Economy between Cultural Theory and Cultural History

September 30 to October 5, 2014 – Lichtenberg-Kolleg, Historic Observatory

The Maurice Halbwachs Summer Institute offers an opportunity for intensive intellectual exchange between junior scholars from different Humanities disciplines and major scholars of international repute. At the center of this year?s Maurice Halbwachs Summer Institute is an inquiry into the power of economic thought and the symbolic representations of economic thought and transactions since the Renaissance. What are the consequences when we radically historicize and question the language(s) of the economy? What happens to economic symbols once their autopoetic fictions are uncovered? What is the impact of such questioning on the persuasiveness of economic thought within cultural history? How do economists react to their potential de-legitimation? How are fields of cultural research affected that are themselves engaged in researching economic questions? This is one of the central questions literature scholar Joseph Vogl (Humboldt University, Berlin) will address in his key-note lecture, a topic which will be discussed with the younger participants of the summer institute, as well as Sandra Maß (Ruhr-University, Bochum) and Avi Lifschitz (University College London) who will also be invited to give their input.

Public lectures will take place in the Lichtenberg-Kolleg's Red Hall in the Historic Observatory (Historische Sternwarte), Geismar Landstraße 11:

Joseph Vogl: Seigniorale Macht. Zur Genese des finanzökonomischen Regimes

Sandra Maß: Kulturgeschichte des Ökonomischen – Themen, Zugänge, Methoden

Avi Lifschitz: Natural or artificial? The prerequisites for negotiation, barter and exchange in 18th-century thought

The Maurice Halbwachs Summer Institute was initiated by Regina Bendix, Hartmut Bleumer, Rebekka Habermas and Wolfgang Knöbl.

For further Information please visit www.maurice-halbwachs-summer-institute.uni-goettingen.de.