The Project "Universality and Acceptance Potential of Social Science Knowledges: On the Circulation of Knowledge between Europe and the Global South"

The project reflects critically on the relationship between Europe and the Global South as mirrored within and by the social sciences.

The term "Global South" should be understood here as a geographic and geopolitical category, which includes Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Focus of the project

The project aims at making a well-grounded contribution to the current debate about the internationalization of academic disciplines. It focuses on an epistemological question:

To what extent can social science knowledge become universal, or in other words, how should we assess the acceptance potential of different social theories beyond their relative context of origin?

Our studies focus on the following ambivalent phenomenon: On the one hand, the European research area and its achievements still enjoy a high standing outside of Europe. On the other hand, the worldwide influence of the European theoretical tradition is increasingly being perceived as dominant, and European social science's claim to universality is, as a result, seen as overbearing and presumptuous.

By investigating this field of tension, we aim to obtain innovative ideas for the future positioning of the European scholarly community and its successful activity within the internationalized field of social science.

Subprojects

Four different research projects, linked by the overall question, are realised between 2010 and 2014. Although, in undertaking our distinctive projects, we will be supporting and complementing one another in our research.

1. Wiebke Keim's subproject

Out of Europe: Sequences in knowledge circulation between European social sciences and those of the Muslim worlds.
(Link to the project description)

2. Ercüment Çelik's subproject

The European Experience as a Model: On the Transfer of European Trade Union Theories and Strategies to South Africa and Turkey.
(Link to the project description)

3. Veronika Wöhrer's subproject

Gender Studies as Sites of Transnational Encounters?
(Link to the project description)

4. Christian Ersche's subproject

European Universalism and the Rise of New Powers: The Chinese-Brazilian Relation as a Case Example of Contemporary South-South Cooperation
(Link to the project description)

Central research questions for the subprojects

How do theories and concepts that were developed within Europe gain relevance and importance in the countries of the global South? What aspects of approaches that have emerged in Europe do social scientists outside of Europe make use of and apply to their social analysis of - and their theorizing about - their own societies? What does the reception process look like? Which theories and concepts are rejected as Eurocentric and thus seen as irrelevant for their own societies? On what grounds does this rejection occur?
Where is Europe seen as a model within social theory and analysis? To what extent can the researcher draw parallels between European developments and local contexts?
What theoretical and conceptual alternatives to the established European ones do social scientists in the global South develop? Are these concepts and theories relevant beyond their local contexts and should they therefore be adopted in Europe in order to avoid the "provincialization" of European social science?
Dealing with these questions will necessarily lead to a discussion of the epistemological foundations of social science as such: To what extent can social science knowledge as such be abstracted and universalized?