World. Knowledge. Design
42nd Congress of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Volkskunde (dgv)
Hamburg | October 7-10, 2019
(pdf.-version: http://www.d-g-v.org/sites/default/files/cfp_english.pdf)
Global dynamics and fundamental processes of transformation are changing
European societies. There are diverse influencing forces at work which
contribute to this process, partly following their own logic, partly in
an interdependent and interwoven manner: migration, poverty and social
inequality, the decline of the nation-state along with the rise of new
nationalisms, technological development, the capitalist economy with its
permanent pressure for innovation, climate change, declining
biodiversity. European Ethnology / Empirical Cultural Studies / Cultural
Anthropology / Folklore Studies, with their historical and contemporary
approaches and specific research perspectives, can provide special
expertise for studying these dynamics.
The term “world” makes different scales between the local and the global
accessible and viable for research along the relations of “small life
worlds” to larger entities, to Europe, to other continents and the
entire world – as a globally interwoven habitat of humankind. The
different manners in which a “world” is created in academic-disciplinary
contexts as well as in media and popular culture, as a geographically
and territorially differentiated unit, as a symbolically created world
of meaning, and as an everyday lifeworld, and the manners in which it is
modelled by simulation, creativity, and play, are important points of
reference and reflection. Yet, the term world also comprises problematic
dimensions in regard to the history of science and society in the
construction of self and other, not least in the context of
ethnological-ethnographic traditions of knowledge and collection.
In an interconnected world, different ways in which the world is known
clash in these dynamics. Knowledge is not primarily understood in a
cognitive mode but also explicitly includes affective, habitual, and
aesthetic forms. The diversity of these forms contributes to the
specific acquisition of knowledge about the world, which enables its
perception and guides its design. World views condense into symbolic,
material, and practical forms of knowledge which, in turn, can be
mediated, appropriated, and further developed in manifold ways.
Knowledge materializes into objects, discourses, practices, social
orders, and ethical views as well as in institutions, conventions,
norms, regulations, terms and conditions, and laws. These
materializations always become particularly apparent and thus accessible
for empirical research where they collide, either in a creative or in a
confrontational manner, where they are exchanged, modified, and further
developed between generations and groups, or when kept in archives,
museums, and libraries.
The design of the world based on knowledge and skill is a fundamental
human ability to which the discipline refers to as an object of research
– for instance in critical dealings with concepts of creativity – and
also as a demand on one’s own production of knowledge (for instance in
an “anthropology of the near future”). Humankind’s ability to
conceptualize and design significantly depends on the systems of symbols
and media which we have at our disposal. The scope of what can be
thought has been set anew with each media technology and is currently
being comprehensively reformed due to digitalization. Imaginations and
imaginatives are significant drivers of innovation. In current
capitalist economies, however, they are also systematic necessities,
connected with (creative) destructions of the traditional and
increasingly discussed under new paradigms such as sustainability and
resilience.
The 42nd congress of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Volkskunde (dgv),
titled “World. Knowledge. Design”, calls for contributions which add to
a better understanding of the dynamics and problems of European
societies in their global interconnections – also in historical
perspectivations of the topic area. Furthermore, contributions may
critically analyze the different disciplinary orders of knowledge –
especially since in many cases, it is approaches from the natural and
technical, legal or economic sciences which dominate these problem areas.
Knowing the world
How the world is known is embedded into social and cultural orders. The
cultural can here itself be understood and analyzed as a specific,
historically evolved form of knowledge, for instance in regard to which
feelings are appropriate in which situations or what kind of interaction
with nature is practiced. Significances, values, and hierarchies of
bodies of knowledge come into conflict, are negotiated in discourse, and
materialize as orders of knowledge. Different forms of knowledge –
cognitive-theoretical, affective, or bodily-practical ones – are set in
relation to each other in this process. Ethics and moral orders are
significant guidelines along which world relationships are evaluated,
negotiated, rearranged, or also justified. Furthermore, the perceptions
of the world are significantly entangled with the knowledge about it.
They are led in cognitive, sensitive, and affective manners and are
complemented beyond the horizons of everyday experience by the imaginary
and the imaginative.
Designing the world
Processes of and approaches to design are a further central perspective
in the discipline which take center stage in the light of current
discussions about the Anthropocene, that is, the age of a world
significantly shaped by humankind (and increasingly regarded as
endangered in terms of livelihoods). Aside from questions regarding the
malleability of developments in science and technology, it is
particularly politics and the economy with their processes of planning
and development, with their specific perspectives on creativity and
design, which become relevant fields of research. In this, the
discipline itself in its history has done research on fields of action
of societal formation in manifold ways and has been collecting sound
experience in regard to design oriented approaches; these, in turn, are
today in part ‘re-thought’ in design anthropology and design agencies on
the collaborative generation of inter- and transdisciplinary research
questions. The aestheticization of all areas of life is to be seen as a
further tendency of contemporary societies in the sense of a formation
of the senses.
Forms and formats
As has been the case in the past, the Hamburg congress is also to be
held in the form of plenary and section presentations as well as panels.
Plenary contributions are selected from the submitted abstracts
respectively called for directly. Sections are compiled from the
selected individual contributions based on consistency in topic. Panels
are given the same two-hour scope as sections. The head of a panel
conceptualizes the topic and suggests this to the dgv as an abstract;
the contributors are nominated with a brief abstract of each
contribution (maximum of four to five individual contributions). The
responsibility for the specific design of the panel (structure, order,
format of the contributions) rests with the individual organizers.
Panels and lectures may be suggested which can also be given as
presentations in dialogue, for instance in the sense of Ignite! or Pecha
Kucha. This should be outlined accordingly in the proposal. Furthermore,
suggestions for visual and auditory formats such as films, soundscapes,
etc., are desirable. These should, wherever possible, be included in a
future documentation of the congress in the shape of written
accompanying texts and corresponding links.
The student panel offers a forum for research training projects
respectively research-based teaching as it is anchored in the curriculum
of many higher education settings or in project seminars led by
students. These may diverge from the topic of the congress. MA and BA
theses respectively student research which take up the topic of the
congress can be presented as poster presentations. In these, the
presentation of one’s own research results and empirical findings is
particularly desirable. In consultation with the dgv’s student
representatives, students are also invited to develop their own formats
for reporting on the congress, for instance via audiovisual or social
media.
The dgv also wishes to explicitly invite both freelance cultural
scientists and those who work in institutions outside of university
contexts to respond to this call for papers.
We also invite suggestions for pre-conference workshops on topics
connected with research practice, such as research data management,
research ethics, or also working with software programs for qualitative
data analysis.
Organizational matters
When submitting your abstract, please adhere to the following guidelines:
• In addition to a brief content summary, the abstracts must include
details on the research question and the empirical basis respectively
inform on the context from which the work originates, where applicable
with details on already available publications, the state of one’s own
research respectively initial results.
• It goes without saying that research presented must be new and
unpublished. Readiness to publish the contribution after the congress is
implied.
• Contributions may be made and published in German or English.
• Please provide your current contact details; for panel suggestions
both of the responsible organizers as well as of all contributors!
Please notify us of any changes.
• The abstracts must not exceed 2,500 characters (including spaces) for
individual presentations and 5,000 for panels.
• Submissions can only be made via the designated form on the dgv
website:
http://www.d-g-v.org/sites/default/files/bewerbungsformular_dgv-kongress_201
9_1.pdf
(Should this form not download automatically, please save and then
reopen it!)
• Please send the completed from as an e-mail attachment to:
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
• Deadline for submissions is August 15, 2018.
In order to facilitate the selection process and make it more
transparent, all submitters are asked to adhere to these guidelines. The
board and the main committee will select contributions at their joint
session with representatives of the local host in the fall of 2018 and
decide on the program.
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dgv - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Volkskunde e.V.
Claus-Marco Dieterich | Geschäftsführer
c/o Institut für Europäische Ethnologie / Kulturwissenschaft
Deutschhausstr. 3 | D-35037 Marburg
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] |
<http://www.d-g-v.de> www.d-g-v.de
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Lara Hansen, M.A.
Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin | Research Fellow and PhD Candidate
Fakultät für Geisteswissenschaften | Faculty of Humanities
Fachbereich Kulturwissenschaften | Department of Studies in Culture and Arts
Institut für Volkskunde/Kulturanthropologie | Institute of European
Ethnology/Cultural Anthropology
Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1 (West) – Raum | Room 211
20146 Hamburg
+49 40 42838-4681
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
<https://www.fbkultur.uni-hamburg.de/de/vk/>
https://www.fbkultur.uni-hamburg.de/de/vk/
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