In view of global crises, diagnoses of the times demand that people organise their relationships with themselves and their environment differently for the sake of their future. But which futures and communities are even relevant and possible for people in social crises? - We are investigating the experiences and hopes of people living in contexts of war, impoverishment and environmental degradation and examining which biographical future and community relationships they build up despite such crises.

In the "Biography" subproject, we are investigating the significance of the future and community for the life stories of people living through existential social crises. These crises include wars, economic slumps and ecological destruction and are existential in nature, as they make certainties of life, social networks and material livelihoods precarious or even erode them. They call into question affiliations and community boundaries, undermine hopes and anticipated futures and require people to reorient themselves in their personal and social lives. Research into these crises therefore not only promises insights into the ways in which such social upheavals are overcome. They also provide insights into the fundamental practices and processes through which people establish relationships to the future and community and shape the realisation of their personal and collective life history.

To explore these questions, we refer to the social-theoretical and methodological concept of "biography." As experienced and narrated life stories, biographies not only capture present orientations, but also past experiences and future-oriented self-designs. As social constructions, they also enable the localisation of human life practice in its social and societal contexts and thus provide a view of life history that goes beyond individual destiny. With the concept of biography, we can therefore explore the existential experiences of crisis and the future and community relationships that arise from them, both in their socio-historical genesis and in their social constitution. This enables us to draw as holistic a picture as possible of people and their life situations and to reconstruct the significance of the future and community for their crisis-induced modes of existence in all its complexity.

The data basis for this research are life history interviews, network analyses, family genograms, focused ethnographies and historical research. We collect these materials globally in four regional fields. The focus is on regions whose most recent histories are characterised by existential social crises. By juxtaposing these fields, we want to expand our research question to include a global cultural comparison. This will allow us to better outline the socio-cultural specifics of future and community relations, as well as to identify shared experiences and practices between the cases.

The first regional field of our study is Sudan, whose population is currently confronted with a multitude of social and ecological crises. Through a processual sampling process, we will open up three further fields in the course of the research.