History | Society | Theory
Voluntariness is more than voluntary civic engagement. Appeals for voluntary self-conduct, compliance, and sacrifice permeate our daily routines. For instance, we are called upon to take good care of our bodies and make the best of our lives, work overtime (because we love our jobs), or use a Corona tracing app and thus be a responsible citizen. Voluntary practices such as these are performed as acts of freedom, yet are enabled, endorsed, and sometimes demanded by manifold expectations and conditions beyond our reach. This blog explores the power structures and practices of voluntariness, while examining how people and societies are governed through it.
We probe the conditions under which this operates and how voluntariness has changed over time and in different places. Our blog is made up of individual contributions by a variety of authors. Each has their own perspective on voluntariness, and they evaluate and discuss the term in different ways. Contributions by members of the research group provide an insight into how we ourselves seek to understand voluntariness as a multifaceted analytical concept and which methodological tools we consider crucial in this regard. At the same time, we want to highlight as many perspectives on voluntariness as possible while also enabling external authors to have their say. The range of our own topics and approaches is already highly diverse and is tailored to the specific foci of our projects. Guest contributions broaden our field of vision even further, helping us to engage in critical dialogue with each other and to compare contrasting approaches.
By Jürgen Martschukat
Since the seventeenth century, the idea of the human being as a self-owning, autonomous, voluntarily acting agent has become deeply embedded in liberal political thought. In the neoliberal age of the last fifty years or so, this notion has shaped political and everyday action more than ever before, becoming even more profoundly entrenched in the concept of ideal subjecthood. However, this so-called Lockean subject has come in for criticism…
By Mitchell Dean and Jürgen Martschukat
In Summer 2023, Australian sociologist and Foucault expert Mitchell Dean joined our research unit as Mercator Fellow. Since then, he and our group stayed in contact and he also participates in a workshop with former Mercator Fellow Alexandra Oeser in Paris-Nanterre this month. In the meantime, he and Jürgen Martschukat once more talked about joys and challenges of researching voluntariness in our second interview with visiting scholars in Erfurt.
By Alexandra Oeser and Jürgen Martschukat
In Summer 2022, sociologist and historian from the Université Paris-Nanterre, Alexandra Oeser, joined our research unit as Mercator Fellow. Since then, a rather long-term exchange has been established. She and Jürgen Martschukat recently took the time to reflect upon the opportunities and challenges of interdisciplinary and international cooperation.
By Pia Herzan
Several research trips for her project brought Pia also to Philadelphia, not just nicknamed as the “Cradle of Liberty” but also famous as the “Mural Capital of the World.” Read – and see! – more about the (re-)claiming of public space by voluntary urban art practices in Philadelphia.
By Florian Wagner
*** This post is currently only available in German ***
By Mara Albrecht
The Central Citizens’ Defence Committee emerged in Belfast at the beginning of the conflict in Northern Ireland in 1969. It provides a case study in voluntary policing from a politically left position and in opposition to the state and official law enforcement.
By Pia Herzan
Self-government is one of the most crucial practices in a liberal democracy. Pia takes a look at the status quo of democratic knowledge and practices in the U.S. and how people as well as institutions are committing to it.
By Meike Katzek
On December 6, 2022, our project team working on voluntariness and dictatorship organized a panel discussion with fellow historians in Erfurt. The discussion revealed some powerful possibilities as well as some grey areas of voluntariness as theme and concept.
By Philipp Schink
Practices of voluntary cooperation might be perceived as castles made of sand. With time, however, they are being destroyed by the sea, according to a train of thought by one of our group’s philosophers. Is voluntariness waning as soon as state enters?
We are a group of historians, sociologists, and philosophers at the Universities of Erfurt, Jena, and Oldenburg, plus a number of associated scholars around the globe.
Together, we form the interdisciplinary Research Unit on Voluntariness, funded by the German Research Foundation (FOR 2983) since 2020. The variety of our individual research projects underscores the power, significance, and transformations of voluntariness from the Middle Ages to the present.
The Research Unit on Voluntariness is more than just our team. We are part of a growing international community of scholars who share an interest in the concept of voluntariness. We invite fellow researchers to join the discussion, not just in writing but also in person. For the next few years we are planning workshops and lecture series, and we will let you know what’s happening around voluntariness and our research unit.
Stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted about news, events, and guests as well as all sorts of sidelines! Connect with us via our social media sites on Facebook and Instagram so you don’t miss anything!
On October 24 & 25, 2024, we are happy to present an international workshop in co-operation with colleagues and research projects from Erfurt and Jena. Diverse topics, lectures and a panel discussion by guests from Africa and Europe will share interdisciplinary perspectives on the postcolonial fight for restitution and repatriation.
On June 3, 2024, we invite fellow researchers to discuss voluntariness as focus of their research and compare goals and challenges of their projects. The research day will start at 10 am with a casual welcome into a full-day program, completed by an evening lecture by philosopher Jule Govrin.
April 2024 has been the official kick-off for another three years of voluntariness research, funded by the German Research Foundation. Seven new or continuing projects will shape the new focus of the research unit’s second funding phase.
A position as research assistant within the Research Unit on “Voluntariness” is available at the University of Erfurt. Historians specializing in the field of North American History may apply by May 4, 2024, at the latest.
Florian Wagner co-edited several contributions to the histories of migration, removals and expulsions in Germany and beyond for a special issue with Zeithistorische Forschungen / Studies in Contemporary History in 2023.
On October 10, 2023, Jürgen Martschukat and Florian Wagner, PIs in our subprojects on “Voluntariness as Political Practice” and “Voluntariness and Repatriation”, are going to participate in a workshop on “Freiheit – Unfreiheit – Freiwilligkeit” at the Freie Universität Berlin.
On September 12 and 13, 2023, two co-investigators from the research unit will be speaking at the conference “Solidarity and Voluntarism in State-Socialist Societies” at the University of Graz, Austria. For a panel on Friday Carolyn Taratko and Elena M. E. Kiesel will be presenting aspects of their research projects on voluntariness in Ghana and the GDR.
On July 13 and 14, 2023, the workshop titled “Reflect yourself!?” will take place at the University of Erfurt. Exploring the research field of public history and its potential for (self)reflection in historical scholarship, both established scholars, junior researchers and students come together to discuss the topic in regard to their daily work and historical research.
In summer 2023, we welcome Professor Mitchell Dean as Mercator Fellow of the Research Unit on Voluntariness. The political sociologist will support the projects of the research unit from April to July 2023 as a renowned expert in the field of governmentality studies.
