expired 2017
Reinhart-Koselleck-Project
"Societalisation among participants and their transformation . A history of society and theory of the European early modern period."
("Vergesellschaftung unter Anwesenden und ihre Transformation. Eine Gesellschaftsgeschichte und Theorie der europäischen Frühneuzeit")
Cultural studies researchers working on historical topics have yet to formulate a broadly shared understanding of what the distinctive features of early modern Europe are. The concept of a feudal society transformed by an early bourgeois revolution, which was still discussed three decades ago, has not only been forgotten because of its historico-philosophical implications. Modernisation theories could not replace it due to their inherent tendency to dehistoricise of their topics. In the meantime, specialist historiography considers the early modern period as a more or less contentious time frame (from about 1500 to about 1800) that otherwise distinguishes itself through processes and thematic areas, which in turn are studied in terms of scientific trends. Confessionalisation is one such topic, nation building is another. The beginnings of globalisation have only recently been discovered as a new research trend. Historical anthropology and approaches from cultural history have addressed topics such as witch hunts or the history of crime. Social history, on the other hand, has focused on resistance, uprisings and phenomena of social inequality. As of late, the symbolic and ceremonial stabilisation of estate-based social hierarchies is receiving increased attention. However, a consistent understanding of the distinctive features of early modern societalisation – as expressed in the German research concept Vergesellschaftung – has not emerged as a result of these research efforts. On the one hand, it is difficult to clearly specify the difference between an early modern period and the modern era. On the other, substantiating modern history as a unitary whole has proved to be problematic.
My intention is to describe the European early modern period as a specific form of Vergesellschaftung, while at the same time identifying the crucial transformation processes that characterise this societal formation. Sociality (and thus society) constitutes itself through communicative interactions and is capable of developing structures spanning time and space through the media-mediated production of communication. For modern societies, this concept has been formulated in very detailed terms. Along with its various elements used for differentiated theoretical analysis, it has since been commonly accepted by cultural studies researchers. The pre-modern era, however, is not only without a theory of Vergesellschaftung devised through such communication and media theory, but it is also lacking a history of society that orients itself on such a theory. Devising such a theory and history presents a challenge.
The starting point for such an undertaking could be a differentiated model of face-to-face communication, with its individual elements being comprised of phenomenology, symbolic interactionism, cybernetics and systems theory. Vergesellschaftung as emerging through interaction among actors present then means that sociality, its structures and social differentiation are primarily exposed through the formation and conditioning of face-to-face communication (Anwesenheitskommunikation).
In order to develop the contours for such a substantiated history of society, preparatory studies were published together as a monograph in 2014 under the title “Anwesende und Abwesende”. In the process of working on this publication, anthropological concepts were found to constitute a central semantic field in early modern society’s self-descriptions. A conference was dedicated to this topic in 2016, which represents a crucial step towards a new publication. The book published in 2014, however, could not, as was quickly recognised, meet all of the demands involved in the development of a cohesive history of society in regard to both content and concepts. It continues to be an essential necessity requiring our further attention and diligence.
Funding body:
DFG
Project period:
2010-2017
Project staff:
- Isabelle Schürch