Lecture by Andreas Langenohl

On October 24 th, Andreas Langenohl (University of Konstanz) gave a talk entitled “Reflexivity in the Social Sciences and Humanities: A Double-Edged Asset” at the A.D. White House. Langenohl, a repeated visitor to Ithaca under the aegis of the Institute for German Cultural Studies and the Departments of German and Asian Studies, presented his newly-founded research group at the University of Konstanz entitled “Idioms of Social Analysis,” an interdisciplinary project funded by the recently awarded ‘excellence initiative’ of German higher education. Langenohl’s research group occurs as part of the larger project interrogating the “Cultural Foundations of Social Integration” at Konstanz, one of the beneficiaries of recent funding restructuring in the German university system. Langenohl’s talk presented his recent work on the notion of reflexivity in contemporary society and on the interrelation of theories of reflection and modernization. As a sociologist, Langenohl was particularly interested in the role that reflexivity plays in social theories of thinkers such as Giddens, Beck, Bourdieu and others. For Langenohl, reflexivity is an important concept of cross-disciplinary interest, both as a critical concept and as a notion worthy of critique due to its overuse in current neo-liberal policy debates. An audience consisting of social scientists as well as members of the German and Asian Studies departments participated avidly in the post-talk discussion, raising questions about Langenohl’s theoretical indebtedness to philosophical hermeneutics, contemporary post-colonial social theorists, and the intellectual legacy of German Idealism. (Sean Franzel)