The Leibniz research association "Values of the Past" examines the value of the past for societies in history and in the present. 

It aims to pay attention to the cultural and material dimensions of practices of valorising in all their complexity and their historical context. In doing so, it seeks to gain an understanding of past and current practices of assessing, rethinking, raising, decreasing and harnessing the value of the past, and of their underlying lifeworlds and horizons of validity, in all their complexity. 

With the analysis of value horizons as well as processes of value creation and competing values in history we contribute to a deeper and scientifically reflected understanding of the past as a ressource.

We will research the "Value of the past" in different areas of knowledge, fields of science and of application. In inter- and transdisiplinary approaches, the research alliance asks, for example, what significance historical knowledge has for processes of globalization, peace and conflict research, for urban and regional planning, for processes of structural change, and for the description and analysis of climate change and biodiversity loss. In doing so, the alliance examines the relevance of hisotry for the self-understanding of societies and for the justification of political action. 

The alliance postulates that particularly in times of political upheavals and crises, processes of negotiating the value of the past play a crucial role. Multi-perspective and reflexive knowledge of conflicts motivated by history and memory policy can therefore contribute to overcoming nation-state, religious and ethnic conflicts and serve social cohesion.

To explore its subject, the alliance has opted for a broad temporal and geographical scope. With a focus on the 19th and 20th centuries and deep dives into antiquity, the Middle Ages and the early modern period, it analyses values concerning the past in German, European and global dimensions. In addition to the German-speaking countries, it has a particular focus on Eastern and East Central Europe and on the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, with the intention of bringing in partners with comparative expertise on Africa, North and South America, and Japan.

The research will be implemented in three thematically overlapping Research Hubs dedicated to the changing regimes of evidence, spatiotemporal paradigms, and the past as a public resource.