Wittgenstein-Preis | 2000 | Wittgenstein Award

PROJECTS
EUROPE

RESEARCH ON POST-SOCIALISM
(1) Jelena Tošic | Global Rights and Local Contexts: The Discourse of Human Rights, Democratization and Globalization in Post-socialist Transformations in Serbia and Montenegro.
(2) Andrea Strasser-Camagni | Global Rights and Local Contexts: Human Rights for Women and their Transformation in the Daily Lives of Women in Armenia.
(3) Johanna Riegler | The Transformation of Labor: An East-West Comparison.

GLOBALIZATION, MIGRATION, NATIONALISM AND IDENTITY RESEARCH IN THE EUROPEAN CONTEXT
(4) Susanne Binder | Cross Cultural Learning from the Perspectives of Ethnicity- and Socialization- Research Techniques.

INTERACTIONS BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY, GENDER AND SOCIETY
(5) Eva-Maria Knoll | Techno-Medical Developments in Social and Cultural Contexts.

METHODOLOGICAL CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE
(6) Susanne Binder and Gebhard Fartacek | Alpine Popular Culture, Seen from Outside: The Austrian Musikantenstadl.

SUSANNE BINDER and GEBHARD FARTACEK | FOREIGN VIEWS ON ALPINE POPULAR CULTURE
Alpine Popular Culture, Seen from Outside: The Austrian Musikantenstadl.

Pursuing a research orientation of “now they are examining us”, which was originally developed by the project’s deputy director Johann Heiss, Turkish sociologist Zeynep Baraz and Romanian philosopher of art Madalina Diaconu were invited to examine the new popularity and media success of a televised Alpine folk music program (Musikantenstadl) in Austria from the comparative perspective of cultural studies. The idea for this “perspective from the outside” emerged within the Wittgenstein FSP program and was coordinated by Susanne Binder und Gebhard Fartacek. The project team also consisted of the Viennese economist Wolfgang J. Fellner, an expert in both the media and economic dimensions of folk music and television.

The results of this project demonstrated how the social and economic uncertainties of modernity have contributed to the success of the Musikantenstadl. Social values that appear to be threatened in the present are especially prominent, indeed celebrated, in the Musikantenstadl: Faithfulness, safety and stability; generosity, comfort and security; family, a harmonious private life and traditional gender roles; local ties, obedience and duty.

These social norms are precisely the values of those population groups targeted in the Musikantenstadl. Fans of the “Stadl family” (as anchorman Karl Moik describes it) find both that which is important to them and what seems threatened by the processes of globalization. The motivation to watch a Stadl program on television or to participate in a live broadcast is not completely explained by the impulse to “retreat to a safer world”, however. For many, a Musikantenstadl evening – whether experienced live or on TV – also is a method of dealing with problems. To now and then allow oneself a “time out” in order to enjoy the ritualized program of a Musikantenstadl also might be interpreted as a strategy for stress management and problem-solving in the modern world: “Swinging to and fro helps you to digest many things.”

The corresponding book publication was co-edited by Binder and Fartacek in 2006 with LIT Publishers.

Fartacek, Gebhard und Susanne Binder (ed.) (2006): Alpine Populärkultur im fremden Blick: Sozialanthropologische Untersuchungen zum "Musikantenstadl". Vienna: LIT-Verlag.
-> see publications

Fartacek, Gebhard (ed.) (2005): „... so scheen war’s!“ Skizze einer Anatomie des Musikanten-Stadls aus sozialanthropologischer und ökonomischer Perspektive. Online Working Paper of the Kommission für Social Anthropology Unit of the AAS. Volume 13. -> Link (PDF/German)

-> Press Review (in German)

-> Folder about this project (PDF / in German)

	Wittgenstein-Preis 2000 Kommission für Sozialanthropologie Schwindgasse 14/6 A-1040 Wien Tel.: 0043/1/515 81 - 6677 Fax: 0043/1/503 68 73 - 6680 wittgenstein2000@oeaw.ac.at Notice: We want to inform you that the research program will come to an end on the 31st of March 2007. Since that time this homepage will not be updated anymore.