Working Papers
The working paper series of the collaborative research centre Cultures of Vigilance. Transformations – Spaces – Practices offers topical, methodological and theoretical insights into current research findings.
Working Paper 01/2025
Whistleblowing is generally defined as “the disclosure by current or former members of an organization of illegal, immoral, or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers to persons or organizations that may be able to take action.”
A key characteristic is the exposure of misconduct within or outside an organization, which occurs in a manner that deviates from normative expectations: In whistleblowing, the insider bypasses the regular reporting channels, i.e., the chain of command (starting with the immediate supervisor). If this is done by reporting to the company’s own contact points (compliance department, internal audit, etc.), it is referred to as internal whistleblowing. In contrast, the external variant occurs when the information is reported to law enforcement agencies, the media, etc.
The federal government’s external reporting office is an institution established in the summer of 2023 specifically to receive external whistleblowing reports. To contextualize the findings and observations presented in this paper regarding this reporting office, it is helpful to recapitulate not only
its regulatory framework and structure but also key aspects of existing research on external whistleblowing.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5282/ubm/epub.127282
Working Paper 01/2024
Dürr, Eveline/Walther, Saskia: Ecoturismo comunitario, subjetivación y responsabilidad medioambiental en México. Working Paper des SFB 1369 ›Vigilanzkulturen‹ 1 (2024).
En este documento de trabajo, el ecoturismo sirve como punto de partida, „point of entry“, para analizar los imaginarios globales relacionados con el medio ambiente y sus procesos de impacto local en la sierra del sur de México. Aquí el ecoturismo surge como catalizador de una nueva imagen propia para algunas personas que se proponen como objetivos la conservación de sus tradiciones y la protección del medio ambiente.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5282/ubm/epub.119771
Working Paper 02/2021
Arbeitsgruppe "Responsibilisierung" (Kölbel, Ralf/Demichel, Sébastien/Förg, Katharina-Luise/Gadebusch Bondio, Mariacarla/Grollmann, Felix/Hengerer, Mark/Lepsius, Susanne/Radner, Karen/Tushingham, Poppy/Wienhausen-Knezevic, Elke) (Hrsg.): Responsibilisierung. Working Paper des SFB 1369 'Vigilanzkulturen' 2 (2021).
One of the central tasks of Collaborative Research Center 1369 “Cultures of Vigilance,” to be pursued across all projects, is to clarify how the process of holding actors accountable can be conceptualized theoretically and to examine how it is culturally shaped and historically variable. With this working paper, the “Accountability” working group presents its initial findings for discussion. It offers a terminological and definitional framework designed to help distinguish between and comparatively discuss the various forms of accountability.
Working Paper 01/2021
Gadebusch Bondio, Mariacarla/Förg, Katharina-Luise (Hrsg.): Tierische Symbole und Embleme ärztlicher Vigilanz. Working Paper des SFB 1369 ›Vigilanzkulturen‹ 1 (2021).
In an interdisciplinary workshop organized by subproject C02 in December 2019, participants from the fields of medicine, philosophy, art history, and classical philology explored the development of vigilance symbolism in premodern medicine. The starting point was the “alert rooster,” a symbol closely associated with the work of the German surgeon Wilhelm Fabry von Hilden (1560–1634). The event focused on reflections and comparisons regarding the imagery of vigilance in premodern medicine and its strong orientation toward antiquity. The contributions collected in this working paper discuss the relationship between the (Aesculapian) serpent and the rooster as another animal symbol of the physician, extending to the role of the ancient motif of rooster sacrifices to Asclepius following a successful recovery.
Working Paper 03/2020
Dürr, Eveline/Whittaker, Catherine (Ed.): A multidisciplinary review essay of Francisco Cantú’s book ›The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border‹, Vintage, London, 2019. Working Paper des SFB 1369 ›Vigilanzkulturen‹ 3 (2020).
What makes this review essay on Francisco Cantúʼs bestselling book on the US-Mexican border regimes uniquely thought-provoking – and, in equal measure, challenging – is the diversity of the disciplines involved and their relationship to the subject matter. Our working groupʼs aim has been to analyze notions of ›subjectivation‹, that is, the process of becoming a subject in relation to practices of vigilance. Thus, our working group explored what diff erent disciplines can gain from reflecting on and analyzing the same text and which aspects of it they consider particularly relevant to ongoing debates on vigilance and subjectivation. What kind of subtexts are brought to light by these divergent readings and what aspects do some disciplines stress that others would not have noticed in such detail?
Working Paper 02/2020
Gadebusch Bondio, Mariacarla/Söderfeldt, Ylva:"A sanitary war". Corona, medical power(lessness) and responsibilization. Working Paper des SFB 1369 ,Vigilanzkulturen' 2 (2020).
In this working paper the authors off er a review of the fi rst medical and political reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic. Addresses to their nations made by political representatives of four European countries (Sweden, Italy, France and Germany), all of which were aff ected by the novel coronavirus at diff erent times and with different
severity levels, form the foundation of our study. How these addresses serve to legitimize restrictions to freedom and appeal to the sense of responsibility of citizens, reveals contrasting ways of controlling bodies in the interest of preserving health. Crucially, public health concerns are at the center of both types of pandemic
control. Here, past promises of an allpowerful medical fi eld, equipped to overcome any ailment and to reshape human life, clash with a reality in which the medical world in turn is reliant upon political and social dynamics.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5282/ubm/epub.71985