Nach nunmehr eineinhalb Jahren erscheint es uns als inhaltlich Verantwortlichen für das E-Journal sinnvoll, eine Bilanz der bislang veröffentlichten Beiträge zu ziehen. Die Vielfalt und Qualität der uns erreichenden und nach Peer Review veröffentlichten Beiträge bestärkt uns in der Ansicht, grundsätzlich den richtigen Weg zu verfolgen. Bei der Gründung des E-Journals im Sommer 2009 war nicht absehbar, ob und wie die diskutierende virtuelle Community auf einen so offenstehenden Begriff wie ‘Spaces’ in Verbindung mit dem Hinweis auf sozialkonstruktivistische erkenntnisleitende Interessen reagieren würde. Uns hat die Breite der eingehenden Beiträge überrascht. Sie reichen von konkreten historischen Analysen über Fallstudien zu ‘Räumen’ bis zu theoretischen Überlegungen und umfassen vom Tagungsbericht über den Nachruf, vom Essay bis zum wissenschaftlichen Aufsatz ganz unterschiedliche Textformate …

In the first part of this paper a short history of Western humanisms (Socrates, Pico della Mirandola, Descartes, Kant) is presented. As far as these humanisms rest on a fixation of the ‘humanum’ they are metaphysical, although they might radically differ from each other. The second part deals with the present debate on trans- and posthumanism in the context of some breath-taking developments in science and technology.
Angeletics, a theory of messengers and messages, intends to give an answer to the leading question of this paper, namely: ‘what does it mean to go beyond humanisms?’ The conclusion exposes briefly an ethics of hospitality and care from an angeletic perspective.

The essay gives a detailed and selective overview over the discussion of transhumanism and posthumanism, taking account of the most influential authors’ impact on the movement. Their most important texts are bound to mark the scientific development of posthumanistic and transhumanistic concepts. Examples taken from literature, film and artistic performance show their impact in public, being both enriched by the scien-tific approach and guiding also the latter.

Even if Durkheim has received wide intercultural acknowledgement as a theoretician of modern sociology, one of his main concepts, the doctrine of collective consciousness, has been severely criticized by Adorno. To the extent, his reading provides evidence of diametrical methodical thinking and of clashing conviction. Nevertheless, there are several arguments which speak in favor of Durkheim: (i) his empirical foundation in connection with the lifelong attempt to provide consciousness a standing on this secondary collective balance; (ii) his awareness of the scaling of representations between distinctive fusion and broader aggregation; (iii) his succinct understanding of their interconnectedness to societal relationships; (iv) his orientation towards non-individualism and polarity. In particular under this aspect one can observe a failure of Adorno himself, merging the dialectical approach with polarity.

This paper describes Migratory Homes, two collaborative projects that investigate the notion of home/land and belonging in conditions of displacement. The fundamental question that Migratory Homes asks is “how can the disparate identities that constitute mixed societies collectively and equally participate in the creation of a common ‘home/land’ that would be co-designed, co-produced, and co-owned”? Through iterative engagements with conditions of everyday materiality, and by activating processes of co-design as research, Migratory Homes attempt to prototype conditions for social change.

The English geographer Sir Halford Mackinder ended his famous 1904 article, “The Geographical Pivot of History,” with a disturbing reference to China. He posited that the Chinese, should they expand their power well beyond their borders, “might constitute the yellow peril to the world’s freedom.” Leaving aside the sentiment’s racism, which was common for the era, nearly a hundred years ago Mackinder’s statement gives us a surprising view of enormous political actuality in geopolitics, which was denied for a couple of decades in Western Europe, especially in Germany.