In spring 2012 a group of young researchers funded under the German Research Foundation’s (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) Emmy Noether Programme will begin its work at the Collegium Carolinum. In a project entitled Ordering Diversity, three researchers will undertake research into concepts of federalism since the nineteenth century.

With a clear focus on federalist concepts of order from the perspective of social diversity, the project is in effect a history of federalism "from below". The main study conducted by Jana Osterkamp is concerned with the history of the Habsburg Monarchy in the long nineteenth century, while the accompanying two doctoral studies examine the history of federalism in the successor states to that Monarchy and under state socialism.

The Habsburg Monarchy was a unique laboratory for federalist concepts of order. Paired with huge economic and social inequalities, its multi-ethnic and multi-denominational make-up was reflected in federalist models. For this reason the project is concerned not merely with the connection between nation and federalism, but also investigates the interrelationship between religion and federalism, and the economy and federalism. By approaching the subject from multiple perspectives, the project breaks new ground in research.

Questions of "loyalty" and "modernity" are central to all three parts of the project. As bonds of loyalty were a constitutive part of federalist models of order, the project aims to show how the cohesion and marginalization of social groups – but also overlapping group allegiances – were reflected in concepts of federalist order. These concepts of order are understood as a response to processes of social differentiation in modernity and a consequence of the changed relationship between state, society, and communities.

Ausschreibung der Doktorandenstellen

Jana Osterkamp