Research Colloquium | Jason Wittenberg (Berkeley) Logic(s) of Historical Persistence

Abstract:

While persistence and change have long been central in the study of politics, we do not yet fully understand the criteria by which claims of persistence can be made. What is the dividing line between continuity with the past and change from the past? This paper addresses that question through an examination of how social scientists discuss and assert persistence of social phenomena even in the presence of change. It identifies different logics of persistence, each of which specifies a different set of criteria for distinguishing between identity-preserving and identity-destroying change. The paper draws on examples from the United States, Eastern Europe, and Germany.

Jason Wittenberg is Professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is spending June 2023 in Regensburg as a visiting fellow of the Leibniz ScienceCampus.