Symposium Perspektiven Politischer Bildung: Parallel worlds and their impact on Political Education
The title Welcome to Planet B allows for many interpretations on alternative forms of coexistence. Are we perhaps already living in different parallel worlds? For decades we have been talking about a First, Second or Third World, distinguishing between a global North and South. In globalized contexts, people are constantly shifting between these worlds. Wars and climate change additionally accelerate migration movements that impact political decisions on a national and global level. Since before the pandemic people have sought refuge in fictitious parallel worlds, where they have constructed their own reality beyond any rationality. In a (dis)informed society driven by social media, “alternative facts” are deliberately instrumentalized politically in order to call democratic elections into question. On the other hand, independent and grassroots initiatives make texts by critics of authoritarian regimes accessible to the world public and thus keep them at a distance from censorship. Political education is challenged to deal with these parallel world constructions in an effort to counteract a destabilization of our democratic society.
