Lecture series in the summer semester 2018

Jan Steffens, Diplom:

“Intersubjectivity, Boundaries, and Alterity: Social Relationships in Interaction with Culture and Society”

On April 5, 2018, approximately 65 interested attendees attended the second lecture in the lecture series on the topic “The East Central European Region: Old and New Borders (and Their Crossing)” in the lecture hall at the Görlitz campus. The speaker was Jan Steffens, a person with a Diplom in education from the Faculty of Education at Dresden University of Technology.

While the first lecture (March 22, 2018), “Borderland—Bridge Land: Borders in the History of Silesia and Upper Lusatia” —delivered by Dr. Markus Bauer, director of the Silesian Museum—primarily shed light on a historical perspective of borders in geographical and cultural contexts, Mr. Steffens focused on an educational and cultural-sociological approach to the topic.

Mr. Steffens began the lecture with a 2016 video from Amnesty International Poland showing an experiment in which strangers from different cultures looked each other directly in the eyes for four minutes. Building on the intimacy evident in the video, the speaker referred to“borders as a ‘space of encounter.’” In the course of the lecture, Mr. Steffens frequently referred to insights from scholars such as Lev Vygotsky and Wolfgang Jantzen, who support this idea. Thus, in this lecture,“borders were viewednot as lines, but as spaces of transition and interaction.” Consequently, people need contact with others in order to continue developing within cultural and social connections. This is because an individual’s personality emerges precisely at such a boundary and through interaction with it.

As a next step, Mr. Steffens applied this concept to cultural spaces. Cultural spaces are characterized by shared experiences and lived stories in the realm of interpersonal relationships, including, for example, language. Interaction thus takes place once again at the boundary between two cultural systems. Consequently, society emerges at these boundaries between people and transcends cultural systems. At the same time, meanings are institutionalized; for example, terms are adopted to reduce complexity. Ultimately, this gives rise to ideologies, worldviews, or entire social orders that influence individuals in their thoughts and actions. Mr. Steffens concluded this point by noting that when these processes are no longer questioned, power relations emerge.

In the context of the emergence of geographical or political boundaries—which, from Mr. Steffens’s perspective, always arise as a product of social processes—the audience was able to draw connections to Dr. Bauer’s previous lecture.

As a concluding point, Mr. Steffens addressed hierarchical boundaries. In doing so, he revisited the topic of power relations. Social classifications that can form during interactions in border zones become institutionalized and, over time, are viewed as “normal” and natural. In this context, empathy is sidelined, and social exclusion arises. Consequently, Mr. Steffens called for a “rehumanization” and offered proposed solutions.

In the ensuing discussion, which lasted about twenty minutes, the focus was primarily on exploring new ways to transform hierarchical power relations. Mr. Steffens suggested that moments of resonance between individuals need to be strengthened or expanded. Exactly how this would work in practice requires further discussion and research. The questions asked made it clear that many audience members were very interested in the topic and were able to take away new ways of thinking.

In the next lecture on April 19, 2018, those interested can look forward to a presentation by speaker Hynek Böhm from the Technical University of Liberec on the topic “On Border Construction and Social-Geographical Approaches.” Following the historical and cultural-sociological perspectives on the topic of borders that have already been presented, it remains to be seen which perspective will be discussed in the upcoming lecture—and this is precisely what makes this lecture series so varied.

Text: Petra Eichler, student in the Social Work degree programme

Photos: Cornelia Müller

Contact: