Kleine Reihe Vigilanzkulturen
The CRC 1369 publishes the publication series Kleine Reihe des Sonderforschungsbereichs Vigilanzkulturen, which appears in print (Wehrhahn Verlag) and open access (LMU Open Access) format.
Vigilanz, Privatheit und Whiteness in Suburbia.
Bärbel Harju
Volume 1, Hannover 2023.
In the 1950s, young American couples and families moved into mass-produced suburbs – thereby heralding the widespread suburbanisation of the USA. Yet for most, the search for private retreats ended in a complex web of surveillance that made the boundaries between ‘private’ and ‘public’ seem unstable. Generous panoramic windows offered not only views but also insights; sweeping sightlines encouraged mutual observation; social control enforced conformity, whilst deviant behaviour was regarded as suspicious. Thus, the suburbs consolidated a ‘white’-coded middle-class identity that was controlled through techniques of vigilance. In her study, Bärbel Harju examines how the tense relationship between privacy and visibility in 1950s America is expressed in architecture and design, and to what extent notions of privacy correlate with the idea of whiteness. Using the example of the Myers family, who in 1957 became the first African-American family to move to Levittown, a case study highlights the role of self-observation and external observation in newly emerging American suburbs.
Techniken der Responsibilisierung. Historische und gegenwartsbezogene Studien.
Mariacarla Gadebusch Bondio, Mark Hengerer, Ralf Kölbel, Susanne Lepsius (Eds.)
Volume 2, Hannover 2023.
In cultural studies, ‘responsibilisation’ is a recurring term that describes various forms of the shifting of responsibility. Building on this flexible usage of the term, the contributions in this volume examine the diverse contexts in which, and the media and techniques through which, actors or authorities transfer expectations of attention to specific vigilance tasks. Whilst authorities and officials address the population or lower-ranking staff, it is individual persons – e.g. early modern town physicians or contemporary whistleblowers – who are held to account by higher authorities (or who hold them to account). In doing so, various strategies and instruments, such as incentives or sanctions, as well as the dependence on the urgency of the need for responsabilisation, can be identified.
By examining, in particular, the assignment and delegation of vigilance tasks to very different individuals or groups of people both synchronically and diachronically, the contributions define and refine the concept of responsabilisation in historical and situational terms.
Whistleblowing in der Polizei. Funktion und Wirksamkeitsbedingungen.
Kölbel (Ed.)
Volume 4, Hannover 2024.
Given its duties, powers and structures, the police is a ‘special’ social institution. The importance of dealing appropriately with the errors, problems or malpractices that arise within it is therefore also ‘special’ – namely, particularly significant. However, such handling is hardly conceivable without the identification and communication of the causes. Since this disclosure can often only take place in a manner known as whistleblowing, it is essential for a police institution that operates in a functionally appropriate and responsible manner to provide such channels for reporting.
This volume explores these interrelationships and demonstrates that the police are ‘particularly’ so not least because they de facto make whistleblowing much more difficult – presumably more so than is the case in other organisations. Drawing on a systematic review of the empirical research literature, the contributions examine these reporting barriers in order to identify levers that might enable some of these barriers to be gradually lowered.
Prozesse der Aufmerksamkeit. Philosophische Perspektiven.
Patrick Harman / Jan Seibert (eds.)
Volume 5 – Young Scholars, Hannover 2025.
What exactly is attention? How is it addressed and utilised in social processes and cultural contexts? And what consequences does this have for our thinking and actions?
In five independent philosophical essays, Processes of Attention explores these questions. Alongside more general systematic outlines and historical-philosophical reflections on the concept of attention, the volume also offers several case studies to approach the phenomenon of attention in as diverse a manner as possible: Thus, the texts in the volume examine the political and aesthetic dimensions of attention in the Italian Renaissance and Spanish court culture, as well as its role in the game of chess or within the context of the contemporary #MeToo debate.
With its broad spectrum of topics and methods, this anthology is therefore aimed at a wide readership with an interest in philosophy.
Wachsame Gemeinschaft. Ein Quellenreader zur Bursfelder Kongregation und ihren Klöstern vom 15. bis ins 17. Jahrhundert.
Julia Burkhardt/John Hinderer/Tamara Klarić/Iryna Klymenko (Eds.)
Volume 6, Hannover 2026.
What dietary rules did monks and nuns follow in the pre-modern era? How was deviant behaviour punished within the monastery? And how were inattentive monks and nuns disciplined? Starting from these and other questions, this reader of primary sources examines the diverse dimensions of vigilance, using the Bursfeld Congregation as a case study. To this end, it brings together selected documents from the period between 1458 and 1607 to trace the various forms, functions and objectives of vigilance within the monastery. In doing so, the contributions view the development of the congregation not as a linear sequence of events, but as a network of historical, organisational and religious transformations. The result is a panorama that offers new insights into the Bursfeld Congregation as a ‘vigilant community’.