GLOBART | GLOBART ACADEMY 2017

The world is turning upside down, says peace laureate Navid Kermani. It seems, globalization is overwhelming us and familiar core values for our social, political and economical cohabitation are dwindling away. The attainment of universal principles like Human Rights are by no means a success story. In reaction to this lack of clarity populists from all colours try to retreat into presumed safety of national borders. But, is this sovereign – or are we getting lost in self-comfortableness? Others escape into all-encompassing ideologies for a sense of false security and seal oneself off from new and innovative ways of thinking.

Between cosmopolitanism and escapism, we are searching for orientation. Timely concepts for social and political architectures of order are necessary to shape our concepts of living. Is it possible to go back to the approach “small is beautiful” as Ernst Friedrich Schuhmacher and Leopold Kohr proclaim? Or are we running into danger by not seeing the signs of time?

The laws of boundlessness, simultaneity and velocity accelerate our lives and shorten, by increasing urgency, the time to find appropriate solutions for the problems of our time. Are we able to take the opportunity of the digital revolution and social media, to overcome the pitfall of “over newsed but underinformed”?

The desire for manageability, for equity, for succession in live is significant. The regulatory framework, within we are able to fulfill our desires, requires continuous reflection and renewal. What holds the world together: that’s what its all about at the 20th GLOBART Academy.