1) The project of a time laboratory

2) The postmodern reasons for a systemic crisis

3) The meta-principle of disambiguation

4) Activities in research and teaching

5) Perspectives for a super-civilization

1) The project of a time laboratory

During the course of the 20. century, time became the prominent subject of both the humanities and natural sciences. Relevant keywords were the increase in speed of social change, stress caused by change for individuals (as well as families, the workplace and even leisure), and Einstein’s relativity of space and time.

The world of the 21. century mobilizes both culturally and technologically and permanently works on new experiences and challenges: E.g., thanks to technology, we can be present in different places at the same time, but this results in increased challenges for our identity; who am I, if I can also be someone else, someplace else? The same applies to the cultural aspects of the globally increasing streams of migration. The world has come apart at the seams. A global order appears lost. Or have we only lost our own presuppositions and explanations that belonged to the old world?

The creation of this institute is an answer to the new challenges of mobility in life and thought. In a laboratory setting, it closely examines today’s time and its phenomena.

2) The postmodern reasons for a systemic crisis

At least since the financial crisis of 2008, it is obvious: The "Let’s just move on" attitude of modern society no longer works. Die "old world" is entrapped in an epidemy of crises: When Lehman Brothers collapsed, a banking crisis triggered a financial crisis, which turned out to be an economic crisis, which then became a political crisis and landed as a social crisis on all our doorsteps – open-ended. Almost all problems of today are inter-connected. Therefore, the solutions must be inter-connected, too. We are making a mistake, if we continue to assume that society goes through an adjustment crisis which would eventually lead to a better distribution of the remaining goods. We cannot optimize ourselves without optimizing our understanding of that crisis. What we are dealing with

is a systemic crisis. Society currently re-invents itself, and this "new world" can only be reached by a "flight through the clouds". We see this by looking at the various systemic failures in different areas of modern society: The economy, more specifically: the financial economy destroys itself. Politics, in an attempt to save whatever can be saved, almost disposes of itself and rather hands the baton back to the central banks. Our educational system, as well, moves from one orientation crisis to the next. This is euphemistically called "reform-friendly". Modern society is not designed to experience systemic failures – and that is today’s exact problem, because we are confronted with an entirely new, postmodern situation.

What are the hallmarks of this situation? On our "flight through the clouds", where can we see postmodern outlines or obstacles in our everyday lives? And how shall we even begin to look for them? Science says: "Look inter-disciplinary"; global society says: "Look internationally". Finally: What does it mean to think, act, and organize in a postmodern world – in short: What does it mean to live in a postmodern world?

3) The meta-principle of disambiguation

How can we act and think today without parting with the past and its explanations (and categories)? All who want to live in the "new world" have to master this art of contemporization, both individuals and organizations.

In the ‘Time-Lab’, this art of contemporization becomes the intellectual meta-principle of disambiguation. To use established explanation models only with caution, if at all, leads to the elimination of potential ambiguity: Phenomenon and perception no longer stem from different time contexts. When they did, findings could only be ambiguous, which in turn only increased analytical problems. That approach utilized "old world" methods, trying to explain "new world" phenomena. Did this bring us closer to the truth, or just the opposite: Could we only look into the other world without ever reaching it?

4) Activities in research and teaching

The ‘Time-Lab’ is an institute for research and teaching. Its orientation is international and inter-disciplinary, both in research and in teaching.

The institute offers seminars and conferences. To that end, it invites scientists from at home and abroad. Scientists can also apply for a research stay of up to one year as a Fellow. Target audiences for teaching are international organizations and corporations, as well as reflection groups within and outside of the scientific community.

In the area of research, the institute produces a bi-monthly blog about a currently relevant topic – both from a European and non-European perspective. In addition, the

institute will produce articles in journals and individual publications. These aim at new methods, detailed studies and singular perspectives on a new societization.

5) Perspectives for a super-civilization

"Modern civilization is destined to spread indefinitely" – thus is was said at its inception in the 19. century. This unshakeable faith in progress has since been shaken, if not broken. Utopian ideas are used up, and even religion has become acceptable again! Modernism successfully abolishes itself and makes room for transitional structures that lead to a "new world".

Postdemocracy, late capitalism, postmodernism or postsocial are some relevant keywords. But their forward-looking force always (even linguistically) draws on the context of the modernism which they seek to overcome. They claim to be alternatives, when the question of alternatives itself is still under discussion. E.g., newspapers today not only compete for market segments with other newspapers, but with TV stations, and even with the Internet. Art becomes more capitalistic, and the economy more emotional. We are witnessing a general hybridization: a new competition of all with all.

But to what end? To answer that question, we have to look beyond the horizon of modern civilization and build the perspectives of a super-civilization. This term describes a heuristic pattern for the focused interpretation of a currently uniforming development towards a metaculture: The world in which we live becomes increasingly urban and technological (after the computers, robots are entering our homes, high-tech implants our bodies, and the Internet 2.0 our consciousness). Interpersonal contacts become increasingly professionalized. Respective behavior has to follow rules and leads to emotional distance.

Since the control of emotions is a task of every civilization, we are - in the middle of a crisis - at the beginning of a super-civilization, which (along with a new societization) produces and uses new media to exercise that control. The "social media" have positioned themselves successfully towards that end. Tourism, religion, and a new "economy of experience" already claim their stakes. Thus, the goal must be to search for ways of life and for expressions of this process of civilization that will provide today’s orientation seekers with opportunities for shaping the future beyond the systemic crisis of modern society.