“Lessenich says out loud things that many people do not want to hear.”
Barbara Streidl, taz
How does society deal with the fact that nothing is normal anymore? And that “getting back to normal” would be plain insane?
The new book by Germany’s most renowned sociologist Stephan Lessenich shows how it’s possible to update outmoded normality
The world is in a permanent state of crisis. Following the financial crisis and the migration crisis, the Corona crisis has affected nearly everyone’s life. And now war has broken out in Europe. It is becoming increasingly clear that normality as we know it, and which we long for, is not going to return. General uncertainty has taken its place. With a lucid gaze, Stephan Lessenich analyses society’s response and reflects on questions that trouble us all. If the old normal is longer valid, what will take its place? And which dynamics occur when social majorities try to cling to certainties that need to be questioned with increasing urgency?