The ‘liberal script’ – the organisation of societies on the basis of individual self-determination – is under pressure: Chinese state capitalism, Putin's illiberal democracy, Islamistic terrorism and the rising populism in Europe and the USA appear to be successful counter-models.

Researchers at the Cluster of Excellence "Contestations of the Liberal Script" (SCRIPTS) seek to understand why liberal democracies have fallen into crisis, despite their political, economic and social achievements. They will be presenting their research approaches for discussion at the second event of the WeSearch series. What are the implications of these investigations for political, societal and individual life in the 21st century? What perspectives and concepts are necessary for understanding the regional and global manifestations of the crisis?

Free Online Event: Livestream 
Live from the Humboldt Forum Berlin
Language: German

Tanja A. Börzel is Professor of Political Science and Chair of European Integration at the Otto Suhr Institute of Political Science at the Freie Universität Berlin. Her research and teaching focuses on questions of institutional change, European integration, diffusion, as well as comparative regionalism and governance. Together with Michael Zürn, she directs the cluster of excellence SCRIPTS – Contestations of the Liberal Script.

Lena Röllicke is a doctoral researcher working in the Towards a Typology of Contestations cluster project. She studied political philosophy, and is researching the interface between democratic theory and social psychology. Her doctoral thesis has a particular focus on identity and emotions in politics and society.

Gwendolyn Sasse is Director at the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS), and Einstein-Professor of Comparative Study of Democracy and Authoritarianism at the Institute of Social Sciences at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Her research includes post-communist transformation processes, and the dynamics of war, migration and protest movements. Her work currently includes projects on the war and border regimes in Ukraine, and social mobilisation in Belarus. 

Gudrun Krämer is a retired professor of Islamic Studies, as well as a historian and political scientist. Until 2019, she was Director of the Institute of Islamic Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin and the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies. She researches and publishes on the topic of Islamic Modernism, with a focus on religion, law, politics & society, Islamic and Islamist movements, secularity and the history of the Middle East and North Africa post-1800. 

Marcelo Caruso is Professor of Historical Educational Research at the Institute of Educational Sciences at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. His teaching and research focus on the transnational spread of modern school education, the connections between mass education and the history of technology in Europe, Latin America and South Asia, and the tensions between education, power relations and politics in the modern era.

Lukas F. Stoetzer is a political scientist and works as a postdoctoral researcher in the cluster project Social Inequalities, Migration and the Rise of Populist Parties. He works on the development of  quantitative methodologies and as well as on comparative research on political and election behavior research.