FACHWISSENSCHAFT VS. „CITIZEN SCIENCE“?: Zum Miteinander von Fachleuten und Laien als Meta-Methodik der Klostergeschichte.

There has been a long tradition of lay involvement in historical monastery research, a kind of "citizen science" or, more precisely, "citizen history" avant la lettre. Interested people close to monasteries have been, and still are, actively researching and communicating their history. Through their familiarity with local conditions, they have knowledge monopolies from which specialist science can profit. These can include, for example, historical relics, monastic material culture, or features of the monastic landscape. Conversely, citizen historians can receive methodological impulses from specialist historians and thus further improve their voluntary work. It would, therefore, be a gain for historical monastery research if the cooperation between volunteers and trained historians could be established as a meta-method through targeted measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]