Erfahrung (in) geteilter Wirklichkeit.

Drei kritische Anmerkungen zum Erfahrungsbegriff in unserer Gegenwart

Abstract

Experience must be treated with caution - at least in political and academic debates in the context of the crises of contemporary society.  After all, the political and social crises of the present are often explained in terms of people's »experiences« and - conversely - fueled by politically motivated claims about experiences. Such essentialized concepts of experience and their political use close the space of the political and hinder political deliberation. In political debate, there is a danger that discursively constructed experiences of irreconcilable polarization on the one hand, and worlds of experience of hyper-political individualism on the other, will hinder any form of political balance and consensus. The article critically examines the concept of experience in the context of this discourse on three levels. By drawing on sociological theory of knowledge, a supra-individual and de-essentialized concept of experience is proposed, which should be helpful in the critical analysis of contemporary political relations. It can be used to initiate reflection in times in which experiences are hypostatized, i.e. essentialized, uncritically valorized in social theory and overestimated in their significance for the political events of the present. A sociological-constructivist concept of experience contributes to »regaining« a political concept of experience.