The working group “Bonds” explores what holds people and things together. The findings are incorporated into an expanding Glossary of Bonds.
For the first rendition of our working group, we investigate two aspects: 1) community and its representability, and 2) the relation between confinement and commitment. To analyze the first aspect, we discuss the issue of sensus communis in its relation to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Thierry de Duve), the role of symbolic acts in the binding of cities, states, and conflicts (Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger), the questionable possibility of realizing community (Jean-Luc Nancy), as well as the concept of Milieuwelt as the backdrop to human connections (Aron Gurwitsch). For the second aspect, we discuss bourgeois affective mechanisms that foreclose certain connections (Henrike Kohpeiß), the relational webs spun by the form of the city (Lin Lofland), as well as the peculiar orientedness portrayed in queer forms of bonds (Sara Ahmed).
Beyond theoretical inquiry, the working group seeks to engage with the public. A series of events, beginning with a film screening (details will be announced imminently), explores how objects from visual culture, such as the ornamentation of architecture, generate and allow reflection on the question of bonds, dependencies and relationalities.
If you take an interest in the aforementioned concepts, would like to partake in our discussion in any way or to contribute to the Glossary of Bonds, feel free to reach out:
Anna Bitter: bitter@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Tarika Johar: johar@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Julius Schwarzwälder: julius.schwarzwaelder@tu-darmstadt.de
Sophie Loidolt: sophie.loidolt@tu-darmstadt.de
