A central characteristic of crises is a lack of stable foundations. In times of upheaval, this has the effect of reorientation. Re-orientations are forced by the diverse circumstances. In an impulse paper, SOFI researcher Knut Tullius has developed three theses on the problem of the transformation of a sense of community in companies. The theses are based on empirical findings from the current scientific project „Mentalities of upheaval“.

Göttingen, September 30th, 2024 Transformation is the current buzzword of our time. Labour markets are shifting, artificial intelligence is shifting markets, technology appears to be the driver of change. In many companies, one or two employers have been the norm for many years. This contrasts with several changes in a shorter period of time. Employees are increasingly experiencing a loss of social ties within companies. However, „division“ and „polarisation“ in work and life contexts is also perceived as a dramatic development. If we follow sociological development and biological evolution, this perception will point to a future of specialisation. This leads to new formations. People separate and come together with other milieus, with other people, in which the individual can develop more purposefully.

Since 2020, the Sociological Research Institute Göttingen (SOFI) has been investigating the mentality-shaping experiences, perceptions and interpretations of upheaval processes in the working and living environment of dependent employees and their household members in various regions of the Federal Republic of Germany during a project called „Mentalities of upheaval“: in the automotive region of Stuttgart, the aviation and banking metropolitan region of Frankfurt/Main, in peripheralised south-eastern Thuringia and in the structural change region of Rhineland/Ruhr.

„This shows, among other things, that the company as a place of social orientation and for social integration continues to have a mentality-shaping significance,“ according to the first thesis: „Because employees do not understand the capital-labour relationship as a pure exchange relationship of work performance and financial consideration, but also as a relationship of mutual support and also being dependent on each other.“

The second thesis relates to the experience of „multiple transformation“: „The experiences that dependent employees are having in the current “multiple transformation” are weakening and undermining the socially integrative binding forces of the social order in the company. For the groups and employee milieus we surveyed, „transformation“ presents itself as a sometimes confusing mixture of interwoven and sometimes mutually reinforcing processes of upheaval,“ emphasises SOFI researcher Knut Tullius.

These behaviours evoke evocations of communities by means of an awakened emotional and emotional life (affectivity). These evocations form the third thesis.

The researchers recognise differences above all in the form of class-specific and constellation-specific characteristics among semi-skilled and skilled workers in the south-west German car industry and at the airport, which are perceived as more pronounced than among care workers. And it is generally much more pronounced among respondents in the middle and lower employment classes than among members of higher employment classes such as technical and commercial knowledge workers.

Publication

Tullius, Knut (2024): „Es ist so viel sozial kaputtgegangen!“ Die Beschwörung von Gemeinschaft in der Transformation. SOFI-Impulspulpapier.

Free Download Impulspaper:
https://sofi.uni-goettingen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Impulspapier_Beschwoerung_von_Gemeinschaft_2024.pdf

Originalpublication:

Tullius, Knut (2024): „Es ist so viel sozial kaputtgegangen!“ Die Beschwörung von Gemeinschaft in der Transformation. SOFI-Impulspulpapier.


Further Information
http://www.sofi.uni-goettingen

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