Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Political Theory

Political Theory

Collage zu politischen Ordnungen und Protest

The Research and teaching area Political Theory engages with the theory-based interpretation and analysis of the basic problems of political action and political-social order formation (institutions, organizations, practices, and norms) in a conceptual and normative way. The focus on theory and conceptual work means that the professorship has a central bundling function in social science research and teaching. For basic political concepts such as democracy, freedom, equality, difference, or protest and their normative content are not limited to one political field or one region of the world - although their meaning may differ fundamentally between social contexts.

The Research and teaching area understands and practices political theory primarily as a critical interpretation science. Theory formation in this context means analyzing the conditions and meaning of political action, determining the meaning of political practice, and condensing the results into a coherent system of statements. The exchange with other social science disciplines as well as jurisprudence is essential for this way of conducting political theory. The focus of research and teaching at the department is contemporary political theory and its foundations in the history of ideas, philosophy and methodology. In addition to questions and problems of democratic and social theory, constitutional theory, and legal and social philosophy, the examination of historical positions that shape contemporary debates in the research field also plays an important role.

The current research interest of the professorship lies primarily in the analysis and critique of social, legal, and political ordering processes in modern democracies. The nexus of law, politics, and order in modern societies is analyzed from the perspective of social, political, and democratic theory - both in terms of the history of ideas and in a systematic perspective, with special emphasis on globalization processes. In particular, the research unit is engaged in determining the significance of political protest in modern democracies, including its normative classification.

Office hours Prof. Christian Volk

Prof. Volk is on sabbatical until March 31, 2024 and will hold office hours only irregularly. In urgent cases, please contact my office (sekretariat.theorie.politik[at]hu-berlin.de).

Prof. Volk will not accept any new supervision tasks (BA, MA theses, dissertations), reports, reviews, letters of recommendation, etc. during his sabbatical. Dr. Jeanette Ehrmann (jeanette.ehrmann[at]hu-berlin.de) is replacing me and is in charge of the research unit "Political Theory" during the winter semester.

You can find further information under Teaching.

Mailing Address

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department of Social Sciences
Chair of Political Theory
Unter den Linden 6
10099 Berlin
Germany

Visiting Address

Universitätsstraße 3b

10117 Berlin

Office

Eugenia Milanov

Room 127

Tel.:    (030) 2093-66630

e-mail: sekretariat.theorie.politik@sowi.hu-berlin.de