Keynote: Crossing invisible divides. What are the underlying divisions in German society, and how can we work to bridge them?
The issue
A nation still divided into the ‘old East’ and the ‘old West’? A country with a progressive or a detached youth? A bulwark of stability in a politically fractured Europe? Laura Krause will dig into what More in Common’s research tells us about German society, and how looking at the distinctions between groups’ core beliefs provides richer insights than conventional groupings based on demographics or voting intention.
Laura will also speak about how to turn research into action and share learning from practical, on-the-ground initiatives from More in Common and its partners that focus on redesigning strategy and testing messages in order to connect with new audiences. She will share what More in Common learned from working with partners ranging from large institutional partners to neighborhood associations, from urban to rural setting or what can be learned from projects like Deutschland spricht (My country talks).
Laura Krause
Laura-Kristine Krause is the Germany Director of More in Common, an international initiative set up to build communities and societies that are stronger, more united, and more resilient to the increasing threats of polarisation and social division. More in Common brings together attitudinal research, narrative work, and connecting people across divides and has teams in the UK, France, the US and Germany. Laura Krause previously headed the programme Future of Democracy at the Berlin-based think tank Das Progressive Zentrum and worked on the election campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Martin Schulz in the European Parliament Elections. She is also the Co-Chairwoman of D64 – Center for Digital Progress and consults the state governments of Rhineland-Palatine and Brandenburg at the intersection of digitalization and democracy. She has published on societal unity, institutional reform, digital democracy, and women in politics and was selected as one of the ’40 under 40′ of German society and science in 2017 and 2018. She holds a master’s degree in Political Science from the Free University of Berlin and was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of Washington.