The Lonely Century: Coming Together In A World That's Pulling Apart

A Conversation with Noreena Hertz, University College London on June 29, 2021 | Im Rahmen der Reihe "Transatlantic Tuesday" Around the world, millions of people feel more alone, isolated, lonely and alienated than ever before. This was true even before the Corona pandemic and its contact restrictions began, but for many, the permanent lockdown has drastically intensified these feelings. Renowned British economist Noreena Hertz explores the causes of this disturbing trend in her new book, conceiving of loneliness not just as a personal condition, but as a political one - the consequences of which take on extreme features: For a sense of community, many older women in Japan now prefer to go to prison rather than continue living alone at home. In 2018, Great Britain became the first country in the world to create a "Ministry for Loneliness." In Germany, too, two-thirds of the population consider loneliness to be a serious social problem. How did it get to this point? What do we need to do to rebuild resilient connections with each other? A social analysis, a critique of capitalism and a wake-up call at the same time - The Lonely Century hits the nerve of our epoch. Noreena Hertz is a professor of economics and, since her worldwide bestseller The Silent Takeover: Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy, has been regarded as the front woman of the globalization skeptics. Her articles appear in The New York Times, The Guardian, Die Zeit and El País, among others. Hertz has been a keynote speaker at Google Zeitgeist, TED and the Davos Economic Forum. Her non-fiction books have been translated into 22 languages. She is one of Britain's best-known intellectuals and has become a style icon for her "Radical Chic."