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Sociologist Steffen Mau in conversation with journalist Georg Diez during the event “Nervous Democracy - Transformation Shock” at the Humboldt Lab

Science and Humanities, Talk

SCRIPTS Short Talks

Conversations on democracy
Wed, 15 March 2023 – Mon, 20 January 2025

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	14 years and older
	German
	Humboldt Lab, 1st floor
	Belongs to: After Nature

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At the SCRIPTS Short Talks, renowned researchers and journalists debate current topics from politics and society. The one-hour short talks, jointly organised by the Cluster of Excellence Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS) and the Humboldt Lab, focus on challenges and crises of the liberal script, which the scholars of the Cluster of Excellence are researching.

Programme

How much nervousness can democracy tolerate? Where do these tensions come from? How is our concept of democracy changing? Which forms of democracy do we need to preserve, which do we need to unlearn and relearn? And where will we be in five years’ time?

In the continuation of the “Short Talks” format, journalist and author Georg Diez talks to SCRIPTS researchers about the state and future of “nervous democracies”: about the transformation shock of democracy after 1989, about the tension between hysteria and reason using the example of the USA and about the politics of unrest, protest and revolt as essential elements of a living democracy.

Short Talk #1 – Transformation shock

Georg Diez interviews Steffen Mau

30 October 2024

Short Talk #2 – The politics of unrest

Georg Diez interviews Christian Volk

14 November 2024

Short Talk #3 – USA: Hysteria and reason

Georg Diez interviews Lora Anne Viola

18 December 2024

Further information on the series

The future of democracy is contested. Violent autocracies, the rise of populist, illiberal forces within Europe, extreme cultural and social polarisation are intensifying into an acute crisis. How are liberal societies reacting to this? Must democracy be defended?

On three evenings, researchers from the SCRIPTS Cluster of Excellence discussed these questions about the current crisis of democracy with Tagesspiegel journalists Christoph D. Piorkowski and Eva Murašov. The short talks addressed both internal and external challenges to democracy, new conflicts between political systems, but also conflicts within the liberal order itself: After all, it is not just the aggression emanating from Putin’s Russia or authoritarian nationalisms that are putting democracies under pressure. More than ever, liberalism is also confronted with its internal contradictions, structural injustices and historical mortgages.

Short Talk #1 – Putin’s Russia

Gwendolyn Sasse in conversation with Christoph D. Piorkowski

15 March 2023

Short Talk #2 – Freedom as a problem

Stefan Gosepath in conversation with Christoph D. Piorkowski

19 April 2023

Short Talk #3 – Contestations

Tanja Börzel in conversation with Eva Murašov

22 May 2023

Further information on the series

Participants

Contestations of the liberal script have not only grown in number, they are becoming increasingly polarized and radicalized, both at the domestic and at the international level. This deepening of contestations carries the danger of turning criticism of the liberal script into outright rejection of its core principles. The Excellence Cluster Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS) is an interdisciplinary research consortium that examines the nature, causes, and potential consequences of deepening contestations in a global, comparative, and historical perspective.

SCRIPTS developed the concept “liberal script” to understand how and why liberal ideas and institutions for organizing societies have become increasingly under pressure, despite their political, economic, and social achievements and in the absence of an attractive alternative. In the next step, the Cluster will investigate how resilient the liberal script is in coping with deepening contestations. We want to find out why some varieties appear to be more effective in handling criticism and rejection than others.

SCRIPTS is a Cluster of Excellence funded by the German Research foundation since 2019. It is hosted by Freie Universität Berlin and involves seven other major research institutions in Berlin as well as 20 international partners. The Cluster also cooperates with institutions and actors in politics, culture and civil society. In the Humboldt Lab, the Cluster was involved in the development of the large-format research wall.

The research wall in the Humboldt Lab