Lecture by Dr. Thomas Mani and discussion with members of Die Junge Akademie

Long since plastics have dominated the materials of our everyday life. From toothbrushes to mobile phones to cars - the high plastic content of an almost infinite range of products is obvious. While around 1.5 million tons of plastic were produced globally in the 1950s, today the figure is already over 400 million tons. The more than 250-fold increase within 70 years testifies to an overwhelming triumph on the world market.

The research group "Popular Culture(s)" of Die Junge Akademie is organising a two-day workshop.

The fifty members of the Junge Akademie gather thrice a year in alternating cities.

Images have an enormous influence on our thinking, feeling and acting. They change the way we look at the world and convey political messages.

How images influence our perception is the subject of research in numerous disciplines. Scientists beyond art history also deal with images because they have recognised their potential to have an effect in social contexts. Particularly in the age of the mass media, our society was and still is exposed to a flood of images, whose effects need to be researched and discussed. What political functionalization can images have? And how can one resist the power of images?

The basis of this workshop is how normativity - understood as the claim to validity of legal rules - The starting point is the question of how normativity, understood as the claim to validity of legal rules, is made meaningful in different contexts and how an understanding of norms relates to the staging of norms.

On September 26th 2019, the campaign “Freedom is our System”, of the Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany, culminated in a high-profile closing ceremony with attendance from federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Representatives from the realms of science, economics and politics discussed the future of “Free Science”, as well as insights from previous debates throughout the campaign. Ricarda Winkelmann, presidium member of Die Junge Akademie and climate-physicist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, was also in attendance.

Further information can be found at wissenschaftsfreiheit.de (German only).