Cultures of Knowledge, Research, and Education

Research Area 8: Cultures of Knowledge, Research, and Education

The production, transmission, and utilisation of knowledge is a key dimension of socio-cultural processes, exhibiting a fundamental relationship to phenomena such as subject formation, (post)modernisation, globalisation/transnationalisation and socio-cultural transformation, to name but a few. While it is well established that knowledge is subject to historical change (Kuhn, Foucault), there has recently been an increasing interest in the socio-material production of knowledge (Knorr-Cetina, Latour), as well as in the cognitive aspects of individual knowledge creation (Lenk, von Glasersfeld) and the materialities of knowledge production (from Nietzsche to current Media Archaeology). When dealing with cultures of knowledge, it is therefore mandatory to include the practices of knowledge production and transmission which can be observed empirically: Research and education. We consequently follow a broad and interdisciplinary approach, focusing on cultures of knowledge, research and education from a wide range of different analytic angles. Historical, sociological, philosophical and media-theoretical perspectives, as well as cognitive and psychological ones, are integrated into a processual approach to knowledge cultures, highlighting the constructivist ‘nature’ of knowledge.

Research Focus

Paths of Knowledge

Some concepts meander through various disciplines in the humanities and in the study of culture, as Mieke Bal pointed out, and there seems to be no possibility of placing them, at least not permanently. In line with Isabelle Stengers (D'une science à l'autre: Des concepts nomads, Paris 1987), these may be called ‘nomadic concepts’. Thinking in terms of such concepts means thinking without fixed place, means thinking in constant movement, means thinking beyond the boundary lines of disciplines and academic subjects.

The foundations for this kind of thinking were lain in D’Alembert’s and Diderot’s Encyclopedia (Paris, 1751ff). In their preface, the editors describe the branches of human knowledge as a world map and chart the individual entries into distinct provinces of knowledge. The connections between these provinces appear as paths of knowledge which – interrupted by numerous obstacles – are known only to a particular country’s inhabitants or to travellers.

Along these lines, Research Area 8, “Cultures of Knowledge, Research and Education”, has tackled issues of space and place, intending to reveal the kinds of knowledge inherent in them. This approach was based on seminal theories by Edward Soja, Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault, Ernst Cassirer, Martina Löw and Michel de Certeau. Subsequently, Research Area 8 focused on palpable, real and virtual spaces of knowledge, supported by reading Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Bruno Latour, Steve Woolgar, Lev Manovich and Torsten Meyer.

Since the winter term 2009/10, Research Area 8 has turned their attention to paths of knowledge. We have explored the dynamic aspect of movement in the processes of acquiring knowledge. Against this backdrop, three questions have arisen: (1) how does knowledge travel and how does it change and grow in the course of its travel? (2) How does knowledge transcend boundary lines and which boundary lines are newly drawn in the movement of knowledge? Finally, (3) how do paths of knowledge emerge? What are the highways and what are the dirt tracks of such knowledge migration?

These questions and more have been and will be tackled by the members of Research Area 8 from the interdisciplinary perspectives of history, literary and media studies and of the social sciences. A renewed reading of Mieke Bal’s Travelling Concepts (2002) has served as our common starting point. Further reading included texts by Umberto Eco, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Erhard Schüttpelz, Bruno Latour, Michel Callon and Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari.

Participating scholars

• Sonja Altnöder
• Michael Bartel
• Anna Beck
• Stefan Becker
• Hubertus Büschel
• Marcus Burkhardt
• Neill Busse
• Antje Coburger
• Thomas Edeling
• Alexander Friedrich
• Marc Fritzsche
• Evelyn Gottschlich
• Andreas Grünes
• Christin Grunert
• Gero Gutzeit
• Wolfgang Hallet
• Konrad Hierasimowicz (speaker)
• Anna Hoffmann
• Friedolin Krentel (speaker)
• Agnes Laba
• Beatrice Michaelis
• Jennifer Ch. Müller
• Carsten Ochs
• Wim Peeters
• Christoph Schanze
• Kai Sicks
• Sascha Simons
• Katharina Kreuder-Sonnen
• Uwe Wirth (speaker)