Compass for a sustainable transformation of society
Prof. Dr. Markus Vogt
Dr. Martin Schneider Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Lehrstuhl für Christliche Sozialethik
That our society is changing is an undeniable fact. However, the perception, assessment and design of current societal transformations are based on controversial norms and ethical attitudes. One aim of the subproject is to examine such normative “evaluation glasses” and to question guiding concepts such as resilience, sustainability and human ecology. The ecological and social context will always be included and ethics as a reflection of lived practice will be addressed.
The subproject investigates the role of morality in dealing with processes of change. Central questions are: How can morality serve as orientation in innovative processes and decisions rich in uncertainty? Does “ethical competence” increase resilience in critical situations of change? Ethics, i.e. the reflection on morality, is also brought into play as a reasoning theory for normative postulates as well as its functions in social communication (motivating, criticizing and integrating). Theology is put to the test with regard to its contribution to increasing social resilience.
The normative evaluation of change processes includes the option of not only suffering these passively, but of shaping them sustainably. Therefore, we look for a positive correlation between civil society or entrepreneurial pioneer groups, latent value changes in lifestyles, education and public communication as well as a political-legal institutional change. In a special way we consider that religious orientations and church actors play an important role in the public sphere. This raises the question of how theologies and churches themselves must change in order to contribute effectively to sustainable change.