Philosophy

The series of publications entitled “Freiburger Schriften zur Finanzwissenschaft und Wirtschaftspolitik” (“Freiburg Publications on Finance and Economic Policy”) publishes papers from the pre-eminent fields of economics research, which are also rich in tradition, at the University of Freiburg. The array of subjects which these analyses address ranges from the pension system and employment policy, education policy, demography, European and international governance, fiscal sustainability, federalism, healthcare policy, real estate economics, migration, tax and performance-based competition, the causes and effects of transnational conflicts, violence, crime, terror and corruption to behavioural economics and satisfaction research. These studies approach problems from both a theoretical perspective as well as using a selection of econometric, experimental or qualitative research methods. What links them is that they all address both political and social as well as topical academic issues. Their authors’ common, overarching goal is to provide well-founded recommendations on using their findings in politico-economic consulting and to help implement them.

The series focuses on the activities, concepts and debates related to ‘politics’, as well as on the relationship between these aspects. The research published in the series will consist of studies of politics, both in the disciplinary sense and beyond it. It is recognised that politics can be the object of study within a wide spectrum of academic fields, and the plurality of disciplinary backgrounds of the books published would be an asset for the series. The series welcomes a number of different approaches in and perspectives on studying politics. Their range reaches, for example, from history of concepts via political theory and intellectual history to political rhetoric and comparative politics. Contributions that fruitfully cross or combine strict disciplinary and sub-disciplinary genres are of particular interest. The series hence welcomes for example studies on the actions and speeches of politicians, the analysis of parliamentary, public and academic debates. Above all we want to cross the line between political theories and political practices. In this aim we follow Quentin Skinner’s thesis that “political life itself sets the problems for political theorists”. Both monographs and anthologies are welcome.

Talk of the knowledge society is now almost universally accepted as a representation of social reality. Socially relevant actors have to adjust to it and (learn) to deal with it on a daily basis. However, academic reflections on this situation should not only state how strongly contemporary society depends on knowledge. They must also ask what is known about this knowledge itself and about society’s dependence on it. The question of knowledge in the knowledge society thus leads to the question of the opportunities and limits of the knowable, the intertwining of knowledge and non-knowledge with various forms of social logic, and an increase in knowledge conflicts. In this regard, the editors of this series want to offer an interdisciplinary discussion forum on this subject.