Riccardo Prandini
My experience at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften

This following is a brief account of my experience at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften interpreted using the AGIL frame of reference devised by sociologist Talcott Parsons in the 1950s.

(A) Adaptation.
I reached Bad Homburg after a quick and pleasant trip from Frankfurt airport in the first week of July 2009 and sadly left the Kolleg in the first week of August. I think I was among the Kolleg’s first fellows and so I was testing it just as it was testing me. Since both I and the Kolleg emerged in very good shape, I can confirm that this test was passed on both counts. The Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften is a modern and very well equipped research centre. It offers everything a researcher needs to work effectively and to focus on his personal research goals. The Kolleg is situated in a wonderful location: a large and very well-tended park, where, if you are an early riser (as I am) you may well have the good fortune to meet fawns and other animals on morning walks. The building is a perfect mix of modern and traditional architecture (the villa), with individual offices, comfortable rooms where you can entertain guests (there is a piano too, should anybody want to emulate Frank Sinatra), and a nice dining room with an well designed kitchen, where you can always find hot coffee and good German wine. The offices are very well equipped with a personal computer loaded with every kind of software you might need, a printer, a telephone, a personal mail-box, and so on and so forth. For example, I needed a Skype connection to be able to talk with my family and colleagues in Italy and was immediately supplied with one by the Kolleg’s IT expert. The library offers a service for obtaining literature not held by the Kolleg itself. If you want to organize a seminar or a meeting, help is provided by the Kolleg’s personnel. There is an amazing conference room that is extremely well equipped for seminars as well as a number of smaller common rooms, meeting rooms and lounges. You can reach Frankfurt, with its universities and well-known research centres, by train in twenty minutes: it is like taking the underground in a big city to reach your workplace.

(G) Goal Attainment.
My name is Riccardo Prandini. I am an Italian sociologist and work in the Department of Sociology at the University of Bologna (Italy). I work on the morphogenesis of the welfare state, on the transformation of intimacy and family life and, more broadly, on theoretical issues. I was invited to the Kolleg in Bad Homburg by Professor Gunther Teubner (Goethe University, Frankfurt) to develop with him the concept of the constitutionalisation of the civil social sphere in a globalizing society. The invitation was connected with the Cluster of Excellence located at the Goethe University of Frankfurt focusing on “The Formation of Normative Orders,” with particular reference to Research Area 4: “The Formation of Legal Norms between Nations” (Project 2: “Societal Constitutionalism in the World Society”). Let me thank once again Professor Teubner for giving me the opportunity to spend a month at the Kolleg, to meet with a range of distinguished scholars from Germany and abroad, and to spend time studying and writing in the nicest possible atmosphere. We held many seminars in Frankfurt and at the Kolleg elaborating and improving with other scholars the idea of the auto-constitutionalisation of the world society. I am extremely grateful to have had the chance to meet Professor Simitis, the Kolleg’s director, the staff of the directorate, and many other extremely clever people. I am currently working further on the concept of auto-constitutionalisation and will be editing a publication involving Professor Teubner and other scholars I met while in Bad Homburg that will appear in Italian and English.

(I) Integration.
I spent a wonderful time in Bad Homburg. German people are very nice and easy-going, and the little spa town itself is a special “dream”. During my first days there I wondered whether I had somehow walked into a movie called “The Perfect Town” and I was scared to experience a bad ending. Fortunately, with my family joining me for my last week there, there was a happy ending. The spa is beautiful (I suggest you try it). The town offers all kinds of things to make your stay a pleasure: a tennis court, an amazing park (one of the oldest in Germany), good shopping, a wonderful forest where you can get lost while jogging (as I did the first time, finding myself some miles outside Bad Homburg and doing a good bit of extra exercise!). If you like to cook for yourself as I do (I am an Italian, after all!), you will find small shops and larger supermarkets. The natural surrounding is very relaxing and the town exudes a sense of (socio-economic) well-being. The apartments in the guesthouse are very comfortable, with everything you need to have good time. During the last week I was joined by my wife and two children and I was able to put the largest apartment to the test of hosting my oldest son (12 years old), who was keen to test out his new soccer equipment, of the three-striped, German kind.

(L) Latency-Identity maintenance.
The people responsible for running the Kolleg are extremely warm and welcoming. I would particularly like to thank: Ms. Ingrid Rudolph, the managing director, who was extremely hospitable and did her best to make me feel at home by speaking to me in Italian; Ms. Beate Sutterlüty, who helped me in every way possible, including with a map for my jogging (I accept complete responsibility for getting lost, Beate); Mr. Bernd Frye for sharing an astonishing blackout in the guest house with me and my family; and Mr. Andreas Reichhardt, who assisted me in all technological matters. These people were a family to me, and I will continue to keep everyone in my heart. Last but not least I would like once again to thank Professor Teubner―Gunther to me―and his wonderful Italian wife Enrica for enriching my stay and for the wonderful weekend we spent together. I hope very much to one day come back to the Kolleg for another sejour d’etude. Long life to the Kolleg! Cheers!

(FKH – 20.12.2009)