#rp25 speaker Bart Brandsma: Escaping the spiral of polarisation

Who hasn't heard it before: the narrative that it's not ‘us’ but always ‘the others’ who are to blame for everything? However, attempts at polarisation also have real consequences – nationally and even globally. How can we navigate in societies when division and groupthink seem to prevail?

“We urgently must grasp the us-them dynamics”, says polarisation expert Bart Brandsma. At re:publica 24, he will demonstrate how we can use his lessons learned in the offline world for the online and its digital challenges. From Cambodia to Lebanon, from Belfast to Kyiv: Bart draws on polarisation examples from the  various  countries he has worked in. His talk is designed to help us see the daily news from a new perspective.

He will demonstrate his theory of the basic laws of polarisation, as well as the roles all of us tend to play in us-them-thinking, as well as some potential game changers

Bart Brandsma is an advisor, trainer and philosopher who has worked in journalism, the press and television for around 15 years. He has been studying conflict and polarisation since 2005 and is the founder and director of Inside Polarisation VOF and author of the book ‘Polarisation. Understanding the dynamics of us versus them’, which has been translated into several languages.

The motto of re:publica 25 is ‘Generation XYZ’. What is your message for future generations with regard to the digital society?

Bart Brandsma: "Dear future generations, please judge us mildly. At first we did not know how to handle the digital revolutions for almost a decade, but we started to manage from the year 2025 onward to make new media a tool to bond instead of divide, to find cohesion instead of polarisation, more love instead of more hatred. We first needed time to examine ourselves and play around a little, made some big mistakes as well but we do it a bit better everyday now. Hope you can value our efforts? It was a real struggle to make the digital world work for the better and the peaceful world you now live in, you future folks."