Roland Hardenberg's research activities focus on socio-cultural structures in South and Central Asia. He is interested in culturally specific ideas and values which form the framework for and are shaped by social practice. On the basis of long-term ethnographic investigations in India (especially in Odisha) and Kyrgyzstan (especially at the Issyk Köl), his research aims at investigating local practice and its relation to shared, but also contested socio-cosmic ideas. His special attention is given to those cultural phenomena which, from the point of view of local communities, are closely linked to their own identity and values. In India and Kyrgyzstan these are often religious practices such as temple rituals, sacrifices, pilgrimages and funerals, as well as ceremonial exchanges. These practices reveal the construction of local concepts of relatedness such as "kinship", "friendship", "neighborhood", etc. Hardenberg's approach is comparative, with the aim of understanding cultural differences and similarities. From a methodological point of view, Hardenberg works with techniques of empirical field research (participant observation, interviews, genealogical method, census, network approach etc.) mainly in rural areas of South and Central Asia. Hardenberg's systematic contributions to ethnology include topics such as cultural comparisons, exchanges, hierarchies, house societies and 'new kinship'. Within the framework of the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1070 at the University of Tübingen, Roland Hardenberg has worked with other scientists to develop cultural approaches to resources and to develop concepts such as "resource complexes", "resource cultures" and "resource assemblages". On the basis of comparative ethnological studies on ritual economies, he coined the term "socio-cosmic field".

Regional: India, Central Asia Thematic: Resource cultures, Religion and materiality, Socio-cosmic fields, Ritual economy