Pluralisation and Marginality

With the formula "united in diversity", the proponents of European unification emphasise the ideal of plurality as a fundamental characteristic of Europe. But is plurality really part of Europe's DNA, or is it a post-war invention to legitimise the process of European unification? The activities in this research area are devoted to the charged relationship between marginality and socio-religious pluralisation in European history. The focus is on the changing, often conflictual handling of processes of pluralisation. Starting from the significance of marginality for these processes, the area asks: How did the construction and perception of cultural, social and religious diversity change, as did the ways in which it was dealt with? And what about those who were not understood to be part of the majority, or did not see themselves as such? The strategies of difference pursued by historical actors in dealing with marginality, both on the part of the majority society and among marginalised individuals and groups, are explored by way of example. The interplay of self-location and heteronomy was by no means exclusively defined by the majority. Rather, institutional regulatory mechanisms responding to conflict situations were often confronted with independent articulation practices of marginalised groups or their advocates. This dynamic of marginality and pluralisation is examined in several interrelated thematic fields: the regulation of religious difference in the context of state-building processes; representations, forms of articulation and practices of representation of marginalised groups and societies; and ideological and religious pluralisation.
 

News from the research area:  

- Masterclass with Prof. Uwe Schimank, Bremen, "Gesellschaftliche Differenzierung; 'Orin Klapp revisited: Opening and closing'", IEG, January 2020

- Conference "Einheit und Vielheit – Europa pluralisieren" – Ein Europa der Differenzen I. IEG, online, November 2/3, 2020. publication: DOI: 10.13109/9783666571459 (Göttingen 2022)

- Conference "The Multi-Confessionalism of Central Europe under the Reign of Stephan Báthory", Warschau,  June 26-28, 2023, Prof. Maciej Ptaszyński, Warschau and Henning P. Jürgens

- Masterclass with Prof. Michael Driedger, St. Catherines, "The Radical Reformation, Sects, Anabaptists, and Other Intellectual Cages: A Plea for a Post-Colonial, Post-Confessional, Post-Christian History of Early Modern Religious Transformations", IEG, July 11, 2023
 

Publications (in selection):

– BOUWERS, Eveline G. (ed.), Catholics and Violence in the Nineteenth-Century Global World, London 2023. URL.

– DUHAUT, Noëmie, "A French Jew Emancipated the Blacks": Discursive Strategies of French Jews in the Age of Transnational Emancipations, in: French Historical Studies 44 (2021), S. 645–674. URL.

– GERAERTS, Jaap/Kaplan, Benjamin J. (ed.): Early Modern Toleration. New Approaches, London 2023. URL.

– MÖLLER, Esther/PAULMANN, Johannes/Stornig, Katharina (ed.): Gendering Global Humanitarianism in the Twentieth Century: Practice, Politics and the Power of Representation, New York 2020. URL.

– JÜRGENS, Henning P./WITT, Christian V. (ed.): An den Rand gedrängt – den Rand gewählt: Marginalisierungsstrategien in der Frühen Neuzeit, Leipzig 2021. URL.

– DINGEL, Irene (ed.), Religiöse Friedenswahrung und Friedensstiftung in Europa (1500-1800): Digitale Quellenedition frühneuzeitlicher Religionsfrieden, Wolfenbüttel/Darmstadt 2020. URL; Printfassung: DINGEL, Irene (ed.), Europäische Religionsfrieden der Frühen Neuzeit. Quellen, Bd. 1: Religionsfrieden 1485–1555, Gütersloh 2021.

– JÜRGENS, Henning P. (ed.): Dass Gerechtigkeit und Friede sich küssen: Repräsentationen des Friedens im vormodernen Europa, Bonn 2021. URL.

– KLOSE, Fabian: »In the Cause of Humanity«: Eine Geschichte der humanitären Intervention im langen 19. Jahrhundert, Göttingen 2019 (VIEG 256). URL.

– DINGEL, Irene a.o. (ed.): Handbuch Frieden im Europa der Frühen Neuzeit = Handbook of Peace in Early Modern Europe, Berlin u.a. 2020. URL.

– WITT, Christian V., Lutherische "Orthodoxie" als historisches Problem. Leitidee, Konstruktion und Gegenbegriff von Gottfried Arnold bis Ernst Troeltsch (VIEG 264), Göttingen 2021, URL.