Category: Ungleichheit

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Commuters dissatisfaction

Commuting to work is only in few cases a choice. The stress associated with commuting is not negligible. Most employees report low satisfaction levels with commuting to jobs and subsequently this has a negative impact on overall satisfaction with one’s job. A study on urban China shows that employees on formal work contracts can often compensate with shorter weekly working time or higher earnings from work, but only partially. The negative impact of commuting on job satisfaction is rather sticky and substantially higher for employees on informally employed workers in urban China, who do not have resident permits in urban areas. With millions of workers commuting daily to work beyond China, the evidence suggests to take commuters’ dissatisfaction more seriously. Public transport infrastructure has to keep pace with more people working in urban areas, but willing to accept long commuting distances. If we add commuting time to working time, the long hours of work over years constitute a considerable health hazard.

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Legal illegal business

The world of business has to be quite well defined in order to make the borders between legal and illegal practices clear, transparent and enforceable. You name the business or trade and then check the rules governing it. For pharmaceutical products we have rather strict regulations, but smuggling across borders can be a challenge to national customs if online commerce can easily circumvent national controls. Trading on ebay in small amounts is not defined as a tax registered trade, if it is below certain amounts. However, this might be difficult to control and legal rules are at times tough to enforce. The construction sector has been closely scrutinized for illegal practices and sketchy applications of regulations with regard to health and safety of employees. Regulations can be a pain, but they have contributed to safe lives in many instances. (Image: construction of “Scheune” (barn) in Berlin 2026-9, future center of Kulturforum). 

Kulturforum construction 2026-9

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Gaps in Mirror

The legendary figure of “Till Eulenspiegel” (name is a composition of “owl” and “mirror”) is still attracting attention, largely because of his way to reach and sometimes expose ordinary anomalies. We have mirrors all around us, as well as explicit historical details, but we tend to overlook or create voluntarily gaps into mirrored images of the past and their reflections into the present. The novel “The Gaps” (Die Lücken) by Shida Bazyar exemplifies, why dealing with history on a local level is of utmost importance for societies to be aware, deal and transmit fundamental human values. Till Eulenspiegel of the 21st century has a migration background and experience of care work, 2 fields at the cutting edge of humanity. Dealing with the gaps in narratives of locals enters visually into the novel as well. We ar caught t “automatic lly” read ov r the g__s before we realize how huge the gaps in narratives and our mirrors of the past can be. The novel is a great reminder to actively deal with our own gaps. Check the mirrors as well, there might be gaps that blur images of the past.

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Gone napping

There are cultures where naps are part of a national identity. People living in hot climates are very familiar with the benefits of a napping. Due global warming, the spread of napping as a time to recover or limit yourself from strain during the hottest hours during a day. Napping is not limited to humans, the animal world has many species which also adopted the power of napping. As with many processes the duration is of crucial importance. In short, don’t overdo it. Too long a nap is likely to impede a good night’s rest. Even while at work,  colleagues manage to throw in a short re-powering session at times locking doors to feel safe. Techniques differ, but the hotter the workplace, the more the healthy they are. Efficiency and overall productivity at work do not suffer. In many creative professions the time spent at your desk correlates little with indicators of success. However, we still know little about the effects of regular napping on longevity. 

Phoques on beach 2026-9

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Rural urban interrelationship

Cities are no isolated microcosms. They rely on being delivered a huge range of products. Cities have been markets, hubs or platforms for exchange with their surroundings, neighboring communities as well as distant ones. Historically, quite many cities have built walls to limit access and strictly regulated access. In the 21st century with low levels of fertility, the demographic pressure to leave the countryside for jobs is less pressing, but many regions face the shrinkage of the countryside’s population. The interrelationship between the urban centers and the rural surroundings has to be studied and addressed due to the far-reaching consequences for both. Transportation into cities needs public infrastructure which can handle the necessary flows and exchanges of people and products. For too many decades we have focused on an either/or cleavage of an apparent dichotomy of urban versus rural. It is about time to correct this bias and take the rural-urban interdependence more systematically into account. 

uri urban rural interrelationship in food and drink

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Stress in the City

Before the stress in the city makes you sick, try new coping strategies. Of course, you cannot avoid the stress of hotspots like busy crossings or noisy construction sites. And these are only the visible stressors not to mention fine dust particles or mixtures of fragrances. Scientists have started to address these issues under the title of neuro-urbanism. This topic is part of a broader agenda on public mental health which addresses the rise in mental disorders globally. Expanding urbanization is considered a major driver of an often overwhelming cognitive load in cities. Growing into it helps, but many move to cities for professional reasons or simply a job being largely unprepared to the practice of daily commuting for years. Several potential stressors tend to cumulate: High Social density, broad diversity in aesthetics as well as social structure, relationships, social participation or public transport as part of mobility make cities interesting or hard to cope with.

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Glass wall

A glass wall remains a wall even if it is transparent. The glass and steel construction of the Neue Nationalgalerie by Mies van der Rohe has large windows which allow light to flow into the building and create an illusion of transparency as well as openness. However, for most exhibitions “paywalls” are erected to limit access. The Cattelan installation in the gallery erected another light barrier before the official opening in form of the ribbon barring entrance. For those who had experienced the real wall in front of or behind the Brandenburger Tor”, a certain allergy against walls is probably a leftover from those days or years. Hence, Klaus Biesenbach and Maurizio Cattelan tear that wall down!
Thanks go to the Volkswagen Group “Art-4-All” sponsorship which allows free entry on Thursday evenings already. Public-private partnerships are way forward and “Mäzene” can accompany such journeys in multiple ways. 

Cattelan Maurizio at Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin 2026-9

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Gothic Paris

At the “Conciergerie” in Paris you can really and virtually dive into the early medieval period. The royal meeting room and the huge kitchen with 4 impressive stoves brings to life what a royal feast had been like. A guide with virtual reality adds to the lively experience of history of French royalty. Some might like the later functions of some rooms in the annex, where prisoners of the “Palais de justice” where held. During the French Revolution even a Member of the Royal family was imprisoned and later executed there. A long evolution of historical facts is captured in a relatively small space. The weight and violence of history is an almost overwhelming experience there. The modern lighting is definitely more healthy and the smell of cooking next door is also just happening in our imagination or the animation on the tablet.

Conciergerie Paris 2026-8

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Activity and dementia

In view of the huge challenge of dementia to people and the public health systems, it is primordial to test potential remedies with high precision. So far general measures of just any physical activity like walking were considered beneficial. Recent and more comprehensive data on domain-specific physical activities by Feter et al. (2026) emphasize the importance to differentiate between walking for leisure or walking rather stressed to work. The former contributes to a delay of the onset of dementia, whereas the latter bears higher risks of dementia due to the “negative” stress involved. However, as Kivimäki and Hamer (2026) point out dementia itself has a long gestation period in which persons might reduce physical activities because a “silent” onset of dementia is not yet diagnosed but inhibits already more activities. Commuting to work or leisure might already be a challenge in early dementia particularly if public transport has to be organized independently. 

Commute in Berlin by underground U-Bahn

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Sleepless sleep

The reasons why we pass an almost sleepless night or sleep are manifold. Too much to drink, eat or partying are just among the more social ones. The neighbour’s cat or cock may be another one. A recent comment by Pixin Gong (2026) outlined a whole research agenda on heat and sleep deficits. What is the threshold of bad sleep? Do we accumulate over days and how do we recover from it? Which measures and metrics are important? How to determine the social gradient of sleep deficits? The research base is largely missing due to neglecting the link of temperature as crucial impact on sleep in addition to melatonin levels. The implications of expected results can be far reaching like re-organization of homes, urban planning and architecture. (Image on the right: Rooster 1924 and Sleeping Muse 1910 by Brancusi, Centre Pompidou Paris in Berlin Exhibition Neue Nationalgalerie 2026-5)