Link
https://niklas-luhmann-archiv.de/
Runtime
2015–2019 (at the CCeH; since then ongoing supervision until 2030 at the University of Wuppertal)
project participants
Bielefeld University, Bergische Universität Wuppertal (since 2019/20), CCeH (until 2019), North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. Project management: Prof. Dr. André Kieserling (Bielefeld University). Coordination Digital Humanities: Prof. Dr. Patrick Sahle (University of Wuppertal). For other parties involved, see https://niklas-luhmann-archiv.de/projekt/team.
Funding
Supported by the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts.
Description
The aim of the project “Niklas Luhmann: Theory as Passion” is to catalog and process the scientific legacy of the sociologist Niklas Luhmann, who taught at Bielefeld University from 1969 to 1993. As part of the project, Luhmann’s card index and his unpublished manuscripts will be digitized and scientifically edited in order to publish them on an online portal. In addition, a print publication of the most important manuscripts is planned.
With the move of Prof. Dr. Patrick Sahle from the University of Cologne to the University of Wuppertal in 2019, the DH-side supervision of the project also moved there. The project will run from 2015 to 2030 and is funded by the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. The project sponsor is the Niklas Luhmann Archive at Bielefeld University.
Luhmann’s extensive academic legacy, which Bielefeld University was able to acquire in 2010, makes the author and his theory visible beyond his published works. The core of the estate and the center of Luhmann’s theoretical work is the box of notes comprising around 90,000 pieces of paper. These notes, written between 1951 and 1996, document Luhmann’s theoretical development in a unique way, so that the collection can be seen as his intellectual autobiography. Furthermore, the Zettelkasten has a specific organizational structure that not only made it the indispensable theory development and publication machine for Luhmann, but also makes it interesting in terms of the history of science.
The card index will be scientifically indexed, converted into an edited, user-friendly
friendly database and linked to the other publications, which will be indexed and published in a work-historical edition. The research platform thus ensures the accessibility of this unique scientific
The material from the estate is not only available in a theoretically appropriate but also contemporary form, making it usable for further research.
The edition of Luhmann’s estate is intended as sociological research into the structure and genesis of one of the last “grand theories” of sociology, thereby laying the foundation for the development of a science-based infrastructural service that interdisciplinary and increasingly international research on and with Luhmann’s theory can draw on in the future.
Publications
Gödel, Martina / Zimmer, Sebastian / Schmidt, Johannes (2018). “Digitale Differenz: Luhmanns Zettelkasten als physisch-historisches Objekt und als vernetzter Navigationsraum.” In: DHd 2018. Critique of digital reason. Conference Abstracts. University of Cologne, February 26 – March 2, 2018. Cologne: University of Cologne, pp. 178–181. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4622395.
For a list of publications relevant to the project, see https://niklas-luhmann-archiv.de/projekt/publikationen.
Picture credits
Niklas Luhmann © Bielefeld University.