Society

Should monsters really be viewed solely in a negative light? Manon Hopf thinks not – here, she takes a look at the productive aspect of the monster concept.

Times are uncomfortable. Susi Bumms wants to find countermeasures and asks: How can we warm each other and give each other strength? Snuggling up like spoons is one possibility. But there are plenty more.

Demonstrating perspectives for living together in diversity is the mission of the makers of the interdisciplinary Fluctoplasma festival. An interview with project director Nina Reiprich and artistic director Dan Thy Nguyen.

What is the language of music? – That question isn’t easy to answer, even in relation to humans. Manon Hopf asks: what’s the music of other animals about?

What role does trust play in trade relations? Kingsley Omeihe explains. He’s a professor of marketing and small business, and his focus is trade relations in Nigeria.
 

Springtime is wild garlic time! Granny Trude loves wild garlic, for culinary and health reasons!

What was once considered the stuff of science fiction may become a reality in just a few decades: human life on Mars. What lessons can we learn from the past to avoid repeating the same mistakes on the Red Planet?
 

This is the last column in this series by Maximilian Buddenbohm. For the very last time he observes – very aptly – social occurrences in everyday life.

The Federal Youth Games are an integral part of German schooling - and are now to be reformed. Critics see this as a decline in the performance mindset. Susi Bumms is a fan of the so-called “softly softly approach to education” and gives everyone a certificate of honour.

Women still do most of the housework. So is sustainability in everyday life and in the home mainly up to women? Gotelind Alber, a climate policy expert specializing in related gender issues, addresses the “eco gender gap” in the following interview.

 

The Institute for Social Research (IfS), known internationally as the “Frankfurt School”, was founded a hundred years ago. Its most seminal thinkers still inform our conception of society today. What may well be their most important legacy is their contention that a different world is possible.

How did trust come to loom so large in the self-definition of contemporary societies? Philosopher Martin Hartmann presents some possible explanations.
 

For followers of the “Effective Altruism” movement, it’s especially important that donated funds contribute towards measurable success. With this principle, huge achievements are possible even with a small sum of money – if it’s used in the right way. But the concept has also encountered criticism.
 

Why are there two terms for people that leave their home country to live and work elsewhere? The connotations of the notions “expat” and “immigrant” reveal the colonial power structures that shape migration today.

In an interview, writer thinker, and one of the most important activists of the Brazilian indigenous movement, Ailton Krenak, talks about the ideas of belonging and resistance that permeate the struggle of indigenous populations of the American continent.
 

Afghan photographer Fatimah Hossaini has been living in exile for the past year and continues to stand up for the rights of Afghan women – with her photographs she wants to commemorate them.
 

Violence against women in Mexico has not one, but many faces. Its worst one is femicide, although it is not the only one. Antifeminism also occurs silently and is veiled at all levels of society.
 

Prof. Austin Bukenya talks about how he came to describe himself as a feminist and about the challenges and chances of male feminists. He explains why it is important for men to internalize gender awareness, instead of just opportunistically faking it and how they should consistently practice it as a way of life.

Some people are forever being asked where they’re originally from, and their whole lives long. Curiosity about others’ origins is human nature, says Sineb El Masrar, but it can also be annoying.

Forget poverty, filth and criminality – a project in Rio de Janeiro has created a network for various initiatives in the favelas that are attempting to make their neighbourhoods greener and more social.  

What influence does an immigrant background have on education and educational opportunities in Germany? Sineb El Masrar writes about the decisive factors in getting students from immigrant families through school – and into university.

Are Black people in Brazil really free? Historian Luciana Brito takes a look at the consequences of slavery that have left their mark on Brazilian society to this day. Clearly, the struggle for freedom for all is not yet over.

The idea of guaranteeing everyone an unconditional basic income seems tempting to many people. But laypeople and experts alike have been arguing for many years about whether – and, above all, how – it might work. A pilot project in Berlin is now looking for new answers to these and related questions, which could rekindle the debate in Germany.  

The Humboldt Forum defines itself as a “place that links differences” and intends to deal intensively with the issues of colonialism in its programme work. The historian and genocide expert Jürgen Zimmerer takes a stand on what is probably Europe’s most controversial museum.

After the Second World War it was thought that there would never again be any Jewish life in Germany. Today, however, there are female Rabbis in this country, Jewish LGBTQI groups, Jewish politicians – but despite all that – the problems with anti-Semitism have still not gone away.

Berlin wants to become a “sponge city” – not a single raindrop is to be wasted. This makes the capital a pioneer in Germany when it comes to the sustainable use of rainwater.
 

The UK’s Committee on Climate Change recommends the British public to reduce their meat consumption by 20 percent. The public sector caterers feel responsible for that – and wants to implement the recommendation with their own resources.

 

Germany’s most sustainable towns and cities rely on the participation of their residents. Quite a lot can be achieved even with comparatively few financial resources.

What are the ideas and values that characterize a given society? And what do debates about the role and use of language have to do with that? Our new columnist, Henning Lobin takes on some controversial language issues.

Coral reefs are ecosystems that boast very great biodiversity but are highly endangered. The “climate refugee” super corals could offer some unexpected help and possibly ensure the survival of the reefs.

The problem of unpaid care work is attracting increasing attention. But what are so-called queer care communities and why are they still needed? Alek B. Gerber describes how people are forced to close the supply gaps in public nursing care themselves.
 

Why do we attach so much importance to gender? What would society look like without it? In this opinion piece, sociologist Alice Rombach dreams of a more diverse world. 

The majority of the world’s poor are women, they rely heavily on natural resources to provide for their families and they have no access to decision-making processes in many areas of the world. Dr Shouraseni Sen Roy shows how women are significantly affected more by the consequences of climate change. 

The All-Poland Women's Strike is a movement that has mobilised people from big cities and small towns throughout the country. Co-initiator Marta Lempart explains the social and political changes driven by the strike and why it has turned into an anti-government protest.

In 2009, the Plateau-Mont-Royal neighbourhood in Montreal was ridden by heavy and dangerous traffic. The mayor of the borough had other ideas and pushed through a radical concept of appeasement against significant resistance.

Even now, language includes terms that originate from deep-rooted colonial racism and discriminatory structures in our society. How can vulnerable minorities find a voice? Journalist and book author Mohamed Amjahid takes a look at decolonisation of the German language from an everyday perspective.

Who receives sympathy in times of war? How can skin colour shape the experiences of refugees? In this diary entry, Joshua Muyiwa reflects on the way Black people were treated when the Russia-Ukraine war began.

It might seem flattering at first to present queerness as new, presented in a new futuristic design. Denying the history of transgender, intersex, homosexual and non-binary people is one of the most effective ways of undermining the queer community and calling its rights into question. We exist. And always have. So if any proof be needed, here’s a recap of the last hundred queer years in Germany.
 

Suddenly, nothing is the way it used to be - this is what people in and from Ukraine have been experiencing since 24th February 2022. All Russians must now stand up and speak out, urges the Russian writer Alisa Genieva, for nothing will be the way it was anymore.

Amid an escalating climate crisis, many institutional investors have dropped their fossil fuel assets. Harvard joined them in fall 2021, divesting its endowment from the oil and gas industry – thanks in part to the tireless work of pro-divestment activists.
 

While the idyll of Romantic era songs may be gone, creative artists in Germany still explore the forest today – critically, ironically and with an eye to history. 

“Generation Greta” is politically active, digital, liberal – but surprisingly conservative when it comes to personal life planning. We take a look at the surveys of Germans aged between ten and twenty from 2019 to 2021.
 

The Corona crisis represents a turning point in our work culture – most of the work that used to be done at an office desk is now carried out from home. Does this mean more independence and freedom of action for everyone? Find out more in this interview with the social scientist Lena Hipp.

Benin Bronzes are exhibited in museums around the world, but the largest collection can be found in the British Museum. Barnaby Phillips analyses how much the government impacts British museums’ ability to return the objects.

The hope of an editor-in-chief that journalists in Russia may die of old age points out the risks facing the profession there. Journalist and media scholar Ksenia Luchenko writes about the gruelling business of reorting and free expression in her home country and the crisis of traditional journalism.
 

Car pollution is one of the major causes of climate change. Large citys around the world are struggling with the persistent problem of excessive motoring. Estonian Tallinn sets a leading example. 

According to a survey commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Food, more than half of all Germans, around 55 per cent, describe themselves as “flexitarians”. What is behind this term, what do these people eat and can food be political?

The gender star has proved an enduring bone of contention. Henning Lobin now wades into the fray to offer his own two cents on the matter. We clearly need to sheathe our verbal swords, he says, and objectively debate the pros and cons of gender-neutral language.

Translation is incredibly challenging: translating sensitively demands that historical, geographical, political and social contexts be taken into account. In their article, the literature scholars and editors of the platform poco.lit. Lucy Gasser and Anna von Rath look specifically at English and German, and discuss ten terms related to race that are difficult to translate.

How does contemporary policing relate to practices used in colonial states? Tanzil Chowdhury explains the “colonial boomerang” – a concept that describes how for example forms of violence applied in the colonies were transported back to the metropolitan centres.

The concept of humanism involves much more than just being human. After all, as philosopher Michaela Ott writes, for a long time colonialism defined who was viewed as a person and who was not, and which compelling reasons there are for replacing this term with something more inclusive.