The International Research Center for "Work and Human Life Cycle in Global History" (wird in Kürze freigeschaltet)
The International Research Center "Work and Human Life Cycle in Global History" will pursue fundamental research
on the subject of work, focusing on the connections between work and life cycle. From a comparative perspective,
we will be looking at how, especially since the late 18th century, the relationship between work and life cycle has been
linked in various historical constellations, and we will also be investigating the forms that the relationship of work
and social justice between the generations has taken. The comprehensive goal of the International Research Center's
research and discussions will be to investigate, comparatively and historically, the interchange between work and career,
between work and career images, and between work and career structures so as to emerge with a typology and to determine
the main trends that historically encircle the present situation. We thereby open up a "scope of possibilities" to
provide solutions for a central problem of the present time. We will pose the question whether specific forms of
work - that is, specific links between work, non-work and other life-expressions - are typical of people across the
age spectrum, or can at least be regarded as such, and why and with what consequences. We will also investigate
whether the customary organization of one's career in various societies can be normatively and practically defined
through participation in various forms of work. And to what degree is the distribution of life opportunities determined
by work? By applying a global and historical perspective and systematically employing the methodologies of area
studies, the International Research Center will attempt to show how varied industrial and non-industrial, capitalist
and non-capitalist realities were and are.
The International Research Center "Work and Human Life Cycle in Global History" is funded by the Federal Ministry of
Education and Research (BMBF) under the direction of Professor Andreas Eckert
and senior advisor Professor Jürgen Kocka in collaboration with the Humboldt University and the research unit
"Circulation of Knowledge. Transregional Studies"
at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. The working languages of
the International Research Center are English and German.
Call for Applications