Ruperto Carola Ringvorlesung The structure of freedom and the structure of responsibility

“Those who eat from the rice pot of state fund should not crack the pot”. This is how the Chinese government and parts of the Chinese population justify why publicly funded scholars should not criticise the state. The rice pot theory is echoed in Germany: “Why should tax payers fund projects that upset German feelings?" These perceptions raise the question about the relation between academic freedom and public responsibility. Should the university be a space for free debate or a space that protects the "public will"? Drawing on anthropological insights from my research on China and India, and based on my observations of ongoing debates in Germany, I suggest that freedom and responsibility can be reconciled through differentiated distribution of the two across scales. Freedom of expression is not applicable to large-scale institutions like universities and they should be refrained from expressing political opinions. But they must bear the responsibility of protecting individuals' freedom of thought and expression even when it appears to upset certain public sentiments. At the same time, individuals should enjoy full freedom within the law, and they have no responsibility to support the imagined "public will", a category that is increasingly problematic in the context of internationalization. In this structural articulation of freedom and responsibility, the autonomy of small-scale collectives, such as research teams, faculties, and student bodies, is crucial.

Born and raised in China, Xiang Biao has worked on migration and social changes in China, India and other parts of Asia. He is currently a director of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany, and is exploring a “common concerns” approach in social research. 

Guido Sprenger teaches at the Institute of Anthropology, Heidelberg University, since 2010, after positions at the Academia Sinica, Taipei and the University of Münster. He has done research in the uplands of Laos since 2000. His research interests include ritual, exchange, human-environment relations, animism, and society as a future project.