Self-determination and individual freedom have become ingrained in our social, political and cultural spheres since at least as long ago as the 1960s. Social hierarchies are becoming ever flatter and marginalized groups are being brought back into the heart of the public debate — both trends that can be described by the term “democratization.”
In the collaborative interdisciplinary research project entitled “Democratization and Power Structures,” researchers at the University of Bonn are working with international partners to study how societies in the 21st century are negotiating social, political, cultural and economic power structures and how the shifts in the social fabric of these societies are manifesting themselves.
With the lecture series of the same name, the researchers will be presenting some of their initial findings and tackling a number of questions from all manner of different angles: how are power and democracy reflected in art, academia, science and society? What are the strategies behind video activism, and what might various forms of political intervention look like? What role do parliamentarians play and why? Everyone is invited to come along and discuss these and other questions.
Researching across discipline boundaries
The lecture series forms part of the Individuals, Institutions and Societies Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) at the University of Bonn, where researchers study the complex contexts underlying social and economic decisions.
The series has been organized by Professor Svenja Kranich (Linguistics of English and Translation Studies), Professor Daniela Pirazzini (Romance Studies) and Dr. Simone Knewitz (North American Studies program). It will open on April 20 with an introduction by Svenja Kranich and Hanna Bruns entitled “Democratization and power structures—outline of a research agenda.”
The program for the “Democratization and Power Structures” lecture series:
April 20: Svenja Kranich and Hanna Bruns
Introduction: Democratization and power structures – outline of a research agenda
April 27: Rudolf Stichweh and Evelyn Moser
Macht und Demokratie in den Funktionssystemen der Weltgesellschaft: Kunst, Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft
May 4: Britta Hartmann
Videoaktivismus: Filmtechnologien, ästhetische Strategien, politische Interventionen
May 11: Stephen Bates
What roles do MPs play and why do they play them? A latent class analysis of parliamentary activity in the UK House of Commons, 2001-2019
May 25: Imke Lichterfeld
The glass ceiling and marginalization – Marginalisation in performance
June 1: Daniela Pirazzini, Karolina Küsters & Silvia Sommella
PRIMA INTER PARES – Eine neue Form der Demokratisierung?
June 15: Stefano Boni
Horizontal and vertical politics: A visual and anthropological approach
June 22: Elisabeth Reber
On democratization and change in institutional power discourse
June 29: Simone Knewitz
Who’s afraid of “Critical Race Theory”? (White) identity politics and the contemporary US culture wars
July 6: Francesca Santulli and Dora Renner
Audiovisual representations of the Chinese minority in the US: A diachronical approach
July 13: Anita Fetzer
‘Hi folks, Boris Johnson here, taking a moment to wish you all a merry little Christmas’: The discursive construction of ordinariness in political discourse
More information:
https://www.lets.uni-bonn.de/research-1/ringvorlesung-demokratisierung-und-machtstrukturen