In order to develop a more adequate understanding of globalization processes, a trans-disciplinary concept is necessary – a concept that enables the observation and interpretation of global integration and disintegration processes in their complex interplay as well as the identification of hinge points at which connections and non-connections converge.
Nearly all humanities and cultural science disciplines have emphasized over the last 20 years the significance of global integration processes.
The CAS research focus continues from this perspective on the one hand, but also takes a serious look at the criticism of this perspective, which has increased in recent times, and acknowledges the call to take into account non-connections, interruptions and disintegration processes in analyses.
The scholars involved in the research focus understand connection and non-connection, integration and disintegration, not as opposites, but rather as deeply interwoven phenomena, whose parallelism poses particular challenges to the investigation of their meaning. The research focus therefore particularly aims to develop adequate instruments with which to meet these challenges, and thus to provide a new methodical-theoretical basis for the analysis of current and historical globalization processes.
