The Interdisciplinary Summer School on Crisis Analysis brought together a diverse group of students, early-career researchers, and tutors to explore the meaning, structure, and analysis of crises in contemporary society. Organized at the University of Bonn and held from May 14 to 16, 2025, the Summer School provided a unique platform for collaborative learning, critical inquiry, and methodological training across disciplinary boundaries.

The overarching goal of the Summer School was to develop a clearer, more operational understanding of what constitutes a “crisis.” Participants were encouraged to critically reflect on semantic, intellectual, political, and economic dimensions of crises, comparing German and French perspectives without resorting to simplistic culturalist or constructivist explanations.

The organizers are convinced that especially the French sociological tradition provides analytical tools today that go beyond our personal experience as everyday actors affected by multiple crises. In particular, the theories of Émile Durkheim and Pierre Bourdieu will be introduced. These theories not only offer valuable historical insights into crises, but also allow us to analyze current societal challenges and develop potential solutions.

Led by: Werner Gephart (Bonn) / Gisèle Sapiro (Paris) / Paul Lagneau-Ymonet (Paris) / Jörg Blasius (Bonn) / Daria Vystavkina (Bonn-Cologne-Odessa)

Organized by: Jure Leko (Bonn)

On the opening day, before we dove deep into the theories, we invited our Pariticipants to reflect on their expectations and to engage with the core questions guiding the programme: What is a crisis? How are crises perceived, constructed, and analyzed across various domains?

Following these thoughts the semantics of the term and its different typologies of classical authors were introduced, to set the stage for a shared vocubulary and a understanding what could be defined as crisis. Building on this, Werner Gephart turned to the sociological insights of Émile Durkheim. His theories provided a lens for understanding crises as disruptions to social cohesion and normative orders. Participants explored how crises reveal the underlying structures of collective life and trigger processes of reconfiguration or reinforcement. 

The second day focused on deepening the theoretical understanding on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and how to apply it to concrete cases. After an introduction to his core concepts—field, habitus, and capital—and how these can be used to understand the dynamics of crisis, Gisèle Sapiro demonstrated its application by a case study on the French literary field during the German occupation (1940–1944). She examined how writers and intellectuals navigated conditions of constraint, drawing on Bourdieu’s framework to understand their strategies and positioning. This case illuminated how crises unfold within structured fields and how actors respond to sudden shifts in power and legitimacy. 

The afternoon continued with further exploration of Bourdieu’s theory, this time considering its general applicability to crisis analysis. These inputs by Paul Lagneau-Ymonet were intended to synthesize theoretical and methodological insights and to serve as practical resources. A Q&A session followed, allowing the participants to present their approaches and express specific theoretical or methodological questions in regard to their own Research.

The concluding session was a creative approach on the representation and emotional processing of crisis by Daria Vystavkina. Using the documentary theatre piece Voices as a focal point, she showcased how crisis can be analyzed not only through academic discourse but also through performative and artistic means. This broadened the scope of the programme and emphasized the value of creative engagement.

The final day of the Summer School shifted the focus to quantitative methods of crisis analysis. Jörg Blasius began with an overview of quantitative and qualitative tools relevant to crisis research and showed, how they can be implemented with regard to Bourdiues theoretical framework. Subsequently, Participants discussed how to align methods with their research questions and contexts, and how to navigate the complexities of combining different approaches.

This was followed by a critical session on early warning systems. Participants explored both the promises and limitations of such tools, particularly the risk of instrumentalizing or staging crises for political or strategic purposes. The discussion emphasized the importance of reflexivity and caution when dealing with predictive frameworks.

The Summer School ended with a final roundtable discussion, what further research strategies of crisis analysis might entail, including theoretical, methodological, practical and political questions. The importance of interdisciplinary cooperation and the and the perception/ construction of urgent relevance of crisis research were central themes.

Conclusion

During the Summer School we provided our Participants with a conceptucal clarification of "crisis", successfully combined theoretical depth, methodological training, and creative experimentation. It created a space for cross-disciplinary dialogue and collaboration, offering participants a robust foundation for future work in crisis analysis. The event concluded with a shared commitment to continuing this work and a strong consensus on the need for dedicated academic programmes in the field.