The program of the series

›Paths to ... ‹

published by Traugott Bautz

Since the 1980s, a cultural studies shift has been underway in the humanities. A key aspect of this shift is the abandonment of the notion of cultures as uniform, definable, and homogeneous entities. Its theoretically and practically justified, or justifiable, necessity for this shift derives primarily from the emergence and development of intercultural orientations and their empirical research fields.

One consequence of this shift is the liberation of cultural studies on a theoretical level from their often ethnocentric national presuppositions. On a practical level, it is about enabling people as a whole to assess different social situations and learn to behave accordingly, as well as to develop tolerance for other values or norms. In a world that is becoming noticeably more interdependent, this process touches on many dimensions of our lives, such as social forms of life, cultural lifeworlds, and real-political discourses. In such a hermeneutic context, it is not only about how I understand myself and how I understand the foreign, but also how the foreign understands itself and how it understands me. In practice, this is firstly about Europe's understanding of itself and of the foreign, and secondly about the self-understanding and understanding of the foreign of non-European cultures.

According to this principle, the expression 'paths...' refers to the plurality of differing histories, perspectives, approaches, and methodological orientations that complement, overlap, or conflict. The real diversity of methods, goals, styles, paradigms, and outcomes reveals the diversity of paths that are not only characterized by striking similarities, but also by illuminating differences.

The aim of the publication series "Paths to..." is to encourage and promote a fundamentally interdisciplinary and intercultural orientation in teaching and research, in theory and practice. This includes, among other things, addressing different concepts. Application-oriented approaches complement the topics covered in the "Paths to..." publication series through empirical studies and scientifically sound field reports.