Ethics

Every person has a life to live. Acting inevitably means giving answers to ethical questions like: How should I live? How should I interact with others? The respective answers people give in and through their everyday lives are often affected by and embedded in knowledge formations  and religious traditions. Accordingly, we focus on secular and religious authorities, institutions, and traditions that guide peoples’ lives. Which forms of knowledge, modes of politics, and ways of living do they enable and inhibit? Why and how do people adhere to or subvert them? Based on ethnographic examples and current theoretical debates we aim to do justice to the complexities and ambiguities of human life forms and practices. We critically examine the authorities, institutions, and traditions that make certain ways of life appear natural as well as the conflicts that emerge around them.