The literature reviews presented here on the homepage of the PH Freiburg AG Afghanistanforschung are not intended to convey much more than random reading impressions of, from our point of view, striking publications on the topic of Afghanistan. They do not intend to offer comprehensive reviews but are nevertheless not entirely without theoretical demands. They do not follow a systematic logic but are intended to make something like an annotated bibliography available and publicly accessible at a later time, which should not be put aside in times of Citavi and Endnote, because literature management programs and the reading of overview articles or so-called systematic reviews do not spare the content-related examination of texts. We follow a more theory-oriented approach that collects motifs from social theoretical, postcolonial, salutogenic, and critical educational sociological perspectives. In this respect, we move somewhat away from Thomas Loy’s and Olaf Günther’s idea of a simple narrative (or radical narrative) in the book reviews, which, without becoming naïve, strives for no simple answers to the very complex questions associated with the topic of Afghanistan. The reading impressions presented here are not focused on specific publication formats, but range, at least in idea, from commentary on press releases and news stories to literary text types to the scholarly contributions of Afghanistan research in the broadest sense, which are likely to be the quantitative focus because of our professional location.
Daniele Ganser (2016): The illegal war against Afghanistan 2001
Said Musa Samimy (2016): Afghanistan. Chronicle of a failed state. Berlin: Edition Avra.