Too much ‘me’, too little ‘us’?
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| free admission - Ticket required |
| Ticket required |
| Duration: 120 min |
| 16 years and older |
| German |
| Hall 1, Ground Floor |
| Part of: ZEIT Forum Wissenschaft |
It is during election months in particular that the fragmentation and division within society become especially apparent. This is often accompanied by the question: how can we resume dialogue with one another once the polls have closed?
Democracy needs community. It needs places, both private and public, where people with different views and ways of life can come together. Yet it is precisely these communal spaces that are disappearing – either in reality or from our consciousness – such as neighbourhoods, clubs, churches and cultural venues.
In our digitalised society, it has become easy to surround ourselves only with like-minded people, whether online or in everyday life. Within our own bubbles, we are conveniently confirmed in what we already thought we knew, and any deviation from this is dismissed as wrong without any real debate.
Amidst the heated atmosphere, we ask ourselves: where does this breakdown in communication come from? Are we losing our sense of community? After all, nothing encourages people to treat one another with respect and listen to one another more than shared experiences. That is why we want to discuss together what is dividing our society. Are we experiencing too much ‘I’ and too little ‘we’?
Panellists
Annekathrin Kohout is a freelance writer and cultural studies scholar who analyzes internet culture, platform publics, and digital image practices. In 2021, she earned her Ph.D. from the University of Siegen with a dissertation on the “nerd” as a social figure. She is co-editor of the book series “Digitale Bildkulturen” (Klaus Wagenbach Publishers) and the journal “POP. Kultur und Kritik.”
Céline Teney is a professor of macrosociology at Freie Universität Berlin. She earned her Ph.D. from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. Her research focuses on political sociology and the sociology of migration.
Nora Zabel was born in 1996 in Hagenow, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. She joined the CDU at age 15 and was active in Angela Merkel’s election campaign. In 2025, she earned her master’s degree in political science in Heidelberg. She worked as a campaigner at the CDU party headquarters and most recently worked for CDU politician and Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office Serap Güler. Today, she works as a political consultant. In 2025, her book *United in Divisiveness: The East German Generation Z Between Two Worlds* was published by Droemer Knaur.
Sibylle Anderl heads the Science Department at *Die Zeit*. She studied physics and philosophy in Berlin and then earned her Ph.D. in astrophysics in Bonn. She subsequently spent several years conducting research on star formation in Grenoble before joining the culture section of the *FAZ* as an editor in 2017. In 2021, she was appointed to lead the science desk there, and in 2024 she moved to *Die Zeit* in Hamburg. Sibylle Anderl is the editor of the cultural magazine *Kursbuch* and the author of various nonfiction books. She has received numerous awards for her journalistic achievements.
Kathrin Kühn is an editor and host in the science department at Deutschlandfunk. She covers the social sciences and oversees the podcast “Systemfragen.” Kathrin Kühn earned her doctorate at the Dortmund Institute of Journalism, focusing on relevance decisions and format development for podcasting, while also working on an EU research project on the European public sphere. Before joining Deutschlandfunk, the certified journalist spent more than 15 years as a news reporter and later as cross-media managing editor at WDR. Having grown up as the child of non-academics in East Westphalia and the Ruhr region, she leads workshops for journalism trainees on diversity of perspectives and the significance of one’s own socialization for journalistic work.
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