Christian Volk
Christian Volk (* 23 September 1979 in Donauwörth) is professor of political theory at the Institute of Social Sciences at Humboldt University Berlin. His thematic focus is on political theory and philosophy, democracy and social theory as well as legal theory and constitutional theory. He conducts research in particular on transformation of the political order (with a special focus on political protest in democratic orders) and the global transformation of society and the state as well as on Hannah Arendt's political thought.
Life and academic career[edit]
After graduating in Donauwörth, Christian Volk studied political science, economics as well as economic and social history at the RWTH Aachen from 1999 to 2004.[1] Research stays at Yale University and the New School for Social Research followed, where he was supervised in particular by Seyla Benhabib and Andrew Arato. Volk received his doctorate (summa cum laude) in 2010 (disputation February 2009) from RWTH Aachen University with a thesis on the concept of law in Hannah Arendt supervised by Helmut König. The thesis was awarded a prize in October 2013 as an outstanding work in the humanities and social sciences as part of the Humanities International programme. From 2011-2015 Volk led the DFG research project "The Concept of Sovereignty in the Transnational Constellation". In 2018 Volk received an ERC Starting Grant entitled for his project "Protest and Order. Democratic Theory, Contentious Politics, and the Changing Shape of Western Democracies" which is concerned with the role and significance of protest in the changing shape of democracy. In the years that followed, Volk held a number of international teaching and research positions and visiting professorships, for example at the WZB, EUC (Venice/Italy), Radzyner Law School (Israel), Hannah Arendt Center (Bard College/ USA), University of Colorado (Boulder/USA). In 2012, Volk was appointed junior professor of political theory at the University of Trier. In 2015, he received a call to the Free University Berlin and moved to the Department of Politics and Law at the Otto Suhr Institute for Political Science in August 2016. Volk worked there as a professor until 2020, before succeeding Herfried Münkler at the Institute for Social Sciences at Humboldt University Berlin. Since August 2020, he has been Professor of Theory of Politics there.
Main research areas[edit]
Christian Volk understands and practices political theory primarily as a critical science of interpretation. In this context, theorising means analysing the context of conditions and meaning of political action, determining the meanings of political practice and conceptually condensing the results in a coherent system of statements.[2]
1st research focus: Political protest and the transformation of democracy[edit]
Christian Volk's research focuses on the analysis and critique of the social, legal and political processes of order in modern democracies, and in particular on the definition of the meaning and normative classification of political protest. In his publications, Volk explores the question of how the democratic order influences the formation of political protest, how and in what way protest challenges the democratic order and to what extent this results in opportunities for the further development of democracy - or risks.
2nd research focus: Global order-forming processes and their critique[edit]
Another research focus is in the field of international political theory and deals with the phenomenon of order formation and its critique against the background of the diverse processes of dissolution of boundaries, integration and differentiation of social, economic, legal, cultural and political coexistence, which are commonly associated with the term "globalisation". Together with Thorsten Thiel, he edits the series 'International Political Theory' at the publishing house "Nomos".
3rd research focus: The political thought of Hannah Arendt[edit]
Volk has worked intensively on Hannah Arendt's thought for many years and has published several books. He is regarded worldwide as an expert on Hannah Arendt's thought. His work on the role, function and significance of law in Hannah Arendt's thought is particularly well known. Volk argues that the question of law is a core question of Arendt's thought. Law opens up the space of possibility in which political interaction can be realised. This analytical perspective made Arendt's thinking compatible with important questions of legal philosophy and constitutional theory and attracted great international attention. Seyla Benhabib, professor at Yale University, praised Volk as "one of the most original and penetrating Arendt interpreters of his generation", who in this book “[…] addresses some of the most misunderstood aspects of Arendtian thought – namely, her views of law and constitutionalism" and thus provides a new view of Arendt.[3] In his 2005 book "Judging in Dark Times", he subjects Hannah Arendt's "Eichmann in Jerusalem", one of the most controversial books of the second half of the 20th century, to an in-depth analysis. The focus of his consideration is the connection between the thesis of the banality of evil, which Arendt explains in her trial report, and the structure of modernity.[4]
Writings (selection)[edit]
Monographs[edit]
- Arendtian Constitutionalism. Law, Politics, and the Order of Freedom, Bloomsbury Publishers, Oxford 2015, ISBN 978-1849465847.
- The Order of Freedom. Law and Politics in the Thought of Hannah Arendt, Nomos Verlag, Baden-Baden 2010, ISBN 978-3-8329-5058-3.
- Judging in Dark Times. A New Reading of Hannah Arendt's "Banality of Evil"', Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 978-3-936872-54-5.
Articles[edit]
- The Problem of Sovereignty in Globalized Times. In: Law, Culture and the Humanities, online first 2019, S. 1-23.
- On a radical democratic theory of political protest: potentials and shortcomings. In: Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, online first 2018, S. 1-23.
- Enacting a parallel world: Political protest against the transnational constellation. In: Journal of International Political Theory, online first 2018, S. 1-19.
- Towards a Critical Theory of the Political. In: Philosophy and Social Criticism, 42 (6) 2016, S. 549-575.
- [Hannah Arendt and the Constitutional Theorem of De-Hierarchization. Origins, Consequences, Meaning Hannah Arendt and the constitutional theorem of de-hierarchization. Origins, Consequences, Meaning. In: Constellations], 22 (2) 2015, S. 175–187.
- Why Global Constitutionalism does not live up to its promises. In: Goettingen Journal of International Law, 4 (2) 2012, S. 551–573.
- From nomos to lex. Hannah Arendt on Law, Politics, and Order”. In: Leiden Journal of International Law, 23 (4) 2010, S. 759–779.
- Stalinism, Memory and Commemoration. Russia’s dealing with the past. In: New School Psychology Bulletin, Special Issue on Memory, 6 (2) 2009, S. 50-58.
References[edit]
- ↑ Curriculum Vitae Christian Volk The following information in this section was also taken from this curriculum vitae.
- ↑ [1] The following information on the research focus was also taken from the homepage of the "Theory of Politics" department, unless cited otherwise.
- ↑ "Arendtian Constitutionalism. Law, Politics and the Order of Freedom – Hart Publishing".
- ↑ "Urteilen in dunklen Zeiten - Lukas Verlag für Kunst- und Geistesgeschichte". www.lukasverlag.com.
External links[edit]
Homepage of the “theory of politics” department of the Humboldt University Berlin
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