Ninth enter the future event: "Consensus or conflict - how polarized is our society?"
25.11..2024
More than 600 guests attended the ninth event in the Wittenstein Foundation's "enter the future" series at the TauberPhilharmonie Weikersheim and via livestream on Wednesday, November 6 at . Speaker Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau showed which inequalities are perceived within a society, how these lead to conflicts in the form of trigger points and why these cannot be systematically equated with a division of society.
When it comes to the big issues facing society, tempers often flare quickly: poverty and wealth, migration, diversity and gender, climate protection - topics that are the subject of much public debate, especially in Germany. It is easy to get the impression that there is only one 'us. And the others' and that two divided camps are facing each other. However, Steffen Mau, Professor of Macrosociology at Humboldt University in Berlin and SPIEGEL bestselling author, argued against this in his lecture: "In Germany, people have the idea that society is divided, but if you take a closer look at it empirically and over time, this is not the case at all. Opinions are not extremely divided, most Germans are simply mixed creatures
If you like eating steak, you don't have to be homophobic
It is not possible to draw idealized conclusions from an individual's attitude towards a certain topic to their attitudes towards other aspects: "To exaggerate, you cannot assume that someone who likes to eat steak is automatically homophobic or anti-immigration," says Mau. There are not (yet) strong dividing lines in Germany, as there are in America, Poland or the UK - which should not be equated with Germany being a nation with little conflict. Conflicts were part of our society in the past, as they are today, and are the driving force behind social change. What has changed, however, is the perception of various inequalities and the resulting voting decisions. "According to , many people have shifted to the right in their political opinions, which has led to the rise of the AFD. However, our scientific surveys at the attitude level show little change compared to previous years. Germans are not against migration per se, but would like to see state-organized integration. There have always been sceptics of migration per se, but they were integrated into major popular parties via other issues. In contrast to today, in the past people did not base their voting decisions on this," Mau explained the development.
Breaking points in the public debate
According to Mau, social trigger points are activated as soon as factual discussions become emotionalized. These can be perceived violations of justice, transgressions of norms, fears of being excluded from society or behavioral expectations. Politicians as well as so-called polarization entrepreneurs make use of precisely these predetermined breaking points or trigger points to artificially create a sense of social division in society from above in order to gain supporters for their policies. "There is still a very broad socio-political center between the AFD and the Greens. In public discourse, however, these are unfortunately drowned out by the fringes - so we need to take a much closer look and not fall for the narrative of a split in society," warns Mau. A talked-about division could result in a real division at any time - which could only be avoided if more people were to get involved in the discourse and help shape social development.
Upcoming events of the Wittenstein Foundation
The Wittenstein Foundation will once again be hosting events in the coming year. On 30 April 2025, the "enter the future" format will deal with the future of nutrition, while on 22 May the focus will be on the digitalization of people.
Downloads
Image source: Wittenstein Foundation / Michael Pogoda
Pictured from left to right: Benedikt Hofmann (moderator and editor-in-chief of MM Maschinenmarkt), Dr. Anna-Katharina Wittenstein (member of the Wittenstein Foundation's Board of Trustees) and Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau.
Image source: Wittenstein Foundation / Michael Pogoda
Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau is Professor of Macrosociology at the Humboldt University of Berlin.
Image source: Wittenstein Foundation / Michael Pogoda
Both the audience on site and the viewers in the livestream had the opportunity to ask the speakers questions.
Image source: Wittenstein Foundation / Michael Pogoda
After the event, Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau was available for questions and a book signing.
コメント