Demonstration "Indivisible" in June 2020 in Berlin
Photo: Jan Scheunert / ZUMA Wire / imago imagesSPIEGEL: Professor Groh-Samberg, how would you describe the current state of society?
To person
Lukas Klose
Olaf Groh-Samberg , 48, is Professor of Sociology at the Research Center Inequality and Social Policy (SOCIUM) at the University of Bremen. He is mainly concerned with social inequality, the labor market, education and the welfare state. Groh-Samberg is the spokesman for the Research Institute for Social Cohesion (FGZ), which started its work in June 2020. There, social developments will be examined empirically and theoretically over the next few years.
Groh-Samberg: We have an increasingly polarized and divided society. In the past few years and decades, two poles have developed that are drifting further and further apart. One consists of the academically educated middle and upper classes - cosmopolitans with high incomes and good jobs, educated, tolerant, open. The other pole is much more diffuse. There you will not only find people who are economically left behind, but also, for example, petty bourgeoisie from the middle class or conservative elites.
SPIEGEL: And between these two poles?
Groh-Samberg: It would be too easy to see just two camps. There are many different groups, including in the middle of society. The special thing about it: Most of the time, people know very little about people from other social groups because they rarely meet each other in everyday life. You are isolated in your neighborhood, your school, your friends, your work environment.
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