Category: Articles

An interesting article by Professor Massimo Raveri, Cà Foscari University of Venice, about identity: Every culture forms a complex, always dynamic, system, which lives on a deep tension between phases of opening and closure to other cultures. On the one hand, there are phases of coherence, where symbolic and regulatory structures tend to agree with foundational choices and traditional values. On the other hand, there are phases of transformation and divergence from the views of the past. On the one side, this is due to those endogenous factors - such as the generational turnover, the economic dynamics of redistribution of wealth, the mobility of the social power -  which generate new ideas and different values. On the other side, there are exogenous factors – such as immigration, or colonial rule…

Here we have an interview by Felix Petzold, Chair of Didactics of History at University of Augsburg, about prejudices and stereotypes in religion: Mr. Petzold, are religion-related stereotypes a contemporary problem? No, religion-related stereotyping is far from a sole contemporary phenomenon. Stereotypes, as they appear today, have mostly grown historically. Humanity uses stereotyping throughout its existence in order to 'navigate' in a confusing and complex world. This process is thus a simplyfing strategy. But that’s not all. By stabilizing the results outwards and inwards on both an individual and collective level, stereotypes accomplish the formation and stabilization of identity through the construction of alterity. This describes one of their essential functions then and now. They are (hi)story educators. How do you approach stereotypes from your perspective as a specialis, including…