Popular Culture

populaeresl

Festivals, amusement parks, parades, scenes, (pop) music, various media, their production and reception, the culture industry, entertainment and entertainment - these are all subjects and topics of cultural anthropological popular culture research.

In Freiburg, we explore popular culture as an important part of everyday culture, understand popular culture as a tactical instrument (such as when people protest against something), as a mode of leisure activities (such as the Sunday crime scene) or as a medium of staging and producing identities and social collectives (such as in the Gothic scene).

We work closely together with the Freiburg Center for Popular Culture and Music (ZPKM).

The institute is currently establishing with the habilitation project of Dr. med. Fatma Sagir on the negotiation of Muslim identities in the context of digital media and lifestyle events, a new focus on popular cultures in Islam. The aim is to use ethnographic methods based on cultural studies to understand how Popular Culture is also used as a tool to gain the power to act and to negotiate allegedly traditional culture by young Muslims and beyond. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of digital culture as well as on the media infrastructures that provide new space for possibilities (such as the creation of visibility or in the form of interactive negotiation).

Research:

Doctoral and third-party funded project "Doing Popular Culture"
Postdoctoral and third-party funded project "Having an affair with the Imam!"
Third-party project "How to be a Stuffed Animal"
Collection and research project "Folklore Europaea"

Publications

Tauschek, Markus: Hybridization, Sensuality and Performance. The Wave Gothic Meeting in Leipzig. In: Betz, Gregor J. et al. (Ed.): Hybrid Events. For the discussion of zeitgeistiger events. Wiesbaden 2017: 267-281.
Tauschek, Markus: Customs and Politics - Customs Policy. A cultural anthropological sketch for the instrumentalization of the fifth season. In: H.-W. Retterath (ed.): Rewind. Werner Mezger on his 65th birthday. Freiburg 2016: 133-140.
Sieferle, Barbara: A plastic dog pile as a joke article. From disgust to laughter, in: bricolage. Innsbruck Journal of European Ethnology 8 (2015): 151-163.
Tauschek, Markus: Heritage. An introduction. Berlin 2013.
Tauschek, Markus: "Casting mania" - To establish a competitive self between entertainment and performance ideology. In: B. Christoph; K. Maase; M. Nast (eds.) Cultures of popular entertainment and entertainment. Würzburg 2013: 183-195.
Matthias Möller: The audience was wonderful again today .... Media usage and everyday reference. In: Kaspar Maase et al. (Hg.): Predicate worthless. The long fight over dirt and trash. Tübingen (Tübingen Association for Folklore) 2001, p. 88-98.

Courses

Lecture Series on the theme of fairy tales | Prof. Dr. Markus Tauschek | Summer 2017
Post, share, comment. Ethnographic Approaches to the Use of Social Media | Sarah May M.A. | Winter 2016/17
User generated contents as sources of information - problems of collaborative knowledge production | Prof. Dr. Werner Mezger | Winter 2016/17
Waiting. To deal with "untimely". Research-oriented study project | Dr. Florian von Dobeneck | Summer 2016 to Winter 2016/17
Punks, Gothics, Skaters - Forms of Youthful Communitization | Prof. Dr. Markus Tauschek | Winter 2015/16
WS 2015/16 From Transistor Radio to Smartphone - Media Usage in Mobile Everyday Life | Dr. Matthias Moeller | Winter 2015/16

* This listing is an exemplary overview. A complete overview of courses and publications can be found on the personal pages of the staff of the institute.