TF Life Safety
What are the deepest causes of the most pressing problems in Europe and what fundamental changes must take place so that Europe becomes more inclusive, stable and worth living in the future? In our working group we came to the conclusion that especially the occidental people-centeredness is at the root of many crises (including economic crisis, refugee crisis, identity crisis) in Europe. Since the beginning of European modernity, and at the latest since industrialization, an increasing appropriation of nature by humans can be observed. With the change in production methods, it has increasingly been understood as a resource and exploited as such. This hierarchy leads to the destruction of the habitat of various species and also to dominance and power behavior among humans.
In our jointly written discussion paper we outline a vision of an inclusive Europe based on the concept of life security. For us, life security means a clear break with the dualism between humans and the environment towards a circular perception of the world beyond human-centeredness. We are therefore concerned with nothing less than a paradigm shift. To achieve this goal, we have developed recommendations for action in three policy areas 1) environmental policy, 2) social rights and asylum, and 3) education. In this context, we focus on reforms in the areas of climate policy, basic security and school curricula.
Our group consists of the social scientist Tatjana Kuhn (Centre international de formation européenne, CIFE), the historian Anne Bruch (University of Hamburg) and the social scientist Steffen Jäger (Institute for European Politics, IEP). Due to our different academic and professional backgrounds, we have developed an interdisciplinary approach to stimulate sustainable development processes at local, national and European level.
The discussion paper on the concept of life security in Europe can be found here: ALTEU! Das Konzept der Lebenssicherheit in Europa