300670 Knowledge and Belonging in the Contemporary World (LEH) (SoSe 2021)

Over the last decade, ‘knowledge’ and ‘belonging’ emerged as prominent objects of social research. Yet, researchers surprisingly devoted little attention to the relationship between the two. This research class starts from the observation that knowledge and belonging are closely intertwined. Belonging – whether in nations, families, organisations, religious, ethnic or common-interest-groups – always requires extensive reservoirs of knowledge shared among the members. This mostly entails tacit knowledge that one acquires during socialization. But those belonging together can also explicitly refer to forms of either epistemic or practical knowledge that enable the navigation within the social spaces of belonging, forms of knowledge needed in representational practices as well as forms of knowledge that are denied to others, especially within secret societies.
At the same time, knowledge can create and maintain belonging. Exchanging knowledge and jointly engaging in knowledge production and circulation can help forging feelings of mutuality and commonality. Such practices often hold for members of professional groups or for those involved in ‘epistemic communities’, whether academic or otherwise.
This research class will enable the participants to explore the complex relationship between knowing, learning and belonging. Conceptualising of knowledge from the venture point of belonging should enable us to grasp the range of diverse forms of knowledge as well as modes of learning that are vital in durable social encounters and practices of relating. Which constellations of belonging to look at will be left to the participants who will be supported in developing their research question and will be assisted throughout their research-process. Nonetheless, three constellations are of particular importance to the organisers: (1), the im/ possibilities of belonging in educational processes, particularly in higher education; (2), familial belonging, especially concerning intergenerational dynamics, and (3), ethnic belonging that often thrives on forms of environmental knowledge, on cultures of resistance, and on rituals.