Explicitly or implicitly, the Euro-American path to modernity has long been taken as a standard model, indeed as a definition of modernity in general. Individualization, the rule of law, technologization, social differentiation, and secularization were seen as its inevitable manifestations. Regions of the world falling short of this “package” have been considered as in need of development by colonial rule or other forms of tutelage. Cultural difference was imagined in terms of temporal difference that could only be overcome, albeit gradually and perhaps never altogether, by embracing the Western model of modernity.

Sociologist Shmuel Eisenstadt was one of the first scholars to criticize these assumptions with his concept of “multiple modernities”, pointing out that there was more than one path to modernity, more than one isotropic condition of modernity. His assumptions were quickly taken up, in part because they allowed to emphasise the specific modernity of often syncretic cultural phenomena from outside of Europe and the U.S. which embraced and appropriated both global (and putatively modern) and local (supposedly traditional) conditions of production. Nevertheless, the notion of “multiple modernities” was beset by a range of theoretical and ethical problems and is increasingly confronted with harsh criticism, especially from postcolonial theory. Foremost among these are the allegations that it shares with older theories of modernity an essentialist definition of culture and that by “decomposing modernity” it retranslates development into hierarchy, and risks essentialising economic asymmetries into cultural difference, thereby depolicticising contemporary globalization.

This summer school, targeted at doctoral candidates and early postdocs, aims at a critical reflection of modernization theory up to its most recent guises and critiques and seeks an engagement with cultural and aesthetic practices that express the seeming contradictions of contemporary global modernity. These may include, but are not narrowed to: literature and the arts, media, fashion/clothing, food, urbanisation, religious practice. It hopes to foster exchange between young researchers from diverse cultural backgrounds and disciplines in the social sciences and humanities whose work is related to theoretical implications and cultural, social, and aesthetic phenomena of global modernity.

Each day will commence with a keynote lecture delivered by renowned scholars and ample opportunities for discussion afterwards. Keynote speakers include Stefan Haas (Göttingen), Gurminder K. Bhambra (Warwick), Lars Eckstein (Potsdam), Gauri Viswanathan (New York), and Parama Roy (Davis). The afternoons will be dedicated to short presentations by participants based on papers circulated in advance and discussions of seminal texts on modernity. Select papers will be published. Anyone interested in participating is kindly requested to apply with a CV, list of publications (if available), and an abstract of 500 words at maximum until 15 March 2014. Accommodation is free for all participants. Reimbursement for travel costs is available for a limited number of applicants. In case of further questions, do not hesitate to contact the organizers, Jens Elze and Julia Hauser, via jens.elze@fu-berlin.de and jhauser1@gwdg.de.