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donate Abstracts for Mittelweg 36 2/2009
Andreas Reckwitz
The self-culturalization of the city.
On the transformation of modern urbanity in the "creative city"
Since the 1990s, urban development has employed the concept of "creative cities". Taking this label as its point of departure, this contribution explores the transformation of Western urbanity since the 1970s as the replacement of models of bourgeois and functional cities with notions of culturally-oriented governmentality. After discussing the concepts proposed by the protagonists of the "creative city" (Florida, Landry), the article develops parameters for a cultural sociology of the city and for a historical sociology of the transformation of urban life. These sections form the basis for an analysis of the characteristics of contemporary, culturally-oriented cities (art scene, creative industries, transformation of high culture, consumer culture, aesthetisized neighborhoods, solitary architectural works), the development of which has itself become an area of conflict.
Berthold Vogel
Argument, strife, anger.
What does sociological conflict theory contribute to an actor-oriented diagnosis of society?
Conflicts create opportunities for social cohesion. According to sociological theories of conflict from the 1970s, conflicts do not constitute exceptions to the rule or a social state of emergency that call for anxious scrutiny. They are instead the necessary result of coexistence in society, and they guarantee freedom and change. It is the role of politics to permit their existence legally and institutionally, to create the space in which they can develop productively. We owe these insights on social conflict to the work of sociologists like Lewis Coser and Ralf Dahrendorf. But is this perspective on conflict and controversy, on strife and anger, still productive today? The text explores this question by reviewing sociological research on conflicts, outlining the societal context in which conflict theories emerge, and, finally, sketching possible perspectives for these issues in sociology in an era of new distributional conflicts.
Natan Sznaider
The salvation of the books.
Hannah Arendt in Munich (1949/50)
This paper deals with cultural reconstruction efforts as a response to the Holocaust. In particular, it is about Hannah Arendt and her contribution to Jewish politics and Jewish identity after 1945. It pays close attention to Hannah Arendt's work as research director and executive director of Jewish Cultural Reconstruction (JCR) and her related first visit to Germany in 1949/50, where she negotiated in the name of the Jewish people with German functionaries on questions related to Jewish cultural property.
Published 2009-04-20
Original in German
Contributed by Mittelweg 36
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