Symposium Dürnstein 2016 – Follow-up report

This year's fifth Symposium Dürnstein was devoted to the topic of "Trust in Uncertain Times. Options for the Future." From March 10–12 2016, top-class experts from a wide range of disciplines discussed the fatal consequences of the loss of trust in the economy, democracy, media and society.

In the opening lecture, Urvashi Butalia, a publisher, writer and political activist from New Delhi, spoke about the relationship of trust between the state and its citizens based on three stories from India. She warned that a lack of trust in society can fuel fractures, discrimination and fear. Europe, Butalia said, is at a crucial point in the current situation of refugee movements. She perceives the spread of fear and mistrust in European society. Europe is still a role model in many areas for many people around the world, but it is heading for an internal crisis of confidence, Urvashi Butalia indicated in her presentation.

The Friday was opened by the biologist and philosopher Andreas Weber (DE), who in his work reflects anew on the relationship between man and nature. Contrary to the assumptions of evolutionary theory, nature is the opposite of the efficiency we assume and live by ourselves, namely wasteful immoderateness. Nature, he said, demonstrates giving without fear of losing one's substance. "Trust means giving life," Weber said, asking the audience to trust in the generosity of life.

In his response, psychologist Martin Schenk (Diakonie Österreich) pointed out the social and empirical context of Weber's new perspective on nature. Resilience research sees the factors of recognition and respect, a sustainable relationship and self-efficacy as determining for trust in life. Schenk postulated that societies in which many people experience social shame instead of recognition, loneliness instead of sustainable relationships and powerlessness instead of self-determination are characterized by distrust between people and toward institutions.

Political scientist Anton Pelinka (AT) argued that the Europe of today is not defined by monotheism, philosophy or law, but by what it has learned from its past full of bloody wars between nation states. Yesterday's Europe was the antithesis of today's Europe, Pelinka said. The result of the sobering experience of past conflicts is the European Union, "the relatively best Europe." Next, EU Parliament Vice President Ulrike Lunacek (AT) provided insight into the organizational structure and minimal democracy of the European Union. Today, she said, it is not a refugee crisis but a crisis of solidarity also between the member states of the EU. There is a lack of political will and a "sense of unity" in the EU. Overcoming this is necessary to strengthen the EU.

The afternoon started with the presentation of Barbara Preitler (AT), who works as a psychotherapist at Hemayat, a care center for torture and war survivors. People with traumatic experience repeatedly experience themselves as powerless as a result of their traumas from torture, war and flight. Preitler works with her clients to try to rebuild lost confidence and help them "find their home again somewhere in the world." This, she says, is an essential investment in the future of the people concerned but also of the society in which they live.

Gudrun Biffl (AT), professor of migration research at Danube University Krems, commented on statistics from Eurobarometer 84 of November 2015, according to which 58 percent of Europeans see migration as the biggest problem facing the European Union, ahead of terrorism (24%) and unemployment (17%). She is convinced that "if politics wants to regain the trust of the population, a publicly conducted dialogue must take place." Afterwards, political scientist Thomas Schmidinger (AT) gave insights into the conditions in the countries of origin of the refugees. He showed that the situation in Syria and Iraq is geographically, ethnically, religiously and politically complex and confused. In addition, there are about 7 million internally displaced persons in the region, especially in the Kurdish regions.

Theologian Manuela Kalsky (NL) illustrated the challenges and opportunities that diversity brings with her initiative "Nieuwwij," a multimedia project for the re-finding of a shared sense of unity in Dutch society, launched in 2007. She reports on the development of religion in the Netherlands. While 1200 Catholic churches out of a total of 1500 will have to close by 2020, according to the 2009 religion statistics, 42% in the Netherlands are religionless, and 6% are Muslim. 24% of the Dutch opt for "multiple religious belonging," i.e., they choose the form of their spirituality themselves. For Kalsky, it is important to reduce mutual fears and prejudices and to replace "either or" with "as well as". Her interactive project also serves this purpose.

In the concluding panel discussion, ethnic and religious diversity were the focus of attention. Writer Cornelia Travnicek (AT) asked about a common canon of values and reported on her experiences in multi-religious Singapore. Murat Düzel (AT), head of the Integration Service, Alfred Garcia Sobreira-Majer (AT), co-director of the Competence Center for Intercultural, Interreligious and Interdenominational Learning at the Kirchliche Pädagogische Hochschule Wien/Krems, Manuela Kalsky as well as Thomas Schmidinger asked about possibilities of community-building across religious boundaries. Alexis Neuberg (AT), journalist of Radio Afrika, emphasized that the question whether diversity has a future is not to be asked, because diversity is reality, but the discussion is determined by hidden claims of power.

Saturday morning Heiner Flassbeck (DE) postulated – after the morning impulse in the collegiate church by Provost Maximilian Fürnsinn – that "money is trust". He discussed the different aspects of the loss of confidence in the common currency of the EU. First and foremost, he highlighted the fact that, with the exception of France, none of the EU countries had abided by the Maastricht Treaty. He substantiated this violation of confidence in the common currency union with statistics on productivity and wage developments in individual EU countries, including France and Germany. He argued strongly that rising wages and investment should be targeted toward environmentally compatible growth. "Trust needs knowledge, information and honest debate. Accounting relationships should be discussed much more with the general public to create the possibility for change." Economist Ulrich Schuh (AT) commented and assessed the Austrian view on this.

The Berlin communication scientist Hans-Jürgen Arlt (DE) emphasized that trust saves society from a suffocation process. Trust is the basis for communication as a social relationship, because trust "enables us to remain capable of acting in the information, decision-making and risk society despite uncertainty. Because if you do not want to use violence, you have to communicate." Journalists are in a difficult position, he said, because at present the boundaries between animation and reporting are blurred by economic pressure. He spoke out in favor of "a new socialism, a defiance-all-others strategy." Journalist Oliver Tanzer (AT) pointed out that the media is currently focusing on the negative aspects that surround us. Since "fear for life provides the highest capacity for action," reports of assault, abuse and insecurity promoted attention and therefore sales. The media currently focused on the negative aspects that surround us. Journalists also need "more time to actually investigate and think about things," which requires self-knowledge and trust in others and oneself.

The afternoon was dedicated to legal issues. Boldizsár Nagy (HU), professor of international law, presented the interdependencies, uncertainties and unclear regulations between states and their civil servant representatives on the one hand, the refugees on the other, but also the helpers from civil society. As the refugees themselves emphasize, it is about the war in Syria – but not about a crisis in Europe. The legal philosopher Dietmar von der Pfordten (DE) explained that "law is caught in a vortex of trust in the ever more rapidly changing structures of society." While criminal law changes little, national and international legal structures are highly changeable due to the influence of politics, which is detrimental to the trust in international legal norms. Attorney Georg Bürstmayr (AT) analyzed different levels of trust: trust between states was very questionable and problematic, whereas citizens could trust in state legal forms. He held that "it depends on our concrete expectations whether a state deserves our trust."

In the final discussion, Gudrun Biffl (AT), Georg Bürstmayr (AT), Boldizsár Nagy (HU) and Dietmar von der Pfordten (DE) approached the question of "trust in times of migration." They stated that in the different legal situations in the EU, the main issue was also a precise clarification and definition of the different terms (such as integration or migration). Trust in the rule of law essentially depends on aspects of leadership – analogous to the image of a helmsman who takes responsibility, Bürstmayr emphasized. It is about strict compliance with legal norms but also about an honest discussion in politics, in order to achieve an appropriate reframing and thus solution aspects for the current situation. Economically, Europe could certainly take in even more refugees, but it is not only about economic aspects and also about cultural and social aspects.

Information
NÖ Forschungs- und Bildungsges.m.b.H. (NFB)
MMag. Daniela Stampfl-Walch
Neue Herrengasse 10, 3100 St. Pölten
T: 02742 275 70-0, E: duernstein@nfb.at
www.symposionduernstein.at
facebook.com/noe.forschung.bildung; google.com/+noefbat2014

Visuals of the Symposion Dürnstein 2016:
www.nfb.at/tertiaere-bildung/weiterentwicklung/symposion-duernstein/2016/presse/fotos/
Credits: www.uschioswald.at (Abdruck frei im Zusammenhang mit der Berichterstattung).

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