Institutionelle Mechanismen im analytischen Vergleich

Project lead: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Gert Melville
Employee: Dr. Michael Hänchen

The three-year project, financed by third-party funds, aims to subject exemplary institutions from the past and present to an analytical comparison in order to identify factors and mechanisms that reveal general forms of institutional persistence, stability and potency, but also deficiencies. Institutions whose organisational and ideational framework is shaped by familiarity will be compared. The focus of the study will be on three different cultural areas: The noble house (Burgundians), the merchant dynasty (Fuggers) and the monastery. The latter - in accordance with the concern of the "Research Centre for Comparative History of Religious Orders" - is the focal point of the comparison. As the only one of the three areas of focus, it will also address both medieval and early modern structures as well as contemporary conditions. Access to the empirical findings will be sought by means of three analytical steps: a) the breakdown of mental and communicative structures, b) the development of regulative, organisational structures, c) the development of personnel structures. In a final comparison, the collective and individual perception and acceptance of the structures mentioned by those affected will be brought into focus.