An interview with Friedman: Crises

The series “Friedman in Conversation” focuses on the existential and political issues of the present day. In conversation with guests from politics, art and science, author, journalist and philosopher Michel Friedman regularly seeks discussion. Intensive, controversial, curious about emancipatory potential and clear positions.

In this issue, Michel Friedman talks to Hartmut Rosa about crises: Is the world in crisis? Democracy? The West? Is the state of crisis the new normal? How to deal with the simultaneity of so many sources of fire — without slipping into alarmism and without slipping into indifference? When is a crisis productive? Does social progress need crises? Michel Friedman discusses these and other questions with sociologist Hartmut Rosa, who researches at the University of Jena.

Hartmut Rosa has been Professor of General and Theoretical Sociology at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena since 2005 and has also been Director of the Max Weber College at the University of Erfurt since 2013. He is co-director of the annual international conference “Philosophy and the Social Sciences” in Prague and was Vice President/Secretary General of Research Committee 35 of the International Sociological Association (ISA) for many years. His lectures and books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. His most important publications include “Acceleration and Alienation” (2013), “Resonanz. A sociology of world relations” (2016) and “Unavailability” (2018).