Prof. Dr. Christoph Wulf Freie Universität Berlin Erziehung Und
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1 Prof. Dr. Christoph Wulf Freie Universität Berlin Erziehung und Anthropologie D-14169 Berlin Arnimallee 11 Germany DOI: 10.24153/2079-5912-2017-8-4-4-12 TEACHING HISTORY IN EUROPE: A TRANSCULTURAL TASK ABOUT THE AUTHOR Introductory Remarks A comprehensive consideration of the images of the other in the teaching Christoph Wulf is Professor of Anthropology of history in the countries of Europe necessarily leads to a comprehensive reform and Education and a member of the of this teaching. It is not just Europeanization and globalization that change the Interdisciplinary Centre for Historical Anthropology, the Collaborative Research frame of reference for the teaching of history. The normative approach to the Centre (SFB) “Cultures of Performance,” teaching of history changes as well. New terms and teaching methods must be the Cluster of Excellence “Languages of taken into account. Furthermore, a series of new perspectives on the teaching Emotion,” and the Graduate School of history are to be suggested, with which the attempt is made to do justice to “InterArts” at the Freie Universität Berlin. His the present situation in Europe. These perspectives bring the following concepts books have been translated into 15 languages. For his research in into focus: globalization and cultural diversity; dual historicity and culturality; anthropology and anthropology of development of a historical consciousness; consideration of a historical-critical education, he received the title “professor anthropology; alterity and heterogeneity; difference, transgression and honoris causa” from the University of hybridity; violence and peace; and education for sustainability. In addition, Bucharest. He is Vice President of the there are ensuing methodological innovations in the teaching of history. It is only German Commission for UNESCO. Research stays and invited professorships if the new conceptual orientation is successfully combined with methodological have included the following locations, innovations that reform can be made that meets the requirements of the times. among others: Stanford, California; Tokyo, The following objectives to be subsequently developed allow for the Japan; Kyoto, Japan; Beijing, China; designation of important reform perspectives: reinforcement of inquiry learning; Mysore, India; Paris, France; Modena, Italy; development of an enhanced concept of learning; teaching and learning as a Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Stockholm, Sweden; London, England; and Saint performative process; and the teaching of history in Europe as a transcultural Petersburg, Russia. task. Major research areas: historical and cultural anthropology, educational Globalization as a Challenge for the Teaching of History anthropology, mimesis, aesthetics, rituals In all European countries the teaching of history has been related to nation and emotions. Christoph Wulf is editor, co-editor and building. It has contributed to the building of national identity, national member of the editorial staff of several consciousness and the development of a nation state. In all European countries, national and international journals. teaching history has meant and still means teaching the respective national КАЗАНСКИЙ СОЦИАЛЬНО-ГУМАНИТАРНЫЙ ВЕСТНИК. #4 2017 (27) 23 history within the context of European history. This orientation exerted not only nationally, but worldwide. Among many was predominant in the 19th and 20th centuries. Due to its other aspects, the following six dimensions are of constitutive focus on national history within the context of European importance for the process of globalization (Wulf/Merkel history, the teaching of history was restricted to political history 2002): and a conceptualization of history as the result of the actions • international financial and capital markets, the of outstanding human beings. It is only recently that this mobility of capital and the increasing influence of neoliberal orientation has changed and social history and, in some economic theory; cases, historical anthropology have also become an integral • company strategies and markets with global part of the teaching of history. strategies of production, distribution and cost minimization by Today the teaching of history also includes a means of outsourcing; consideration of culture and cultural diversity. In this context I • transnational political bodies and the declining would like to distinguish two definitions of culture. The first sees influence of the nation state; culture as including art, music, literature, the performing arts • patterns of consumption, lifestyles and cultural styles and architecture. The second is broader and thus embraces and their tendency towards uniformity; “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – • the new media and tourism; research, development as well as instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces and technology; associated therewith – that communities, groups and in some • the one-world mentality. cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage” To these characteristics we must also add the (UNESCO Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage). globalization of poverty, suffering, war, terror and the Culture does not designate a self-contained, uniquely exploitation and destruction of nature, which are related to definable ensemble of practices, values, symbolizations and colonialism and capitalism and have long been ignored. imaginations. The borders between cultures are dynamic and These developments are leading to a separation of the change according to context. They are permeable. They political from the economic spheres, to a globalization of allow themselves to be crossed by many cultural phenomena lifestyles and to a rise in the importance of new and prevent other phenomena from crossing. Cultural communication media. These are not linear processes. They phenomena overlap, intermix and change within and are disrupted in many places and produce contradictory between cultures. They flow back and forth between the results. They have different objectives and decision-making cultures. An exchange occurs in which asymmetries structures and are organized in networks, like rhizomes. They determine the cultural flow. The processes of exchange are do not run parallel in space or time and they are subject to a the result of many constructive and destructive energies. wide variety of different dynamic forces. They are multi- Mimetic assimilations and translations of the cultural dimensional and multi-regional and deeply rooted in the phenomena into new contexts occur in many of these centers of neoliberal capitalism. The dominance of a processes of exchange. Economic, political and social globalized economy over political life and the globalization of processes as well as electronic media play an important role. lifestyles by means of the increasing presentation of An overlapping of the global and the local occurs, leading to experience as images in the new media help to bring about the creation of “glocal” phenomena whose origins are often changes in the way we work. All this has been accompanied difficult to trace. In these processes, new forms of the cultural by a decline in the influence of the individual nation states, and social imaginary are created (Huppauf/Wulf 2009). while cultures have become increasingly permeable and homogeneous, resulting in the development of new ways and One-World Mentality vs. Cultural Diversity spheres of life. In spite of these important changes, there are still very few The question arises as to what this scenario means for the cases in which the teaching of history is oriented towards our teaching of history and to what extent it takes these present-day Europeanization and globalization. Today, the developments suitably into account. Whatever the case may teaching of history must respond to new challenges be, there is now a strong need for discussion in the teaching associated with the process of globalization. Globalization is a of history about the development of and changes associated complex phenomenon which has a profound influence on with Europeanization and globalization. This discussion is the lifestyles and self concepts of most Europeans. leading to a partial re-organization of ways of teaching Globalization is now all-pervasive in almost all areas of life in history, with an associated reduction in the reliance on Europe, with the result that the effects of crisis situations such national histories as explanatory basis. as the current crisis of the financial markets and banks are Special guest - Prof. Dr. Christoph Wulf 5 45 The challenges of globalization have made it necessary to a diversity of definitions. Definitions of history and of cultural conduct a thorough investigation into the conditions of diversity are pluralistic and manifold and we must therefore human life as they stand today. This is the task of a consider different definitions, methods and paradigms of contemporary anthropology, which can no longer be history. To what degree does teaching history mean teaching reduced to ethnology, philosophical anthropology or political, social and economic history? Inspired by the “Ecole anthropological issues in the historical sciences, but must be des Annales” and the “Nouvelle Histoire” in France, historical reformulated as historical and cultural anthropology. Thus anthropology has become an important paradigm for the defined, anthropology must set itself the task of elaborating a teaching of history (Wulf 2002a, 2002b, 2004). In