The aim of the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) is to study a fundamental cultural and social phenomenon: the perpetual categorical differentiation by and of humans, e.g., based on nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, achievement or sexual orientation. Societies thereby accumulate their own ethno-sociologies according to which they can classify their ‘human material’ (Simmel 1908) and assign them their social affiliations. Alongside the sorting work that pertains mainly to the differentiators themselves, human differentiation also refers to the external delimitation of humans from animals and artefacts such as robots.
Ultimately, the CRC’s aim is to produce a general, empirically sound theory of human differentiation that determines its socio-cultural functions.
The establishment of CRC 1482 "Studies in Human Differentiation" at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz and the Leibniz Institute of European History was approved by the DFG on 7/1/2021.
Social Media
You can find the CRC Human Differentiation on Instagram, Threads, and Mastodon. Or you can learn more about our research by listening to our podcast "Sone/Solche. Wie Menschen sich unterscheiden und wie die Kulturwissenschaften dazu forschen".
Events & Aktuelles We regularily present our research in lectures, on conferences and other events.
Publikationen The research performed at the CRC 1482 Human Differentiation has resulted in numerous publications.
