Post materialism

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Post- materialism (from the Latin post 'behind', 'after' and materialism ) is an expression from sociology , political science and cultural theory and describes an attitude of individuals or entire population groups ( social milieu ) not to strive for the tangible material, but that To want to achieve “behind” or the “superior”. For post materialists, the pursuit of material goods is of less importance than certain “abstract”, “higher” values . This can include, for example, health , freedom , happiness , culture , education , animal or environmental protection .

Emergence of social change

According to Ronald Inglehart , post-materialism is a consequence of mental and physical security that creates a wealthy materialistic society. In such a society there is a continuous individualization of people, so that people living in a post-materialistic society develop cultural, social and intellectual needs beyond their existential needs. Inglehart justifies the emergence of these needs in such a society with the deficiency hypothesis , which states that needs gain in appreciation which are not yet satisfied and are scarce. These social developments are causing a change in values .

Roland Benedikter names the following main characteristics of a philosophical post-materialism:

  1. ambivalence
  2. Blur
  3. Conflictuality
  4. Openness and openness
  5. Processuality
  6. Indirectness and floating
  7. Inexplicity
  8. Individuality centering

Stagnation in changing values ​​in Germany

Inglehart constructed an index to measure post-materialistic value orientation; however, it is controversial. This index is often used to determine the distribution of materialistic and post-materialistic orientations in the population and their connection with party preferences. In the 1980s, ALLBUS surveys showed a sharply increasing proportion of postal materialists in Germany (1980 to 1986 from approx. 13 to approx. 26 percent of the respondents). CDU supporters had the highest values ​​for materialistic, the Greens the highest values ​​for post-materialistic orientation. A continuation of the change in values ​​in the direction of post-materialistic values ​​is no longer clearly recognizable today.

The German Youth Survey found that the post-materialistic orientation in German youths determined with such an index hardly correlates with the variables self-development, critical ability and prosociality (which, according to Kohlberg's theory of moral development, should be an indicator of a developed moral consciousness). Such a correlation only emerged between post-materialism and the willingness to engage in alternative political activities.

The cause is assumed that the striving for self-realization can express itself in a materialistic and a post-materialistic variant, whereby the materialistic orientations in Germany have been growing again since 1990. The return of scarcity has caused a “change in values”. Prosocial behavior (e.g. in a team or in organizations) is also not necessarily associated with post-materialistic morality; it can be opportunistically or egotistically motivated, for example through the anticipation of rewards.

literature

  • Ronald Inglehart: Modernization and Post-Modernization. Cultural, economic and political change in 43 societies. Frankfurt am Main / New York 1998.
  • Roland Benedikter (Ed.): Post-materialism. The second generation. Vienna 2001–2005.
    • Volume 1: Introduction to Post-Materialist Thinking. 2001.
    • Volume 2: Man. 2001.
    • Volume 3: The Work. 2001.
    • Volume 4: Nature. 2002.
    • Volume 5: Capital. 2003.
    • Volume 6: Globalization. 2004.
    • Volume 7: Perspectives on Post-Materialist Thought. 2005.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Roland Benedikter (Ed.): "Postmaterialism - Volume 1: Introduction to post-materialistic thinking", Vienna 2001, pp. 63–66
  2. ↑ Michael Terwey :: On "post-materialism" in the Federal Republic of the 80s: an exemplary analysis with the data of the cumulative ALLBUS 1980-86. ZA-Information / Central Archive for Empirical Social Research, 25, 1989, pp. 36–44. On-line
  3. ↑ Ursula Hoffmann-Lange: Youth and Democracy in Germany: DJI Youth Survey 1. Springer Verlag, 2013.
  4. ↑ Hans-Peter Müller: Change of values. Federal Agency for Political Education , May 31, 2012.
  5. ↑ Stefan Hradil: The social structure of Germany in international comparison. VS Verlag, 2006, p. 275.
  6. ↑ Hans-Werner Bierhoff: Psychology of prosocial behavior: Why we help others. Stuttgart 2009, chap. 8th.