? The challenge of the Great Transformation raises fundamental questions about democracy and the liberal tradition with its emphasis on personal freedom. Re-conceptualizing democracy along republican traditions would underscore the common good and allow a new perspective.

Why do Germans love Hannah Arendt so much? Hannah Arendt has become a reference of almost iconic status in the contemporary German political sphere. Politicians from different political backgrounds refer to her as an authority on democracy; institutions lay claim to her heritage and Margarethe von Trotta’s movie on Arendt has added another layer to the public representation of Arendt as a philosophical genius. This paper takes a closer look at Arendt as a German 'lieu de mémoire': that is, as an object of projection. In particular von Trotta’s movie shows that a sober and scholarly approach is needed to protect Arendt’s work from admirers who use her for their own agendas. This would include also the necessity to state clearly the ambivalences and sometimes disturbing aspects of this important author.