A theory of normative orders

Workshop and book project

Project managers: Prof. Dr. Rainer Forst and Prof. Dr. Klaus Günther

Project description

The interdisciplinary research of the “Normative Orders” network sees itself as the building blocks of a continuously coalescing theory of normative orders. Important foundations have been laid and cornerstones erected in the cooperation to date, which characterize the special “Frankfurt” character of the research context.

The plan now is to hold a joint workshop for the researchers involved – including researchers who have already left the institute – to take stock of what has been achieved over the past few years and bring together the aforementioned building blocks. On the other hand, an outlook on open questions and perspectives is to be undertaken.

Based on the assumption that normative orders can only stabilize if they can also be justified, if their justifications are supported by those who are expected to comply with the norm, normative orders are understood as orders of justification. Even if this seems to suggest a prioritization of theoretical questions, the association understands the relationship between empirical research and general theory as a reciprocal one: Theoretical questions guide empirical research, and empirical research leads to the redefinition of theoretical assumptions. One aim of the planned workshop is to discuss the possibility and necessity of such redefinitions. The respective research serves to put the findings of a theory of normative orders to the test and to reinterpret them with regard to current social developments and challenges. Can a diagnosed fragility of normative orders, which is the focus of the new research program, be adequately explained and understood with the available methods and theories? What theoretical innovations does this topic require?
By asking about the justification narratives that support a normative order, the network, in contrast to other projects, succeeds in reconstructing the subjective participant perspective of those who behave in a judgmental way towards their normative order. At the same time, however, the objective, descriptive perspective of an interdisciplinary investigation of the change in normative orders is not neglected. The reality and possibilities of justificatory orders are always co-determined by historical developments and social, political, economic, religious and cultural contexts, which vary greatly and change at different speeds. The determination of the relationship between the subjective perspective of the participant and the objective perspective of the observer, e.g. along the question of the sedimentation of justifications of normative orders and the formation of institutions of critique and renewal, will also be the subject of the workshop.

With this in mind, the researchers in the research network are invited to contribute their thoughts on a theory of normative orders based on interdisciplinary empirical research.

Following the discussion in the workshop, a German/English anthology will be produced.