Personal groups and categories between construction and deconstruction

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Judith Froese
• Subject Area: Principles of Law and Jurisprudence ; Public Law ; Sociological Theory
• Term: from 2017 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 387054976

Law cannot express all the uniqueness and diverse aspects of each and every individual. Rather, it must rely on categorical types. By the same token, law can in some cases make use of actual factors, while in part it forms genuine legal categories. Typologies make possible rationalisation and foreseeability of state action, but reduce individuals to the respective aspect that forms the group (groupism). That is why this contrasts with the prevailing view in society of persons as unique individual personalities. Assignments to categories are for this reason inter alia increasingly under pressure to offer some justification for such, with this ranging all the way to efforts at deconstruction. This relates in particular to the category of sex/gender, first of all by virtue of opportunities to choose and switch within the binary system (transsexuality/transgender), but also increasingly through demands for self-determination regarding one's own gender outside this system (third, fourth gender) all the way to complete deconstruction of the category (post-gender). But also in the area of anti-discrimination and asylum law as well, which use categories such as race, ethnic group, origin or nationality in an anti-racist manner and to protect individuals against negative effects from groupism, categories are increasingly being accused of essentialism and performativity. Focus is increasingly moving towards the topical fields of discrimination and inequality in the public debate and in scholarly analysis – for instance under the rubrics of micro aggressions, safe spaces and trigger warnings. At the same time, categories are taking on new meaning by virtue of progress in biology and medicine – for instance with decoding of the genome opening up new possibilities for criminal prosecution. The aim of the research project is to analyse the relevance of groups and categories in the creation and maintenance of objectivity, predictability and reliability of law and to enquire as to possible alternatives. Here aspects of construction and deconstruction play a decisive role. First of all, the sociological foundations of the definitions of group and category are to be explored and it is to be analysed to what extent these are mere constructions. Then reservations raised regarding groups and categories are to be examined and analysed in terms of their legitimacy. Based on these foundations, the individual categories of gender, ethnic group, race and nation are then to be analysed in terms of whether in view of increasing elements of selection, switching and self-determination these still constitute categories in the true meaning of the word. Finally, the research project is to explore so-called post-categorical thinking and enquire about what alternatives there are to thinking in and with groups and categories and whether this guarantees objectivity, reliability and foreseeability of state action.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Hosts: Professor Dr. Rogers Brubaker; Professorin Dr. Laure Murat