Welcome to CRC 1482 "Studies in Human Categorisation"!
The establishment of CRC 1482 "Studies in Human Categorisation" at Johannes Gutenberg-Universtiy Mainz and the Leibniz Institute of European History was approved by the DFG on 7/1/2021. The CRC is preceded by our work in Forum Human Differentiation.
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. This occurs, e. g., according to nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, achievement, sexual orientation, etc. Thus, societies accumulate their own ethno-sociologies according to which they can classify their ‘human material’ (Simmel 1908) and provide them with 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-laden theory of human differentiation that determines its socio-cultural functions.
