Space is trend. During the last three decades, the social sciences have witnessed a profound „return of space“ (Osterhammel) into the categories of research in the social, cultural and historical sciences as much as the humanities – the notorious spatial turn. Although arguably it has been overhauled by a staggering number of further ‚turns‘, researchers still find themselves confronted to spatial analyses everywhere: spaces of narration, spaces of representation, social spaces, safe spaces, heterotopous spaces, …, to name but a few of the recent „spatial formats“ (Rao) in research, many of which share, at best, a vague congruence in their formulation and theoretical background.
This plethora of operationalisations of the central category of space begs clarification: what is space conceived of as, and by whom? What explanatory role is it assigned in what research traditions? Is it justified to speak of one spatial turn? What other modes of analysis is the spatial opposed to or combined with?
The seminar will aim to provide an introductory overview on the most important lines of argument and a number of key concepts in current research on space. To this end, we will begin by discussing ‘classical’ concepts of space (in its relation to time), most markedly in physics, geography and historiography, in order to be able to understand the transformations that a thorough reformulation of spatial analyses in the humanities and cultural / social sciences has aimed to bring about.
The latter part of the seminar will then aim to apply some of these approaches to space by means of exploring the different spaces used in historical research. Thus, questions of nation-states and their relation to globality can be addressed as spatial units of making history as much as a museum, an image, a map, a discourse, or flows of goods and knowledge.
Class materials will be distributed at the beginning of the seminar. Students wishing to gain an overview over some key concepts may consult:
Mike Crang; Nigel Thrift (eds.) (2000): Thinking Space. New York, London: Routledge. – Introduction chapter in particular
Günzel, Stephan; Kümmerling, Franziska (Hg.) (2011): Raum. Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch. Stuttgart: Metzler. – For a broad and detailed Overview in german.
Rhythmus | Tag | Uhrzeit | Format / Ort | Zeitraum |
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Modul | Veranstaltung | Leistungen | |
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22-2.1 Theoriemodul | Grundseminar Historiographie | Studieninformation | |
Grundseminar Theorien in der Geschichtswissenschaft | benotete Prüfungsleistung
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Studieninformation |
Die verbindlichen Modulbeschreibungen enthalten weitere Informationen, auch zu den "Leistungen" und ihren Anforderungen. Sind mehrere "Leistungsformen" möglich, entscheiden die jeweiligen Lehrenden darüber.
Class will be held in English. Students are expected to be willing to participate in English and read English texts and critically engage them in group and plenary discussions. Occasionally, german texts will be read and discussed, if indispensable. Depending on class size, students will be expected to give a brief presentation on a field of application and lead a discussion either in groups or individually. Class grades will be assessed through an oral exam. The exams will usually be held in English, as well.
Zu dieser Veranstaltung existiert ein Lernraum im E-Learning System. Lehrende können dort Materialien zu dieser Lehrveranstaltung bereitstellen: