Project
Reading is never a purely individual activity. Across different historical periods and cultural contexts, reading has taken place in social settings: in practices of reading aloud, in religious interpretation, in salons and literary societies, in book clubs and classrooms. Even apparently solitary reading is embedded in social frameworks that shape how texts are understood, discussed, and circulated. Our project Reading as a Social Practice explores these social dimensions of reading. Drawing on the disciplinary perspectives of philosophy and literary studies, it aims to bring together insights from different fields in order to examine what reading actually is and how it functions within broader social contexts.
Recent debates often diagnose a “reading crisis”, referring to phenomena such as declining reading skills, reduced engagement with complex texts, or changing media habits. At the same time, new forms of reading communities have emerged, for example in digital environments such as the social media phenomenon #BookTok. Rather than taking the notion of crisis for granted, our project situates such observations within a broader historical and systematic perspective. Looking at different constellations of reading – from biblical interpretation and the novella tradition to salon culture, book clubs, and contemporary digital reading communities – we approach reading as a fundamentally social practice. A communal bond weaves readers and books into larger cultural contexts.
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Reading as a Social Practice – Interdisciplinary Workshop
This workshop brings together researchers from philosophy and literary studies to explore reading not as an individual activity but as a social phenomenon. It focuses on historical, theoretical, and contemporary perspectives while fostering exchange across disciplines.
