Cancel Culture als Positionierungsvehikel im semantischen Kampf um Wissenschaftsfreiheit

When debating academic freedom in Germany, the term cancel culture, originating from North-American contexts, is commonly used to express concerns about a threat to academic freedom as posed by a narrowing of boundaries of discourse. In the semantic battels regarding Wissenschaftsfreiheit (academic freedom), this perspective is opposed – often with reference to the German constitution – by criticisms that point to a conflation of academic freedom with freedom of expression. The meta-thematization of the boundaries of discourse, centered around the concept of Cancel Culture, thus constitutes a central line of conflict within the agonistic debate over Wissenschaftsfreiheit (academic freedom). To grasp the interdependencies between the various semnatic battles, the discursive knowledge surrounding academic freedom as well as the – mostly implicit – evoked meanings associated with Cancel Culture are reconstructed by means of a topos analysis. The dichotomous structure of positioning, which underlies the agonistic center, is further specified through the topoi that are worked out. In this way, the function of Cancel Culture as a complexity-reducing positioning device within the discourse on academic freedom is elaborated.