GRK 1919:  Precaution, Prevision, Prediction: Managing Contingency

• Subject Area: History
• Term: from 2013 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 223828200

How do social agents and structures meet the challenges of an uncertain future and how do they handle contingency through their actions? Since 2013, the historical dimension of these highly topical questions has been the subject of the Graduiertenkolleg "Precaution, prevision, prediction: managing contingency" at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The novelty of its approach is a shift in its level of analysis away from beliefs about the future towards a focus on social agents` effective actions, as well as the structural opportunities (and constraints?) for such actions to be realised. By comparing different cultures and different epochs, the aim is thus to explore the plurality of social horizons of possibility. In order to achieve this, our research project focuses on areas of human practice in which contingency posed and still poses a special challenge, differentiating diverse forms of contingent events.In this way our research project modifies and refines theoretical considerations that assume a new kind of relationship to contingency as a characteristic feature of modernity, hence making a significant contribution to the contemporary research discourse in the field of the history of the perception of the future. Through its innovative theoretical approach and cross-cultural research design, the research group is able to offer its doctoral students a methodologically and theoretically advanced level of qualification. The specially tailored programme and structured supervision ensure that students are successfully guided towards a choice of relevant research themes and aims and also that they successfully complete their degree and are well prepared for their future careers.

• DFG Programme: Research Training Groups
• Applicant Institution: Universität Duisburg-Essen
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Stefan Brakensiek
• Participating Researchers: Professor Dr. Frank Becker; Professor Dr. Markus Bernhardt; Professor Dr. Wolfgang Blösel; Professor Dr. Ralf-Peter Fuchs; Professorin Dr. Amalie Fößel; Professor Dr. Christoph Marx; Professorin Dr. Berna Pekesen; Professor Dr. Benjamin Scheller; Professorin Dr. Ute Schneider