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Dr. Jochen Gimmel

Second funding period:
Postdoc (01/2017-12/2021)
in sub-project G3
Decreeing Work, Regulating Leisure – and Otium? Marxism and dosug in Soviet Culture

First funding period:
Postdoc (1/2013-12/2016)
in sub-project A3
The Societal and Ethical Relevance of the Concept of Muße / Leisure

ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7638-8687 ORCID Logo klein


Postdoc project (2017-2020)

The philosophical research project Decreeing Work, Regulating Leisure – and Otium? Marxism and dosug in Soviet Culture was part of the larger Sub-Project G3 and traced the concept of otium in the work of Karl Marx and its (early) socialist and (young) Hegelian context. In close interdisciplinary cooperation with the department of Slavic studies, this project set out out to engage in a critical discussion of the impact and reception of otium motifs in the theoretical self-understanding of 19th and early 20th century Russia and the Soviet Union. The aim was to develop otium as a research object on a conceptual level and establish a specific methodological-epistemic approach to this end. This directly built on the research I conducted during the first funding phase (sub-project A3). Demonstrating the relationship of otium as a concept to time and action theory, praxeology as well as questions of political philosophy (economics, theory of sovereignty, ideas of justice, etc.) is an indispensable and integral component of this research and offers a significant contribution to the common understanding and internal dialogue of the CRC as a whole.


Postdoc project (2013-2016)

This research was primarly interested in exploring the concept of otium with regard to its critical potential in the modern world.The main objective was to retrace and critically discuss changes in the connotation and meaning of otium as a concept throughout the history of ideas, specifically its decreasing (theoretical) significance in modern, achievement-oriented societies. To this effect, this project systematically contrasted modern and classical conceptions of otium, examining the conceptual proximity of the 'primacy of practice' (Kant), the notion of work as self-realisation (Hegel) and the postulate of a revolutionary-practical philosophy (Marx). From here, it was possible to investigate ‚leisure‘ as a key concept in the relationship between theory and practice as well as identify its relevance as a desideratum or utopia of modern self-understanding. Otium as a latent dimension in modern discourse and theory was further explicated through a close reading of the works of Th. W. Adorno, H. Arendt, E. Levinas, P. Lafargue, among others.


Publications relevant to the project

Search for publications in the CRC's bibliography