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

Projekte

Simon Specht

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

PhD project
The project examines the history of the semantics of ‘progress’ (‘Fortschritt’) in twentieth century german political language. The project is part of an investigation of political-social concepts of time and process and is funded within the framework of the collaborative project "The 20th Century in Basic Concepts. A Dictionary of Historical Semantics in Germany".