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Security, Order, Conflict

Learning from history: Political upheavals and social conflicts do not arise by chance. Their causes reach far back into the past. Researching the historical roots of developments is important for understanding current events and shaping the future.

At Philipps-Universität, the topics of security, order, conflict form an interdisciplinary focus in research in the humanities and social sciences. Marburg research teams are investigating political and social orders, inequality, the consequences of climate change, the staging of religious atmospheres in ancient cultures, the upheavals in the Arab world and social designs for the future of this region.

How the striving for security and dealing with insecurity have determined political action since antiquity is the topic of a research network in cooperation with the Justus Liebig University in Giessen. Among other things, the Marburg conflict researchers are looking at how violent conflicts arise, what dynamics they develop and how they continue to affect societies in the long term. An important field of research in this context is transitional justice - the legal processing and efforts towards social reconciliation after the end of tyranny and wars.