Project: Belonging to the Outsider and Established Groupings: Palestinians and Israelis in Various Figurations

Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Gabriele Rosenthal, Prof. Shifra Sagy & Prof. Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi
Funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
Duration of the Project: 01 February 2010 – 31 October 2015
Between 2006 and 2009, a pilot study was conducted and partly financed by the state of Lower Saxony and the German Research Foundation


The project ‘Belonging to the Outsider and Established Groupings: Palestinians and Israelis in Various Figurations’ will be launched in February 2010 at the Center of Methods in Social Sciences at the University of Goettingen. It is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and located within the Program for Trilateral German-Israeli-Palestinian Cooperation. Responsible investigator of the project is Prof. Dr. Gabriele Rosenthal, Professor at the Faculty of Social Science at the Georg-August-University of Goettingen. Further principal investigators are Prof. Shifra Sagy, head of the graduate program of Conflict Resolution Studies and Professor at the Department of Education at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel, and Professor Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, Director and Professor at the Institute for American Studies at Al Quds University, Al-Bireh, Palestine. Further researchers are: Dr. Adi Mana, Anan Srour, M.A., Serene Mjally-Knani, Dr. Nicole Witte, Dr. Rixta Wundrak, Arne Worm, M.A., Hendrik Hinrichsen, M.A. and Johannes Becker M.A.MA.

The research group will study present-day social constellations and the dynamics of interaction between members of different social groupings, which are mutually dependent on each other. We will pursue the question, if and in which way the situation of a numerical majority corresponds with the constitution of an established-outsider figuration. In other words, if and in which way numerical minorities also form an outsider-grouping in the sense of Norbert Elias. We will observe figurations of outsider and established and, respectively, of (local) majorities and minorities in Israel and in the Palestinian territories. The study will focus on the perspectives and experiences of Palestinians as members of different groupings and (local) group constellations (Arab and Jewish Israelis; Muslim-Arabs or Christian-Arabs in current local contexts of a Muslim, Christian or Jewish majority in Israel; Muslim and Christian Palestinians and Jews in the Palestinian Authority).


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