Manuel Nicklich is a professor at Freie Universität Berlin. His research focuses on the intersection between organisational theory and questions of work sociology. Furthermore, industrial relations are one of his particular areas of expertise. He teaches the ProDok course Methods of Interviewing.

I am fascinated by the opportunity to delve deeper into the part of my work that I find most exciting: talking to people. The course offers a wonderful chance to share this enthusiasm with others. The diversity of disciplines sometimes makes the course challenging, but at the same time it greatly enriches my perspective on interviewing.

In my opinion, the challenges for young scientists lie in dealing with inevitable setbacks. It is particularly important not to relate these experiences too much to oneself or one's own abilities. At the same time, there are many opportunities and a great deal of freedom to actively participate in scientific discussions and contribute new perspectives.

I draw inspiration from personal encounters – both conversations with colleagues and interviews with interviewees. I also find great inspiration in reading classic texts from early critical theory/the Frankfurt School. I am particularly interested in the question of what these works still have to say to us today – how thoughts influence our current issues and enable insights.

I am currently exploring the question of what we should preserve for critical thinking. And it is precisely these open, undefined questions such as ‘and what else?’ that sometimes reveal to us exactly what is important: the spontaneous, the intuitive, that which eludes systematic reasoning. It is precisely when we do not want to force everything into categories that space is created for genuine critical thinking.

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