Our awareness of the degree to which the environment influences the development of human societies and their cultures has grown continually. At the same time, it has become evident that the environment is a product of human development. Therefore, in order to grasp the dynamic processes of change, a more thorough understanding of the complex interrelatedness of society, culture and environment is essential. . Furthermore, none of these three aspects should be examined in isolation from the other two.
The Graduate School “Human Development in Landscapes” is dedicated to an unprecedented interdisciplinary approach towards the study of this topic. Physicists, biologists and medical researchers work alongside archaeologists; experts in ancient history and literature work with geologists and climate researchers; historians work with geographers and materials scientists. At its core the project consists of experts from the humanities and natural sciences who focus jointly on the phenomenon of landscape in order to achieve an understanding of human development. In this complex process, culture and nature are not seen as mutually opposed, but instead as intrinsically interwoven elements which have driven the development of human societies. One focus lies on ancient societies, as their development, having long reached completion, offers many models for study. In the future, this research will enjoy additional support from an education and research centre: the Johanna Mestorf Centre for Landscape Archaeology and Socio-Environmental Research.
The research of “Societal, Environmental and Cultural Change” has a special cultural focus. Historians, philologists, musicologists and art historians, for example, are investigating the role of llanguage in societal processes—the modes of generating and transmitting knowledge and how these might lead to societal change. Finally, economists and sociologists, together with philosophers and legal scholars, are investigating the momentum of justice in a globalized world, in which many boundaries seem to have fallen.