Trigger Points

Why do gender-netrual language and cargo bikes trigger so many people? There is more and more talk of a »split in society«. In the everyday perception of many people, too, increasingly irreconcilable camps are confronting one another. As plausible as they may sound, such diagnoses raise questions: How divergent are people’s opinions in reality? And is society actually more divided today than it was at the time of the student protests or in the early 1990s?

We need more clarity – not least because a division can also be talked into existence. Steffen Mau, Thomas Lux and Linus Westheuser create elaborate maps of positions in four arenas of inequality: poverty and wealth; migration; diversity and gender; climate protection. Surprisingly, they find that there is some consensus on many of the big issues. But when certain trigger points are touched, the debate suddenly intensifies: Equality, sure, but please no gendered language! Environmental protection, yes, but who bears the costs? This book is a 360-degree survey of the conflicts surrounding old and new inequalities that provides an indispensable basis for discussion and debunks many myths.

»[This] book has the power to change the prevailing narrative. Berlin-based macrosociologist Steffen Mau... and two of his colleagues have torn apart one of the most popular theses in his field: that of widespread social polarisation...« Tobias Becker, DER SPIEGEL

»No [book] this year has been as convincing as Trigger Points...« Jens-Christian Rabe, Süddeutsche Zeitung

»I want to give a huge recommendation for the book Trigger Points. Eye-opening and really enlightening.« Samira El Ouassil, pirate radio station Powerplay

»Trigger Points is a book that leaves the heated debates behind and soberly asks what things look like in reality. You can be sure that this book will be read with great interest in the party headquarters in the lead-up to the next elections.« Thomas Hummitzsch, der Freitag

»This study leaves many of our certainties about the ›culture wars‹ rattled... It is an urgently needed corrective to the entrenched debates by way of empirical evidence.« WELT AM SONNTAG

»A huge achievement.« Gerald Wagner, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»Overall, this study offers a comprehensive cartography of public opinion in Germany with a previously unseen depth of detail. It is a masterpiece of political sociology, providing a model of how the social sciences can provide accurate diagnoses and useful recommendations based on empirical evidence.« Gerhard Vowe, Tagesspiegel

»An important analysis of society. Trigger Points is a masterpiece of empirical sociological research.« changeX

»A 360-degree survey of the conflicts surrounding old and new forms of inequality. [Trigger Points] provides urgently needed foundations for while also debunking a host of myths.« Natascha Freundel, rbbKultur