Search

Welche Rolle können die Geisteswissenschaften bei der Gestaltung unserer gemeinsamen Zukunft spielen? Von welchen Werten lassen wir uns im 21. Jahrhundert leiten? Wie können wir das Potenzial der Geisteswissenschaften in einer Zeit vielfältiger Krisen nutzen? Die Autor*innen stellen sich diesen grundlegenden Fragen und verorten die Antworten in einem neuen Verständnis von Geisteswissenschaften, die ihr Denken und ihre Vorstellungskraft an Kriterien einer lebenswerten Zukunft ausrichten. Diese Geisteswissenschaften stellen sich in den Dienst allen Lebens auf unserem Planeten und sind dadurch in der Lage, neu formulierte, verbindliche Werte in die Gesellschaft hineinzutragen und der Zerstörung unserer Umwelt entschlossen entgegenzutreten.

What role can the humanities play in shaping our common future? What are the values that guide us in the 21st century? How can we unleash the potential the humanities offer in a time of multiple crises? This volume tackles some of these fundamental questions, acknowledging and developing the changing role of academic discourse in a turbulent world. This timely book argues that the humanities engender conceptual tools that are capable of reconciling theory and practice. In a bold move, we call for the humanities to reach beyond the confines of universities and engage in the most urgent debates facing humanity today - in a multidisciplinary, transformative, and constructive way. This is a blueprint for how societal change can be inclusive and equitable for the good of humans and non-humans alike.

In recent years, the notion of ‘excellence’ and its interconnectedness with research, development and innovations has become extremely popular across Europe. At regional and national as well as at the EU level, various initiatives have been taken to strengthen the science base, and to establish centres, or clusters of outstanding achievements. Researchers, universities, and funding agencies will have to work their way towards a culture of creativity, which needs a leap of faith based on the high-trust principles of governance and accountability, and which provides more space for risk-taking and thorough rethinking of common wisdom in order to achieve real breakthroughs at the frontiers of knowledge.

In a period, in which many things seem uncertain and yet everything is calculated and measured, the humanities can hardly avoid the evaluative quality measurement. However, a look into the world of benchmarks, ratings and rankings reveals that the oftentimes culture-specific performances of humanities research and teaching are almost immaterial therein. From the perspective of a private research funder, among others the following questions are traced: To what extent do international standards of quality exist in the humanities? Which criteria are suitable? Do assessment methods exist that allow for an adequate evaluation of performances in the humanities? To what extent should the humanities get involved with the construction of a publication and citation industry? What chance of survival do the humanities have in a world predominantly characterized by science and engineering?

DOI: 10.17323/1814-9545-2011-2-151-162

Angesichts hoher Veranderungsdynamik in Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft steht das gesamte Forschungssystem vor grosen Herausforderungen. Die enorme Ausweitung projektbasierter Finanzierungen hat insbesondere die Universitaten mit einer Fulle von Problemen konfrontiert. Gefordert ist eine neue Balance zwischen Grundfinanzierung und Drittmitteln ebenso wie die Schaffung mittel- bis langfristig angelegter Freiraume fur bahnbrechend neue Forschung und die Eroffnung weiterer Moglichkeiten transnationaler Zusammenarbeit in Forschung und Forschungsforderung. Es gilt, kunftig beides in globaler Perspektive zu denken und neu zu konfigurieren.

Many readers will associate the title of this book with the researcher and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, or even with the philanthropic foundation, named after him, which invites hundreds of academics to Germany every year, and so contributes powerfully to international collaboration in higher education and research. But it is not the movement of scientists or ideas that concerns this collection. And it is not Alexander, but his elder brother Wilhelm von Humboldt, famous for conceptualizing the 'model' of the modern 'research university' who is the guest of honour. What made Wilhelm von Humboldt's ideas so influential? Indeed, what makes them so attractive that twenty-five well-known historians were prepared to spend almost a week at Sigriswil (near Berne in Switzerland) to discuss the migration of his ideas through time and space? Although there were no doubt many motives, it seems to me that one point stands out: Humboldt's concept is still appealing to researchactive professors, and particularly today, when there appears to be a huge chasm between his vision of a university (with its potent academic myths) and the harsh realities of mass higher education. For Wilhelm von Humboldt, a modern university rested on four pillars: (1) the integration of teaching and research, including the obligation to foster the creation of knowledge as well as its preservation and transmission; (2) the complementary principles of Lehrfreiheit (freedom to teach) and Lernfreiheit (freedom to study); (3) the demand for Einsamkeit (solitude) and Freiheit (freedom) in the autonomous pursuit of truth; and (4) the introduction of the seminar system as the backbone of a community of teachers and students ('Gemeinschaft der Lehrenden und Lernenden'). Although

Since the late 1980s, Europe has witnesseddramatic changes in the political landscape andin daily life. Many of these changes are drivenby new developments in science and technology.At the same time, research choices are beingmade in the anticipation of economic benefits.In this context, the European Commission andprivate foundations in Europe are rethinkingtheir approaches and priorities. This paperconsiders some of the changes taking place inresearch policy, and reflects upon somereconfigurations currently underway.

The question of the autonomy of the universities is now back on the agenda everywhere. A case in point is the recent manifesto on the subject of European university policy published in June 2010 (The manifesto “Empower European Universities” 2010). Clearly the subject of the university as an organisation, of university autonomy based on adequate governance structures, and above all the need to constantly redefine the balance between control and participation is not yet history. At the same time, one is tempted to point out that we have now spent some 20 years working with new management and decision-making structures, quality assurance and accreditation procedures, and strengths and weaknesses analyses, and that the time has therefore come—as I pointed out last year on the occasion of Leipzig University’s sixth centenary celebrations (Krull 2009, pp.207–220)—to finally address the challenges of content and especially the vital question of curricular reform.