Escalation and Dialog: Contours of a Peaceful Coexistence

In an immigration country like Germany, immigration has led to the formation of new conflict lines, and a generally higher potential for conflict has emerged. The increase of conflicts, which can actually be interpreted as a sign of social progress, nevertheless requires a new culture of debate in order to counteract social disintegration dynamics and to prevent outbreaks of violence. This article shows how to deal with such conflicts in the future. Above all, dialogue is a way of intervening in crises. Dialog has a moderating and reassuring effect, and establishes a culture of debate based on democratic norms. To explore this phenomenon of dialogue and debate, we examine a crisis in the East Saxon town of Bautzen that occurred in 2016 following an influx of refugees.