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Mid-Range Concepts—The Lego Bricks of Meaning-Making: An Example from Khorezm, Uzbekistan

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Area Studies at the Crossroads

Abstract

Drawing on the intricate pattern of boundary negotiations in Uzbekistan’s water management (Hornidge et al. Natural Resources Forum 35(4); 251–268, 2013) as an example of first-level abstraction in local governance research, this chapter illustrates how such first-level abstractions—grasped and objectified as mid-range concepts—can act as entry points for understanding (in line with Max Weber) local society in the interconnectedness of meaning and being (as stressed by Karl Mannheim). Just like Lego bricks, these first-level abstractions act as building blocks of sense- and meaning-making and, thus, of the ontologies and epistemologies we/society lives in and that guide processes of social differentiation (inherent to any existing form of governance) through the ever continuing processes of boundary-making, -weakening and -renegotiating. To enable Area Studies students to identify first-level abstractions, instead of getting lost in the increasing empirical complexities of a mobile world, it is pertinent to systematically strengthen critical social theory in Area Studies teaching.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Anna-Katharina Hornidge

  2. Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen, Germany

    Anna-Katharina Hornidge

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  1. Anna-Katharina Hornidge
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC), Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Katja Mielke

  2. Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine, Research (ZMT) & University of Bremen Institute of Sociology, Bremen, Germany

    Anna-Katharina Hornidge

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Hornidge, AK. (2017). Mid-Range Concepts—The Lego Bricks of Meaning-Making: An Example from Khorezm, Uzbekistan. In: Mielke, K., Hornidge, AK. (eds) Area Studies at the Crossroads. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59834-9_12

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