4 Mobilität erfassen: Auswertung der Umfrage 2011

Abstract

Part 4 presents results of the 2011 survey conducted among the subprojects of the Collaborative Research Centre. The responses were originally supposed to deliver crucial input for the working group's further approach towards 'mobility'. However, admitting the limited significance of the survey results, the working group started to draw on the ultimate strength of the entire Research Centre: the great number of individual case studies on mobile (nomadic) communities. Hence, part 4.1 deals with a historical case study on the temporal migration of the actually sedentary Germanic tribes (375-568) during their encroachment into the Roman Empire. The author Thomas Brüggemann points to the multiple causes of Germanic mobility and describes how the Germanic peoples adapted to the mobile way of life by employing specific nomadic techniques and practices. In contrast, the empirical case study (4.2) on the caterpillar fungus economy in eastern Tibetan areas (Qinghai Province, China) by Janka Linke seeks to combine the concepts of 'social' and 'spatial' mobility by linking specific notions of markets and resources. The contrasting case studies allow insights into the different methodological and conceptual approaches of empirical and historical research respectively.