Vom Verschwinden des Spielraums
The sociologist Hartmut Rosa describes in his new book "Situation und Konstellation. Vom Verschwinden des Spielraums" (Suhrkamp) an imperceptible yet steady change in our actions: The teacher who cannot give grades as encouragement, the doctor who treats screens instead of patients, the referee whose judgment is supplanted by VAR. Especially in professional life, but increasingly also in leisure, guidelines and forms, algorithms and apps meticulously outline our paths to decision-making. Instead of situation-sensitive consideration and judgment, the constellation-based execution logic of the machines with which we handle day in and day out takes the place. "Agree" / "Do not agree" – thus, agents become executors.
This development, as much as it may serve justice and transparency, comes at a high price, which Hartmut Rosa vividly describes during the book premiere in conversation with the philosopher Catherine Newmark. For when discretionary spaces disappear and the creativity of human action is eliminated from everyday practical executions, the feeling of powerlessness grows. And with judgment, the energy for action itself diminishes. But how can we counteract this individual and collective energy loss in society? By, as Rosa states, strengthening human action capability at all levels of social existence.
Hartmut Rosa, born in 1965, is a professor of general and theoretical sociology at Friedrich Schiller University Jena as well as the director of the Max Weber College in Erfurt. For his works, he has received numerous awards, including the Tractatus Prize, the Erich Fromm Prize, the Paul Watzlawick Honorary Ring, and the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize 2023.
Catherine Newmark, born in 1976, is a Swiss philosopher. She studied philosophy and history in Zurich and Paris. In 2007, she earned her doctorate at the Free University of Berlin (FU). Catherine Newmark works as a cultural journalist, publicist, and moderator for public broadcasting.
Photo: Jürgen Bauer - Suhrkamp
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