In the beginning of April this year I was involved in an international conference organized jointly by the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Science (BBAW) and the Studienkolleg zu Berlin. The conference was supported by the Fritz-Thyssen foundation and the Allianz Kulturstiftung. The bold headline was: “Understandings & meanings of democracy in Europe and the World”. We had some interesting speakers and outstanding scholars participating in this open doors event. The program of the event can be found here.

I was involved in Co-moderating the panel on meanings of democracy on a global scale with my friend & colleague Niklas Kossow. Our podium debate was complemented by Xiabo Lu (Columbia University) and Nora Lafi (center for the modern orient) and Sina Birkholz (Free University Berlin).

The discussion touched upon topics such as the universality of democracy as a normative order and source of legitimacy, justice, economic development, civil society and media pluralism.

The interesting debate on the podium was focused on perspectives from the Arab World and China. Here you can find the link to the audio file of the discussion (last link).

Besides the interesting podium debate I was also involved in organization a workshop on understandings of democracy in the Arab World with my colleague Laura Führer from the Free University Berlin and Thomas Claes from the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation. In the workshop we covered the contestation during the Arab Uprisings and the demands of the protesters such as freedom, justice, an end to corruption and democracy. We discussed varieties of understandings of democracy across the Arab World focusing on Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco. We highlighted the differences between these cases and came to the conclusion that the understandings of democracy –even within the seemingly homogeneous bloc of the Arab World, or even within the single countries– are very diverging. In short, there is no such thing as a common Arab understanding of democracy.

All in all the conference was very interesting and enabled a fruitful exchange between established and young academics, journalists and the interested public in Berlin. Overall despite the references to democracy by all actors across all regions the diversity of understandings and meanings of democracy was the central outcome of the conference.

I herewith also want to thank the organizers and my collegues for their efforts and participation in planning and contributing to the success of the event.

On tuesday evening I was moderating an event at the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Science (BBAW). It was the first event of a series called "Zukunftsorte Europas" (future places in Europe) and was dedicated to the "Mittelmeerraum" ergo the mediterranean space. The first speaker was the french philosopher Remi Brague a Prof at Universite Paris 1 and the Ludwigs Maximilian Universität München. He talked about the history of the medierranean region and its mystification as an aerea of multicultural exchange. He criticised precisely this backward looking and in his view incorrect view on the mediterranean. Arguing that looking into history there has barely been a true exchange through dialogue between the three main monotheistic religious cultures around tghe mediterranean sea. The Only thing that did have positiv impacts in terms of civilisatory improvements were products of imperialism or chance such as the translation of the great greek philosophers from arabic into latin. Furthermore he argued that a truly mutual multicultural dialogue can only be reached through beginning it focussing on common interests not on cultural or religious matters.
The second talk was given by Prof Claus Leggewie who is the director of the Institute for advanced study in the humanities in Essen. He had less of an historical perspective on the mediterranean but more of an utopic vision for the future arguing from an assesment of todays situation around the central sea. Criticizing the negative images of the southern sea (from german perspective) especially during the ongoing economic crisis. He developed a future vision for the region that entails sustainable investment in green energy, eco-tourism, infrastructure, environmental protection and scientific and educational exchange throughout the mediterranean region. His main arguments can be found in the book "Zukunft im Süden".
The following discussion was focussing especially on the remarks of Prof Leggewie and the audience engaged in a lively debate about the crisis management, multiculturalism and the future of the mediterranean region. Moderating the event was an inspiring and exciting experience overall.
The Deutsche Welle Radio had a short report about the event that can be found here.