Teilung und Heilung – Zur Krise des Politischen in Polen und Deutschland

Jan Sowa (Sozialtheoretiker) und Prof. Dr. Karl-Siegbert Rehberg (Soziologe)

Gespräch

Where does Poland stand today as a young democracy after the end of the Eastern Bloc in 1989, the 100th year of the independence of the Polish Republic? Where does reunited Germany stand after 29 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall? Jan Sowa and Karl-Siegbert Rehberg examine the specific phenomena of social divisions in Poland and Germany and address their historical, political and social causes as well as their mental effects. Against the background of global tendencies towards de-democratization and at the same time a perhaps critical opportunity for democratic orders to politicize, they examine the post-socialist transformation societies and their current problems and potentials.

Jan Sowa Jan Sowa is a materialist dialectical social theorist and researcher. He holds a Ph.D. in sociology and a habilitation in cultural studies. His work is focused on modernity studies. He authored and edited a dozen of books – including “A Joy Forever. Political Economy of Social Creativity” and “Fantomowe ciało króla. Perfyferyjne zmagania z nowoczesną formą” – and many articles (in German recently “Das einsame Lebensgefühl” in the yearbook Poland 2016 and in «Ostpol»). He is the curator of discursive programs and research at Biennale Warszawa and associate professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw.

Prof. Dr. Karl-Siegbert Rehberg, 1992 founding director of the Institute for Sociology of the TU Dresden and holder of the chair for sociological theory and cultural sociology, today as research professor; 2003-2007 chairman of the German Society for Sociology; member of the Saxon Cultural Senate. Publications on the subject: Karl-Siegbert Rehberg / Franziska Kunz / Tino Schlinzig (Ed.): PEGIDA. Right-wing populism between xenophobia and “Wende” disappointment. Bielefeld: Transcript 2016, East/West. In: Stefan Lessenich / Frank Nullmeier (Ed.): Germany – a divided society. Frankfurt a.M./New York: Campus 2007.