Cultures of vigilance can only be explored taking their long history and broad cultural variability into account, as well as how these cultures change, are modified and shift throughout history. “Transformation” is used to describe transformation processes that cannot simply be understood as diachronic sequences; that is commonly accepted forms of society divided and organized to adhere to archetypal ideals (such as antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times, or the development of face-to-face societies to the anonymous constellations that exist today). These transformations often take place below the framework of epochal changes and constitute the effects of cultural transfer and cross-cultural interweaving.
Project A02
Latencies of individual morality and scenes of collective vigilance between humans and spirits in pre-modern Europe
Both transcendental salvation and vigilance against the dangers of evil demand equal degrees of attention simultaneously.
Project A06
Whistleblowing in the police organization – ambivalent evaluations in the discourse on whistleblowing
The project reconstructs and analyses this ambivalence using the German police force as an example, relying primarily on a discourse-analytical approach and including various documents from individuals within the force and organisations closely connected to it.
Project A07
Between commitment and control. Vigilance in pre-modern Benedictine monasteries
The project analyses vigilance in pre-modern Benedictine monasteries, using the Congregation of Bursfelde between ca. 1400 and 1618 as an exemplar.
Project A08
Strong state, watchful people. Vigilance of subaltern groups in the late Roman state
This project investigates the contribution of subaltern groups to the administration of the late Roman state.
Project A09
Watchful readings. Hermeneutical attentiveness in the 19th century literary culture of vigilance
This project examines collaborative practices of vigilant reading that emerged in the first half of the 19th century in state institutions, the book market, and the literate public.
Project A10
Jaguar, drone, human being. Indigenous vigilance in Amazonia
The project investigates the transformation of concepts and practices of vigilance caused by the introduction of new technologies, as well as the implications for the now-expanded assemblage of actors due to the involvement of international cooperation.