Korbinians Kolleg
2022/2023

We live in a time of crisis. It is also a time of crisis talk. It is therefore important to be clear about what crises are. They are not states, but dynamic processes. Such processes are mostly triggered by states that have slowly or suddenly become unstable. Wars are such processes. They are crises as long as they are not over, and when they are over they are no longer crises but almost certainly trigger other crises. Crises are processes that arise from asymmetries. Something is out of kilter, health policy due to Corona, the purchasing power of the euro due to the new inflation, the labor market due to falling demand or delivery problems, domestic politics due to refugee movements and migration. It is difficult or even impossible to predict what will happen at the end of such crises. It is so with everything in the future.

However, since it is a matter of overcoming and ending crises in politics, business, health care, culture and in all other areas of life, recipes are advertised and forecasts dared. Some of this is based on solid analysis, some is not. If crisis recipes and forecasts about how to deal with crises serve daily political purposes or personal awareness, then it is talk of a crisis. It is difficult for many people to distinguish one from the other.

In the winter semester 2022/23, the Korbinians Kolleg is examining some, but by no means all, current crises. It is not only political, social and economic, not only collective, but also personal crises that can afflict us as individuals, which we ourselves trigger through our behavior or which overwhelm us through no fault of our own. None of the collective crises leave us alone individually. That is one motive, but not the only one, for the topic 'crisis' this winter semester.