Research Center of Social and Cultural Studies Mainz

The research focus SoCuM serves the interdisciplinary research cooperation between the social and cultural sciences at the University of Mainz. SoCuM aims at the innovation potential created by a permanent network between the social and cultural sciences. For this purpose, the center facilitates the association of thematic working groups. In addition, the research center initiates and supports numerous events, e.g. the annual Georg Forster Lectures, or the biennial Symposium of Social and Cultural Sciences Mainz. SoCuM Fellows and guest lecturers bring international impulses to Mainz. Doctoral students sponsored by the research focus ensure the continuous regrowth of interdisciplinarily anc…

Leila Akremi / Nina Baur / Hubert Knoblauch / Boris Traue (Hrsg.), Handbuch Interpretativ forschen. Weinheim/Basel: Beltz Juventa 2018, 962 S., gb., …

2020

Claudio E. Benzecry / Monika Krause / Isaac Ariail Reed (Eds.), Social Theory Now. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press 2017, 416 S., kt.,…

2019

Universitäre Bewertung. Die Geschichtswissenschaft und die Einsätze ihrer Mitglieder

2021

Die Umstrukturierung der Universitat mit nunmehr starker standardisierten und verrechtlichten Studiengangen verandert auch die Aufmerksamkeitsokonomie der an der universitaren Lehre beteiligten Akteure (Lehrpersonal und Studierende). Sie erscheinen insbesondere durch andere Studienstrukturen (modularisiert), Bewertungssystematiken (kumulativ) und Leistungsanreize (extrinsisch) weniger aufeinander bezogen und ausgerichtet. Am Beispiel eines universitaren Fachs – der historischen Wissenschaft – untersuchen wir, wie Lehrpersonal und Student/innen auf diese veranderten Umstande der Lehre und des Studiums reagieren und damit umgehen. Der Beitrag zeigt erstens, wie Lehrende zwischen Standardisier…

Un/doing calculation: on knowledge practices of risk management

2011

From small enterprises all the way up to financial markets, economic calculation is an activity routinely conducted in economic life-worlds. This paper argues that calculation is situated in the practice of participants involved in these life-worlds as well as in the technological tools they use. It champions a sociological analysis of the world-constituting character of calculation. As empirical examples the paper discusses risk management strategies, the embeddedness of calculation practices in banking infrastructure, and the process of internal rating procedures. Contesting the idea of the omnipresence of calculation, the paper analyzes the social phenomenon of the neutralization of calc…

Field notes: ethnographic writing reconsidered

2013

Even after the so-called ‘crisis of representation’ in ethnographic research the representation of cultural practices constitutes the focal point of ethnographic research practices. Although ethnographic representations are now conceived of as realizations of (other) cultural practices, from a methodological point of view little has been said about the devices with which ethnographic representation is performed. This paper discusses two of the aspects constituting ethnographic research: firstly, the switch between the perspectives of documentarism of the ethnographic data, and a reflexive understanding of this data, and, secondly, the implications of representation devices used in ethnograp…

Observing – Treating – Classifying: On the Educational Practice of Human Differentiation

2016

Abstract Sociological research often states the reproductive function of educational systems. Thus, students are differentiated according to their cultural capital and their social background. One central dimension of the selection process is the grading performed by teachers. The paper outlines a conceptional framework of dealing with this kind of human differentiation sociologically. It therefore gives insight into the prerequisites provided by the school administration and into the empirical organization of grading – from classroom assessment to teacher meetings where final decisions are taken. Two forms of objectifying students’ performances are presented: a social as well as a numerica…

Nicht alles über einen Kamm!

2021

Practices of grading: an ethnographic study of educational assessment

2013

The school as an institution assumes that students' grades are constituted by their assessments. This paper examines the background of this presupposition and provides a micro-analytical perspective of the grading practice of teachers in German High Schools (Gymnasium). This paper conceptualises the theoretical framework of the research in educational measurement in discussion. It is shown that the measured assessment of students and the teacher's observations are linked. When grading, teachers construct their own assessments. This process is depicted in this paper by two forms of observations: self-observation within the context of written examinations and third-party observation within th…

Bildungsorganisationen und ihre sozio-technischen Innovationen

2021

Mit ihrer historischen Genese werden schulische Organisationen immer wieder sozio-technischen Innovationen unterzogen. Diese Innovationen stehen in einem systematischen Zusammenhang mit den gesellschaftlichen Anforderungen an das Wissen der nachsten Generation. Der Beitrag konzentriert sich auf solche Innovationen, die durch die Entwicklung und Einfuhrung neuer didaktischer Objekte erzeugt werden. Er beschreibt und analysiert ihre Genese und die durch sie in Gang gesetzten Veranderungen, die in enger Beziehung zu den in ihnen eingeschriebenen Theorien des Unterrichtens stehen.