Political-social concepts of time and process

Collaborative project
Funding period: April 2022 - March 2025

Project The 20th Century in Basic Concepts. A Dictionary of Historical Semantics in Germany, which is carried out in cooperation with the Leibniz-Zentrum Literatur- und Kulturforschung in Berlin (ZfL) and the Leibniz-Institut für deutsche Sprache (IDS) in Mannheim durchgeführt. Funded by the Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.

The ZFF-based project analyzes the change of concepts that express temporality and historic transformation. It focusses on concepts such as ‘Fortschritt,’ ‘Krise,’ ‘Entwicklung/Evolution,’ ‘Modernisierung,’ ‘Zukunft,’ or ‘Utopie,’ concepts that were politically controversial and that, time and time again, served the determination of their own place in history as they were discussed in society.

Head researcher: Rüdiger Graf

Forschung

Projekte

Trade fair visitors in front of a combine harvester by manufacturer 'Fortschritt', Deutsche Fotothek‎, df roe-neg 0006078 024, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

The concept of ‘progress’ in the twentieth century: decline, resilience, and conceptual change

 Simon Specht

PhD project
Start of project: April 2022

The PhD project examines the significance of semantics of progress in their everyday use in the twentieth century in Germany: Who used the concept at what time and with what intentions? How was it explicitly or implicitly (re-)defined? What functions did the use of the concept fulfil in political language? To whom were promises of progress addressed, who remained excluded from them, and which ideas of order, practices, and ideologies were legitimised with them? In which thematic contexts and discourses did the concept gain particular significance?

Political-social concepts of time and process

Collaborative project
Funding period: April 2022 - March 2025

Project The 20th Century in Basic Concepts. A Dictionary of Historical Semantics in Germany, which is carried out in cooperation with the Leibniz-Zentrum Literatur- und Kulturforschung in Berlin (ZfL) and the Leibniz-Institut für deutsche Sprache (IDS) in Mannheim durchgeführt. Funded by the Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.

The ZFF-based project analyzes the change of concepts that express temporality and historic transformation. It focusses on concepts such as ‘Fortschritt,’ ‘Krise,’ ‘Entwicklung/Evolution,’ ‘Modernisierung,’ ‘Zukunft,’ or ‘Utopie,’ concepts that were politically controversial and that, time and time again, served the determination of their own place in history as they were discussed in society.

Head researcher: Rüdiger Graf

Forschung

Projekte

Trade fair visitors in front of a combine harvester by manufacturer 'Fortschritt', Deutsche Fotothek‎, df roe-neg 0006078 024, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE

The concept of ‘progress’ in the twentieth century: decline, resilience, and conceptual change

 Simon Specht

PhD project
Start of project: April 2022

The PhD project examines the significance of semantics of progress in their everyday use in the twentieth century in Germany: Who used the concept at what time and with what intentions? How was it explicitly or implicitly (re-)defined? What functions did the use of the concept fulfil in political language? To whom were promises of progress addressed, who remained excluded from them, and which ideas of order, practices, and ideologies were legitimised with them? In which thematic contexts and discourses did the concept gain particular significance?