Conservativism: A Cultural-Psychological Exploration 3031512049, 9783031512049

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SpringerBriefs in Psychology Theoretical Advances in Psychology Enno Freiherr von Fircks

Conservativism: A Cultural-Psychological Exploration

SpringerBriefs in Psychology

SpringerBriefs in Theoretical Advances in Psychology

SpringerBriefs present concise summaries of cutting-edge research and practical applications across a wide spectrum of fields. Featuring compact volumes of 55 to 125 pages, the series covers a range of content from professional to academic. Typical topics might include: • A timely report of state-of-the-art analytical techniques • A bridge between new research results as published in journal articles and a contextual literature review • A snapshot of a hot or emerging topic • An in-depth case study or clinical example • A presentation of core concepts that readers must understand to make independent contributions SpringerBriefs in Psychology showcase emerging theory, empirical research, and practical application in a wide variety of topics in psychology and related fields. Briefs are characterized by fast, global electronic dissemination, standard publishing contracts, standardized manuscript preparation and formatting guidelines, and expedited production schedules. Series Editors Jaan Valsiner, Aalborg University Aalborg, Denmark Carlos Cornejo, Escuela de Psicologia Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Santiago, Macul, Chile SpringerBriefs in Theoretical Advances in Psychology will be an extension from the currently renovated Annals of Theoretical Psychology in the direction of bringing short, single (or multiple) authored theoretical advancements across all areas of psychology to the international audience. The focus is on the development of innovative theoretical approaches and their discussion. The Series will have a clearly defined international and interdisciplinary focus – even if it remains within the discipline of psychology. Featuring compact volumes of 100 to 115 pages, each Brief in the Series is meant to provide a clear, visible, and multi-sided recognition of the theoretical efforts of scholars around the world. It is targeted to researchers, graduate students, and professionals in Post-BA level psychology, education, anthropology, and sociology. Briefs are published as part of the Springer’s eBook collection, with millions of users worldwide. In addition, Briefs are available for individual print and electronic purchase.

Enno Freiherr von Fircks

Conservativism: A Cultural-Psychological Exploration

Enno Freiherr von Fircks Master of Science in Political and Social Psychology Sigmund-Freud-Universität Vienna, Austria

ISSN 2192-8363     ISSN 2192-8371 (electronic) SpringerBriefs in Psychology ISSN 2511-395X     ISSN 2511-3968 (electronic) SpringerBriefs in Theoretical Advances in Psychology ISBN 978-3-031-51204-9    ISBN 978-3-031-51205-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51205-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Paper in this product is recyclable.

Declarations

Conflict of Interest  The author declares no conflict of interest. Funding  The author declares not having received funding. Ethical Approval  Ethical approval was confirmed by the Ethics Committee of the University of Keele: PSY-2021-335. Consent to Participate  Participants were informed about the study and consent to participate was sought before the study took place. Consent for Publication  Participants were explicitly asked whether they consent their data to publication. Author’s Contribution  The article is a single contribution of Enno Freiherr von Fircks.

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Series Editor’s Preface: Transcending Labels

This small book is about the danger of using labels as if these were equal to the reality. William James reminded us all about that danger in his “Psychologists’ Fallacy” in his principles back in 1890. He understood the magic power of words. We need words to reference phenomena—and then—we start to take the words for the phenomena themselves. In James’ words, The great snare of the psychologist is the confusion of his own standpoint with that of the mental fact about which he is making his report. … The psychologist … stands outside of the mental state he speaks of. Both itself and its object are objects for him. … He himself meanwhile, knowing the self-same object in his way, gets easily led to suppose that the thought which is of it, knows it in the same way in which he knows it, although this is often very far from being the case1

James’ warning applies well to the social sciences’ coverage of the label conservatism and its opposite—liberalism. These words begin as classificatory descriptors and are then extended to become essences of the phenomena they were meant to represent. Furthermore, these words acquire ideologically charged surplus meanings of affective kind. The contrasted labels that are targets of coverage in this book are widespread in society—conservative as contrasted with liberal are terms that in political discourses are used without much hesitation. More importantly, this use often goes beyond the political discourses and starts to be used in human psychological descriptions of oneself in opposition to the other. And the labels’ additional evaluative connotations, the labels have acquired in such use do not contribute to conceptual clarity. If I believe I belong to one of the labelled groups, I automatically assume the evaluative orientation toward the other, and vice versa. Political descriptions of general sociological kind become essentialist personality attributions in interpersonal relationships. As such, these become tools for stigmatization—a dangerous enterprise of the human minds under the influence of political turmoil in a society.

 James, W. (1950). Principles of Psychology. New York : Dover, p. 190.

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Series Editor’s Preface: Transcending Labels

The author of this book demonstrates through his work the futility of the application of labels coming from the socio-political realm to the personality domain. While the standard ways of discovering conservatism in social psychology are based on questionnaires made up from elements of values-laden themes in a society at the given time, his in-depth interview study of informants who claim to be “conservative” reveals a plethora of their basic human values as they describe their relationships to family, work, community, and society. What we learn from these interviews is that the assumed “problem” of “being conservative” amounts to the very basic issues of being human in general. Furthermore, such focus on being human is of historically tested and proven quality—while taking risks to act in a new way in a new societal context, the secure base for that new action needs to be set up in the context of the key social network that makes new innovations possible. And that entails reliance precisely upon the features of ordinary living in one’s kinship network and economic survival conditions where the supposed “conservatism” is actually the guarantee for survival when some new effort fails. The history of all human societies relies upon this basic conservatism of being—never mind the superficial accusations by “liberals” toward “conservatives” (or vice versa) at a particular time period of the political system of given society. This book is also a beginning for a journey by its author to the elaboration of the understanding of society as a whole. Aside from rehabilitation of the value of being conservative at the level of human psyche, the author makes an important claim about the nature of the “political culture” of a society, pointing out that it is necessarily non-Gaussian. This claim is important—yet needs elaboration. The notion of all things in nature and human life being distributed “normally”—by which the bell-­shaped distribution curve is being meant. The origin of that “normal distribution” is attributed to Karl-Friedrich Gauss (1777–1854)—the German mathematician whose ghost, if found, would not be enthused by the use of his name in conjunction with statisticians’ data manipulations of today. In the hands of the latter, the “Gaussian curve” has acquired an axiomatic status requiring all distributable phenomena to converge to that form—after long series of data accumulation. The “normal distribution” has acquired the implicit role of proof of the natural order—at a time (nineteenth century) when the previous (divine) orders were becoming suspect. Politics, in all of its complexity, is not an example of any natural order. It is a socially constructed form that regulates societies in their histories. Hence to expect that the Gaussian (“normal”) order can be its regulating principle should be considered absurd from the outset. Yet it has not been—various political interest groups have claimed the value of their particular political claims to be that of the universal order “proven by” the “normal distribution” of some data. The author’s claim about the non-Gaussian nature of political culture needs to be seen as an effort to find a new solution to understanding politics that goes beyond the “big data” fascination of our contemporary social sciences. The author overcomes the “normal curve” by his anthropological study of action processes in everyday activities—such as tennis play. Bringing the basic tenets of Ernest Boesch’s Symbolic Action Theory to bear upon the repetitive acts of hitting

Series Editor’s Preface: Transcending Labels

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balls by a racket demonstrates the deep meaningful activity—tennis play—as the arena for the everyday dynamics of conservative stand of the player that becomes challenged in each and every movement in the game. The second half of the book is dedicated to taking forward the concepts of Symbolic Action Theory and demonstrating how mundane actions in everyday world become the training grounds not for winning the given game but for developing conservative action strategies to win the whole life. What can the reader learn from this book? Aside from a new focus on the ways we live—honoring our own created personal worlds and their societal support niches—we can learn the importance of keeping the different levels of analyses clear from contamination by other levels. At the psychological level of our ordinary lives, we are all conservative—building on the support of our backgrounds. At the level of societal political discourses, we may be referred to as “conservative” or “liberal” or by any other term to which ideological values are added (e.g., “toxic masculinity”)—yet all these political play efforts remain peripheral to our basic ways of being human. Which is conservative—without any labels needed for it. Salvador, Bahia October 2023

Jaan Valsiner

Foreword by the Author: Beyond the Quantitative Assessment of the Conservative Phenomenon

It was only recently that Cultural Psychology as an important branch of psychology tried to embrace the political domain such as in the work of Carriere (2022). Carriere (2022) tried to lay the groundwork for analyzing political phenomena from a cultural-­psychological perspective—something that has not yet been done. The American psychologist is not shy in elaborating on the current trends and foci within political psychology. Mostly, political psychology originates from the try to predict voting and to analyze electoral behavior. For that purpose, political psychology uses advanced quantitative methods (multivariate statistic) to analyze associations between voting and potential predictors of voting (Carriere, 2022). These predictors can then be made fertile for political campaigns in order to target future voters or indecisive voters. However, such an approach remains vague, and it brackets a whole lot of different phenomena that are part and parcel of political psychology, in general. Political ideologies, for instance, conservativism and liberalism, are such significant phenomena. Over the course of the present work, we are going to see that conservativism or liberalism are not only ideologies—something that impacts the way how we form ideas and put ideas into specific narratives—but complex cultures that help us to structure space and time, accordingly. As such conservativism—as well as liberalism—do show their concrete manifestations within the environment and thus they are necessarily cultural. But culture does not hang loosely in the air. Culture only exists insofar as people make use of it and transform cultural givens for their self-­ purposes (Stern, 1924). Culture as such does not possess agency (Boesch, 1991; Valsiner, 2014). Hence, culture exists only in relation to people, and in order to analyze culture we need to analyze people and their relation to their environment (von Fircks, 2022). Analyzing people and their complex experience of their multiple environments sounds trivial from a psychological viewpoint. However, we need to bear in mind that such a cultural-personological (Valsiner, 2021) perspective is more of an exception than the rule within psychology. I want to illustrate the novelty of such an approach when we turn our gaze to the way how psychology analyzes the phenomenon of conservativism. For that purpose, I do not want to give a distinct review about what mainstream psychology has xi

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done on the research about conservativism, but I want to underline the bigger picture and the general axioms with which psychology interprets and makes use of conservativism. In general, conservativism was mostly defined by psychologists in abstract terms. This means that psychologists and scientists defined the phenomenon of conservativism when consulting previous research. Furthermore, those researchers have complemented this theory-driven approach when consulting some of their own observation, studied political campaigns of conservative parties and brought together those observations, and agreed on a specific definition and the core characteristics of the conservative phenomenon. Afterward, they started to translate this definition and its core features into given statements (items) that could function as a whole as a questionnaire potentially assessing the conservative attitude as it was done for example with the following scale of Kirton (1978). Once psychologists and social scientists have translated the conservative phenomenon into items, they started to validate their measurement within a given sample and eventually cross-validated that investigation as it is recommended in quantitative psychology (Everett, 2013). Once the questionnaire has been sufficiently validated, other psychologists or social scientists are appealed to make use of the measurement and to relate the scale to foreign, divergent, or similar constructs and to generate hypotheses for these specific types of associations. Some of those associations have been established between the phenomenon of conservativism and populism (Zumbrunnen & Gangl, 2013), openness for experience (Hiel & Mervielde, 2004), social dominance theory (Pratto et al., 1994), and the authoritarian personality (Crowson et al., 2005), among many other constructs. I will not doubt the general results of those studies. However, I want to raise the concern that conservativism is more than just a scale or several scales. There is something fundamentally flawed with assessing the phenomenon of conservativism from a quantitative perspective. And this is a methodology issue that we need to address in the following. As we have above-mentioned, a psychologist or social scientist consults the literature about the phenomenon, here conservativism and tries to reach a synthesis between multiple definitions. Yet, we become aware that the social scientist operates as a potential analyst trying to define the phenomenon by himself/herself and his/ her synthesis of the literature. This means that many definitions of the phenomenon—again for our investigation, conservativism—are more or less taken for granted in their bigger picture while potentially outlining some smaller blind spots that are rectified in a revised version of the questionnaire. However, what is missing within such a perspective is the dialogical and ethnographic component that is inherent to all psychological phenomena. Hence, the phenomenon of conservativism comes only into being from a monological perspective, which runs counter to the general premises of science. Regarding that, we can conclude that the psychometric assessment of the conservative phenomenon brackets the negotiation of what conservativism means for the people and how they interpret the term. In a questionnaire, the participants are not given the opportunity to reflect openly on a question and to negotiate the meaning of the related item. As such, they are more or less

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forced to accept an ambivalent definition of the phenomenon to which they can only agree or disagree. Often, participants score in the middle of the scale, which is in accordance with the normal distribution of psychological phenomena, generally. This means that they agree to some extent but not to others and which shows the need to openly discuss a question and to elaborate on some thoughts. As we know from the great Russian scholar Vygotsky when we try to elaborate on something linguistically, we change the respective thought and reach a new qualitative form of exactly that thought, which means that speech changes thought inherently (Vygotsky, 2012). However, this linguistic-dialogical perspective gets lost in the simple administration of a conservative questionnaire. Yet, we do not want to stop our general critique about the mainstream assessment of the conservative phenomenon. If we take into account our dialogical criticism, we need to ask ourselves the question dialogical for whom? Meaning can be only assessed within a person that gives meaning to a certain event, situation, object, and so forth. This shows us that we cannot assess meaning without taking into account the person. The person controls the parts of himself/herself and makes use of them accordingly, such as the person uses the hand in order to hunt for food and to eat food or when the person uses his/her attention to solve a complex problem (Stern, 1924). This means that the person’s self-determination tendency, his/her inner teleology is crucial and needs to be assessed when we investigate meaning-making, such as the meaning of conservativism. Scale answers are only smaller parts of the person that he or she uses in order to fulfill the task of finishing the questionnaire. However, they must not be used to lead us to a general definition of conservativism because the parts do not control the person; on the contrary, it is the person controlling the parts (Stern, 1924). What are the implications of the above-mentioned? The answer might seem trivial. But the quantitative assessment of the conservative phenomenon is an impersonalistic one, bracketing the person and his/her teleology, which is the inner drive to make use of the person’s parts that unfold in manifold ways (Stern, 1924). Our approach to the conservative phenomenon is different and can be described as cultural-personalistic (Valsiner, 2021). This means that for our scientific investigation we begin with the person and his/her self-determination tendency, and his/her inner teleology, which makes the person to experience and appropriate the environment in many peculiar ways. Thus, it is personalistic in a way of starting with the person and his/her needs and cultural insofar as the person experiences and interprets the culture for his/her self-determination tendency—that is his/her tendency to make the outer world more compatible with the inner world (Stern, 1924). At all beginning, there is personalism: the conviction that unified, autonomous and value-­ creating persons do exist and that as persons they are capable of actions and that their actions are directed towards the fulfilment of purposes. (p. 20)

All of that cannot be accomplished via the simple administration of a (“conservativeness”) questionnaire but requires different syntaxes and methodologies that we are going to define for our present scientific inquiry. This is well mirrored by

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Carriere (2022) arguing what Cultural Psychology might achieve within the field of psychology. Cultural psychology is a co-constructivist theoretical branch of psychology that understands human behavior as a meaning-making process between the individual and the social, historical, and cultural context under which they live (Valsiner, 2014). Instead of focusing on quantitative data, a cultural psychological framework focuses much more on qualitative methods to supplement and provide evidence for theoretical elaborations. With an active, meaning-making agent under investigation, the questions surrounding a cultural psychological analysis lie within thinking through how the individual makes meaning and processes the world around them. (p. 11)

This quote will be our framework with which we want to operate for the scientific investigation of the conservative phenomenon. This framework implies the following axioms that are important to bear in mind when reading the following work. Valsiner (2017) tried to define such axioms for qualitative, cultural psychology in order to facilitate the reading which I think is an appropriate way to help readers what to expect from the work that is presented in the following. A. The phenomenon of conservativism needs to be assessed while accounting for the person, the environment, and the person’s complex experience of that environment. B. The assessment of the conservative phenomenon should take into account the person’s teleology—that is his/her personal needs that make him/her to appropriate and transform the environment in significant ways. C. However, the environment must not be interpreted as a sole force to be overcome but as an actual co-constructive factor that gives shape to the personal needs which might also transform those needs, sustainably. D. All those first three axioms make it indispensable for scientists being interested to investigate the phenomenon of conservativism to study the person in interaction with the environment—something that quantitative psychology is not apt to do adequately. E. Qualitative methodologies need to fill in the gap and should help us to unravel and illuminate what makes something conservable or preservable and how people want to preserve meaning, in the long run. In this regard, the reader can expect two related (but distinct) studies analyzing the phenomenon of conservativism from a cultural-psychological viewpoint—the first study relying more on verbal data while the second study accumulated and interpreted mostly material, ecological data. Vienna, Austria November 2023

Enno Freiherr von Fircks

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References Boesch, E. E. (1991). Symbolic action theory and cultural psychology. Springer New York. Carriere, K. R. (2022). Psychology in policy: Redefining politics through the individual. Springer. Crowson, H. M., Thoma, S. J., & Hestevold, N. (2005). Is political conservatism synonymous with authoritarianism?. The Journal of Social Psychology, 145(5), 571–592. Everett, J.  A. (2013). The 12 item social and economic conservatism scale (SECS).  PloS One, 8(12), e82131. Hiel, A.  V., & Mervielde, I. (2004). Openness to experience and boundaries in the mind: Relationships with cultural and economic conservative beliefs. Journal of Personality, 72(4), 659–686. Kirton, M.  J. (1978). Wilson and Patterson’s conservatism scale: A shortened alternative form. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 17(4), 319–323. Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L. M., & Malle, B. F. (1994). Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(4), 741. Stern, W. (1924). Person und Sache. System des Kritischen Personalismus, Wertphilosophie. Leipzig: J.A. Barth Valsiner, J. (2014). An invitation to cultural psychology. London: Sage. Valsiner, J. (2021). General human psychology. Springer. von Fircks, E. (2022). Eine kurze kulturpsychologische Anleitung für zukünftige Freunde. cultura & psyché, 1–15. Vygotsky, L. S. (2012). Thought and language. MIT press. Zumbrunnen, J., & Gangl, A. (2008). Conflict, fusion, or coexistence? The complexity of contemporary American conservatism. Political Behavior, 30, 199–221.

Acknowledgments

Für meine Eltern. Für meine Schwester. Für meine Freundin. Und für Jaan. “Die Wahrheit wird gelebt nicht doziert.” (Hermann Hesse)

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Contents

Part I Conservativism: Beyond Classic Definitions and Labels Introduction: Looking at Conservativism from Multiple Perspectives������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    3 1 Conservativism Within Personal Experience ����������������������������������������������    3 2 Conservativism in the Social Sciences ��������������������������������������������������������    5 3 Alternative Definitions of Conservativism ��������������������������������������������������    7 4 Culture and Conservativism ������������������������������������������������������������������������   11 5 What Is a Conservative Culture, Then?��������������������������������������������������������   12 6 Exploratory Research Questions: Between Introspection and Extrospection ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   14  Beyond the Static: Analyzing Conservativism Dynamically������������������������   15 1 Introspection������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   15 2 Extrospection������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   17 3 Historically Structured Invitation (HSI): Learning from the Participant��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   17 4 Procedure������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   19 5 Participants ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   19  Results: The Cornerstones of a Conservative Attitude��������������������������������   21 1 The Conservation of Ideal Values����������������������������������������������������������������   21 2 The Conservation of Family������������������������������������������������������������������������   23 3 Preserving Friendships ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������   26 4 Preserving the Job’s Meaningfulness ����������������������������������������������������������   29 5 The Dangers of Conserving an Attitude ������������������������������������������������������   31 6 Preserving Nature ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   32 7 Preserving Traditions������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   34 8 Conserving Material Objects������������������������������������������������������������������������   35 9 Interpretation: Understanding a Preservable Culture ����������������������������������   38

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Contents

 Discussion: The Conservative Culture Is Inherently Meaningful ��������������   41 1 Implications: The Conservative Is a Homo Activus ������������������������������������   44 2 Conclusion: Toward an Active Definition of Conservativism����������������������   45 Part II Conservativism within Symbolic Action Theory Follow-Up Study and Its Reasons: Shifting the Focus More to the Ecological Assessment of the Conservative Phenomenon������������������   49 1 Theoretical Background: What Syntax Do We Need to Assess a Conservative Culture?���������������������������������������������������������������   50 2 Methodology: How to Assess an Action Field Between Intro- and Extrospection������������������������������������������������������������������������������   53 Results: Assessing the Preservation of Meaningful Activity on the Tennis Court������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   57 1 Interpretation: Distilling the Evidence for a Conservative Culture��������������   64 2 Results: Assessing the Meaningful Preservation of Academic Work����������   67 3 Interpretation: What the Preservation of Meaning Within Academia Teaches Us About the Phenomenon of Conservativism��������������   71  Discussion: Between Strengths and Weaknesses of Assessing Conservativism Within Our Action-­Theoretical Scheme ����������������������������   73 1 Conclusion: Towards an Actualized Definition of Conservativism����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   78 Appendixes��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������   81 References ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  117 Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������  123

Part I

Conservativism: Beyond Classic Definitions and Labels

Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance. (William James in Principles of Psychology)

Introduction: Looking at Conservativism from Multiple Perspectives

1 Conservativism Within Personal Experience I am a zoon politikon. And as such, I like to discuss politics. During my undergraduate studies, I started to make friends with people who do not share my political background, which is conservative. I remember that from time to time, I was heavily attacked by my friends because they could not understand why I as a young person could be a conservative—which they considered as a backward-looking, an antiliberal, and a stubborn person. Back then, I knew that being a conservative in young years is not easy, but I was nonetheless surprised by this wave of negative attributes thrown upon me. All of these above-listed attributes are presented as bad, and I asked myself if I am a bad person just because I identify myself as a conservative. That was a crucial moment for me as I started to refrain from political discussion with my friends as I did not want them to repeat their negative labels all the time. But within my Self, there was a heavy drive of clarifying how a conservative person can be a good person. I started to purify the term conservativism.1 It was during my master’s at Keele that I met people who identify themselves as conservative too. They taught me to be proud of my conservative culture and to embrace it. I remember vividly two discussions with like-minded people. We were discussing why so few people in academia (students and professors) would appreciate a conservative body of thought. And we came up with the following

 Some readers might find it odd that I include personal observations in this monograph. They would argue it would be “not scientific.” I reject that. Being clear of one’s personal stand is crucial for science. Valsiner (2017) or Wagoner (2009) explains that when acknowledging one’s personal relation with a topic, research might lead into a fertile synthesis relying on the investigation of phenomena that would remain otherwise hidden. I favor such an approach to psychology and politics. 1

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 E. Freiherr von Fircks, Conservativism: A Cultural-Psychological Exploration, SpringerBriefs in Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51205-6_1

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Introduction: Looking at Conservativism from Multiple Perspectives

agreement: The conservative-minded person is pragmatic; s/he is likely to start working at an early age—rather than spend time in many years of studies—because s/he wants to get autonomous and do something good for his/her town and city. S/ he embraces family and therefore s/he wants to have children early on; the basis for this is to have a secure job. Long years of prolonged studies are strange for the conservative because the conservative wants to realize himself/herself into life rapidly; s/he does not like to invest too much time into utopian ideas but into the construction of something good for his/her family, friends, and neighborhood. S/he likes to create a social system of strong bonds where everybody can rely on each other in times of hardships and crises but also in times of success and joy. It is the core of that social system that s/he wants to preserve for his/her children and grandchildren and those of its friends or village in general. That does not necessarily mean that the system is ultimately fixed but that the essence/the inner core of it is preserved in the long run. Some evidence of our little, personal focus group gets supported by a standard work of the German journalist Jan Fleischhauer who grew up in a liberal (left) environment yet getting estranged from it and becoming a conservative-minded person. Fleischhauer (2009) reports several reasons for that. First, he mentions the patronizing imperative of his liberal education (you should not eat fast food and support the capitalistic American culture) and, second, the utopian nature of his discussions with his liberal professors and students that were actually far away from the people’s everyday issues as well as the over-intellectualization and moralization of the public life. Fleischhauer’s work (2009) is of high value for the present book as he grew up in a liberal environment yet transcending it because of the abovementioned reasons. It is notable that Fleischhauer’s reasons to become a conservative are close to the results of my unofficial focus group that I shared as my personal experience. In the present book, I want to use the autoethnographic intuition of the first page in order to investigate the meaningful action of preserving something that is accompanied by a specific affective-cognitive state. As such, we are in line with Branco and Valsiner’s methodology cycle (Valsiner, 2017) arguing that all knowledge emerges from non-knowledge—that is some kind of guiding intuition based on concrete experience. At this point, we need to ask ourselves why those attributes are reserved for a conservative attitude if we have much evidence of the so-called non-conservative communities embracing similar values and life goals, for example, coal mine workers (see, e.g., Kelliher, 2017). Despite them being categorized as non-conservative, I am convinced that their psyche also operates in a conservative way. In order to evidence such a hypothesis, it is sufficient to look at the electoral behavior in West Germany between 1994 and 2002. In an investigation of Thaidigsmann (2004), it became clear that skilled and unskilled workers preferred voting for the conservative party (CDU) than for the social-democratic one (SPD) in 1994 and 2002, and people with a lower kind of school education favored the conservative as well as the social party equally. This trend was further supported by the German elections in 2017, in which two of the three lower social class milieus favored the conservative party over the social-democratic and socialist parties (Vehrkamp & Wegschaider,

2  Conservativism in the Social Sciences

5

2017). Without a particular kind of affinity for a conservative body of thought within these social milieus, the specific results would not have been possible. From the two anecdotal paragraphs, it becomes clear how a conservative attitude or culture is polyvalent in its meaning. On the one hand, the first experience shows the discreditation of the conservative culture in favor of a liberal one. On the other hand, the second experience shows a positive conservative imperative that flows into the construction of a social system that benefits the conservative’s children, those of his/her friends, as well as those of his/her village and which is therefore morally good and henceforth preservable. It is notable that all ecological approaches to nature and society are inherently conservative—preserving what is and developing on this basis rather than breaking and building a failing structure (Tangaard, 2019). During evolution, for example, the human species developed a different kind of a thumb in comparison to chimpanzees (longer and thicker), which is an important asset to create tools and to manipulate them in manifold ways. This evolutionary example illustrates well that elements of a system—that have been adaptive in the past—are preserved, and on the edge of this preservation, new elements are added altering the structure of the whole while preserving some former essence. This is the key to creative adaption to an ever-­ changing environment (Valsiner, 2014). This might be also true for an alternative definition of conservativism.

2 Conservativism in the Social Sciences There is a famous approach of Wilson and Patterson (1968) that defines conservativism within the following attributes: Importance of strong rules and punishments Militarism, ethnocentrism, and intolerance against any minorities Religious dogmatism Preference for conventional art, clothes, and institutions Resistance against scientific knowledge Anti-hedonism Both social scientists developed a scale from this theoretical background (Wilson, 1973/2013). It is in relation to that measurement effort that Schiebel et al. (1984) constructed a conservativism scale for students as there have been difficulties with pupil’s and student’s samples within the pre-existing scale; here, they define conservativism within four dimensions: preference for authoritarian education, rejection against the emancipation of women, rejection of foreigners, and rejection of sexual liberty. König and Frank (2000) tried to develop a four-factor conservativism scale in tradition of the pioneer work of Wilson and Patterson (1968) as well as of Schiebel et al. (1984). Here, they defined the following dimensions: (I) preference for rigorous education, hard justice, and few liberal politics, (II) rejection of the modern lifestyle and sexual liberty, (III) rejection of women’s emancipation, and (IV)

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Introduction: Looking at Conservativism from Multiple Perspectives

Table 1  Conservativism after König and Frank (2000) Items Authoritarian education Death penalty Castration of sexual offenders Rigorous teachers Freedom to demonstrate (−) Compulsory military service Piercings Tattoos Sexual liberty Sex scenes in movies Graffiti as art Extravagant clothing Marriage between homosexuals Virginity until marriage Subordination of women Women as leaders Preference of men on the job market Low salary for women Men’s involvement in the household (−) Men as head of the family (−) Divorce Abortion Adoption of children by homosexuals Working mothers Single moms

Scale Preference of rigorous education, hard justice, and few liberal politics

Rejection of the modern lifestyle and sexual liberty

Rejection of women’s emancipation

Preference of traditional family relationships

preference of traditional family relationships. In Table 1, I present some of the items that fed into the scale construction. It is within the item construction that we become rapidly aware of the meta-code (Valsiner, 2017) or the symbolic meaning of conservativism for the authors. It is interesting that the scales are constructed by an enumeration of negative attributes. And importantly, these negative attributes are another mirror of the reaction toward me outing myself as a conservative in the academic setting. The conservative is clearly characterized as a backward-looking, antiliberal, anti-modern, and traditionalist person. Kielmansegg (2017) explains in this regard the negative stereotype of the conservative within the academic setting: The conservative’s opponents argue that he has not yet made peace with the democratic setting of his country. However, the exploration of conservativism is not exhausted with the literature inspired by Wilson and Patterson (1968). We need to bring in further definitions of conservativism from a psychological perspective. There is the study performed by Jost et al. (2003) showing that conservativism is linked to resistance to change and predicted by death anxiety, system instability, openness to experience, uncertainty tolerance, and the need for order and closure—among some other predictors. The

3  Alternative Definitions of Conservativism

7

authors conclude that a conservative attitude is thus a motivated social cognition. Haidt and Graham (2007) have extended this perspective and could show that the conservative is motivated by specific moral motives such as in-group loyalty, authority, and purity. Zmigrod et  al. (2021) have enriched those findings showing that conservative-minded people come with reduced strategic management processing, an aversion toward risk-taking, and a heightened sense of caution in decision-­ making paradigms. With those further definitions of conservativism, the researchers argue that the conservative-minded person suffers from a specific syndrome of attitude (see also Priester, 2012) wanting to explain the basic social motivation for adopting a conservative attitude. Yet, what makes something really preservable or conservable remains unelaborated by those studies and becomes a research gap that needs to be filled.

3 Alternative Definitions of Conservativism In 2018, Wolfram Weimer published his conservative manifesto. He defined ten conservative cornerstones. In the following, I will describe the most important cornerstones. Equally important is Roger Scruton’s work about conservativism that will serve to complement Weimer’s cornerstones as well as the work of Kielmansegg (2017). I am using here Prilleltensky’s framework (1997) to prevent the reader sliding into a purely binary categorization of conservativism (morally good vs. morally bad). With the following pillars of a conservative attitude, I only want to point out that the conservative-minded person prioritizes specific goals and values that shapes his/her specific assumptions and actions in the everyday occurrence. Of course, we are able to decipher the normative consequences of these goals and values, especially when the conservative attitude is externalized in a person’s surroundings. Yet, I want to make clear that the opposite of a conservative attitude, the prioritization of alternative values and goals, can also lead to a meaningful life and does not have to be interpreted in a negative way. Every political culture comes with its advantages and disadvantages, and it is important to address both kinds of facts. This is the ultimate reason why—while presenting some cornerstones of a conservative attitude—I will try to engage with those in a critical manner, too. Appreciating the individual or the person builds for Weimer (2018) the baseline for his manifesto. The individual thinks and operates within society as a rational, autonomous, and commonsense-minded person (Kielmansegg, 2017). It is especially the commonsense orientation that protects the conservative from ideology as well as from fanatism. By describing the individual as the point of departure of his social conception, the conservative remains skeptical against all bigger over-­ personal utopias (Fleischhauer, 2009). S/he leans onto the side of the concrete. The conservative mistrusts abstraction and any plans of egalitarianism. S/he is closer to the concrete being than to potentiality, closer to life than to theory, and closer to the individual than to society (Weimer, 2018, p.  18). Of course, operationalizing the

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Introduction: Looking at Conservativism from Multiple Perspectives

individual as a rational and autonomous being can be criticized. Several psychologists would argue that the individual is an emotive being with all kinds of emotions—positive and negative—that make up for the beauty of life (Fischer, 2003) and that make people do all kinds of irrational things. Similarly, a strong belief in the individual power of the human being needs to be criticized as oftentimes change is only achieved by a collective form of political investment such as in revolutions (see Richter, 2009). And a commonsense orientation can lead into a specific mistrust of science and scientific evidence that discredits the generation of non-­sensory knowledge—potentially benefiting the people (see for the advantage of non-sensory knowledge Toomela (2021) or Vygotsky (2012)). Acknowledging family is for the conservative another indispensable social good (Rödder, 2019; Weimer, 2018): For the conservative, family is a geographical and psychological reference point, a compass where s/he finds love, security, trust, and reciprocal help (Kielmansegg, 2017; Scruton, 2019). For Weimer (2018), family as a microcosm holds society together. It is within team ability and cooperation of the family, the multi-perspectivity onto a Gegenstand, the trust and encouragement of widening one’s own social environment, that family shapes the personality of the individual (see also Boesch (1991) or Toomela (2021)). Being there for one another and a willingness for shared responsibility toward each other (Scruton, 2019) is the existential base for the conservative (Weimer, 2018, p. 28). Within the ecological movement, for example, it is often discussed whether someone should get children as too many citizens mean pollution in the long term (see Franck, 2019). The conservative is skeptical against such arguments as s/he points out that children are the solution and that they will take on the responsibility for the existential challenges they are confronted with. The conservative is full of optimistic trust that family will provide the solution, while others perceive it as existential threat. Of course, the secureness of family can be distorted in many different ways by sexual abuse, violence, and obligation—among many other things (see Steinert and Ebert (2020) during COVID-19)—and the pressure of family, for example, to do a specific job or to conform to specific norms needs to be taken into account, too (Perls, 1973). Still, the conservative knows about these dangers and tries to minimize them (Scruton, 2019). Appreciating one’s home is not nostalgia of irreversible time nor discrimination against persons coming from other cultural backgrounds (for Weimer, 2018). Home is the highest degree of transparency (Boesch, 1991, 1998); it is the highest form of secureness (Geborgenheit) where the individual is encouraged to create a social system for itself as well as for its fellow man. It is the place for affiliation (Scruton, 2019) and equally the starting point to discover the world safe and sound and to build something tangible for one’s own little world. The conservative tries to be aware of the dangers of home, the feeling of a too comfortable life, and s/he is appealed to step out of his/her little world in order to enrich his/her personal culture (see also Boesch, 1998). Realizing how progress and globalization improved the world for good, the conservative is also skeptical against the technological and economical imperative of faster, higher, and further (see May, 1991, 2007). The conservative finds himself/

3  Alternative Definitions of Conservativism

9

herself in a dilemma of modernization as s/he acknowledges progress but also the dangers of the modern age. The conservative exercises tolerance of ambiguity and works for progress in his/her very own little world as long as it does good for him/ her and his/her social system. Here, the conservative realizes that not everything is teleological but that friendship, family, traditions, and his/her very own search for God helps to be fully and unconditionally accepted in one’s life (Scruton, 2019; Weimer, 2018). Kielmansegg (2017) reports that conservativism is an answer toward the outgrowths of the modern age asking the question whether man is capable of digesting the ever-new spin of modernization and progress. Conservativism is here a skeptical company of the modern age (Kielmansegg, 2017).2 This means that the conservative acknowledges the potential as well as the dangers of modernization and technological advantage. Cultivating traditions and traditional institutions is for the conservative an attitude that s/he does not want to miss (Scruton, 2019). The conservative is interested in historical buildings, castles, historical towns, and pilgrim paths as s/he realizes the cultural knowledge stored within these constructions (Weimer, 2018). The conservative believes that the past can always be re-appropriated for the better of the future and that s/he and his/her fellow man can learn indispensable lessons from this stored knowledge. This is the basis of tradition: stored knowledge whose outer shell can be altered and adapted to the circumstances of the time but whose inner core is preserved eternally (Dönhoff, 1971). Weimer explains that the conservative does not step out from his/her (cultural) history but that s/he is more likely to step into it ready to extract his very own compass from that learning process. Here, Kielmansegg (2017) leads us to an existential conservativism; history teaches us the advantages of progress. But in a similar vein, these advantages—if they are perverted3—can turn easily into existential threats. The two-faced nature of the modern age makes the conservative realize his/her responsibility for monitoring change and its implicit and explicit consequences for his/her surroundings as well as for himself/herself. Kielmansegg (2017) describes this act as anthropological sustainability. Anthropological sustainability is preoccupied with the question which goals and values might help the human being—in several generations—to lead a meaningful life (see also Peterson, 2018), something that could also be labeled under the term of transgenerational transmission (Tress, 1986). Law and order is another dimension for the conservative (Weimer, 2018). Society needs rules as society needs to be organized in a peaceful manner. Weimer uses the  For Kielmansegg (2017) as well as Scruton (2019), this answer needs to be embedded in a relocation process of conservativism in the twenty-first century in which the conservative attitude needs to address the ecological crisis. I agree on that. 3  The perversion of existential advantages hides itself, for example, in the generation of energy. Nuclear energy and coal-fired power plants—if used excessively—do present us with the existential threat of the climate crisis. The need for cheap energy was in many countries and societies favored over sustainable—but more costly—alternatives. Scruton (2019) uses an interesting example in his book when referring to the plastic bottles that were in the UK once embedded in a complex deposit system, which is now not the case anymore and one of the reasons for an increase in garbage all around the country. 2

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Introduction: Looking at Conservativism from Multiple Perspectives

example of the Rechtsfahrgebot in Germany where car drivers need to drive on the right lane of the motor highway except if they want to pass another car (this goes back to the Napoleonic history of the right-side driving). These rules create an order on which the individual can rely on and predict the unpredictable of his environment and which protects him/her from rule violation by others (Scruton, 2019). It is the predictability of the environment, its stability, that, for the conservative, is an important social good (Kielmansegg, 2017). Noteworthy here is that there is nothing right or wrong about these norms as they could have been invented in the opposite direction; for the conservative, social norms are useful to structure his/her everyday occurrence interdependently with the life of his/her fellow man. The need for those norms is intertwined with the goal of a harmonious co-existence with the social other. For example, a laissez-faire education—not relying on any social norms guiding the individual in a specific system—that comes with the appeal of exploring the world without any guidance is not an option for the conservative (Scruton, 2019), something that has been also proven to stimulate chaos instead of order (Lewin et  al., 1939). Yet, we need to acknowledge that social norms do develop (Sherif, 1968) and that holding on to obsolete social norms can lead into the preservation of something that is not preservable anymore. Supporting property, ownership, and welfare is equally important for the conservative. What does this mean concretely? Again, the conservative tries to create a tangible social system for himself/herself, his/her family, and his/her fellow man. It is within that social system that the conservative likes to be a role model. S/he is estranged from the turbo-capitalism (Dönhoff, 2003) where enrichment for himself/ herself or his/her ego is the via regia. No, the conservative likes property and ownership from which the social other can benefit. With his/her very own hands (work), s/ he likes to do something for his/her microcosm (village/town) as a pharmacist, a teacher, a pastor, a general practitioner, a baker, and a physiotherapist—or a professor—among many other social professions. It is especially in these jobs where the conservative can do something good for persons in unfavorable circumstances and the reason why property and ownership always come with the moral imperative of welfare (Weimer, 2018). Overall, we see that alternative definitions of a conservative culture are inherently different from the one of the social sciences during postmodernism. And we realize that the conservative can be defined as a social, caring, and involved citizen. Rooted in tradition, in family, in home, in his/her cultural background, and in property, s/he gathers his/her strength to become involved with life and the life of his/her fellow man. Moreover, the conservative attitude is characterized by an anthropological sustainability (Kielmansegg, 2017) raising the question of how much progress and modernization is healthy for the human being and its social system in order to lead a meaningful life. Here, we are able to witness—within these alternative definitions—that conservativism helps people to lead and structure a meaningful life. Yet, in a similar vein, we need to point out the blind spots of such an operationalization, critically. The dangers of a conservative attitude can hide themselves within a too individualistic attitude that denies the social component necessary for change (see Fox, 2011), that prioritizes a commonsense-minded orientation

4  Culture and Conservativism

11

potentially undermining the fruits of non-sensory knowledge or in other words research, an over-focus on the notion of family and its secureness while not discussing potential peer pressure or the intergenerational transmission of trauma (Tress, 1986), the preservation of norms that have been once meaningful but that have now fallen out of time, as well as an over-skepticism toward the benefits of the modern age (Knauber, 2015). When we speak about the positive effects of conservativism onto a specific social system, we equally need to keep in mind the potential negative effects of exactly such an attitude. There is another critique that we need to face honestly. Working with attributes can be interpreted as a-theoretical and a-historical. This is surely a major flaw regarding the points mentioned by Weimar—for instance. Yet, what the present study seeks to answer is something different: The predominant question is what makes something actually preservable—so we want to focus on the mechanisms of how something becomes worth to be preserved and by which trajectories this preservation is targeted. However, I wanted to include Weimar’s work as it resonated highly with the audience when it was first published being fully aware that working with labels is not perceived as scientifically robust.

4 Culture and Conservativism In the preceding chapters, I was talking about a conservative culture. However, we have not yet defined what I mean by culture and how it might relate to conservativism. But first let us define culture. Culture is an action field (Boesch, 1991). An action field is structured by needs and goals between person and environment (Lewin, 1926). These needs and goals have positive or negative valences (Boesch, 1998, 2002) attracting the person or pushing him/her away. These needs and goals guarantee the functionality of the person and help the individual to create its very own cultural environment based on the material environment (Toomela, 2021). It is within these needs and goals that the individual autonomously creates its own space (and time), which allows to satisfy pressing needs and goals more easily as if the social space was not to be manipulated. Here, the space becomes symbolically meaningful for the person, and psychological researchers and practitioners are only able to decipher the symbolic meaning if they get a glimpse into the goal and need hierarchy of the respective person (von Fircks, 2022a, b, c, d, e). That sounds easy at first sight. But I would like to give an autoethnographic example—which is first of all nothing to do with conservativism—to underline the complexity of our theory. Some years ago, I was visiting a friend in France who is a farmer and lives in the Pyrenees. There, he owns some meat cows that he sells to earn him a living. When I was visiting him and while we were drinking coffee together, he told me that he has lost a cow because it fell and died. Instantly, I was saying to him: La pauvre ! (Poor her). He was looking at me weirdly, and I was asking myself if I have said something that offended him by. Only after some time, I

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Introduction: Looking at Conservativism from Multiple Perspectives

grasped the complexity of his reaction. I realized that I come from another cultural background; here animals are regarded mostly as pets with an own soul, and which are treated and cuddled like human beings, which was the reason why I said Poor her. But of course, the action field of my friend is differently structured regarding animals. They are not seen as animals, but they symbolize complex work. My friend climbs up the mountains with the cows in order for them to have better grass to eat. He does that not because he wants to do something good in the first place but because, that way, they grow bigger about 30 kilos. Consequently, he is able to sell the cows at a higher price afterward. So, instead of saying poor her showing empathy with the cow, I think a different reaction would have been more adequate such as I am sorry for you empathizing with his work. It is this autoethnographic example that shows how we value things differently in regard to our needs and goals that compose our very own culture (Toomela, 2021). Here our space becomes meaningful personologically. And even if we use the same terms (cows) in a conversation, that does not necessarily mean we are talking about the same things or reach a mutual understanding. A mutual understanding requires a glimpse into the structured action field (culture) of the social other (von Fircks, 2021a, b).

5 What Is a Conservative Culture, Then? Family is a central point within the compass of a conservative. And of course, this family life happens in a meaningful environment, a home that will be structured in a way that it facilitates love, friendship, cooperation, mutual help, joy, but also innovation and creativity as well as pushing one’s boundaries. Showing deep respect for the dignity of the person will manifest itself not only in the relationships with the conservative’s family but also within his/her wider social system where s/he wants to take responsibility for something. Elements of that responsibility will be present in the conservative home setting too as well as within some ideal values. Elements of personal and collective (societal) history will be present in the surroundings of a conservative. Family bibles, jewelry, decoration, ornaments, novels, poems, historical books, family photos, music, instruments, as well as verbal stories—among many other things—will convey important lessons or values that the conservative finds to be preservable for his action field. Personal surroundings will be complemented by traditions in order to structure the flow of everyday life. The range of traditions is unimaginably rich. However, it will always structure space and time of the action field, e.g., a family eating together every evening at the same time. Of course, the food will vary, the clothes will be different throughout the years, but essentially the tradition of eating together and of engaging in conversation will be preserved year after year. Law and order will become meaningful in the conservative home by clear social norms that will serve to protect traditions and values of the action field, e.g., no eating while watching television, not leaving the dinner table until everybody has finished, being responsible for tidying up, and so forth.

5  What Is a Conservative Culture, Then?

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And lastly, work will be a predominant topic for the conservative. However, work will not function as a means of showing off or boosting one’s ego nor to enrich oneself continuously. The work of the conservative in his/her nearer action field will manifest itself socially where s/he tries to earn him/her a living while doing something good for the social system s/he wants to preserve. These needs and goals will not be hierarchized. Importantly, the conservative tries to reconcile the different needs and goals one with the other, or in other words, s/he tries to harmonize them. Deep respect for the individual might be shown in the conservative’s caring leadership at work. Tradition might be shown in the conservative’s trying to build a big family—among of course economic reasons. The preservation of important personal and collective historical lessons might manifest itself in the conservative’s education. And slowly all these different needs and goals will not be perceived as contradictory but as complementary and reconcilable—or in Kurt Lewin’s terms as interdependent. Ultimately, the conservative will try to unite all of these different conservative loops (family loop, tradition loop, work loop, value/history loop, respect loop) into a personal life philosophy (Zittoun, 2016) that will then structure harmoniously his/her personal action field. Again, it is the combination of these different elements leading into a specific life philosophy that makes up for the definition of a potential conservative culture. The elements understood in a singular way would not be sufficient in order to characterize a specific human conservative culture as those elements might be present in other (political) cultures—one way or the other—too. Even people not currently identifying as conservatives do show—to a certain extent—conservative elements within their psyche as the preservation of a meaningful (basic) system is the prerequisite to lead one’s life. In Cultural Psychology, this is called the liminality of being (Valsiner, 2014). Our psyche is organized within a qualitatively different whole composed of different parts that are important to adapt to one’s environment. Conservative and liberal elements are within such a cultural-psychological perspective complementary, two polarities of one whole both being important for the organization of one’s psyche sometimes pointing more to a preservable direction and another time to a more re-­ adjusting, creative one. Even if the present work takes a deeper focus onto the conservative pole of the human’s psyche, that does not mean the other side is not important for the functioning of the psyche.4  How does such an approach relate to mainstream literature about social, critical psychology? As Leontev (1978) and Luria (1976) have shown in their activity theoretical framework, the material environment is shaping the individual’s psyche—embedded in a specific group or class—including perception, reasoning, and inference, among many other intellectual processes. Leontev (1978) has argued that these basic differences emerge because of class difference or due to social oppression, which leads him to the conclusion that these differences should be reversed to make all people equal. I have a different opinion. While there is no doubt about the nature of the environment shaping our psyche, differences within a cultural setting can be also perceived as enriching. It is based upon differences in a cultural setting that I might adopt a different stance toward an issue I am confronted with in my life-space. The life-spaces of different people interacting are not necessarily structured in a negative interdependent way (e.g., oppressive), but they can be intertwined in a positive, symbiotic way (e.g., the person with more privileges teaches me how to emancipate myself). Meaningful relationships such as in family or with friends that incorporate different posi4

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Introduction: Looking at Conservativism from Multiple Perspectives

6 Exploratory Research Questions: Between Introspection and Extrospection Above, we have defined a conservative culture, theoretically. Yet we lack the precise assessment of such culture, empirically. What are the options to check whether this hypothesized conservative culture exists and if this social system does something good for the action field of the person as well as those of his/her family, friends, or colleagues? It is notable here that my definition of conservative culture is only the starting point of a more encompassing one. By the empirical assessment of the phenomenon, I wish to enlarge the theoretical underpinnings that I presented above. The empirical analysis will enrich the theoretical definition of a conservative culture (Valsiner, 2017). The work is thus defined in a bi-directional way. Of course, our alternative definitions of conservativism will path us the way to approach the conservative (deduction), and yet the conservative will have a high degree of freedom to define his very own symbolic meaning of the term (induction). The following questions will be the central focus of the present work: Question 1: How will the conservative’s culture manifest itself, verbally or ideally? What does it mean for the individual to be conservative? What are key elements for him/her? Does this conservative attitude relate to the individual’s lifestyle? What are his/her perceived advantages of a conservative culture? A potential danger might be to only assess specific narratives. Yet, I try to decrease that risk by Question 3. Question 2: Will the abovementioned conservative culture manifest itself in the home setting of a conservative individual? Which elements are central for that and what do these mean for the individual? Strong feelings or a strong desire for specific preservable norms might be of central interest, here. Are we then able to assess conservative objects filled with personal meaning regarding home, family, traditions, values, social work, respect, and responsibility for the social other? And what do those objects transmit? Question 3: How will the verbal and non-verbal results enrich the theoretical underpinnings? In which direction will they point, the one of the social sciences such as by Schiebel et al. (1984) or the alternative definitions of conservativism such as by Weimer, Kielmansegg, and Scruton?5

tions with different privileges become meaningful for myself in order to order my life, personally, and to become a mature, responsible citizen. I argue that the conservative interprets those relationships not in an oppressive way but as enriching, which runs against the argument of critical psychology. 5  One might raise the concern that the specific interview schedule will ultimately lead the participants to the second approach of conservativism. I consider this as improbable. As the interested reader will see—in the method section—the questions are embedded in a semi-standardized interview (What does the term preservable or conservable mean for you? What is preservable in your life?). The open nature of these questions shows that the participants can make a turn in their preferred direction not necessarily causing the participant to view the questions within the second theoretical framework.

Beyond the Static: Analyzing Conservativism Dynamically

“Statistics are static, they fix human phenomena that are in their very core dynamic” (von Fircks, 2020, p. 723). Items on any scale of psychological study are such a fixation by the means of the scientist’s definition of a respective term and are argued to be understood as non-ambiguous (see Bühner & Ziegler, 2009). Yet, every question or item is, to a certain extent, ambiguous (Valsiner, 2017), and as scientists, we need to understand how the specific question is understood in order to understand its answer (see Rosenbaum and Valsiner (2014) on the process of answering rating scales). So, the conservative culture shows up as a phenomenon that we need to analyze from a dynamic perspective. The polyvalent meaning of the term makes it impossible to use abbreviated introspection (items) that leaves the participant in an ambivalent space without being able to question or negotiate the meaning of the investigated phenomenon. Furthermore, a survey leaves out important parts of the phenomenon, the environment of the participant which gives rise to his interpretation of the respective term—conservativism. Introspectionextrospection combined within one approach would do justice to the complexity of human beings moving in time and space (von Fircks, 2021). The meta-code of the present work is thus more complex than the Gaussian distribution honored in statistics as well as enforced linearization of all human phenomena (Valsiner, 2018). I suggest an alternative: A political culture is necessarily non-Gaussian.

1 Introspection With the first research question, I try to assess the meaning of the term conservative attitude or culture for the participant. I will organize the abovementioned questions in a semi-standardized interview. Semi-standardized is important here as I do not © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 E. Freiherr von Fircks, Conservativism: A Cultural-Psychological Exploration, SpringerBriefs in Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51205-6_2

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Beyond the Static: Analyzing Conservativism Dynamically

want to superimpose my interpretation of the term onto the participant. I argue that this kind of phenomenological interviewing provides the participant with full autonomy of defining its conservative culture, its core elements of the term, as well as the role it plays in its life. Researchers need to realize that they learn from the participants and not the participants from them. This is an important meta-code of the present work. An interview is not a lecture where a researcher presents his scientific core elements that he only wants to be confirmed through a methodological toolkit (Smedslund, 2016). No, the goal of research is to broaden scientific concepts, to push boundaries, and to gain new knowledge that sheds light onto hidden parts of the phenomenon (Valsiner, 2017). Methodology needs to be therefore democratic; the researcher is appealed to de-construct principal power imbalances that make the participant feel to answer the question in a particular manner. A democratic climate of genuine interest is argued to be a key element for the process of learning from a person (Lewin et al., 1939). The partnership model of Valsiner et al. (2005) provides researchers with the skills that are in accordance with the meta-code I presented beforehand. Here, interviews are openly structured—question, interpretation, answer, interpretation, question—while the whole cycle begins anew. Researcher and participant constantly negotiate the meaning of their conversation and reassure themselves if they reach mutual understanding. This is in accordance with Gestalt skills (Lichtenberg, 2012; von Fircks, 2023) that are used to enhance genuine learning through dialogue by clarifying where someone comes from and why one interprets the following in this or that way. The interview is henceforth an open field, not pre-defined (in phenomenological terms, it is a bracketed space), in which both researcher and participant enter equally and try to meet (for this specific semi-­ standardized interview schedule, see Appendix D). The discursive elements of the present work will be organized in themes or categories that underline the specific experience of a conservative culture while paying sufficient attention to the elements that account for that category. For that purpose, thematic analysis was carried out relying loosely on Braun and Clarke’s guidelines (2006). After initial familiarization with the data transcripts—multiple thorough readings—codes were generated by one researcher (myself). Codes were then checked against the verbal data points within the transcripts (see also Alhojailan, 2012). Only if the codes were able to capture the picture of a certain paragraph, themes were generated by looking for thematic convergences within the data transcripts (Aronson, 1995). Themes were then compared with the initial codes in order to cross-validate. If the answer within this cross-validation was positive, thematic analysis was terminated. This procedure was repeated for every single transcript. Afterward, transcripts were compared within their themes, and a thorough summary was built up encompassing all transcript’s themes and codes within their similarities and differences (see Appendix C).

3  Historically Structured Invitation (HSI): Learning from the Participant

17

2 Extrospection Verbal meaning making is facilitated by environmental givens (Wagoner, 2009; Werner, 1956), and non-verbal knowledge precedes verbal meaning making (Valsiner, 2017). As a conservative culture is present ideally (goals and needs of a person) and materially (environment is structured based on that), we need a wholistic analysis method. Lang (1992, 1993) used semiotic/symbolic skills to enhance his scientific understanding of the investigated phenomenon. How did he do that? He investigated the meaning of personal objects for a couple. The couple used a basket for their dirty clothes, and it was likely to get over-filled rapidly, so that the woman decided to do the laundry permanently as she was disturbed by the over-filled basket. When the couple decided to change the basket with another object featuring more storage, the woman refrained from doing the laundry permanently as the object did not look untidy anymore. Here, the man decided to the laundry more regularly as he was running out of clothes all the time. I conclude from this semiotic investigation that the way we structure our environments offers opportunities and limitations regarding our needs and goals. Of course, we are spacing the environment and make it cultural (Toomela, 2021) insofar as it does fit with our ideal action field; but the environment also provides us with an appeal function whether we need to rethink and re-define our needs and goals in order to live peacefully with other human beings (von Fircks, 2024a). Again, we shape the environment and make it cultural, but the environment (action field of other close persons) civilizes or cultivates us too. The effect is bi-­ directional (Toomela, 2021). Therefore, by investigating the cultural environment materially, we can shed light onto hidden aspects of an investigated phenomenon, aspects that even the participant might not have been aware of. Thus, the interview will take place in the home setting of the environment, and I will ask concretely if the participant might be willing to show me important personal objects that symbolize conservativism for him/her while negotiating democratically the symbolic meaning of that. Verbal and non-verbal knowledge will act here complementary to assess deeper layers of a conservative culture.

3 Historically Structured Invitation (HSI): Learning from the Participant The HSI is one of the most adequate qualitative tools in order to meet and learn from our research participants (von Fircks, 2020) as it does not deny the history of specific psychological phenomena (Zittoun & Valsiner, 2016). Human beings are located at a specific equifinality point (EFP) from where they try to reach a specific goal or need, in our case conservative goals and needs. In our example, the EFP symbolizes the wish or goal of constructing a preservable social structure for the person itself, its family, friends, and the person of the nearer environment

18

Beyond the Static: Analyzing Conservativism Dynamically

transmitting traditions, values, social norms, and personal and collective history. The arising question is how the participant tries to reach that goal and more precisely by which sub-goals or bifurcation points (Sato et al., 2009; Sato & Tanimura, 2016). The present analysis method—also called Trajectory Equifinality Model (TEM)—“reconciles past, present and future development-analysis that cannot be accounted for in statistics” (von Fircks, 2020, p. 724). Here, participants are invited “based on their theoretical meaningful past histories” that locate them at the hypothesized EFP (von Fircks, 2020, p. 725). What does this mean concretely for the present work? Conservative persons are invited to participate in the study as we try to learn from them, e.g., how they build up their conservative culture. Here, I will use my network (conservative-identifying friends and neighbors) that is willing to have a democratic and open conversation with me. As TEM analysis is an in-depth analysis method, ten participants were invited in order to learn from them. Figure 1 symbolizes the research plan: It is important to know that every trajectory or way to reach a goal comes with its opposite meaning so that the participant willfully decides to go with trajectory A rather than B because it brings him/her closer to the goal. The past of EFP I or BFP II does not vanish but will guide important future decisions in regard to establishing a conservative culture. The premises of the Trajectory Equifinality Approach (TEA) are manifold (Sato & Tanimura, 2016). Yet, for the present book, I’d like to mention only the most important ones. Past, present, and future tension are always united within specific trajectories. Even if the past is irreversible (Valsiner, 2014, 2019), it does unfold specific consequences for the present and future negotiation of particular trajectories (von Fircks, 2022d). Let us look at an example: Me having read a specific forbidden book (past tension = do I read the book or do I not?) makes me approach my friend in a specific way such as questioning whether he has read the book, too (present tension asking my friend whether he read the book or not asking), which might lead—depending on my friend’s answer—to a specific discussion about the content

Fig. 1  How is a conservative culture established? Which trajectories give rise to the phenomenon?. (BFP = bifurcation point)

5 Participants

19

of the book (future tension = do I want to ask my friend about a particular sex scene in the book or am I too shy?). Here, an intra-psychic system is studied in development within a particular inter-psychic setting (people, cultural environment, and so forth) unraveling the construction of a specific present and future social situation based upon a qualitative whole of tension. Importantly, such a cultural psychological approach helps researchers to decipher the development of psychic systems— that are intertwined socially within in a specific time frame.

4 Procedure Participants were recruited from the author’s personal network. By means of WhatsApp advertising (status information), participants could respond to the study invitation, freely. Date and time were fixed with the participants then, and interviews were conducted (according to the interview schedule; see Appendix D) in the home setting of the respective participant. Participants were audio-recorded for the interviews when having provided consent to participate as well as being audio-­ recorded. Photos of personal objects—that symbolized preservable things—were shot only if participants explicitly had given consent to that. Interviews lasted between 10 and 15 min and were transcribed by the intelligent verbatim technique (see Appendix A).

5 Participants Ten participants were invited to complete the interview, verbally as well as non-­ verbally. Participants were diverse in age ranging from 24 to 84 years meaning that students, full-time employees, as well as pensioners featured the present study. All participants had completed higher secondary school education. Moreover, participants were mainly balanced in sex.

Results: The Cornerstones of a Conservative Attitude

1 The Conservation of Ideal Values The most important theme to emerge was conserving ideal values. Among these values are, for example, honesty, openness, respect, helpfulness, humor, love, loyalty, and being authentic and cheerful (Julius, 2021, ll. 5–9; Caleb, 2021, ll. 3–10, Sascha, 2021, ll. 1–6, Aurelia, 2021, ll. 3–15). Asking the participants how they imagine transmitting these values, they answered by integrating them into their everyday life and showing proof of their centrality, e.g., for their children (Sascha, 2021, ll. 2–4). Stored knowledge by means of books and other educational material did not play a central role for most of the participants. For them, it was rather important to become a role model in diverse situations and to embrace these values in order to be associated with them, afterward (Marissa, 2021, ll. 7–8). Investigating the value’s effects, one participant reported the following: What I need to think of, to think of directly, is that we live in such a fast-moving time where everything does change every second, day by day. Yet, there are things that are just there, which remain constant in this fast-moving time. (…). And the conservable things are like a rocket or a stability that always remain important. (Elisa, 2021, ll. 2–7)

Another participant explained that these values are timeless (Julius, 2021, ll. 7) and are central across a variety of situations. It is interesting to witness that for most participants, these values are calming, almost relaxing, and function as a sort of protective shield against the negative offshoots of the modern age (Elisa, 2021, ll. 2–7). Analyzing the nature of these values, all are to a high degree social in their nature and related toward concrete interactions with people. While conducting the interviews, I was wondering whether these values are just empty terms triggered by social desirability. Yet, I am convinced they are more than that. It was several months ago that I was driving with one of the participants to a restaurant. While we almost approached our destination, he saw a person having issues with his car. His car was © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 E. Freiherr von Fircks, Conservativism: A Cultural-Psychological Exploration, SpringerBriefs in Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51205-6_3

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Results: The Cornerstones of a Conservative Attitude

broken, and he stopped on a high frequented street. Most drivers did pass him, and the participant pulled over and asked me whether we should help. I agreed, and we pulled over the person’s car to a bus lane where he could wait for the breakdown service. Digging deeper concerning the value’s effect, Julius reported that being honest is not always easy and that it could lead to negative effects, especially when confronted with a sensitive person (2021, ll. 35–38) where it might lead into hurting somebody’s feelings. Yet, he answered that it is important to be clear about one’s priorities and that in an actual friendship, being honest is the crucial feature of establishing a fertile exchange and of learning (upper part of Fig. 1). For Julius, the alternative of not being honest is something that might lead into negative consequences in the long run and that might threaten the whole friendship. If I am only scared that the other could feel offended or if I need to respect his emotions – when telling him my opinion – than this becomes a difficult action. Then, the friendship will not be of lasting nature. It won’t work, in the long run. You are drifting apart, then. That’s natural. (Julius, 2021, ll. 45–48)

Here, lying in order to not hurt somebody’s feelings (lower part of Fig. 1) leads into an artificial and inauthentic contact that for Julius is a non-desirable fundament of friendship. In order to have a fertile friendship with multiple developmental opportunities, it is central for the participant to risk being offensive. You should [be imposing]. I always say that if I can’t say the truth to my friends anymore, then there is something wrong. One should always exchange his opinion, especially when being friends. (Julius, 2021, ll. 40–42)

Yet, Julius provides his very own limitations for the model as he said that all depends upon the friend.

Fig. 1  TEM for honesty depending upon the actual friend

2  The Conservation of Family

23

Of course, it depends upon the recipient. There are people where my honesty is more important. Here, I do not care of hurting somebody. And for others, I want to be more cautious; that’s why I am not dis-honest, yet I do not confront him with brutal honesty, either (Julius, 2021, ll. 35–38)

The quote shows illustratively that the participant respects the individual recipient, his communicative partner, and that while taking into account his unique being-in-­ time, he adjusts gently his moves regarding the execution of his values. Overall, the TEM shows illustratively that a complex sign field like a value—here honesty— unfolds clear consequences within the communicative setting between different people. Honesty or dishonesty unfolds consequences that catalyze the emergence of a fertile exchange or an artificial/inauthentic contact. Importantly, Julius is aware of these consequences and adapts his communication in regard to the social other.

2 The Conservation of Family The second important theme to emerge was family (six mentions). For all participants, family is the central place for love, secureness, company, encouragement, relaxation, development, and joint discussion. Aurelia reports that family is the foundation of society (2021, ll. 2–3), Marissa explains that it is something sacred (l. 2), and Anna reports that family provides positive emotions by means of memories or joint activities (ll. 2–9). In all data transcripts, it becomes obvious that family is like an anchor for the participants. This anchor provides protection but also encourages people to develop and to move on in life (Julius, 2021, ll. 55–62). The symbol of an anchor is highly illustrative in this regard as it helps to go on land, but it can also be pulled flexibly, too, if needed or wanted. This two-sidedness of family can be illustrated by the following quote: It provides you with secureness; it is to a certain degree a home. It provides you with the advantage of having a safe haven, that you are always accepted the way you are and that – despite getting older – you remain young by your children as well as develop. (Marissa, 2021, ll. 30–33)

It is this intergenerational contact happening to be bi-directional that is central to stimulate learning for all family members. Bi-directional in which way? Multiple participants reported that children require care if they are young (e.g., Julius, 2021, ll. 55–62). Here, they need to be supported, especially from a young age onward. Yet, this care or support develops over time and is adjusted in regard to the developmental status of the respective child. Care or support does not remain the same but is developed (Aurelia, 2021, l. 62). Aurelia reports that when their grandchildren were little, one was of great help, but now this is not necessary anymore (2021, ll. 49–50). She goes on to explain that children already do have their specific agendas with various appointments, e.g., friends, sports, and homework, among many others (ll. 59–60), that need to be respected by the individual grandparent. She explains that she remains grandmother but that the role develops; contact declines, for

24

Results: The Cornerstones of a Conservative Attitude

example, and one is more of an accompanying figure (see also Anna, 2021, ll. 67–70). Initiating contact is then rather done by the child or grandchild than the other way around. Yet, as Marissa explained in the abovementioned quote, learning and company is not one-sided; parents and grandparents do develop, too. Being a part of the children’s or grandchildren’s life is henceforth an important trigger to stay up to date or to get to know new trends. Family can be thus interpreted as an integrational process, yet this process is symbiotic as both do learn from each other over the course of their lives. Aurelia reported, for example, that she needed to initiate contacts for her parents once they were too old for caring about their own contacts; so, it was her planning appointments with friends and family (2021, ll. 86–91) in order for her parents to remain integrated in very old age. I have seen this with my parents. They still had friends in their lives. Yet, to meet them was initiated by us. If we did that, they were still able to meet with their friends. (Aurelia, 2021, pp. 86–88)

Again, family is the anchor to go on land, to discover, or in short to become a part of life. Yet, Julius (ll. 55–67) and Elisa (l. 20) mentioned that in family there needs to be equally a space for discussion and demands. Family should not be all harmonious; for Julius, this is a dangerous attitude as it prevents autonomous development as every human being needs to face the existential challenges of life and develop an answer toward those (ll. 74–84), independently. Especially if you have three grown-up children or grandchildren, then it is not about – to say it offhand – pampering one’s family. I consider that even dangerous and I need to be convinced that everybody is doing justice to the demands of life. You can participate and you can help but pampering is wrong. (Julius, 2021, ll. 55–59)

Appropriate discussions are part and parcel of this developmental component of family. But where does this learning happen to take place? All participants explained that family requires time and priority. Family can only be preserved if one reserves time for family (Berta, 2021, ll. 30–33). Planning joint activities such as travels, dinners, or joint sports days are the heart of the abovementioned preservation. Elisa (ll. 30–31), Julius (l. 83), and Marissa (ll. 36–40) all plan a family holiday each year inviting children and grandchildren accompanied by their respective partners. Asking Elisa why this specific family holiday is so popular, she answered the following: Our vacation is always arranged in a very diverse way, interesting. Joint sports program, board games in the evening, good food. There is something for every taste. (2021, ll. 40–41)

The deep respect for the individual personality features the planning of joint vacation, too. For the participants, vacation is not something that happens along the way. On the contrary, it is planned. Yet, the plans do involve every family member in his/ her interest and goals as a joint vacation will be only successful if it is jointly negotiated. Otherwise, family members will be forced to do something that is not in line with their very own being and lose interest, as a consequence. Conserving family is

3  Preserving Friendships

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thus only possible when taking into account all family members, in their unique being and sometimes negotiating compromises (Elisa, 2021, l. 43). This is also a crucial feature when cultivating a specific discussion culture that should be preserved for the whole family according to Julius (ll. 74–84). Julius explains that if conflicts emerge, he tries to listen to everybody—mostly separately—while getting a glimpse into the actual conflict trying to clarify the different positions. Once this is done, Julius tries to make them meet at a table discussing their newly clarified positions (upper part of Fig. 2). If he ignores the conflict, the conflict might escalate, which could lead into a mutual ignorance of the family members for a certain while (lower part of Fig. 2). As this threatens the notion of family as an anchor or as something inherently harmonious, it requires work to solve the conflict. Being passive would only lead into the preservation of the conflict. Yet this endangers family as a place of home, secureness, love, and so forth. Julius is aware that he cannot solve the conflict for the family members included; he can only assist in them doing so or reaching an agreement. You become part of the discussion if you decide to listen to everybody. That’s most important; to listen and to see if there are really some disagreements. For that I need to listen, sometimes separately. And then you try to bring everybody to the table (…) and help them to solve the disagreement and that no disagreement remains between them and that everybody understands the other. (Julius, 2021, ll. 74–78)

This again is an attitude that fosters the autonomous development of responsible human beings that do care for their family, proactively. All in all, the conservation of family as a safe haven requires constant work by all family members in a stormy sea but also in calm waters.

Fig. 2  TEM for establishing a fertile discussion culture

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Results: The Cornerstones of a Conservative Attitude

3 Preserving Friendships Preserving friendships was another important theme to emerge after coding (six mentions). Common activities that develop into joint experiences are an important component for the preservation of friendships (e.g., Judith, 2021, ll. 69–74; Sascha, 2021, ll. 116–121; Elisa, 2021, ll. 13–17). These common activities are important to foster the relationship between two friends and to make the ties stronger. Yet, these moments or experiences are equally associated with positive emotions. In Judith words (2021): By means of investing something into the friendship and by means of becoming aware how beautiful this friendship might be, I realize that I need to shape the friendship by myself in order to preserve it. It is important to meet with the people, continuously and to see what is good for me, what do I need now and how can I conserve these feelings. (ll. 30–34)

Within this quote, it becomes obvious that the preservation of friendship requires mutual activity by means of temporary reflection. Judith explains that preserving the positive emotions that friendship might trigger is only possible if one becomes aware of the actual components that do make the friendship valuable. By means of becoming aware how beautiful this [friendship] is, what you estimate within it and that you actively shape it you accomplish that it continues to exist. That you meet with the people and discover what is good for you and what might be special [in the friendship] and that you observe that a little bit. (Judith, 2021, ll. 30–33)

Yet, these components, as Judith explains, are not fixed in time but develop. It is the development of each person within the friendship that requires constant structuring and re-structuring of the friendship. What Judith tries to elaborate is that friendship needs to be negotiated, jointly as people develop, and this individual development might estrange previous friends. It is Anna who explains that this potential estrangement is not judged negatively, from the very beginning. On the contrary, this estrangement shows—from time to time—who might be loyal friends and who are interested in the best of the respective person (2021, ll. 16–18). In her words: It is an inner feeling. And you realize that throughout the years. Yet, I need to say that for new friends, this is harder to guess. Not everybody becomes aware of that. But I have the impression that I do realize whether they do me any good or not. And those who do not do me any good, I do not need them anymore. Time is too fast, for that. You have too little time for real friends and then I do not need to care for those who are no real friends. (ll. 22–27)

Anna’s perspective is central for most of the participants. Learning that there are friends who do not want the best for them is an important milestone to realize. The encounter with fake friends is the ultimate experience to turn around and to say to oneself that now is the time to stop the acquaintance and to use the time better for the friends who are genuinely part of one’s life. It is only while meeting fake friends and experiencing negative emotions that Anna, for example, becomes aware of the true benefits of jointly shaped friendship that is balanced in give and take (ll. 33–38). The unity of opposites—fake friends and real friends—combines into deeper layers of experiencing life within all its polarity, and it is this polarity, that is actually a

3  Preserving Friendships

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unity, that makes Anna realize what she expects from friends and what not, what she wants to feel and what not, and how she wants to approach real friends and fake friends. It is Sascha who underlines the centrality of friendship when saying that friends become to a certain degree family and that quite often you seem to be closer to some friends than you happen to be to your actual family, such as to an uncle (2021, ll. 32–35). Asking him how he seeks to establish such strong bonds with his friends, he answered that it demands investment of different resources such as time or even money. Yet, what really matters within a friendship cannot be pre-defined for him; it cannot be a universal recipe that is artificially superimposed upon every friend. On the contrary, the unique ingredients of each friendship are determined by joint negotiation of what is important for both friends and how to do justice to their unique demands (Sascha, 2021, ll. 40–45). In his very own words: Surely, the individual personality has priority; I as an individual prefer this or that component and the social other something different, it is here that I decide to focus myself upon the social other in order to approach him. (ll. 48–50)

Similar to the family theme, a friendship is not something arbitrarily established, something that just happens between two people. It requires care for every person implied (Judith, 2021, ll. 30–34), and this care is negotiated concerning the different needs (Berta, 2021, ll. 30–55). This is not something abstract but rather something that translates into a deep respect for the individual being within everyday examples. Berta, for example, is aware that one of her best friends—that she knows since 1957—is not able to visit her in her own home as the friend’s husband has health issues and cannot be left alone. Without any hesitation, Berta reports that it is now upon her to visit her friend and her husband, to initiate contact by means of being more flexible to travel. It is an appeal for her to take advantage of her more privileged position due to her increased level of mobility or health, in general. Surely, she reports that due to age, she is not capable to be as spontaneous as she was when being younger, yet that does not mean that she loses touch with her close friends. The contact is only organized via different channels, e.g., more time to prepare a visit or even more phone contacts (Berta, 2021, ll. 43–50). The deep respect for the individual being is also something worth mentioning for Ryan. Ryan explains that conflicts are natural within friendships, yet it depends upon the cultivation of conflict how it is actually managed. Ryan, for example, reports that he is often someone who is ready to jump over his shadow and to leave his very own pride behind. In a complex situation where both friends are not ready to make the first move, he explains that it is often him who re-approaches his friend and shows interest in his life in order to re-establish a fertile exchange (see upper part of Fig. 3). Given the situation that you have somebody who did not reach out to you for a long time and that it would bother me, then I say that if you do not reach out to me, not my bad, but I do not do that. Instead, I say, then I will reach out to you. (Ryan, 2021, ll. 16–18)

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Results: The Cornerstones of a Conservative Attitude

Fig. 3  TEM for preserving friendship in times of conflict

Showing interest for the present situation of his friends is important for Ryan. To leave the past behind is another important cornerstone of friendship. The past has happened and becomes irreversible, but it should not lead into an ignorance of the social other that threatens the whole friendship in the future (2021, ll. 24–27). Ryan is aware of the consequence of an attitude characterized by too much pride and what this would mean for the friendship’s future (see lower part of Fig. 3); and it is by this knowledge that he actually is inclined to make the first move. Yet, Ryan brackets this specific situation as he explains that there are friends who are more likely to not answer his calls or messages and that this does not necessarily mean they are mad at him; they just take more time in replying or in getting back to him, which does not show a lower interest in him as a person (ll. 26–27): On the other hand, you know people where it is highly normal that they do not reach out to me, regularly. That does not mean anything.

Overall, preserving friendships is important for most of the participants. This preservation requires constant care for the friendship that is jointly negotiated with the friend within all his particularities of being. The deep respect for the individual personality shows itself in not applying a rule of thumb for every friendship but to let it develop by both people bringing their unique being into the specific encounter (see below).

4  Preserving the Job’s Meaningfulness

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4 Preserving the Job’s Meaningfulness Preserving the job’s meaningfulness was another central theme for half of the participants (five mentions). For them, this meaningfulness is characterized by a social purpose of the job such as establishing close contacts with the clients, becoming a part of their lives, and accompanying them in difficult times in order to have something worth striving for (Marissa, 2021, ll. 43–47). You accompany people. You see when they are doing better. You show empathy if they are doing worse or you are sad if they die. Yet, either way, you tried to help. (Marissa, 2021, ll. 50–51)

The drive for meaningfulness goes beyond the simple function of a job as a breadwinning (ll. 50–52) and importantly involves extra-role behavior that cannot be monetized (Elisa, 2021, ll. 51–59). For the participants, work is thus something that is not characterized by simple return of investment rules (Sascha, 2021, ll. 58–62). It is more than that. It is a being there for the other, it is helping him, it is providing support, and it is encouraging him and not an individual way of boosting one’s ego (Marissa, 2021, ll. 50–52). The drive for the preservation of the job’s meaningfulness is the ultimate way of establishing a community where one looks out for the other, where the means of money lose their meaning and being in its purest form gains centrality (Caleb, 2021, ll. 45–50). This surely involves the mutual catalyzation of positive emotions as jobs become more than a drive for economic survival as well as services more than mere economic offers. Meaningful jobs are here the institutionalization of human care and of symbolic care that goes beyond the capitalization of everything. In Elisa’s words (she is a certain kind of therapist): If my patients utter small sentences, something little. If they say that really helped me or if they confided me with their specific issues and realize they are doing better, then maybe I did not help so much therapeutically, yet for the human being in front of me this was the ultimate thing he needed. If you are remembered for that, this is something preservable. (2021, ll. 66–71)

Again, the participants explained that respecting the individual being, for example, a patient, is of primary importance. This means as a consequence that some intra-­ role behavior (actual work) might be neglected for a short period of time in order to reach an understanding of the person’s needs and doing justice to them. For the participants, human interactions are more than mere job demands; it is reaching a human understanding for the person that one deals with and that one wants to help to get ahead of his issues. This does involve seeing the human being in front of me, his worries and fears, his joy and luck, and to acknowledge him in that. The positive and the negative emotions—that come, for example, after a patient’s death (Marissa, 2021, ll. 50–52)—are part of the deeper spheres of life or of the sublime that life is confronting us with. Acknowledging this polarity within one’s job is to path the way for the job’s meaningfulness (Elisa, 2021, ll. 51–55). Asking Caleb, for example, what he wanted to preserve within his business he took over from his mother, he answered the client-centered focus (e.g., ll. 45–51).

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Results: The Cornerstones of a Conservative Attitude

Fig. 4  Preserving the job’s meaningfulness

Yet, this client-centered focus demands to get involved with the people’s lives in various settings, which asks for extra-role activities that cannot be easily capitalized. This translates into a care perspective of the pharmacy that is targeted at the individual company of each and everybody who wishes to be accompanied (upper part of Fig. 4). Yet, even if this client-centered focus implies extra work that does not pay off economically, he does not see the value of changing his business strategy, as the opposite business orientation (lower part of Fig.  4) would result into artificial contacts that translates into an indifferent company of people who actually need care and support. What is really interesting and possible by a high number of regular customers, and which is better or more beautiful than in another pharmacy with different clients every day. Here, in a small village-embedded pharmacy it is more beautiful because you know the people and you can turn to them and participate in their lives. (Caleb, 2021, ll. 47–51)

Having an indifferent company is not something meaningful for Caleb, something that would make him strive for personally, now and in the future. The drive for his job only comes into existence by being more than a simple medication provider. For him, this is the meaningfulness he wishes to preserve in his everyday work. Interestingly, he got a personal letter from a family of the village—which I do not want to show because of anonymity—expressing their gratitude for their constant care and support in difficult times that makes them feel welcome and at ease. The positive emotions that Caleb and his wife expressed while reading the letter are hard to describe here, but it was a moving experience for them that has shaken their entire being. Yet once again this does depend upon the customer. Not every customer demands such an extensive client-centered focus, especially for more moderate health issues. It is important for the study participants to really understand the

5  The Dangers of Conserving an Attitude

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customer’s needs and to adjust the specific meaningfulness of their actions in regard to that.

5 The Dangers of Conserving an Attitude Another central theme to emerge was the dangers of a conservable attitude (seven mentions). This involves, for example, getting stuck in the past, becoming too rigid or inflexible, becoming too static, and losing touch with the future demands of the ever-changing life as well as not seizing developmental opportunities that are yet to come (Caleb, 2021, ll. 78–83; Judith, 2021, ll. 53–57; Elisa, 2021, ll. 71–77). In Caleb’s words: The disadvantage is that you hold on to things that do not fit in time anymore because you might do it due to habituation and you do not reflect that this thing is not appropriate anymore or does not do any good anymore, and this tendency to conserve things makes you forget to question other things or to reflect upon them. This might be a disadvantage. Yet, this is universal. You might get stuck and become too inflexible. (2021, ll. 78–83)

Julius and Anna, for example, share this perspective and report that one does not only preserve things that are positively connotated but also negative (Anna, 2021, ll. 83–84). Julius, for example, explains that sometimes one is likely to preserve antipathies toward other people. Solving them is not always possible, so Julius describes that one needs to accept these feelings and to not let them escalate if there are specific encounters with such a person. Julius tries to express here that he wants to cultivate a specific form of disagreement as he explained that even if there are antipathies, that does not mean that one needs to hit the other (2021, ll. 100–104). These antipathies, for example, involve negative emotions the participants need to learn to deal with appropriately. Anna, for example, said that negative job experiences or bad friendships can be interpreted as a certain kind of learning experience appealing her to not get stuck in a similar situation in the future. These experiences function, for her, as a memorial to not let the past repeat itself, continuously. So, negative experiences that are preserved in the psyche of the participants can become re-­ appropriated for specific future lessons. Negative experiences are here not merely preserved but are mainly transformed into a meaning making pattern that allows to trigger future learning processes when getting confronted with similar situations in the future. Ryan explains in this regard that one is likely to become stiff (2021, ll. 61–63), and within this stiffness, one might not realize that the things that he wants to preserve do not do any good to him anymore. Here, stiffness is an important metaphor that shows illustratively how the participants perceive an attitude that is directed toward too much preservation as this might involve ignoring the natural development of life. Caleb, for example, explains that such preservation of something that is not anymore preservable is called operational blindness within his business (2021, l. 86). Yet, to solve operational blindness, activity is required: To interpret certain

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Results: The Cornerstones of a Conservative Attitude

situations in a new light and to come to terms with newly developing job challenges is part and parcel of that process. Caleb reports that for such situations, he likes to rely on specific persons that are not part of the everyday business and that might enter his work environment for a short period of time in order to understand the way he organizes his work in regard to his job challenges. For Caleb, this is something that one is sometimes not likely to learn by himself; professional exchange with different external persons can help him to see something that he has overseen in his everyday business (2021, ll. 93–99) as one is sometimes likely to relate to things without questioning them. Yet, Judith, for example, describes that for her the concept of conservation is not something static: It might be the case that this will change for me, that I will answer your questions differently in 10 years. I do not believe it to be a static concept and that it is allowed to change itself. (…) It is something dynamic. It has a dynamic. For sure, when I was a child, other things were more important in a friendship than now. (2021, ll. 53–61)

Judith goes on to explain that for different people, different things might be preservable (ll. 64–67). It is this unity of diversity that makes up for her the beauty of life. This pluralistic attitude for the acceptance of other people’s preservations is like in Caleb’s example something that makes communication vital and that allows to trigger developmental opportunities for every person implied. The dangers of a too conservable-oriented attitude can be circumvented when initiating communication with other people and stepping into their environment in order to learn and experience the natural flow of life.

6 Preserving Nature Preserving nature was another theme to emerge for one third of the participants. Nature is something for them that is inherently polyvalent. It is a source of relaxation and meditation; it is a source for doing sports activities and of enjoying the beauty of life (Aurelia, 2021, ll. 63–81). Nature is seen as something preservable as it offers multiple opportunities for psychological and physiological well-being. Aurelia, for example, explained that when she was little, she was doing morning hikes with her father involving a joint breakfast in nature (ll. 72–74). Nature is thus a place of social activities for her involving quality time with her family. When I was a child, I have been already going into the woods. My father loved to do morning hikes on a Sunday morning at 5 am. With breakfast. Every Sunday we were hiking. It was just this way. (Aurelia, 2021, ll. 72–74)

Anna shares the attitude toward nature as something preservable if she experiences, for example, a beautiful sunset triggering positive emotions like being grateful to live and to be on this earth (ll. 47–54). She goes on to explain that these experiences are so positive that they might function as small lights in dark times and that one is

6  Preserving Nature

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Image 1  Nature as polyvalent meaning making place

able to rely on these experiences if one feels temporarily unwell and that it might trigger the need to re-immerge oneself into the natural flow of nature. The participants express here a relatedness between themselves and nature that could be described as ecological being. The preservation of nature is for the participants something worth striving for as they cannot imagine a life without being connected to their natural environment that is a source for psychological, physiological, and social well-being (see Aurelia, 2021, ll. 76–81). Image 1 speaks for itself in terms of nature as meditative place. The garden of Anna’s house merges easily with the larger canvas of the wider nature. Nature becomes here cultivated within a garden setting in order to preserve its meaningfulness, here a meditational meaning.

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Results: The Cornerstones of a Conservative Attitude

7 Preserving Traditions Preserving traditions was a further theme to emerge for 1/3 of the participants. This involves, for example, linguistic dialects, feasts, rituals, and specific skills (Berta, 2021, ll. 70–79; Marissa, 2021, ll. 36–40). These traditions are present things that provide the participants with positive emotions, feeling at home and secure. Yet, the preservation of traditions is more than a mere source of positive emotions. For Berta, the preservation of skills is something that makes oneself an autonomous and responsible human being. She tries to instance the preservation of skills by the example of cooking, baking, and sewing. Her children, for example, reach out to her to get practical recommendations for their own cooking and baking. The preservation of skills helps her to remain integrated in the life of her very own family as she can rely on life-long experiences that have been fine-tuned over the course of her life: If they need help, [I help]. But often when you are older than it is the other way around, they tell you things. But sometimes, if I can, I support them, provide them with some advice. Often, they ask something in regards to cooking and baking or they want me to patch something. (Berta, 2021, ll. 77–80)

The preservation of skills is stored knowledge that can be made accessible for her close family network. Berta reports that she sometimes does patching for her family as they do not know these skills. Asking her what they would do instead, she answered they are likely to go to a tailor’s waiting and paying money to get their clothes fixed (lower part of Fig. 5). Relying on her skills is thus a cheaper and faster alternative than going to a tailor’s, for instance. However, it is important to mention here that a potential transmission of household skills helps one to become a mature human being who does not need to rely on external help for every smaller issue like patching, for example (Berta, 2021, ll. 82–87). Being able to patch one’s things all by oneself helps to not only save money and time but makes one to master

Fig. 5  TEM for cultural goods

8  Conserving Material Objects

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environmental demands autonomously, which involves then mastery and positive emotions (upper part of Fig. 5). Overall, preserving traditions by means of transmission, can help people to learn mastering their environments by themselves. This helps them to become independent and responsible citizens, in the long run. These skills can ultimately be offered to friends and family who can then enjoy the benefits of stored knowledge in specific situations.

8 Conserving Material Objects Conserving material objects was the last theme to emerge for the participants (seven mentions) and means the investigation of cultural objects and their significance upon the participants. This features, for example, the preservation of one’s house as it symbolizes complex work of renovation, arrangement of furniture concerning one’s very own taste, quality time with one’s family, and so forth (Anna, 2021, ll. 89–94). Yet, this complex work symbolized by the constant structuring and re-­ structuring of one’s house should not be an end in itself for Anna; she hopes that her child will take over the house one day and enjoys its benefits by her own means (ll. 95–98). The conservation of objects requires thus permanent work (Ryan, 2021, ll. 33–39) and is not something passive like the sealing of some cans. Sascha, for example, explained that religious objects are important to conserve such as a mosque as it is more than a mere place for prayer (2021, ll. 100–105). These objects are cultural goods that bring people together for exchange and joint activities. You have a lot of different activities, be it intercultural between the worshippers. You do a lot of different things; you sit together, you talk, you do film nights. I told you that, before, no? (ll. 108–110)

Asking Sascha why these activities are so popular within the mosque, he answered that one is likely to meet a different bunch of people coming from various socioeconomic backgrounds, which is what makes the meetings diverse and interesting. For him, these cultural goods or objects are a place of people jointly relating to something, coming together, to share their being and to have a good time and to potentially learn from each other, too. Here, they are united in diversity, and within this diversity, people can establish fertile contacts (ll. 116–121). You get many diverse impressions, because there are many different social groups [in the mosque], people with a lower income, the middle class and academic people (…). It’s a cool exchange, you do not agree every time. It’s a point through which you enter in several discussions, but it can also help you to develop. (Sascha, 2021, ll. 117–121)

The social component of cultural goods is for Elisa a central topic. The young therapist explains that her phone is something preservable as it combines complex memories and experiences by means of pictures and videos, contacts that can be initiated if wanted. Yet, it regularly happens to her that she looks at those photos and videos with her friends to think or laugh about old times (2021, ll. 89–93):

36

Results: The Cornerstones of a Conservative Attitude It regularly happens to me that I think about these times with my friends, and I say look at our final week in school, that was a good time. Look what we did and where we spent our vacation. Can you remember this or that person (…)? This is something (preservable) or printed pictures.

Cultural goods—that are considered to be preservable—do show this social component. They are intertwined with the complex being of other people and are henceforth important catalysts for positive emotions in the past and future for multiple persons implied. It is important to underline that these cultural goods do unfold their centrality between past and future. The smartphone is thus a complex symbol of meaningful contacts and memories that are to be preserved. It is no wonder that in this regard, the smartphone of Elisa is ornamented in particular ways as it is an extension of her inner Self (see Image 2) that she wants to hold on to. Marissa, for instance, mentions that a red elephant—as a soft toy—is a preservable object for her. She got it as a present from her husband, and it accompanied her during multiple travels. Asking her what this red elephant would mean to her, she answered the following: Image 2 Ornamentation of a smartphone

8  Conserving Material Objects

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The red elephant shows unconditional love. I got it as a present from my husband when we met each other, and which is part of all of my travels. It has seen more than my children and it stands for the fact that I am loved the way I am. And this is what I want to transmit: that you do not need to hide yourself behind a mask in this society and that you can be the way you are as you can be loved only in this way. (Marissa, 2021, ll. 117–121)

It is not surprising that Marissa got emotional when talking about the red elephant as the elephant became a complex symbol for the love between Marissa and her husband, a love that is preserved through loving the other the way he or she wants to be loved. Judith, for example, mentions that she cultivated a specific photo wall in her room with pictures and aphorisms. Asking what this specific photo wall (see Image 3) would mean to her, she answered that, for her, it is a complex sign of living and being grateful to be on this earth (ll. 76–82). She goes on to explain that she Image 3 Wardrobe becomes photo wall

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Results: The Cornerstones of a Conservative Attitude

Fig. 6  Preserving traditions to become an autonomous human being

sometimes stops in front of that wall and is full of awe. The mechanism is the following: Looking at her wall makes her feel grateful and to be part of life that triggers positive emotions and helps her to turn into a positive prevailing mood (upper part of Fig. 6). It is this positive prevailing mood (personal communication) which makes her want to reach out to her friends that are symbolically part of the wall. The conservation of important cultural goods like a photo wall is thus not a mere distributor of positive emotions but is a complex symbolic trigger of a positive prevailing mood that appeals her to further cultivate friendships, for example. In Judith words: A feeling of gratitude overcomes me and that you consider yourself happy. (…). There are a lot of positive emotions, and this sets you in a positive prevailing mood and that you want to feel all of this again, sometimes paired with a feeling of melancholia because you think that this moment is over and that you want to feel this way another time especially if you do not feel good right now. But mostly, there are positive emotions [if I look at this wall]. (2021, ll. 78–82)

Not relying on central conservable objects does not trigger any positive emotions and results into an indifferent mood that is not appealing to trigger further cultivation of something that is considered preservable (lower part of Fig. 5). Preserving cultural goods is henceforth folded between past and future, a concrete appeal to further develop the thing I consider preservable as it will otherwise dissolve in time if I do not care about it.

9 Interpretation: Understanding a Preservable Culture All TEMs show the following: Preserving requires activity. Preserving family and friendships demand the dissolution of conflicts, to jump over one’s shadow and to leave one’s pride behind. Approaching the other is central especially in times of

9  Interpretation: Understanding a Preservable Culture

39

conflicts, to show one’s interest in his life despite disagreements. Getting stuck within disagreements or conflicts is no option as this would endanger the symbolic value of family and friendship. The conservative is aware of the symbolic value of family and friendship and which conduct (pride, ignorance, escalation) might lead into an estrangement that threatens the future of strong ties with family and friends. For the conservative, this is not a future s/he strives for; in the long run, s/he cares for harmony. Yet, this is not a universal recipe; the conservative shows deep respect for the individual being (e.g., friend or family member) and tries to respect that within the resolution of conflicts. However, having strong ties with family and friends is more than a mere provider of positive emotions; it is an opportunity to meet, to learn, and to develop further in life for all generations included. As family and friends are united in diversity, this diversity can be made fertile for indispensable lessons that might be shared one with the other. The conservative demonstrates deep respect for the lived experience of every family member or friend. Moreover, the conservative is interested in preserving his job’s meaningfulness. This becomes evident within a focus of providing its clients with services that are not principally capitalizable involving extra-role behavior that is targeted at the individual needs of the human being in front of him. The conservative is appealed to get involved with the lives of his/her fellow man, to accompany, to encourage, and to be more than a simple economic person. The conservative is not a simple homo economicus. He is a homo socialis. This can be seen in its focus of sometimes neglecting job duties to actually meet the client’s needs that could not be met within classic intra-role behavior despite that behavior being more capitalizable. The conservative is driven, socially. Moreover, the conservative is likely to know about the complex, polyvalent value of nature. Nature is not something to be exploited, but it is the natural environment to feel at ease, to relax, to meditate, but also to exercise in order to get in shape. Protecting nature is an important goal for the conservative as s/he realizes that s/he cannot reach inner harmony without the physiological and psychological effects that nature is offering. The conservative is a homo ecologicus. Preserving complex traditions is for the conservative another important cultural resource to transmit stored knowledge. The transmission of stored knowledge, e.g., by means of the transmission of skills, helps the individual to become an autonomous and responsible human being for itself and its close network of family and friends. This knowledge can be used to master cultural demands of its environment independently and to not rely on external help for every smaller issue. The conservative cares for traditions and their transmission as they symbolize a complex opportunity of growing in life, thus to meet developmental tasks, maturely. Yet, the conservative is aware that life is ever-changing and that things do not remain the same. Despite having a strong tendency to preserve things, s/he equally shows proof of a tendency to acknowledge that things are temporary. The conservative finds itself in the dilemma of adjusting the preservable things in regard to the environmental demands s/he is confronted with. For example, she acknowledges that she is a caring and supporting grandmother when her grandchildren are still little, yet she accepts that this role changes in time when the children grow older and

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Results: The Cornerstones of a Conservative Attitude

demand more of a passive grandmother’s role, e.g., encouraging. Things are importantly preserved especially because they change in time. It is the adjustment in time of the preservable thing that actually makes it preservable for multiple purposes. Things remain preservable as they are structured and re-structured, constantly. If they are fixed in time despite the need for re-actualization, the conservative becomes ideological. Yet, the conservative is not a homo ideologicus. The preservation of cultural goods is in this regard an important resource for the conservative to realize that s/he is embedded in a wider social network, that the conservative’s experience is shared by other people, and that its life is shared by other people. It is within this realization that the conservative is likely to feel grateful to be part of its social system, thus to feel positive emotions such as love and care that makes him/her to feel a positive prevailing mood that is a trigger for further cultivation of family and friendship. The preservation of cultural goods appeals the conservative to do something for family and friends while knowing that the preservation of something is not something that happens, randomly. The conservative is a homo activus.

Discussion: The Conservative Culture Is Inherently Meaningful

In the very beginning of the present monograph, we have seen that a conservative attitude—within the social sciences—was mostly described as an enumeration of negative attributes as done by Schiebel et al. (1984) as well as by König and Frank (2000) featuring thematic topoi like rigorous education and hard justice, rejection of the modern lifestyle, rejection of woman’s emancipation, as well as a preference for traditional family relationships. Interestingly, no thematic elements visible within the classic scale descriptions by the social scientists featured the interviews I was conducting with my participants. On the contrary, the interviews are diametrically opposed to the operationalization of “conservatism” by various social scientists. The conservative does not prefer rigorous education involving an authoritarian figure explaining how to live and what to do with one’s life. No, the conservative wants his/her children and friends to get involved with their lives independently and to develop a stance toward the existential challenges of life, autonomously. Traditions or in other words stored and transmitted knowledge can be of concrete help for that, yet they do not substitute that the individual needs to get involved with life all by oneself. Yet, family and friends, especially if they are organized in an intergenerational setting, can be supporting and encouraging for that ontogenetic purpose by means of sharing their lived experience and by being a role model for diverse situations. We have seen that family and friends are not only a mere provider of positive emotions, becoming simple memories that one can track down in dark times. No, for the conservative, family and friends symbolize a complex, fertile exchange within which one needs to be honest in order to learn and to further develop in one’s very own life. Not being honest or defending one’s opinion does lead into an artificial contact where everybody fears to offend the other. This is not a wishful friendship the conservative wants to establish. The conservative risks being offensive in order to develop. One might object at this point that the interview schedule triggered the participants to respond according to the second definitory approach of conservativism. I © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 E. Freiherr von Fircks, Conservativism: A Cultural-Psychological Exploration, SpringerBriefs in Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51205-6_4

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Discussion: The Conservative Culture Is Inherently Meaningful

consider this improbable as the questions were conducted in a semi-standardized manner. The interview was on open field of meaning making between researcher and participant, and the participants were invited to appropriate this field in the way they wanted it to be (see Valsiner et al., 2005). Yet, they appropriated this field not within the theoretical framework of Schiebel et al. (1984) but having had the opportunity for that.1 However, in order to show that both definitions are irreconcilable or that the first definition does measure something different, it would be important for a follow-up study to discuss the thematic fields presented in Schiebel et al. (1984) and to ask the participants explicitly about those controversial topics. Could the participants imagine that some of those attributes or values are preservable and what might be reasons for that? The present study can be enriched by the results of a follow-up study of such kind. Moreover, my participants did not report any rejection of a modern lifestyle such as rejection of tattoos, sex before marriage, homosexual marriage, and so forth. For the conservative, meaningful relationships are central; yet they come into being if s/ he assumes that s/he might learn something from the social other. Meaningful relationships are the central topos of a conservative culture that is to be preservable; it does not matter how those relationships are organized if they fulfill their individual meaningfulness and do provide positive emotions, in the long run. Here, my sample did not show any rejection of woman’s emancipation, either. On the contrary, the women in my sample were all hardworking people being driven by the social purpose of their jobs. The conservative is not a simple homo economicus; no s/he is a homo socialis and by this means the conservative acknowledges that man and woman can together produce meaningful relationships at work and beyond. Yet, my participants showed some lose preference for traditional family relationships as a strong family—and friend’s—community is more likely to stimulate learning and individual development for all parties included. If there are people within the family not being part of the daily interactions, they are not really integrated within the social system of family and their specific meaning opportunities that trigger developmental opportunities such as intergenerational learning. The conservative is aware of the family’s developmental opportunities, and s/he tries to make all people within the family to benefit from that. Further, I was contrasting this operationalization with alternative definitions of conservativism by Kielmansegg (2017), by Scruton (2019), or by Weimer (2018). The deep respect for the individual being is a central feature for the conservative. Within the different TEA modelings, which I described in the results sections, we have seen that meaningful relationships are established by specific pathways. Still,

 Critics might argue that the participants might have become too socially desirable in order to appropriate the open field of the interview within the first definitory approach. I consider this as improbable, too, because the participants were told to participate in a free discussion where everything was allowed to be verbalized—no limits imagined. Moreover, they knew the interviewer conducting the interview personally and could rely on his research as being anonymous and confidential—something that is argued to enhance the originality of meaning making in a research setting (Valsiner, 2017). 1

Discussion: The Conservative Culture Is Inherently Meaningful

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these pathways are no universal recipes or a particular stage model; they were directly bracketed by the participants when explaining that the model only comes into being if accounting for the individual personality that they deal with. Hence, the TEA models are adjusted in regard to the individual person the conservative is dealing with, for example, within his/her friend’s or family’s network or work stratosphere. Respecting the inner being remains the point of departure for every conservative-minded person that guides its interactions in various cultural environments. It is this respect and understanding that makes family and friends an anchor to feel safe, secure, loved, needed, and part of a meaningful social network as advocated by Weimer (2018). Yet, this network is more than a mere provider for secureness and love; it is also an opportunity to go on land, to discover, and to break out of routines knowing that one can always return to a safe harbor. The conservative acknowledges this anchor and knows that it is an appeal to step out into the world, to live, and to get involved with the existential challenges of life by himself/herself. Skills and traditions can become resources in this process that help the individual to do justice to the complex developmental task he is confronted with. That’s why the conservative cares for traditions and their transmissions as they help him/her to become a mature and responsible citizen that can assume responsibility for himself/ herself as well as his/her social network. Anthropological sustainability builds for the conservative the answer to the outgrowths of the modern age; s/he knows that there are timeless values like love, honesty, developmental openness, and loyalty that hold not only society together but his/her own little microcosm. These values help the conservative to navigate through a time of constant modernization and to have an inner compass to rely on, to not conform to any new trend or movement, but to remain mindful for the preservation of its social system. This was something that the participants explicitly confirmed while mentioning the calming effect of ideal values being materialized within their environment. Caring for the preservation of nature needs to be mentioned here as the conservative will not reach his/her inner harmony without preserving nature that helps him/her to live peacefully and balanced. Moreover, my sample confirmed that the conservative does not solely work for his ego nor to survive, economically. No, s/he likes to create a symbolic place for reaching out to the social other and to do something good for his/her fellow man. The conservative’s job is a moral imperative for him/her to do something meaningful and is more than a simple breadwinning, which confirms Weimer’s and Scruton’s theses about the meaningfulness of the conservative’s job. I have completed the theoretical section of showing alternative definition for the term conservativism while explaining that the conservative is rooted in tradition, family, home, skills, and his/her meaningful job to become involved with life and the life of his/her fellow man. My case studies confirmed this alternative operationalization of conservativism that is far away from the priorly defined accesses to the definition of conservativism. A preservable or conservable culture is mostly characterized by preserving meaningful relationships within one’s family, with friends, and within one’s work environment. The conservative is driven by doing something good not only for himself/herself but for his/her small social system. This was the anthropological sustainability Kielmansegg was talking about (2017). Doing

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Discussion: The Conservative Culture Is Inherently Meaningful

something good means to help individuals grow in their life autonomously and to become involved with one’s life, fully and socially.

1 Implications: The Conservative Is a Homo Activus We are confronted with different implications. First, I’d like to mention some scientific implications. My research participants showed that the very first definitions of conservativism might be fallen out of time. They might not operationalize a conservative culture or attitude. I am convinced that they measure some sort of conservative ideology, the perversion of a conservative attitude into an extreme form. I think that this operationalization is only valid for conservative ideologists that have become stiff or stuck within their attitudes. Yet, I think for the majority of conservative-­minded people this ideology is not something worth striving for. On the contrary, the conservative tries to structure and re-structure his/her preservable things by making it fit with the environmental demands of his time. Things remain only preservable if they are actualized. The conservative is aware of that. S/he is not a homo ideologicus. Following these implications, I think it is time to shed light onto a new scale measuring conservativism complemented by further qualitative or cultural research designs investigating the symbolic meaning of the conservative’s family, friends, job, skills, and so forth. This new scale might be psychometrically (convergent validity) tested, for example, within logistic regression predicting voting behavior (especially for the moderate conservative party). If we are to show here that this new scale might predict voting behavior for a conservative party incrementally than the previous scale, we would accumulate statistical evidence for a new definitory approach toward the phenomenon of conservativism. And if we were to show that the previous scale might predict higher preferences (incremental validity over the second newly to be developed scale) for a far-right party—that is not considered conservative anymore—we would have statistical evidence of the first scale measuring something different than conservativism. Second, I think that the present work has a therapeutic dimension. The TEA modeling for the conservable objects has shown that the conservative builds a specific culture s/he likes to preserve. This culture is intertwined with the culture of his/ her fellow man, friends, and family, for example. Building something preservable provides the participants with a source of ongoing positive emotions, which might turn into a positive prevailing mood that is then an important catalyst to further cultivate relationships or meaningful environments not only for himself but also for his/her own little microcosm. Preservable things do show a complex appeal function of deepening them or adjusting them in time in order to conserve them. Without that appeal function, such a favorite individual culture would only dissolve in time. Third, the present monograph is the first work investigating a conservative attitude from a cultural psychological perspective. This perspective has shown valuable insights into the phenomenon of a conservative attitude or culture. For example, I

2  Conclusion: Toward an Active Definition of Conservativism

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was able to show by relying on my participants that everything that is considered to be preservable requires activity, an activity that is in accordance with the lives of other people. That’s why the conservative is a homo socialis. Preserving something is not like sealing cans or Tupperware waiting for a specific expiration date. No, preserving something is to make it fit in time and to meet ever-new environmental demands. The conservative is a homo activus. And because nature is important for reaching his/her inner unity, the homo activus is equally a homo ecologicus. I am curious how future works would operationalize the culture of a liberal person in cultural psychological terms and which homini would be characteristic for such a liberal culture.

2 Conclusion: Toward an Active Definition of Conservativism I am a zoon politikon. And as such, I am interested in how people organize their lives. A conservative culture is an interesting life philosophy that appreciates meaningful relationships within family, friendships, and work. Within these social systems, specific traditions or skills are transmitted that help the individual to grow independently and to realize himself/herself in life, autonomously. Yet, the conservative knows the dangers of a too rigid life philosophy and tries to re-structure his/ her meaningful social systems in regard to the unique environmental demands s/he is confronted with. Things remain preservable as they are actualized. Negative experiences that are preserved can be re-interpreted and function as memorial to not repeat specific past actions. The non-preservable can be turned into a preservable experience that shows me what to do differently, next time. Preservable objects (ideal and material) do show a complex emotive function that combines positive emotions with an appeal to further develop a preservable system in the future for the development of my very own life as well as of my fellow man. It is surprising that such a social, ecological, and active culture could be mislabeled and fixed within negative attributes that choke the actual phenomenon we are dealing with. Yet, future work might focus more on the limitations having been made transparent within the present book such as the generalizability of my homini across a higher number of participants, across a multitude of educational backgrounds. Moreover, this work can be complemented while focusing on a liberal culture as well as mechanisms how conservatives can be stimulated to withdraw from positions that have fallen out of time. However, despite these limitations, it is time to preserve another definitory approach toward conservativism. The present work is a first and humble try from a cultural psychological background. The time was ripe.

Part II

Conservativism within Symbolic Action Theory

All valuable feelings  – for a person such as religion, a cloud or a land  – are ­conservative. (Ellen Key, in Ehe und Liebe)

Follow-Up Study and Its Reasons: Shifting the Focus More to the Ecological Assessment of the Conservative Phenomenon

One of the central issues of the abovementioned work is the focus on verbal data that leaves out the ecological component of the conservative culture. The initial thought of the study had its origin in me wanting to study how the conservative structures space and time. For that purpose, I wanted to accompany people that would describe themselves as conservative. I was planning to go along (Kusenbach, 2003) with those people and see how they actually preserve things in their daily activities. Unfortunately, I had not the opportunity to realize such an academic endeavor. The reason why is because the scope of the work did not allow such a timely investigation nor was it possible for me to allocate the necessary resources for that investigation. A cultural-psychological study has its advantages in the unity of introspection and extrospection (Valsiner, 2017), which is the reason why we need to study how people interact symbolically with their environment (Boesch, 2021). A similar interaction might result out of very divergent needs and goals, while highly different interactions might share a similar need or goal of the respective person (Lewin, 1927). Thus, a specific action unfolds multiple consequences that are ecological or material. However, the action also comes with peculiar opportunities of experience (psychic) that are part and parcel of our interactions—the way we interpret, for example, a specific event or object in our surroundings (von Fircks, 2022a). Thus, the person acts in a psycho-physically neutral manner that we need to unravel as a scientist (von Fircks, 2024a, b). A conservative culture, for instance, manifests itself equally in both ways. Bearing those limitations in mind, the study was expanded onto a new academic arena that took into account the ecological component while uniting introspection with extrospection. Importantly, culture manifests itself not only in the structuring of words or sentences but in tangible forms that bear specific texts with peculiar connotations (Boesch, 1991). The first part of the larger study shows its flaws in over-focusing verbal data that define the conservative culture. But before we are taking a closer look onto the way how we can unite introspection and extrospection for our cultural-psychological and © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 E. Freiherr von Fircks, Conservativism: A Cultural-Psychological Exploration, SpringerBriefs in Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51205-6_5

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political investigation about the nature of conservativism, I want to highlight the theoretical notions (syntax) that I am going to apply for the second part of the study.

1 Theoretical Background: What Syntax Do We Need to Assess a Conservative Culture? Implicitly, we have become aware of my theoretical background, which is cultural-­ psychological. Acknowledging that there are multiple traditions of Cultural Psychology (Valsiner, 2014), I want to define my syntax—the interrelated terms that I will operate with for the present study. My background lies within Symbolic Action Theory by the Swiss psychologist E. E. Boesch (1991, 2021) having founded one of the first institutes for Cultural Psychology at the University of Saarbrücken (Germany). Boesch defines culture as an action field (1991). The action field is structured by overlying needs and goals of persons that come together in respective groups (Boesch, 2021). Within Boeschian Cultural Psychology, needs and goals do not develop solely within the person nor are determined fully by the environment (a rather monistic position), but they are the result of a complex interaction between person and environment (Boesch, 2002, 2005, 2006). The way how person and environment do interact one with the other happens at the intersection of myths and fantasms (Boesch, 1991). Within the interaction of mythfantasm, private and social goals meet and get expanded. But, before we are operating with that specific interaction, let us take a closer look at the nature of myths. We encounter myths regularly in a specific environment that bears so-called should-values (Boesch, 1991, 2005, 2021; May, 1991). A child or adolescent growing up in a high-performing family will encounter often the myth of you need to work and become independent or work is the only way to succeed in life. That being said, myths suggest specific should-values that the individual should value and respect and ultimately adopt for his very own private life. Boesch’s definition is the following: [Myths] exemplify underlying central themes and attitudes toward life, but it is important not to lose sight of the fact that such central themes can be expressed in many different ways. Myths, therefore, are here treated as collectively accepted means of explanation, justification, and exhortation, which might be expressed in the form of myth-stories, but also of my-themes, that is, isolated themes relating to the underlying myth, be they the theme of a story, like Little Red Riding Hood, be they in the form of proverbs or other popular exhortations. In other words, a myth is a superordinate pattern of explanation and motivation regulating social action. (1991, p. 124)

Hence, we become aware that myths regulate actions and thus personal conduct of respective individuals (Peterson, 2002). However, we need to keep in mind that myths do not work in a deterministic way. Only because of the fact that my parents raised again and again the concern for me to work independently and to succeed in life does not mean that I am forced to follow that myth and to anchor it in my life-­ space (von Fircks, 2023a). On the contrary, I can even resist that myth, or more

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importantly, I can negotiate that myth-like structure and try out new means on how to relate to work as well as to myself (von Fircks, 2023a). Resistance and negotiation of myth-like structures bring us directly to the second major component of Boesch’s Symbolic Action Theory, fantasms. Fantasms are private dreams, goals, hopes, and fears that originate in the individual’s person and are thus part of his personality (Boesch, 1991). Hence, different individuals (such as siblings within one family) might relate drastically different to the myth-like structure of their shared environment. The first adolescent might agree on the fact that work is the only way to succeed in life and wants to become a physician in order to get a good reputation and prestige for his life-space. The other might resist the myth-like structure and reports that the myth is not in accordance with his personal view on what life should bring to the individual. Hence, the other individual focuses more on being than on doing—a meditational action. In sum, we see the private nature of the fantasms and how they relate to the individual’s personality. Again, we let Boesch speak for himself: [A] fantasm is here regarded as a kind of overarching goal; it concerns the nature of the anticipated ego-world relationship of the individual, including both hopes and fears. The personal contents the individual gives to a term like “happiness” would constitute a fantasm, as would the subjective meaning given to the term “self-realization” or “order.” (1991, p. 124)

However, we become also aware of the interaction between myth and fantasm, especially for the social system of which the individual is part of (Boesch, 1991, 2005). While, in the first case, our individual might ensure himself the respect and appreciation by its family, within the second case, we could imagine a rather estranged relationship between child and family. In other words, we can shed light onto the connotations of a given myth structure and investigate how the different connotations make the person interact differently with its object and surroundings (Boesch, 1977). Thus, an action-theoretical focus also unravels the systemic consequences of a connotative-denotative interaction (Boesch, 1991). We have now elaborated the notions of myths and fantasms and how they relate with each other. However, we have not yet clarified the term of action that hides itself within the title of Boesch’s Cultural Psychology. An action is the means to reach a specific goal (Boesch, 1991). Once the goal has been reached, the individual has not only reached an equilibrium—an I-world balance in Boesch’s words (1998, 2005)—but also s/he has changed the material environment in favor to his/her personal side. Thus, reaching a specific goal in a given environmental setting changes that setting as well as the person (Boesch, 1991). If I write the paper at hand and try to apply a Boeschian kind of psychology onto the notion of conservativism, it becomes—once finished—part of the environment and if published can be consulted in a library or even online. Hence, the action transforms the material environment in a peculiar way and creates something tangible that can be transmitted to other people and then used, expanded, re-structured, and so forth (see also Valsiner, 2014, 2019, 2021). Hence, action is always directed toward the outer world and tries to make the outer more compatible with the inner of the related individual (Boesch,

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2021). Nonetheless, we cannot say that the action is purely subjective or objective. On the contrary, we are inclined to say that the action is a product of myths and fantasms that regulate action (Boesch, 1991). Thus, the action bears symbolic meaning (Boesch, 2002, 2005, 2006). But its meaning is not to be found solely within the individual nor within the collective sphere of being and doing (May, 1991; Peterson, 2002). As a consequence, action and its products are always polyvalent (Boesch, 1991)—serving many different purposes. To make it less abstract, let’s remain within our given example. The present academic work wants to illuminate an alternative definition of conservativism—a definition that has been overlooked in the traditional social sciences. The social sciences interpret the notion of conservativism in a rather negatively connotated way: As such, they argue that the conservative cannot deal with uncertainty and threats (Jost et al., 2003). In my case, I reject such definition because it is for me a misinterpretation of the notion of conservativism. For me, the notion of conservativism comes with particular advantages that helps people to lead a self-centered and meaningful life—something that I try to show by the means of my work. Thus, I encounter the myth-like structure with an opposing and challenging fantasm wanting to actually expand the research on conservativism. Hence, the action of me writing the present piece of work is manifold and serves many different motifs/needs. This includes the expansion of the notion of conservativism within the research of the social sciences, the suggestion of an alternative definition of conservativism that is not negatively connotated, and some concrete empirical evidence that the conservative leads a self-centered and meaningful life that cannot be described as antiquated.  This should ultimately lead into the re-structuring of the current myth-like structure of conservativism within the academic arena. And of course, the concrete results of that polyvalent action are the tangible form of the present book, the completed work that becomes then part of the environment and can be used by other agents for their purposes. Hence, its transmission will come into being only because of the polyvalence of the present action. Further, we need to say something about the notion of actions. An action serves a specific overlying goal (Boesch, 1991). However, the goal must be subdivided by many different sub-goals that lead to the total satisfaction of the overlying goal (Peterson, 2002). That being in mind, writing the present book about an alternative definition of conservativism (action) needs to be de-composed into many different sub-goals that are all significant steps toward the satisfaction of the overlying goal (Boesch, 1991). If we remain within the book example, the writing up of the book consists of the sub-goals, preparation of the manuscript, writing the introduction, writing the results and the discussion section, proofreading, getting into dialogue with colleagues about potential flaws and mistakes, and so forth. Boesch among many other psychologists recognizes and appreciates that goals need to be digested by many different sub-goals that bring the human organism closer to the overlying goal leading him into a state of homeostasis (Boesch, 1991). In Fig. 1, I present the conceptual network of interrelated terms that are important for applying the Symbolic Action Theory of E.E. Boesch onto the notion of conservativism.

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Fig. 1  Action-theoretical scheme of Boesch’s Symbolic Action Theory

In the following, we are going to apply our action-theoretical scheme onto the notion of conserving meaningful activities—an important feature of conservativism. For that purpose, we are going to define the overlying goal that is reached by several sub-goals through actions. However, the action bears symbolic meaning (Boesch, 1991). That being said, the actions serve specific purposes of the community as well as of the individual. Thus, the actions are mediated by the interaction of myths and fantasms that are a cognitive-affective drive in order to pursue a specific sub-goal through related actions (see Fig. 1). People who join the action field and agree on specific sub-goals as well as myths and fantasms are more likely to feel cohesion in their respective group (Boesch, 1991).

2 Methodology: How to Assess an Action Field Between Intro- and Extrospection Now that we have defined our interrelated scientific concepts for our academic endeavor, we will try to put it into practice for the investigation of conservativism from a psychological viewpoint. For that purpose, I am using autoethnographic and introspective data pairing it with ecological insights. Again, our goal is to unite introspection with extrospection in order to unravel the symbolic qualities of an action field—here the conservative action field. Because autoethnographic data do show the advantage of accessing private meaning making patterns—mostly free from social desirability—it is included within the analysis of the present investigation (Ellis et al., 2010). The ecological data points are going to serve the purpose to illuminate how the different actions are directed toward the satisfaction of the

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overlying goal mediated by the specific interaction of myth and fantasm. The actions are thus assessed ecologically. They leave some clear traces in the environment, and we can detect them easily by observation, for instance, and protocol them with photos or videos. The myth-fantasm interaction on the other hand is assessed introspectively because they mirror assumptions about the way how things should be done personally as well as collectively. They come close to unraveling implicit assumptions that are part and parcel of culture (Valsiner, 2014). As they are mostly implicit or hidden, they do not have their tangible forms within the environment but guide actions symbolically within the related action field. Most importantly, the mythfantasm interaction mirrors collective and personal needs of the action field and tries to harmonize them in specific actions. Boesch used the notion of polyvalence for this phenomenon in order to indicate that different actions serve many different needs or motifs for a multitude of individuals coming together in an action field (Boesch, 1991). For the present study, I selected multiple action fields for the investigation of how an overreaching goal in its meaningfulness is preserved or conserved. As a consequence, I chose, for example, the action field of a specific tennis club where I come from in order to see how meaningful activities within the club are preserved and by which needs this preservation comes into being. For that purpose, I observed the basic actions on the tennis court and documented them with pictures showing how the activity of playing tennis unfolds in the everyday occurrence. Moreover, I was complementing the observation and documentation of concrete actions with the introspective (auto- and foreign introspection) investigation of myths and fantasms that mediate the actions significantly. For other researchers and practitioners being inclined to work with my action-theoretical scheme, I want to explain myself less abstractly. If we apply our scheme onto the academic action field and me wanting to write my book, we can envisage the following (see Fig. 2). In Fig. 2, we see clearly that the specific actions are guided by the myth-fantasm structure of the action field, thus by specific should-values of the community as well as the personal meaningful needs of the respective individual. We see that in the abovementioned example, actions such as reading, coding, and proofreading are all informed by the respective myths and its personal appropriation—that is, the fantasm. In my example, the myth and fantasm interaction made me read articles about conservativism that try to not to define the conservative person as the enemy of the twenty-first century or democracy in general (see Kielmansegg, 2017). Second, I was heavily constrained by several teachers advising me to not write about a political orientation as this could endanger my academic career while I did not agree on that personally and wrote about such a topic, nonetheless. My freedom of expression is more important than a specific position in academia. Now, we have seen the theoretical and practical application of our action-­ theoretical scheme informed by the Symbolic Action Theory of E.E. Boesch. Yet, we need to say some final sentences about how to assess actions as well as myths and fantasms. While actions are always directed toward environmental givens or the environment in general, the mythfantasm structure needs to be assessed introspectively. That being in mind, we can get a glimpse into the mediation between

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Fig. 2  Action-theoretical scheme of writing a dissertation

Fig. 3  Action-theoretical scheme and its intro- and extrospective assessment

overlying goals and sub-goals by the means of specific actions that are observable for the interested psychologist. However, we should not stop here but enlarge our scientific investigation by an introspection about myths and fantasms that cannot be assessed ecologically. That in mind, we can decipher the following (see Fig. 3). In the end, we can argue that our action-theoretical scheme can assess an action field psycho-physically neutral (Stern, 1924), which means its material and psychic manifestations that are inseparable and important to shed light onto the way how people organize and structure space and time (Stern, 1924).

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Follow-Up Study and Its Reasons: Shifting the Focus More to the Ecological…

Summing up the most important results regarding our methodology, we can say that we have developed a practical action-theoretical scheme that can assess meaningful phenomena of a respective action field while observing concrete actions directed at the environment as well as its mediation by myths and fantasms via introspection (von Fircks, 2023c). Here, we complement E.E. Boesch’s Symbolic Action Theory while developing a simplifying and practical model on how to analyze and assess goals with highly affective symbolic meaning. To the best knowledge of the author, this is the first try to systematize Boesch’s Cultural Psychology and to make it fertile for a broader research community— something which has been done, for instance, with Vygotsky’s activity theory by Engeström (Engeström, 2000; von Fircks, 2022b) and the organizational domain— work within the industrial setting in Engeström’s example (Engeström & Engeström, 1986). Moreover, its application and extension to the political domain or political ideologies is a novum and breaks with mainstream research trying to assess political orientations mostly with psychometric tests without being interested in the daily activities of the respective individuals and their material manifestations. As such, we apply a personological framework because we are interested by the actions of multiple persons coming together and the respective symbolism of their actions mediated by myths and fantasms.

Results: Assessing the Preservation of Meaningful Activity on the Tennis Court

I decided to work as a tennis trainer in my local club where I played tennis myself for more than two decades. Tennis is a beautiful sport for me. It combines aesthetics and elegance with a resource-intensive workout having its peak in several matches where you try to give everything. It is no wonder that today’s press compares tennis athletes with warriors such as Nadal but also to dances such as Federer dancing elegantly over the tennis courts (Fest, 2018). So, tennis is an intense physical sport, but it comes also with aesthetic features that should not be underestimated. I wanted to teach children and adolescents tennis because I like to spread my knowledge, to motivate them, and for them to become good tennis players. As such, they have the opportunity to play with their loved ones such as their families, their romantic partners, and friends or might even get the opportunity to play for a university team later on. For me, it is beautiful to see the children’s progresses and to witness how they improve over the years, start to play in the local teams, and compete against other teams or even against each other. Then they become independent from their trainer and do not need me anymore. So, that is the reason why I wanted to become a tennis trainer. These were and are my fantasms—to give something from my Self for other people to internalize and to become independent tennis players that helps them not only to master the sport but also to enjoy other features such as the social component of the sport. Preserving the meaningfulness of playing tennis is the overall goal that is at the heart of our action-theoretical model inspired by E.E. Boesch (see Fig. 1). Now, we need to assess how this overreaching goal is pursued, namely, by which concrete sub-goals that are attained by concrete actions that manifest themselves in and through the environment. How do I give tennis classes in order to preserve the meaningfulness of the tennis event? How can we define the respected sub-goals? The sub-goals could be named by the following: giving tennis lessons between fun for the children’s amusement and transmitting skills for their development. Moreover, it is important for me that my players experience the social side of the © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 E. Freiherr von Fircks, Conservativism: A Cultural-Psychological Exploration, SpringerBriefs in Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51205-6_6

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Fig. 1  Action-theoretical scheme of preserving the meaningfulness of the playing tennis within tennis club Z

sport—that they realize that they operate with human beings on the other side of the net and that they can talk to them, potentially finding friends in them and just enjoying their company. I am aware that this sounds abstract and that we are still far away from our ecological assessment that I praised in the methodological section. That’s why I’d like to picture what I have described in the following paragraphs. But before we are turning our gaze to the ecological assessment, let me briefly describe by which actions I want to preserve the meaningfulness of the tennis sport. In order to transmit skills and knowledge, I am focusing on improving the basic repertoire of each tennis player. This is mirrored by me laying a peculiar focus on training the specific technique of each feature such as forehand, backhand, serving, slice, and so forth. For that purpose, I am creating exercises through which the players learn to aim, to hit the ball harder, or to play close to the baseline or in short to improve their portfolio of hitting the ball. My aim is that they can enhance the diversity of their strokes and to react more flexibly to their opponents if they compete against other players. So, creating and repeating exercises that help the players to improve and enrich their ground stroke portfolio is a significant action for me to preserve a meaningful activity on the tennis court. For that purpose, I want to rely on Image 1 showing a baseline exercise for improving one’s ground strokes. Here, the player or athlete is inclined to hit the ball with his/her forehand and to get used to play the ball close to the baseline, namely, to gain some length in and during the rally (see Image 1). But for sure, this is not enough. I also want them to have fun on the tennis court. I want my pupils to be amused when playing tennis and to experience that playing tennis brings positive emotions. For that, I am doing a lot of plays with my pupils regardless of their age. Here, I want to channel their fun and to participate with their

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Image 1  Preparing an exercise for ground strokes (action)

positive emotions in a less strict environment where they can express their play side more freely and naturally. Thus, the concrete action is making space and time for play. One game that my tennis pupils like to play every time is called Mexico and is some sort of free play where four players play against each other with and without the net—all having four lives that they can lose easily if they pay no attention. Another play is an alteration of improving ground strokes. This time the pupils are appealed to hit some bottles that I put on the tennis courts (see Image 2). If they succeed, they win an ice cream. Moreover, I said that I want my players to experience and preserve the meaningfulness of the tennis sport also by realizing the benefits of the social component of the sport. That’s why I extend the breaks with my players, sit with them in chairs, and talk about their private life—or in short what’s happening to them outside the tennis domain. As a consequence, I sit with them at a table next to the court or in comforting chairs and discuss matters of school, of family life, of friendships, and so forth in order to get to know my tennis pupil. With half of my tennis pupils, I have almost built a friendship in this regard, and we often eat ice cream together or are having a drink if I have lost a bet against them (see Images 3 and 4). We can now systematize what we have been said in Fig. 1. We do become aware of the fact that we have not yet assessed the myths and the mythemes of the tennis club where I do give tennis lessons in order to get the full picture of the related action sphere. This should be our focus as of now. Asking

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Results: Assessing the Preservation of Meaningful Activity on the Tennis Court

Image 2  Preparing a play exercise such as hitting two water bottles

several club members about the respective should-values of the tennis club, they answered with a complex mixture of mythemes. Some of them told me that the club should be the number one in the region because of its infrastructure (nine tennis courts, outdoor, and two tennis courts, indoors), which is also an appeal for some members that the competitive teams should target to play in the highest amateur leagues. Others told me that tennis should be a sport with a socializing focus being a meeting point for different people to come together and enjoy their mutual presence. If this is not guaranteed, people reported that they would start to look for other recreational activities. However, it is important to mention that for most of the people with whom I spoke as a tennis coach, both myths are not as contradictory as it might appear in the very beginning. As I was training the woman’s 60 team, they told me that one should compete in order to improve because for them it is only through competition that a player can develop. However, once being part of competing against other teams, the players must fit with each other because often they travel into different regions for competition. So, if you are away a whole day of the weekend, it is important for players to understand each other and to feel some sort of cohesion. So, one should compete but equally one should not take the competition too seriously insofar as he or she loses the social factor of the sport. And for sure, the competition is important for the club to remain visible and to show other teams and the public that people are well prepared for competition if they decide to become part of that specific tennis club. Interestingly, these two complementary

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Image 3  Chairs in which my pupil and I are sitting during our breaks

myths are not abstract visions, but they manifest themselves on the website of the tennis club: Unser schöner Verein ist stadtnah gelegen, von Grün umgeben und damit der ideale Ort für deine Sport und Freizeitgestaltung. (TC Siegen, 2020, ll. 1–2) Our beautiful club is close to the city center, surrounded by green and hence the ideal place for your sport and recreational activities. (Author’s translation)

It is especially the last part of the sentence that deserves our further interest. The specific link between sport and recreational activities is at the foreground of the tennis club. This is further evidenced by the fact that the sentence is the first one encounters when opening the webpage of the club. This shows us that the myths are co-existing next to each other without being purely contradictory. On the contrary, both do have their place within the club and guide specific conduct on and outside the tennis courts. As a consequence, we can now turn our gaze to the complete action-theoretical scheme including the specific myths in our Fig. 2. Now, we become aware that my fantasms are in great accordance with the underlying myths of the tennis club and hence with my specific actions in order to preserve the meaningfulness of my and my pupil’s tennis activities. As a consequence, I feel a deep I-world balance (see Boesch, 1998, 2005) because my inner world is highly compatible with the demands of the outer world. Hence, my actions mirror

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Image 4  Bringing and eating some ice cream on the tennis court

Fig. 2  Complete action-theoretical scheme of preserving a meaningful tennis activity

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well the interaction between myth and fantasm, and this is the reason why my training fits nicely the general atmosphere of the tennis club. However, we should bear in mind that this I-world balance is also temporarily threatened. As I am part of the tennis club’s board, I am frequently meeting people who do have other fantasms. There is especially one person wanting to shift the attention more to the competitive side than to the social side of the club. He wants to make the club a base for competition within the region, so that the club gains attractiveness in this regard. I am more of the opinion to preserve the balance between recreational and competitive activities because it is in and through that combination of actions that people can improve in various ways and spend meaningful time on and outside the courts. If you focus solely on competition, you exclude a specific type of people coming to the tennis courts for fun, amusement, and social interaction. As a consequence, I am always hesitating if that specific board member is making propositions how to organize the club in a new and more effective manner because I fear that this threatens the general culture of the tennis club and thus the meaningfulness of the tennis activity that I want to preserve for myself as well as  for my pupils and friends at the club. Conflicts emerge between how to conserve and preserve meaning because the fantasmmyth interaction changes as the general action field is appropriated subjectively in a divergent way. Those conflicts center around the notion whether to preserve or change a given (social) system. However, if a tennis club (for instance) wants to change its underlying structure—for example, going more into a competitive direction—they need to bear in mind whether that new direction is in accordance with the prevailing myths and fantasms of the members. If, for example, the club wanted to eliminate all sides of the social features of the tennis activities, the majority of the members would leave the club and adhere to other, concurrent clubs. So, if a club discusses a new framework for its future, it needs to account for the underlying myths that regulate action within the club as well as the personal appropriation of those myths by the means of individual fantasms. Change can only occur from a cultural-psychological perspective if the change does not contradict the underlying myths and fantasms that are attractive for the people inside the system— here the tennis club. This means that organic progress is possible but only inside the borders of the underlying and attractive myths and fantasms of the system’s members. Before we are turning our gaze to the interpretation of what we have depicted in the result section, I want to summarize the most important features of the abovementioned paragraphs. We have accomplished to put our action-theoretical scheme into practice for the conservation of meaning inside a tennis club. For that purpose, we have gathered different data points in order to fill out our related action-theoretical figure. We have defined an overall sub-goal, which is to preserve the meaningfulness of playing tennis within the action field of a concrete tennis club (TC Siegen). That overlying goal was further subdivided into sub-goals, and in between them, we have located specific actions that help to mediate the jump from the sub-goals to the overlying goal. Further, those actions that help to attain the general goal of our scheme are socially and individually regulated while accounting for the myth and fantasm structure of

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the related action field. For that purpose, we were able to sample introspective data (autoethnographic introspection as well as foreign introspection) and assess the myth structure of the action field—here the importance of competition and enjoying the social side of playing tennis. If the myth-like structure of the environment is in accordance, thus overlaps, with fantasms, meaning is not only preserved but also consolidated, which helps people to enjoy a specific I-world balance. However, the preservation of playing meaningfully tennis needs to be understood by a variety of sub-goals that relate equally to the general overlying goal of the respective action field. The preservation of meaning was able to count on multiple actions that from the outset appeared to be contradictory. Yet, we were able to unravel a more complex picture of the action field and could show that the action field of playing meaningfully tennis consists of multiple myths that can be seen as complementary. So, playing meaningfully tennis could rely on many diverse actions that were regulated by many diverse needs via underlying mythfantasm interactions. Conflicts emerged if people from the executive board tried to threaten the balance found between several myths and fantasms including to shift the focus artificially onto one specific myth ignoring other important myths and fantasms of the related action field. As a consequence, the meaningfulness of playing tennis was endangered and was thus protected by several board members (me, for instance) who did not want to artificially concentrate on one myth disfavoring people relating to the club out of many diverse needs and motifs.

1 Interpretation: Distilling the Evidence for a Conservative Culture Having now summarized the basic features of our action-theoretical scheme, we are now able to interpret them regarding the phenomenon of conservativism. The question that we are inclined to answer and that follows us through the entire scientific investigation is and remains what makes something preservable or conservable? Regarding our results, the answer to that question might seem trivial but comes with vast implications. It is the polyvalence of a goal that makes it preservable for many different actors. This means that an overlying goal serves many different needs and motifs of individuals coming together and eventually forming a group. As a consequence, the overlying goal can be divided into several sub-goals that are all part and parcel of the higher-order goal. And it is only through concrete actions directed toward the environment that the general goal can be achieved or accomplished. Playing meaningful tennis incorporates many different actions as it serves many different sub-goals that are important for the actors joining the respective action field. But this is only half of the truth. We have seen that the driving force in order to act (volition) and to pursue the sub-goals as well as the general goal is to be found in the interaction of myth and fantasm. This means that individual and

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collective needs are essentially mirrored by the underlying myths and fantasms that penetrate the action field, implicitly and explicitly. The fantasm is the individual appropriation of the myth regulating social action within the system that we are confronted with. This means that the individuals start to relate to the should-values of the tennis club because of highly personal needs and motifs. An important feature that helps to do the action is the accordance of myth and fantasm. If the fantasm is in clear dis-accordance with an underlying myth or does not have a myth-like counterpart, it cannot unfold its regulative power over individual conduct. This means that action is catalyzed if myths and fantasms are working in a specific type of conjunction, thus in harmony. This does not mean that the fantasm will not change the myth but that the myth can exclude specific fantasms right away and make it thus almost impossible to act in a specific way—if the action is contradictory to the myth-like structure of the environment and hence punished or sanctioned. The motivation to preserve or conserve a meaningful activity such as playing tennis within a tennis club incorporates the satisfaction of many different needs and motifs that become regulated by fantasms and myths. If the environment is going to reject a specific fantasm because it considers the fantasm as not compatible with the specific myth, the person will either leave the specific action field or change the action field insofar as other myths might emerge over the course of this process, which are then more in accordance with the related fantasm. With that focus, we also get an understanding of the dynamics between conservativism and progressivity—that is, the status quo will not be preserved or conserved from an individual perspective if the individual cannot relate to the myth-like structure of the action field with his/her peculiar fantasms. If the individual gets the opportunity to join the action field due to its very important and personological needs mirrored by its fantasms, the person will be also inclined to preserve that structure as it mediates a significant I-world balance, a place where the individual feels personally at home but also gets the opportunity to relate to other people with overlapping fantasms. This brings us undoubtedly to the conclusion that things must not be conserved per se (because of an ideological attitude)—but on the contrary that it is an appeal to challenge a conservative structure if it does not have any point of references between myths and fantasms for the individual. In other words, conservativism is the preservation of a meaningful need whose directive power is channeled by concrete actions and their introspective precipitation by myths and fantasms. And conservativism includes to create and then to preserve a meaningful I-world balance based on a positive mythfantasm interaction—which is an active and regulative action. Moreover, the conservative tries not to deny the importance of concurrent mythsfantasms, but s/he realizes that there is a place for multiple myths and their individual appropriation within a specific action field. Denying and rejecting a specific need of another person and its manifestation within a given fantasm is to deny the dignity of the other person and its self-determination tendency. Yet, the conservative is aware that multiple needs might co-exist one with the other and that there must not be a predomination of one myth or one fantasm inside a given action field. The conservative, as in my tennis example, tries to accept many diverse subjective appropriation processes of an action field—the making of an action field into a

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personal life-space because s/he is aware of the fact that actions serve polyvalent goals—goals that satisfy the needs and motifs of many different people that can live in harmony with each other and not within the pre-domination of a specific lifestyle. The conservative is not an authoritative figure trying to explain how to lead one’s life and under which specific maxims. Summing up the most important features of our interpretation, we can depict the following: A. The conservative tries to preserve a meaningful I-world balance that consists of making private needs compatible with the outer world—that is, to regulate harmoniously his/her fantasms with the underlying myth of the action field. B. However, the conservative tries not to force his/her private needs (fantasms) onto the general action field and thus onto other people. S/he is not a know-it-all. On the contrary, the conservative acknowledges the right of divergent needs from its own and their precipitation in respective fantasms. Moreover, s/he is aware of the heterogeneity of the action field—that is, the heterogeneity of underlying myths to which many different individuals can relate, subjectively. The polyvalence of goals is appreciated by the conservative because it creates action that enriches the world in many different ways. C. If the conservative cannot relate with his/her fantasms to an underlying myth, s/ he will either leave the action field and thus the community or s/he will be inclined to change the related myth insofar as s/he can relate to the action field in a very important personological way. D. Thus, conservativism must not be understood as an ideological attitude—a doctrine but as a personal appeal to preserve a meaningful I-world balance that can also change in and through time. E. Harmony can come into being within an action field if the conservative tries to preserve his/her attitude that goals can be reached in many different ways, which are motivated by sometimes highly divergent but valid needs and motifs. Thus, the conservative not only acknowledges the self-determination tendency of each person, that is, to make the world more compatible with his/her private needs, but s/he is of the opinion that people can only live together if this norm is applied to several action fields and action spheres. We have now seen the application of our action-theoretical scheme onto the cultural-­ psychological phenomenon of preserving/conserving something—here meaningful activities within a tennis club. For reasons of cross-validity as well as further insights into the cultural-personological phenomenon of conservativism, we are intrigued to apply our action-theoretical scheme onto a second practical application of conservativism. For that purpose, I selected a second activity such as preserving my meaningful work within academia.

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2 Results: Assessing the Meaningful Preservation of Academic Work We start with the general overlying goal of preserving meaningful work within the academic context, which is the action field. This overreaching goal can be further subdivided into several sub-goals that I will present as the following. First, meaningful academia incorporates for me to get acquainted with the research of old and mostly forgotten figures within psychology—and to acknowledge and appreciate the value that comes with that work. Second, meaningful academia shows itself for me in the sub-goal of not only getting acquainted with the philosophical ideas of grand old figures of psychology but also to re-organize that research for the present day. Third, I want to spread knowledge and help people to better understand themselves and their environment by means of research. Now that we have assessed our overlying goal and its major sub-goals that relate organically to the overreaching goal, we need to clarify by which action sub-goals and major goals are pursued and eventually satisfied. Getting acquainted with the old and important research of mostly forgotten figures in psychology relies on the concrete action of reading the major works of the grand psychologists of the twenty-first century such as Stern, Vygotsky, Lewin, and Bruner, Valsiner—among many other authors (see Image 5).

Image 5  Books of grand old figures for psychology

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Moreover, it relies on the concrete actions of reading the academic work of people having analyzed and systematized those research branches, which might also include to go to conferences that are centered around the philosophy of those people, such as field theory, for instance. The second sub-goal includes the re-organization of that knowledge for research of our present days. This means that I try to re-interpret the research of those mostly forgotten figures in order to apply and extend it into the different application fields of today’s psychology. As a consequence, I try to elaborate on the implications of Lewin’s, Stern’s, and Vygotsky’s work and its concrete application within the industrial and the therapeutic domain (von Fircks, 2022c). Lastly, when trying to spread this re-organization of knowledge, I am trying to join collaborations with other researchers and to establish joint projects as well as to help them with their ongoing research (see, for example, my participation at the Dialogical Self Conference, 2024). Having clarified the first half of our action-theoretical scheme, we are inclined to unravel the second half that goes hand in hand with the detection of specific myths and fantasms that interact one with the other. The two most important fantasms of me working in academia are to participate in the generation of knowledge and to help people to better understand themselves. I do not want to see science as a means for self-interest such as money, prestige, status, and so forth. I really like research because many different people come together, look at an object from divergent perspectives, and try to illuminate what the object can become depending on the specific position. For me, research is a creative act, a transformation of the object, a transformation of the environment that could help people to better relate to themselves as well as to their surroundings. We can call that fantasm the illuminative power of research that attracts me to my work in the academic setting. But it is not only this fantasm that motivates me to perform the specific actions in order to pursue the goals that we have assessed above. There is more to our action-theoretical scheme, namely, the fantasm of helping people to be anthropologically more sustainable with their resources. In other words, I dream of a world in which research can help people to better understand their resources that keeps them going in their everyday lives as well as their barriers that makes them empty, for instance. I call that the resource-oriented fantasm of my research. However, we are surely aware that we still lack the assessment of the underlying myths that relate to the fantasms. So, we need to ask ourselves what are the respective should-values that try to regulate human conduct within the academic setting? My scientific work was mostly influenced by humanistic psychologists who tried to work for the growth and autonomy of other people. I found my place within the humanistic (Maslow, Perls) and existential direction of psychology (Schneider) as well as within literature of H.  Hesse. Importantly, Hesse conveyed an important message for my professional development—namely, that research should not become an end in itself nor the means for self-glory but a trigger point to change the world in one’s own little macrocosm (von Fircks, 2022d). It is in this regard that I was heavily impacted by the philosophy of the Tao—the polarity of life that is important to get a full picture of living as well as the natural flow of life, which means to not resist negativity, for instance (von Fircks, 2023d, e, f). So, we become

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aware of the two major myths that dominate my scientific work. First, we can speak of the mytheme of helping people to grow as well as to find autonomy—even in the most restricted time (existentialism had its origins in challenging the unchangeable found, for example, during the darkest times of National Socialism with V. Frankl). However, this growth should not be used for status reasons or for research to become a simple game that can be played among colleagues but to improve the world of concrete human beings in all its colorfulness (principles of the Tao). In Fig. 3, we have depicted the complete action-theoretical scheme of preserving my meaningful work within the academic context. We see easily how the different actions are regulated by the specific mythfantasm interaction. Obviously, fantasm and myth are in great accordance with each other and are not contradictory. This means that the fantasm relates to the myth in a positive way—helping other people to grow and to find autonomy in their lives is perceived as a creative act showing how the myth is individually and subjectively appropriated. It is here that not only the fantasm can unfold its specific power but also the myth gets consolidated within such a process. Moreover, the myth of doing science to help people better understand themselves as well as their relation toward their environment is mirrored by the resource-oriented fantasm. In short, helping to build up resources and to preserve those resources is a way for the researcher (myself) to help people grow in their respective life-spaces. As myths and fantasms relate positively to each other and consolidate each other, they unfold a severe regulative power over the actions that mediate the jump from the sub-goals to the overlying goal. Regarding Fig. 3, we also see that the myths and fantasms relate differently to the sub-goals as well as to the diverse actions to reach the overlying goal. That being in mind, we can

Fig. 3  Action-theoretical scheme of preserving meaningful work within the academic context

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say—for instance—that doing science for other people relates highly positive to the sub-goal of spreading knowledge and to the action of going to conferences or establishing collaborations with other researchers, whereas the fantasm of research as a creative act gets well mirrored by the re-organization of knowledge as a sub-goal as well as by the concrete action of writing. Every sub-goal and every overlying goal as well as the actions that mediate between them do have their drive by a respective myth or fantasm, and every myth and fantasm are not hanging loosely in the air but do have their counterparts within the triad of goals, sub-goals, and actions. That in mind, we are now able to expand our action-theoretical scheme with some additional features (see Fig. 4). The myth as collective pattern of social regulation relates to collective needs that are important to preserve a given structure and the meaningfulness of the environment, whereas the individual or private needs are central for the preservation and meaningfulness of the Self operating as a distinct entity within that environment. If both collective and private needs relate to each other in a positively interdependent way, they are consolidating each other and regulate the triad of goal, sub-goal, and action harmoniously.

Fig. 4  Completed action-theoretical scheme

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3 Interpretation: What the Preservation of Meaning Within Academia Teaches Us About the Phenomenon of Conservativism With our completed action-theoretical scheme, we are now able to interpret the results within my academic action field. A preservation of meaningful work—such as academic work—relies on the fact that the work consists of multiple sub-goals that are mediated by concrete actions directed toward the environment. These sub-­ goals mirror the pluralistic and polyvalent nature of the general activity—that is, academic work—and thus the multiple needs it satisfies for the individual finding himself/herself in exactly that action field. However, the individual can only satisfy his/her private needs if s/he can reconcile those needs with the social needs of the environment (collective need) that do find their counterparts in the myth structure of an environment. To find meaningfulness in one’s work and to preserve that meaningfulness requires that the individual harmonizes his/her private needs with the collective needs of the environment and to synthesize them for a common purpose of the action field. It is here that the individual not only learns to take on responsibility for its own Self—that is, its psychic development—but also for the development and preservation of the environment (social needs). However, this reconciliation of private and collective needs found in the specific interaction of mythfantasm must not be regarded as something static—something that does not change in and through time. On the contrary, the Self is an open system (Valsiner, 2014) and as such is in constant development—and for sure the environment alters its needs equally (that is, other people forming a group). So, preserving a meaningful (material, social) system or action field requires the dynamic reconciliation of myths and fantasms, which is the reconciliation of private and individual needs for a common ground theme of the action field (von Fircks, 2023b). That does not imply that the ground theme of the action field will not change but that is an appeal to monitor the development of one’s own private needs as well as the needs of the generalized social other in order for one to continuously reconcile myth and fantasm to get drive for action and to attain the goals that are important for the Self and the environment. This leads us to the following conclusions regarding our interpretation of our second action-theoretical scheme: A. The conservative becomes aware of his/her responsibility for his/her very own world—that is, his/her Self, which is in constant development. However, this Self does not hang loosely in the air but finds its counterpart in the environment. The environment (that is, other people coming together) reports its very own collective needs that are important for its preservation and which is meaningful for its members. The conservative tries to reconcile its needs with the needs of the environment because s/he knows the power of a positive interaction between myth and fantasm or collective and individual needs. B. Bearing that in mind, the conservative tries to create and preserve a structure in the action field that helps him/her to reconcile private with collective needs. The

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conservative knows that this reconciliation is the royal road, the driving force to construct the next present moment in conjunction and to guard its meaningfulness—only when accounting for other people. C. This is the reason why the conservative will refrain from patronizing acts and tries to teach other people what to do and by which actions. No, on the contrary: S/he is aware that people relate out of many different reasons (needs) to an action field and to its collective patterns and that the generalized social other can have his/her place and must find his/her place in that action field only by being appealed to reconcile his/her Self with the environment. D. This means that the conservative tries to preserve this general open accessibility of the action field in order for other people to find their place there and to make it their home. This shows us that the conservative needs to preserve his/her environment because this is the only place where s/he can take on responsibility for his/her Self as well as for the environment, which is the only place for the development of the Self.

Discussion: Between Strengths and Weaknesses of Assessing Conservativism Within Our Action-­Theoretical Scheme

The aim of the present research was manifold. The extension of the book had its origins in the basic flaws of the first part of the study. We remember that for the first part, we focused mostly on verbal data points for establishing an alternative definition of conservativism. However, we were actually intrigued by the question how the conservative structures space and time and by which needs and motifs he does so. Hence, the verbal data points were only an invitation to a personal reflection about the notion of conservativism. For sure, a verbal reflection—a verbal structure—correlates significantly with some structure within the environment (Stern, 1924), but we were not able to assess the specific nature of this relationship as well as the material manifestation of a conservative ideology. This was the reason why we tried to challenge our previous study—and research—and to adopt a more ecological stand toward the notion of conservativism within the academic context. For that purpose, we developed an action-theoretical scheme defining specific overlying goals that could be divided into specific sub-goals between which concrete action mediated the jump from the sub-goal to the overlying goal  (von Fircks, 2021, 2022a, d). These actions could be actually operationalized because they are always directed toward the environment in order to transform that environment. Hence, we could assess those actions, ecologically, and because we were able to assess them within the environment, we could also get a glimpse into how they mediate between sub-­ goals and general goals. However, goals, sub-goals, and actions are all important features in order to observe, protocol, and analyze a conservative or preservative phenomenon. But they are not sufficient. On the contrary, actions are always driven by specific needs or motifs (Boesch, 1991, 1998, 2005), and the actions become regulated by specific collective patterns that we called with E.E.  Boesch myths (1991) as well as by fantasms (private dreams, longings, imaginations). We could show in the following that myth and fantasm are means to structure and express collective and private needs and to see whether they match one with the other. We could © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 E. Freiherr von Fircks, Conservativism: A Cultural-Psychological Exploration, SpringerBriefs in Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51205-6_7

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see by many theoretical and other examples that mythfantasm regulate action individually and collectively, and we could thus shed light not only onto the power of ecological givens (actions) but also about some narrative structures (myths and fantasms) that channel action in peculiar ways. This action-theoretical scheme was then applied to two concrete phenomena of preserving a meaningful activity. One time we could see how the activity of playing meaningfully tennis was preserved while we could also show how to preserve the meaningfulness of one’s academic work. For this reason, we focused on the emergence of how something preservable or conservable comes into being and what it actually makes it preservable and conservable. We have found some kind of qualitative cross-validity—that is, we could show that the polyvalence of a general goal derives its power by complementary sub-­ goals that all serve different myths and fantasms. Importantly, the many diverse myths and fantasms are not perceived as contradictory but again as complementary, and multiple needs (collective and individual) can be pursued by a given action. Thus, the attainment of a goal satisfies multiple needs and demands of the person and the environment  (von Fircks, 2024a, b). It is especially the last finding that seemed to be a core characteristic of something preservable or conservable. We could show that the conservative tried to reconcile private needs and social needs within a specific mythfantasm interaction, which could ensure the development of his/her Self as well as the development of the environment (that is, other persons and organisms). This means that the polyvalence of the action field can be only preserved if the person fosters in himself/herself the attitude that the environment can be appropriated and enriched in many divergent and complementary ways, which led us to the conclusion that the conservative refrains from patronizing his/ her environment because his/her relatedness is just one among many and cannot fulfill the total demands of the environment. The conservative knows his/her own limits of relatedness. Now having paraphrased the results for our discussion, we can shed light onto the strengths of the present study. To my best knowledge, this study is the first scientific one that wants to shed light onto the psychological mechanisms of how to conserve or preserve something originating from concrete persons and their concrete environments. If we remember that political ideologies are mostly assessed with psychometric tests and then correlated or regressed onto a specific criterion, we become aware of the different approach the present study has employed for its investigation. What we have done in the second part of the study is to assess the phenomenon of conservativism from an ecological perspective—that is, we focused on concrete actions that could be symbolically mapped onto goals and sub-goals. Thus, we were able to sample ecological data regarding the phenomenon of conservativism—something that has not yet been done from a psychological perspective. This data was autoethnographically protocolled and relied on the go-along method— scientifically observing and going along a specific activity in a given action field. Again, this is something that psychology was very shy in applying and investigating because they study this phenomenon from a positivistic perspective denying the appropriation of an action field with a specific myth-like structure from a

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personological viewpoint (von Fircks, 2022d). The individual, its teleology, and the teleology’s translation into actions directed toward the environment were always at the foreground of the present scientific inquiry. At no point in time, we tried to assess scores or correlations that become estranged from the individual and its symbolic interpretation of a specific action field. On the contrary, we were able to assess the individual need hierarchy of a given person and its interaction with the mythlike structure of the environment that channeled our individual’s conduct and regulated it in peculiar ways. As such, we overcame an impersonalistic viewpoint and tried to shed light onto the phenomenon of conservativism from a non-monistic viewpoint—that is, to see how private and collective needs interact and transform the person and the environment equally. For that reason, we focused on ecological data points as well as on personal, introspective ones following the appeal of Valsiner (2017) to study psychological phenomena within the unity of introspection and extrospection. Thus, we were able to go beyond simple verbal data points and to see them interact with ecological data—something that tells us more about the person than his/her simple narration (Valsiner, 2017). Moreover, we have located our study at the outlook of the first study realizing its significant flaws and weaknesses. For that purpose, we tried to define a specific syntax and methodology that could help us to achieve our scientific endeavor. We found that syntax and methodology in the complex theory of E.E. Boesch, namely, in his Symbolic Action Theory, and made it ripe and fertile for the psychological investigation of the conservative phenomenon. To my best knowledge, this is the first try to not only systematically review, analyze, and discuss Boesch’s Symbolic Action Theory as done, for example, in several works by cultural-psychological scholars (Straub et al., 2020) but also to systematize it in a comfortable model that can be applied for a variety of purposes. This means that our action-theoretical scheme goes far beyond our application to the political domain and can be expanded onto the industrial, therapeutic, and scholar—among many other—settings. This leads us to the conclusion that Boesch’s Symbolic Action Theory is more than a simple cultural-psychological theory to analyze what happens between the person and its environment. On the contrary, as shown in the present book, Boesch’s theory can become an important and powerful scientific tool for the investigation of various psychological phenomena. It is in this regard that we also need to remain in an open attitude knowing that an application of a theory always extends and transforms the theoretical underpinnings in a significant way (Vygotsky, 1985). Work transforms not only the environment but also a person and its psyche and thus how theory is formulated and put into practice by exactly that personal psyche. The present study is thus not only an appeal to apply the theoretical model that I developed for the present book, for instance, to the study of liberalism or progressivity as counterparts to the conservative phenomenon, but also to go beyond the scope of the political domain and to cross-validate what we have seen, here. Now that we have discussed the strengths of the present study, we need also to look at its flaws and weaknesses as we have done it with the first part. For the reason of scope and limitations, I want to highlight only the most important ones.

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First, we need to acknowledge that we assessed the myths and the fantasms not in a classified or systematic way. I sampled those introspective data not within an interview guide. This means that we have not gathered data being fully psychometrically valid. However, as we have mentioned above—which is also noted in my other works (von Fircks, 2022d)—the psychometric criteria are not the holy grail in psychology, and this means that there are other forms of validity that we need to appreciate within psychology. Our analysis wanted to shed light onto ecological data—that is, the assessment of the ecological givens of a specific action field. We have done so with footage—pictures in our example that gave us a hint about the actions and goals to which those actions relate significantly. As a consequence, our analysis targeted questions about the notion of ecological data—the appropriate assessment of an action field. For that purpose, those ecological data were complemented with introspective data—about the nature of myths and fantasms that mediate the actions within the action field. We have tried to cross-check those myths and fantasms by introspective data as well as introspective data that became institutionalized, for example, in the webpage of the tennis club. Yet, for future works, we could imagine systematizing the assessment of myths and fantasms in an open interview guide being the dialogical door opener for the interpretation of myths and fantasms that penetrate the action field. Moreover, we have seen the phenomenological consequences of the positive interaction between myths and fantasms that helps the individual to create a dynamic I-world balance. This becomes then a preservable goal for the next present moment. However, we have bracketed the opposite case. What happens if myths and fantasms are in a negative interaction and do not overlap? This means that the individual can only hardly appropriate a myth-like structure and make the action field subjectively meaningful. As a consequence, the individual’s actions will become estranged from the collective needs of the action field expressed in related myths. This means that private needs and individual needs become contradictory and create tension between the individual and the (social) environment (von Fircks, 2023a). There are multiple consequences of such a relation that we could imagine. First, the individual might leave the action field wanting to enter a concurrent action field. For example, if I as a tennis trainer could not relate to my action field in a way of joking, having fun, I would leave the action field and orientate myself toward another club whose myths are more in accordance with my fantasms. Second, I could resist the overlying myths of the action field trying to sample different voices who criticize the underlying myths in order to change the general atmosphere of the club. But what is the process that helps people to achieve a change within the current myth-like structure of the environment? What is necessary to convince other people to accept concurrent myths and fantasms? These are all questions that deserve further attention by researchers studying the action-theoretical scheme that I have developed for the present scientific inquiry. However, this is not the only way of assessing tensions within our action-theoretical scheme. We have become aware that actions mediate the jump from the sub-goal to the overlying goal. Yet, we know that not all actions help to actually achieve a goal. This means that we could imagine a multitude of actions in order to perceive a goal and not all actions are equally valid to achieve a

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goal. What does this mean, consequently? We could define the actions as resources (Zittoun & Gillespie, 2015)—thus resources that change our relation to the environment as well as to ourselves. However, we need to study how different actions relate to the question of whether we are actually achieving our goals or if the action distances us from the goal attainment. To make it less abstract, let us envisage the following example within my job as a tennis trainer. If I want my pupils to have fun, to joke, and to get amused while training, I might choose an action such as telling jokes on the tennis courts. I might get my pupils to have fun, yet nothing of that has to do with learning tennis. That is why I rather develop little games in which my pupils can have fun and learn the basic skills of the sport. The implications of that focus are vast, and they give us some industrial and therapeutic implications. If I cannot reach my overlying goal, I might ask myself why. In order to change something, the individual could concretely change his/her actions and evaluate if they bring him/her closer to the attainment of the overlying goal. With such as focus, we define actions as psychological tools to alter the environment in order to attain our goals and satisfy our needs. If we get stuck in our action field, we might be inclined to change our actions, the fantasms (individual needs), and the myths (collective needs). This shows us that our action-theoretical scheme might be also an interventional tool with which we can work in the therapeutic and industrial setting, for instance. Third, critiques might argue that my investigation would have been extended the notion of conservativism too much. They would argue that what I have been writing about applies to all people and not only to people with a conservative ideology. This is a serious point that deserves our full attention in the following. As far as I am concerned, the phenomenon of conservativism is important to all people. If we take a look how people structure a home or a garden, they want to preserve or conserve some meaningful patterns in such a structure. It does not matter whether they identify as voting for a left or right party. In general, people are conservative insofar as they want to preserve the meaningfulness of their lives and choose appropriate actions in order to protect a particular I-world balance that gives them such a meaningfulness. However, people are also generally progressive insofar as they tend to create new I-world balances because of changing needs and actualized demands of the social environment. A reactionist would try to preserve an obsolete I-world balance—that is, he would like to satisfy private needs that do not have their place anymore within the environmental situation. A conservative acknowledges and appreciates his/her changing needs and tries to harmonize those changing private needs with the actualized situation of the environment—that is, the development of the myth-like structure within the action field. Such a focus allows us not only to become aware of the limitations of our definition of conservativism, but we can also border our definition to the phenomenon of a traditionalist and reactionist. For instance, the traditionalist would preserve a tradition at all costs—no matter the actualized demands of his/her Self or the actualized demands of the environment (collective needs). Just for the sake of preserving tradition, the traditionalist would stand up and fight for his/her traditions regardless of his/her relation to the traditions and the relations of the environment to that tradition. This means we have reached

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some clear definitions of the conservative ideology that needs to be undoubtedly separated from a traditionalist and reactionist viewpoint. And maybe more importantly, we have not tried to exclude the importance of a progressive attitude from our scientific investigation, but we tried to acknowledge and appreciate the validity of the progressive attitude in life—that is, the reflection when to change actions, myths, and fantasms in order to account for the dynamic of the I-world balance that is never to be seen as a static phenomenon. I am convinced that this is not a muddled perspective from the point of view of defining conservativism in a new fashion. On the contrary, we have reached an actualized definition of the term and could separate that definition clear-cut from other phenomena, which become so often falsely correlated with the conservative attitude. In short, we have not only gained a new understanding of conservativism that implies all people, but we have illuminated the scientific term with a new syntax and methodology that was to be found in E.E. Boesch’s Symbolic Action Theory.

1 Conclusion: Towards an Actualized Definition of Conservativism In Table 1, I sum up our general progress in defining the phenomenon of conservativism—that is, we are now able to see how we actualized the previous definitions over the course of our two scientific investigations. Table 1  Conclusion of the cultural-psychological investigation of the conservative phenomenon Conservativism (definitions) Previous definition within the social sciences

Definition reached at the end of the first study Definition reached at the end of the second study

Contents Preference of rigorous education, hard justice, and few liberal politics Rejection of the modern lifestyle and sexual liberty Rejection of women’s emancipation Preference of traditional family relationships The conservative can be defined as homo activus, as homo ecologicus, as homo socialis, and as homo non-ideologicus

Consequences The conservative is defined as a backward-looking, traditionalist, and reactionist human being

Conserving or preserving something requires activity in accordance with one’s social and natural environment Something becomes conservable/ Conservativism is a phenomenon preservable because the goal serves that implies all people. multiple needs and motifs. This means Something becomes preservable that a preservable structure is always because it turns out to be a polyvalent, which is defined as being dynamic I-world balance that is attractive due to the promise of fulfilling socially agreeable with the needs many complementary needs. A structure of other people. We have becomes preservable because the established clear borders to a individual can harmonize in that structure traditionalist and reactionist private or individual needs with attitude collective, social needs

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I do not wish to sum up the table. I am the opinion that it speaks for itself. With every new layer of our scientific investigation, we were able to reach a new definition that did not come into being artificially meaning by the means of paper-and-­ pencil tests that bracket the person and his/her complex experience of the environment. On the contrary, our definitions originate from the concrete life-spaces and action fields of concrete persons and their inner teleology. Again, this is something rarely done in the social sciences. In fact, we have clarified why something becomes preservable and how it is preserved, dynamically—something that has not been studied so far. At the end of the study, I want to share with the readers my general curiosity. I wish for cultural psychologists to do something similar with the notion of liberalism or progressivity in order to compare my results, my analysis, as well as my interpretation with theirs of liberalism and progressivity. I am convinced that with such a scientific understanding of political cultures, we do enhance our understanding of politically opposite persons—that is, we will learn to accept the necessity of their political culture. For now, we might have achieved such an understanding for the conservative side.

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Appendix A: Transcripts Anna Transcript En: Was verstehst du unter dem Begriff bewahrenswert? A: Bewahrenswert sind mir Dinge, die mir schön in Erinnerung sind, die ich mir gerne zurück ins Gedächtnis hole. Und jetzt muss ich aufpassen, dass ich nicht emotional werde. Auf jeden Fall ist es die Kind heit. Meine eigene Kindheit. Schöne Kindheit. Und mein Vater, der schon verstorben ist. Und der halt unter unglücklichen Umständen gestorben ist. Und das nimmt einen schon mit. Die Erinnerungen versucht man im Kopf zu behalten. Mir geht es immer so, dass ich versucht habe, die Stimme, mir die Stimme zu merken. Und dann denke ich immer, wenn ich die Stimme nicht mehr im Kopf hätte, dass ich dann auch die Bilder aus dem Kopf verliere. Und deswegen habe ich immer Angst, die Stimme zu vergessen. Und das ist mir etwas unbedingt Bewahrenswertes. En: Und wenn du sagst an deine Kindheit oder an Momente mit deinem Vater? Fällt dir etwas Konkretes ein? A: Ja, dass er sich immer mega gefreut hat, wenn wir aus der Schule kamen. Oder wenn er von der Arbeit nach Hause kam. Er war jetzt kein emotionaler Mensch. Aber man merkte immer, dass er sich total gefreut hat, wenn die Kinder nach Hause kamen. En: Neben Familien (…), sind Freundschaften bewahrenswert? A: Unbedingt. Freundschaften, soziale Kontakte. Das sind so mit die wichtigsten Dinge, die man sich bewahren muss. Egal, was kommt. Es sind nicht alle Freunde Freunde. Man muss sich die Freunde aussuchen, die wahre Freunde sind. En: Wie unterscheidet man das? A: Ja, das findet man ganz schnell raus.

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 E. Freiherr von Fircks, Conservativism: A Cultural-Psychological Exploration, SpringerBriefs in Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51205-6

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En: Wie findest du das heraus? A: Das ist ein inneres Bauchgefühl. Und man merkt das über die Jahre auch. Obwohl man muss sagen, bei Freundschaften, die man neu schließt, erstmal nur Bekannte, merkt das nicht jeder. Aber ich habe schon den Eindruck, dass ich das merke, ob die mir guttun oder nicht. Und die, die mir nicht guttun, in dem Alter bin ich mittlerweile, das brauche ich nicht mehr. Dafür ist die Zeit zu schnell. Man hat zu wenig Zeit für die richtigen Freunde. Dann muss man nicht die Bekanntschaften pflegen, die eigentlich keine Freunde sind. En: Das heißt du würdest sagen, sich für die richtigen Freunde Zeit zu nehmen und etwas zu investieren ist wichtig? A: Unbedingt. Man darf nicht nur Nehmen, sondern man muss auch geben. Wobei ich ein Typ bin, der lieber eher gibt als nimmt. En: Und das ist schwierig, die Balance (…) zu finden? A: Ja da muss man aufpassen, dass man nicht selbst hintenherunter fällt. Ja, dann habe ich jeden Fall noch mein einziges Kind. Das ist das allerwichtigste auf der Welt. Was ich mir unbedingt bewahren muss, sind mir die Erinnerungen als sie klein war. Wunderschön. Die guten und die schlechten. Waren ja auch mal Momente dabei, die nicht so toll waren. Natürlich, wenn das Kind schreit oder bockig ist oder später, wenn irgendwelche Probleme. Wobei Probleme sind nie richtige Probleme gewesen. Aber irgendwas kommt immer. En: Es ist dir dann noch wichtig, am Leben deiner Tochter teilzuhaben? A: Unbedingt. Wenn die das zulassen die Kinder, dann sollte man das machen. Das ist für mich das Wichtigste, was man sich bewahren kann, dass man am Leben teilnimmt und alles zusammen miterlebt und vielleicht auch noch helfen kann bei Entscheidungen kann. Das man da auf jeden Fall noch Mutter ist. En: Das verliert man ja nicht. A: Das bleibt man ja immer. En: Das legt man ja nicht ab, wie ein altes Kleid. A: Was noch bewahrenswert ist, die Natur, das Leben an sich. Dass man versucht, das, was noch an Freizeit übrig ist, dass man das genießt und bewahrt. En: Absolut. Bei der Natur würdest du sagen, dass man sich den Blick für die Schönheit bewahrt? A: Unbedingt. Man muss sich auch oft sagen, mache ich auch oft. Boah, ist das jetzt schön draußen. Herrlich. Und eigentlich könnte es einem nicht gutgehen. Aber vielleicht geht es einem trotzdem nicht. Und jeder sagt, ist es schön draußen. Aber in dem Moment fasst man es nicht so auf. Einen anderen Tag ist man so drauf, ja und alles ist schön. Und dieses Bild bewahre ich mir im Kopf, dieses Sonnenlicht. Und dann man davon auch zehren. En: Oder manchmal gibt einem das einen Impuls (…) nochmal zu dem Sonnenuntergang hinzufahren. A: Das ist das gleiche, wenn man irgendwo schön essen war und dann bewahrt man sich das im Kopf und geht nächste Woche wieder da hin. War ja so lecker. Ging ja alles gut.

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En: Aber der Unterschied ist dann (..), man geht dann ins Restaurant. Man vertraut ja vielleicht dem Restaurant, dass bei dem ersten Gericht alles gut war und dann beim Zweiten auch. A: Wobei. En: Du würdest dasselbe nehmen? A: Ja klar. Ich bin ja nicht so experimentierfreudig. Wenn ich etwas habe und finde, dann bleibt das erstmal so. En: Dann will ich mich auch zweimal dran erfreuen? A: Immer wieder. En: Glaube, ich. A: Oder Urlaube natürlich. Unbedingt. Wunderschöne Urlaube mit der Familie, wo man zurückerinnert wird. Was einem keiner mehr nehmen kann, das kann einem auch kein Foto mehr wiedergeben. Wenn man es erlebt hat, ist es ganz etwas anderes. Da kannst du 100.000 Fotos machen. En: Absolut. Und würdest du auch sagen, dass etwas Negatives hat, wenn man sich auf etwas fokussiert, was Bewahrenswert ist es aber nicht mehr ist. Wo man sich denkt, das wäre mir wichtig aufzuheben, man merkt währenddessen, das wäre es doch nicht wert, wie z.B. bei einer Freundschaft. A: Wo man viel investiert hat und merkt, es war es nicht mehr wert. En: Und man dann getrennte Wege geht. A: Sowas muss man gucken, wie man das verarbeitet. Entweder bewahrt man sich das, als damals schön oder wenn man es negativ empfunden hat; man bewahrt man sich ja nicht nur positive Sachen. Man bewahrt sich auch die negativen Sachen. Im negativen Sinn. Beruflich. Egal. Alles, was so. Ein Job, wo es gar nicht schön war. Wo man vielleicht gemobbt wurde. Wo der Chef ekelig war. Das bewahrt man sich leider auch. En: Das bewahrt man sich und das ist dann manchmal auch Mahnruf, in solch eine Situation. A: Da möchte ich nicht mehr hineinschlittern. Und ein andermal denkt man, jetzt ist man doch wieder soweit, weil man keine Chance hat, Nein zu sagen oder reingerutscht ist. En: Dann ist es aber wichtig, da herauszukommen. A: Dann braucht man Kraft und Mut. En: Und würdest du sagen, dass du irgendein spezielles Objekt hast, was besonders bewahrenswert ist, z.B. im Angucken. A: Das Haus hier. Das ist mein Lieblingsort. Da ist mein Kind großgeworden. Die sind die schönsten Erinnerungen. Man hat selbst alles ausgesucht, ganz viel selbstgemacht, nach dem eigenen Geschmack aufgebaut und das will man eigentlich niemals aufgeben oder missen. Ja, auf jeden Fall. Und dann möchte ich super gerne, dass das irgendwann behalten wird und dass mein Kind hier glücklich wird. Das kann man natürlich überhaupt alles nicht vorhersagen. Aber man würde sich das wünschen. En: Dass es Bestand hat und die Kinder davon zehren können. A: Das wäre schon schön. Aber man kann das von keinem verlangen. Würde ich auch nicht.

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En: Aber es wäre schon schön, wenn es sich ergibt. A: Ja. English Interpretation  Anna reports that memories are preservable for her. This is important for Anna to not forget important people in her life. This includes also friends. Yet, in life, Anna separates between true friends and fake friends because she does not want to preserve something that is not meaningful anymore. This can be expanded for her onto other situations in life such as within the work setting. The object the most preservable for Anna is her house because she chose most of the furniture and did a lot of things to make it her home. And she wants her child to benefit from that even if she does not want to force her to do so. Aurelia Transcript En: Was verstehst du unter dem Begriff bewahrenswert? A: Die Familie als Grundlage der Gesellschaft. Das ist mir ganz wichtig, dass da die gesellschaftliche Form erhalten bleibt. Und für mich persönlich hatte ich mir gedacht, ist meine angeborene Heiterkeit und Fröhlichkeit ganz wichtig. Dass diese mir erhalten bleibt, sie hat mich über vieles und vieles weggebracht und geholfen im Leben. En: Also auch über schwere Zeiten würdest du sagen? A: Auch über schwere Zeiten, ja. En: Wie bewahrt man sich diese angeborene Heiterkeit? A: Indem man sich nicht unterkriegen lässt. Es ist nicht immer einfach. Und dann kommt es doch spontan wieder, und ich denke, ich bin ein Glückskind. Ich habe das so in mir drinnen. Das ist nicht gekünstelt, das ist auch nicht gespielt, sondern ich fühle das. En: Das ist authentisch? A: Authentisch. En: Wie so eine Intuition? A: Ich trete mal ab und zu ins Fettnäpfchen, wenn ich zu spontan bin (lachen). Aber das ist worüber ich sehr dankbar bin. Natürlich auch die Liebe zu meinem Mann. Das ist meine große Liebe gewesen. Das habe ich damals schon erzählt. Und ich habe keinen anderen Mann in meinem Leben erzählt. Das ist für mich wunderbar. En: Wie bewahrt man sich diese Liebe in all den Jahren. Was ist der Schlüssel? A: Rücksichtnahme, Verständnis. Auf den Tisch hauen. En: Diskussionen sind auch wichtig? A: Diskussionen sind auch wichtig. En: Richtig und angemessen streiten? A: Ja. Und vor allen Dingen drüber sprechen. Das ist ganz wichtig. Meine Familie, meine Kinder ist natürlich mein Ein und Alles. Und alles, was dadran hängt. En: Würdest du sagen, dass man sich bewusst für Familie Zeit nehmen muss?

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A: Ja, das machen wir ja auch. Wir pflegen das. Wir treffen uns regelmäßig. Und die Bereitschaft bei allen ist da. Und dafür sind wir sehr dankbar. Das ist nicht selbstverständlich. En: Ihr fahrt ja auch häufig, gemeinsam in den Urlaub? A: Wir haben immer eine Woche im Sommer, wo wir alle zusammen sind, wenn es eben geht. Und das ist altersmäßig von den Kindern, von 7–22. En: Das ist schön, wenn das so durchmischt ist? A: Ja, das ist wunderbar. Und die Enkel bleiben auch wieder verbunden. Auch, wenn sie räumlich total entfernt sind. Das ist auch ein Highlight im Jahr. En: Und das man muss sich das (…) auch als Priorität setzen? Dann kommt da an die Woche auch nichts dran? A: Ja, das ist so. Alle versuchen die einzuhalten. Und selbst die großen Enkel, die jetzt im Studium sind, schaffen es dieses Jahr noch, dabei zu sein. Das finde ich schön. Und dass der Wille auch da ist. En: Woran kann es liegen, dass der Wille da ist? A: Unsere Urlaube sind immer auch sehr interessant gestaltet, abwechslungsreich. Gemeinsames Sportprogram und Spiele abends, schön essen. Also es ist einfach für jeden etwas dabei. En: Es ist nicht nur für eine Altersgruppe etwas dabei? Jeder kommt auf seine Kosten? A: Oder man arrangiert sich. Das muss man ja auch im Leben. En: Und (…) diese räumliche Trennung ist ja manchmal auch ein Hindernis. Wie geht man damit um? A: Ja, da muss ich manchmal schlucken. Aber die Vernunft siegt. Wenn ich sage die Hamburger, sehe ich zu selten, die Kinder werden so schnell groß und dann kam die Pandemie dazwischen und dann haben wir uns dieses Jahr vorgenommen, ganz bewusst nochmal ein Wochenende hinzufahren. Aber guck, die sind ja in der Schule und in der Woche ist man nur störend als Großeltern. Das ist einfach so. Da kannst du auch nicht viel machen. Als die klein waren, da war man noch Hilfe. Jetzt ist das nicht mehr nötig. Und dann telefonieren wir und haben auch als die Pandemie war, habe ich bei Whatsapp vorgelesen oder per Facetime. Und da gab es eine kleine Verbindung. Das ist nicht immer schön. En: Das ist spannend, was du sagst. Die Großeltern, je nach Alter, müssen dann in eine andere Rolle hineinwachsen. Wenn die Enkel klein sind, kann man mehr spielerisch machen. A: Dann sind die Großeltern auch noch gebraucht. Dann können sie wirklich auch noch etwas bewirken. Sonst gehen die ja ihren Weg noch alleine. Die Schule, Schularbeiten, Sport, Nachmittage. Die haben auch schon einen Terminkalender. En: Ich meine, das ist ja auch schön? A: Sicher, natürlich. En: Manchmal nimmt man dann auch eine begleitende Rolle ein? Das muss ja nicht unbedingt schlechter sein. A: Nein, nein. Auf jeden Fall die Rolle bleibt erhalten. Sie verändert sich. En: Würdest du auch sagen. (…), dass die Verbindung zur Natur etwas Bewahrenswertes ist?

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A: Unbedingt. Unbedingt. Ich habe als Hintergrund (Handy) einen Sonnenuntergang am Meer oder hier im Wald. Und wenn ich da unten sitze (Garten). Hier oben ist es anders, das Gefühl als unten. Aber als wir das Haus hier gekauft haben, da saß ich da unten und habe gesagt, das ist es. Also ein Wohlfühlobjekt. Die Natur, natürlich müssen wir die erhalten. En: Ich sehe euch ja auch viel im Garten sitzen. Das ist sehr schön. Und wenn ich euch beobachte, dann hat das fast etwas Meditatives. A: Für dich oder für mich? En: Für euch, so versunken in die Natur. A: Ja, als Kind bin auch schon im Wald gewesen. Mein Vater liebte es so Frühwanderungen zu machen. Sonntagsmorgen um 5. Rucksack mit Frühstück. Bei uns wurde jeden Sonntag eine Wanderung gemacht. Das war einfach so. En: Würdest du sagen (…), dass man sich so die Sinne für die Natur geschärft hat? A: Ganz bestimmt. Ich glaube, dass nimmt mir keiner mehr die Freude am Wald. Im Winter sind wir jeden Tag 1 oder 1 ½ Stunden durch den Wald gegangen. Das ist natürlich auch eine sportliche Tätigkeiten in unserem Alter. Aber wir haben auch den Drang dazu. Nicht nur in der Stadt, sondern gerade im Wald. En: Das sind einige der wenigen Dinge, die einem die Pandemie nicht nehmen konnte? A: Ganz genau, das stimmt. Das haben wir gut gepflegt. En: Was würde der Nachteil sein, wenn man sich auf etwas konzentriert, das nicht mehr bewahrenswert ist? Gibt es solche Momente für dich? Leute nennen Freundschaften, die auseinandergehen. Man selbst hängt daran fest, aber die Freundschaft ist nicht mehr bewahrenswert? A: Ich glaube, dass das mit dem Alter zusammenhängt. Also ich habe das bei meinen Eltern beobachtet. Die Freunde waren zwar noch da. Aber die Kraft sie zu treffen, ging immer über uns. Wenn wir das dann machten, dann haben die sich auch noch getroffen. Aber ich glaube schon, dass das Verhältnis, die Pflege des Verhältnisses nachlässt, weil sie den Mut nicht mehr haben. Jetzt auf alte Leute gesehen. Wenn so Freundschaften, die brechen, in deinem Alter oder mit 40 oder 50, da habe ich noch nicht drüber nachgedacht. Das habe ich nicht erlebt. Da kann ich nichts zu sagen. Ich wüsste kein Beispiel. Ich weiß nur, dass meine Eltern sich nur noch an ihre Töchter gehangen haben; dass die das alles machen sollen. Ist das die Frage? En: Nein, viel eher kann man sich auch in Sachen hineinversteifen, die nicht mehr bewahrenswert sind? A: Mit Gewalt kann man oft nicht weiterkommen. Vielleicht waren sie nicht einsichtig genug. Und du kannst ja nicht, wenn einer gehen will, dann muss er gehen. Du kannst ihn nicht halten. Das ist eine alte Weisheit. En: Wenn man die Leute zwingt zum Bleiben oder zum Gespräch zwingt, obwohl sie es nicht wollen, dann kommt nichts Fruchtbares bei herum. A: Kann ich mir vorstellen. En: Hast du noch wichtige Punkte, die in deinem Leben bewahrenswert sind? A: Ich weiß nicht; Gesundheit gehört nicht dazu. Gesundheit ist ein Geschenk. En: Gesundheit kann man sich ja auch bewahren.

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A: Sicher, da sind wir auch dabei (lachen). Das ist natürlich alles sehr ich-bezogen. Ich würde sagen Friede auf Erden. Aber den haben wir ja nicht. Das kann man dann auch nicht bewahren. Aber vielleicht danach streben. Aber wir sind ja kleine Lichter in der Welt. En: Man kann versuchen, in seinem eigenen kleinen Kosmos, Frieden zu schaffen. A: Ja, ja. En: Gut, das wäre es so weit. Wie fandest du das Gespräch? English Interpretation  For Aurelia, family is the most preservable thing in her life. Yet, preserving family does not mean that there is no time for fights and discussions. On the contrary, family life needs to be negotiated especially when it comes to the harmonious living of many different generations such as during vacation. Preserving relationships comes into being for Aurelia if the person does not hang onto a role that has become obsolete but in appreciating and owning a new role within the relationship setting—for instance, toward one’s grandchildren. Nature is another important preservable thing—to acknowledge beauty. Berta Transcript En: Was würdest du unter dem Begriff bewahrenswert verstehen? O: Da stellt man sich etwas drunter vor, was man früher so gemacht hat, so besondere, wie soll ich das sagen? En: Dass, was dir so spontan in den Sinn kommt. O: Wie z.B. unser Dialekt-Sprech. Das schläft ja auch mit der Zeit ein. En: Finde ich furchtbar. O: Die neueren Generationen, wie jetzt meine Kinder, die können es verstehen. En: Woran liegt das, dass die das nicht mehr können. O: Die haben das nie gelernt, ich kann das. En: Aber hat man das denen nicht beigebracht? O: Mit meinen Kindern haben wir kein Platt geredet. En: Ne habt ihr Hochdeutsch gesprochen? O: Mein Mann, der konnte ein wenig, aber der war ein gebürtiger Schlesier. Und wenn der Platt gesprochen hat, dann lachten alle Leute. Das hörte sich ulkig an. Wenn ich jetzt mit meiner Freundin zusammen bin, wir sprechen schon noch Dialekt. En: Ist ja auch schön im Dialekt zu sprechen? Fühlt man sich heimisch? O: Ja, vor allen Dingen, wenn man als Kind schon Dialekt gesprochen hat. Wir als Siegerländer rollen das R so, wenn man dann irgendwo ist, dann heißt es manchmal: wo kommen sie denn her? Wir sind schon gefragt worden: Kommen Sie aus Amerika? En: Furchtbar. O: Ja. Aber komisch, dass meine Kinder das r nicht rollen. Und das liegt wahrscheinlich an dem Dialekt, vermute ich.

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En: Was denkst du woran das liegt, dass das heute nicht mehr gesprochen wird. (…) Verliert sich einfach? O: Ja, wenn meine Kinder können es nicht; wie sollen die es dann weitergeben. Im Gegenteil, meine Enkelkinder, wenn ich dann mal was sage, dann machen die sich lustig. Die machen mich ja auch noch nach. Aber da habe ich kein Problem mit. En: Also der Dialekt ist etwas für dich Bewahrenswertes. Was käme dir noch in den Sinn, neben dem Dialekt? O: Vor allen Dingen, Freundschaften aufrechterhalten, Kontakte. Da liegt mir sehr viel dran. Ich habe einen Freund, also von meinem Mann. Und seit 1957 sind wir schon befreundet und immer tolle Sachen gemacht. Und meine Schulfreundin wohnt in XY. Wir sind zusammen zur Schule gegangen. En: In Bürbach gab es sogar eine Schule? Das wusste ich gar nicht. O: Lange. Da ist unsere älteste sogar noch eingeschult worden. Die gab es da noch. En: Und dann versucht man sich für diese Freundschaften Zeit zu nehmen? O: Wenn es eben geht, ja. Eine Freundin kann nicht mehr kommen, deren Mann hat MS. En: Das heißt, die muss sich dann um ihren Mann kümmern? O: Der will auch nicht mitkommen. Der sitzt nur noch im Rollstuhl. Und dann hat er da Probleme mit dem Hereinkommen, Stufe. Und dann heißt es, Helga komm du. Du kannst ja mal noch Auto fahren. Und dann fahre ich auch mal öfter dahin. Und manchmal telefonieren dreimal die Woche, oder er ruft zwischendrin an. En: Aber es ist schöner, sich persönlich zu sehen? O: Ja. Und die anderen wohnen in Siegen, der Freund von meinem Mann mit seiner Frau. Wir sehen uns dann auch öfter. Der Kontakt ist im Alter auch weniger geworden. Ist klar. Früher ist man auch mal eben auf einen Sprung hingefahren. Das fällt alles weg. Die alten Leute wollen abends zu Hause sein. En: Aber du würdest schon sagen, dass du trotz der Einschränkungen des Alters, es versuchst, die Freunde so häufig wie es geht zu sehen. O: Das mache ich, wenn es eben geht. Ich habe auch Bekannte in XY and ZY. Da fahre ich auch hin. Aber Telefonkontakte noch mehr. En: Einfach, weil es einfacher und schneller geht. O: Und jetzt durch die Corona-Zeit sowieso. Sonst hat man mal eingeladen und Kaffee gemacht. Aber das ist ja in den letzten Jahren weggefallen. En: Das fängt ja wieder langsam an. O: Finde ich gut. En: Würdest du auch sagen, dass Familie etwas Bewahrenswertes für dich ist? O: Vor allen Dingen, dass man da den Kontakt hält, und versucht wenigstens ohne Streit zu leben, das ist äußerst wichtig. Was ja manchmal nicht immer zu verhindern ist. Ein wenig Differenzen kommen auf. Dann muss man halt sehen, dass die ausgeräumt werden. Das ist mir schon wichtig. Auch so mit der Verwandtschaft. Mein Bruder wohnt in XY, der kann leider auch nicht mehr kommen. Der ist gestürzt im Oktober. Auto fahren darf er momentan nicht, weil er ein Hirnbluten hat. Er ist auch operiert worden. Da soll er erstmal ein halbes Jahr kein Auto fahren. Er meinte, er wolle es trotzdem versuchen. Aber bis nach mir, würde er

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nicht mehr alleine kommen. Das muss auch nicht sein. Aber dann soll er sich fahren lassen. Oder von meinen Kindern fährt mich mal eine hin und dann bleibt man eine Woche und dann können sie einen wieder holen. Oder so in der Nachbarschaft auch, Kontakte beibehalten, nicht in die Töpfe gucken. Aber wenigstens, dass man sich öfter mal sieht. Ein bisschen Schwätzchen hält. En: Dass man am Leben teilhat? Von den anderen etwas mitbekommt? Der Austausch ist ja auch schön? O: Genau. En: Würdest du auch sagen, dass gewisse Werte für dich bewahrenswert sind, die du versucht hast, deinen Kindern und Enkekindern weiterzugeben? Was du deinen Kindern mitgibst. Manche Leute sagen Ehrlichkeit. O.  Ja Ehrlichkeit. Mit dem Beruf fleißig zu sein. Reell sind und durch die Welt gehen und gut durchkommen. Da legt man Wert drauf. En: Da versucht man sie zu unterstützen. O: Wenn sie Hilfe brauchen, ja. Aber oft ist es ja so im Alter, dann kriegt man ja schon mal etwas zuhören, dass die einem eher mal etwas sagen. Aber sonst, wenn ich kann, dann unterstütze ich das. Tipps geben. Oft fragen sie etwas zum Kochen oder Backen. Oder dann kommen sie mal und wollen etwas ausgebessert mit Näherei und so. En: Das können die dann gar nicht mehr. O: Aber alles kann ich auch nicht. Ich hab zwar ja von meiner Mutter viel abgesehen. Aber alles kann ich auch nicht. Aber wenn irgendwo Löcher drin sind, die muss die Mama dann flicken. En: Das können ja die jungen Leute gar nicht mehr. Die gehen dann direkt zur Änderungsschneiderei? O: Einen Knopf annähen, das werden sie schon können. En: Aber danach wird es schon schwierig. O: Ja. En: Das war es schon. O: Gott, das war es schon. English Interpretation  Preserving languages such as a dialect is central for Berta. Speaking with a friend who also knows the dialect makes her feel at ease, comfortable, and at home. Preserving friendships is also an essential feature of conserving a meaningful life. Yet, sometimes the conditions are difficult to do so, and one needs to face obstacles and resistances that can be overcome. Preserving and transmitting skills to become a mature and autonomous human being is another facet of a meaningful life for Berta. Julius Transcript En: Was verstehst du unter dem Begriff bewahrenswert? Cal: Zunächst mal simpel zu antworten, ich würde mir überlegen, was nicht bewahrenswert ist, um es abzugrenzen. Ich glaube, das wäre leichter zu beantworten.

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En: Was wäre nicht bewahrenswert? Cal: Jegliche Art von Schund, von Schmutz und im ethischen Bereich von Betrug, Lüge und diese Dinge. Dann kommen wir zum Bewahrenswerten. In dem Bereich, im ethischen, moralischen, Ehrlichkeit, Offenheit dazu, halte ich für ganz wichtig. Aber manchmal auch schwer einzuhalten. Die Ansprüche sind hoch. Man sagt das so leicht. Immer ehrlich zu sein, ist nicht immer so einfach. Das halte ich für bewahrenswert. En: In diesem Fall gibt es also gewisse Werte, die überdauern. Cal: Das ist zeitlos. Bei diesem Begriff, das ist ja ein abstrakter Begriff, man kann den ja auch ins Sachliche transponieren. Wenn ich sage, dieses Haus ist für mich bewahrenswert. En: Das ist interessant, dass du das sagst, weil mir Leute gesagt haben, dieses Haus ist mir bewahrenswert. Cal: Ich könnte etwas flapsig sagen, die Arbeitskraft meiner Frau ist mir bewahrenswert. Meine eigene natürlich auch. Gesundheit ist bewahrenswert. Das zählt dazu. Da kommen wir ins Sachliche oder Halb-sachliche. Vom Haus oder meinetwegen ein besonderer Gegenstand, den ich besonders schätze, für manche Leute ist es irgendein Schmuck oder ein Objektgegenstand. En: Aber auf das Haus bezogen oder auf die Gesundheit, damit etwas Bewahrenswert bleibt, muss man aktiv bleiben. Das Haus hält sich nicht alleine in Stand. Cal: Ja, das ist es nämlich. Wenn etwas für einen bewahrenswert ist, dann wird er sich drum kümmern. Und das ist auch notwendig. Das Haus ist bewahrenswert; das heißt ja, es ist wert, bewahrt zu werden, um es Wort wörtlich zu nehmen. En: Das setzt eine aktive Handlung voraus. Cal: Genau das. Dieses Bewahren ist eine aktive Tätigkeit. Ich bewahre das Haus, um seinen Wert zu behalten. Das ist auch eine Definition von bewahrenswert. Während die rein ethischen Begriffe, habe ich ja eben gesagt, immer ehrlich zu sein, setzt auch eine gewisse Aktivität oder auch Überwindung einer Schwierigkeit voraus. En: Ich meine, es gibt ja auch gewisse Situation, wo Ehrlichkeit nicht etwas Bewahrenswertes ist, um den anderen nicht zu kränken. Cal: Ja, ja. Aber das ist ja wieder zweischneidig. Ich kann ja gerade, indem ich ehrlich bin, durchaus jemanden kränken. Mit Ehrlichkeit kann man kränken. Ja, das ist ein schmaler Krank. Und dann muss man abwägen, wo ist jetzt mein Schwerpunkt. En: Dann muss man für sich seine Priorität herausfiltern. Cal: Ja, ja. Es hängt natürlich auch vom Gegenüber ab. Es gibt Menschen, da geht mir meine Ehrlichkeit vor. Da macht es mir nichts, ihn zu kränken. Und bei anderen will ich vorsichtiger sein; den will ich auf keinen Fall kränken. Deswegen bleibe ich da nicht unehrlich, aber auch nicht gerade mit brutaler Ehrlichkeit. En: Auch in sehr guten Freundschaften kann man Leuten auch etwas zumuten. Cal: Das sollte man sogar. Ich sage immer, wenn ich meinen Freunden nicht mehr die Meinung sagen kann, dann ist irgendwas falsch. Man muss schon ehrlich seine Meinung austauschen, unter Freunden auf jeden Fall.

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En: Die Hülle darf nicht zu weich werden, weil dann traut man sich irgendwann gar nicht mehr zu sprechen. Cal: Wenn ich nur Angst habe, der könnte beleidigt sein oder ich muss nur Rücksicht nehmen auf irgendwelche Gefühle von ihm, wenn ich meine Meinung sage. Dann ist das schwierig. Dann wird der Umgang auf die Dauer auch nicht halten. Das funktioniert auf die Dauer nicht. Dann läuft man auseinander. Das ist ganz natürlich. En: Was würdest du sagen ist in deinem persönlichen Leben bewahrenswert? Die ersten Dinge, die dir in den Kopf schießen. Cal: Bewahrenswert ist für mich ganz wichtig der Zusammenhalt in der Familie. Das ist für mich leicht. Das ist vielleicht der wichtigste Punkt. En: Die wichtigste Frage ist immer, wie man diesen Zusammenhalt erreicht? Welche Wege geht man, damit dieser Zusammenhalt sichergestellt wird? Cal: Auch das setzt Aktivität voraus. Das geht nicht von alleine. Da muss man sich drum kümmern. Gerade, wenn du drei Erwachsene Kinder hast oder auch Enkel, es geht dann nicht darum, um es flapsig auszudrücken, die Familie zu pämpern. Das halte ich für ganz gefährlich, sondern ich muss schon davon ausgehen, dass jeder den Anforderungen gerecht wird, die das Leben an ihn stellt. Man kann teilnehmen daran und man kann auch mal Hilfestellung geben, aber pämpern halte ich für völlig falsch. Das ist dann kein bewahrenswerter Zusammenhalt. Man sieht ja auch in manchen Familien, dass das schiefgeht, wenn die zu sehr aneinander kleben und zu sehr gepämpert werden. Mir fällt kein besseres Wort ein. Du verstehst das. En: Ja. Cal: Fordern und ja ist ein politischer Spruch fördern. Je jünger und schwächer, die sind, umso mehr muss man fördern. Je alter sie werden, desto mehr muss man fordern. Aber insgesamt das ein Verständnis für jeden da sein muss, das ist Voraussetzung für den Zusammenhalt. Darum muss ich mich kümmern. Da muss man auch stückweise Abstriche bei sich selber machen. En: Dass man sich Zeit nimmt dafür, das ist wichtig? Cal: Ja, dass man sich Zeit nimmt ist wichtig, aber auch, dass man versucht die anderen Mitglieder versucht, in ihrem Zusammenhalt zu verstehen. Es gibt ja auch immer Reibereien und dass man da versucht, das zu glätten und sich einzusetzen und sich vielleicht sogar einzumischen. Familienzusammenhalt ist der oberste Punkt, der bewahrenswert ist. En: Und wie mischt man sich da angemessen ein? Cal: Man mischt sich ein, indem man jedem zuhört. Das halte ich für ganz wichtig. Ich muss jedem zuhören und schauen, ob wirklich Dissense da sind; da muss ich erstmal jedem zuhören. Und durchaus auch getrennt. So. Und dann versuchen, ja am besten versuchen, die an einen Tisch zu kriegen, die Karten auf den Tisch zu legen, und den Dissens auszuräumen und dass kein Dissens bleibt und dass jeder den anderen versteht. Das wäre dann erforderlich. Ich habe solch eine Situation so krass, bei uns Gott sei Dank, noch nicht erlebt. Deswegen ist das ein bisschen Theorie bei mir.

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En: Würdest du auch sagen, dass man den Dissens ausräumt ist wichtig, aber würdest du auch sagen, dass es andere wesentliche Elemente gibt, um den Familienzusammenhalt zu stärken. Cal: Ja, klar. Gemeinsame Unternehmungen. Gemeinsamer Sport. Gemeinsame Treffen. Gemeinsame Reisen wird schon wieder knifflig. Aber gemeinsame Treffen in regelmäßigen Abständen oder zu besonderen Anlässen, das halte ich für besonders wichtig. En: Und dass diese Treffen nicht nur sporadisch sind und dass sie nicht alle 5 Jahre passieren. Cal: Ja, ja. Ich meine, große Geburtstage oder Jubiläen, das halte ich für selbstverständlich, dass da für alle auch das Bedürfnis entsteht, sich da zu treffen und das gemeinsam zu begehen. Macht ja auch Spaß, allgemein, wenn es gut läuft. En: Würdest du auch sagen, dass Bewahrenswertes auch negativ sein kann? Dass man sich etwas bewahrt, was sich später herausstellt, was nicht mehr bewahrenswert ist? Cal: Es gibt Antipathien zu anderen Menschen, die sich hartnäckig halten, wo man meint und wo es sprichwörtlich heißt, da kann man nicht über seinen Schatten springt, das halte ich nicht für bewahrenswert. Aber dem kann man sich aus eigener Erfahrung nicht ganz entziehen. En: Wie stellt man sich dem? Cal: Am besten ignorieren. En: Am besten wegtun? Cal: Ja. Es macht keinen Zweck. Es tut ja so weh. En: Und sich damit 24 Stunden damit zu befassen, bringt nichts, wenn man es nicht lösen kann. Cal: Es gibt Leute, mit denen kann man nicht reden. Und dann lässt man es. En: Dann ist es auch abgeschlossen? Cal: Na, gut. Es gibt dann immer wieder zwangläufig Begegnungen, aber das muss man aushalten. Deswegen muss man sich nicht in die Fresse schlagen. Man kann ja kultiviert miteinander umgehen und trotzdem die Antipathie, die schwillt in einem. Ich habe aber nicht viele solche Fälle. Ich bin im Großen und Ganzen harmoniebedürtig. Auch das halte ich für bewahrenswert. En: Das Harmoniebedürfnis ist essentiell, dass Zusammenhalt stattfindet und man sich nicht bei jeder Kleinigkeit streitet oder an die Decke geht. Dass mit der Harmonie haben mir auch viele Leute gesagt, weil dann das natürliche Zusammenleben überhaupt möglich ist. Wenn keine Harmonie da ist, kann man nicht zusammenleben. Cal: Das funktioniert nicht. Harmonie ist der positive Teil. Dann gibt es einen neutralen Teil und Antipathie ist der dritte Teil, den ich nicht für bewahrenswert halte. En: Das Leben besteht aus Dingen, die bewahrenswert und nicht bewahrenswert sind. Cal: Ja, im Großen und Ganzen kann man so die Kategorien einteilen. En: Würdest du sagen, es ist wichtig für sich selbst, dass man eine gewisse Balance findet. Es gibt Leute, die immer wieder auch zu viel an Dingen hängen, weil sie es als zu Bewahrenswert erachten. Würdest du sagen, es ist wichtig, da eine Balance zu finden. Bei Freundschaften haben mir einige Leute gesagt, haben

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sich Freunde in andere Richtungen entwickelt, die nicht mehr miteinander kompatibel sind und die man losgelassen hat. Die Dosis ist wichtig, zu wissen, wann etwas Bewahrenswert ist und was nicht. Dass man also eine Dosis findet ist wichtig, würdest du dazu etwas sagen? Cal: Das würde ja heißen, dass ich eine Freundschaft von Kriterien abhängig mache. Das kann ich so nicht sehen. Eine Freundschaft ist einfach da und die hält auch einiges aus. Wenn die Interessen und die Lebensgewohnheiten a­ useinanderlaufen und das mit Gewalt zu erhalten versucht, weil man sagt, das ist mein alter Freund und ich will auf jeden Fall die Freundschaft erhalten, mit aller Gewalt, auch wenn es gar nicht mehr funktioniert, das halte ich für völlig falsch. En: Ist Zeitverschwendung? Cal: Ich habe einige enge Freunde gehabt und das hat sich auseinandergelebt. Ich habe mich mit meinem besten Freund, wir haben uns bei der Bundeswehr kennengelernt, wir hatten gemeinsame Freunde auch aus der Zeit, einen ganz bestimmten. Und das hat sich auseinandergelebt. Und der hat zum 60. Geburtstag eingeladen und dann habe ich gesagt, wir haben uns auseinandergelebt. Willst du dahinfahren, hat mich meine Frau gefragt. Dann habe ich gesagt, das ist ein Krampf. Wir haben uns jahrelang nicht gesehen, keinen Kontakt gehabt und die letzten Kontakte, die wir hatten, haben wir gesehen, der geht für mich andere Wege und das passt nicht mehr zu uns. Wir waren wirklich sehr gute Freunde, so ein Trio. Aber gut, das passiert im Leben. Und das mit Krampf zu erhalten, das funktioniert nicht. Es hat gar keinen Zweck. En: Das wäre es so weit. Cal: Gut. English Interpretation  For Julius, there are virtues and values that are timeless and hence preservable. This includes openness, honesty, and transparency. Yet, we can also extend the notion onto preservable features onto one’s very own life. This means that one’s home is preservable, but in order to make it preservable, one has to do certain things and needs to be active. But sometimes, preservable things become unpreservable, which means that holding on to them is holding on to a past that has no value for the future anymore. To make that artificially preservable is the wrong way for Julius. Elisa Transcript En: Was verstehst du unter dem Begriff bewahrenswert? L: Also ich verstehe darunter etwas. Also woran ich direkt denken musste, war das wir in so einer schnelllebigen Zeit leben, wo sich alles von Sekunde zu Sekunde ändert, von Tag zu Tag extrem. Und da einfach Dinge, die aber in der Zeit noch beständig bleiben in dieser schnelllebigen Zeit. En: Was macht diese Zeit mit einem? L: Ich finde, dass es einen extrem stresst. Und das Bewahrenswerte ist wie so ein Fels oder eine Beständigkeit, die halt bleibt.

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En: Das ist für mich ähnlich. Was würdest du sagen im Hinblick auf diesen Fels, was ist das in deinem persönlichen Leben? L: Freunde in erster Stelle. Familie. Aber auch, finde ich Charaktereigenschaften von einem selbst. En: Auf die Freunde und Familie bezogen, wie erreicht man dieses Bewahrenswerte? Wie schafft man es, dass etwas Bewahrenswert bleibt? L: Ich finde, gerade wenn man sich so stresst in der jetzigen Zeit, dass ständig irgendwas neues kommt in den Nachrichten und was einen aufwühlt. Dann sind das ja Momente, wo man abschalten kann und man etwas hat, wo man herunterkommt, wo man den Stress herunterfahren kann. Man trifft sich mit Freunden, man telefoniert mit Freunden, man schreibt. Man tauscht sich aus. Und das ist etwas, was immer bleibt. Egal, was außen herum passiert. En: Das heißt, du würdest sagen, damit es bewahrenswert bleibt, muss man sich die Zeit dafür nehmen und mache konkret etwas für die Freundschaft. L: Ja. Zeit zusammen verbringen. Austauschen. En: Du hattest auch von Charaktereigenschaften gesprochen. Was sind Charaktereigenschaften, die du als bewahrenswert erachtest? Was sind das für Eigenschaften? L: Das ist so ein wenig zweigeteilt. Ich finde nicht, dass alle Charaktereigenschaften bewahrenswert sind. Da entwickelt sich vieles weiter und man entwickelt sich als Person jeden Tag weiter. Man erlebt Sachen, ob das auf der Arbeit ist oder im alltäglichen Leben generell. Es kommen immer mal wieder Situationen, wo man sich hinterfragt, ob ich das und das überarbeiten muss; man reflektiert und denkt darüber nach und überarbeitet immer wieder verschiedene Charaktereigenschaften. Aber es gibt immer Dinge, die beständig bleiben und die man sich bewahren möchte. Das sind grundlegende Werte, die man für sich selbst gewählt hat. Irgendwie, zum Beispiel Loyalität oder Ehrlichkeit. Je nachdem, was man für sich selbst gesetzt hat. En: Was hast du dir gesetzt? L: Ja so einen gewissen Humor beizubehalten, finde ich sehr wichtig. Das ist beständig und sich durch mein Leben zieht. Oder die Liebe, die man seinen Nächsten zeigt, das man sich das bewahrt in verschiedenen Momenten. Dass man für einander da ist, dass man etwas zusammen nimmt, so kann man das immer wieder zeigen. En: Die Eigenschaften (…) was garantieren die im menschlichen Zusammenleben? Wenn man versucht sie zu bewahren? L: Im Optimalfall sollten die zu einer besseren Gesellschaft führen. Und wenn man das so umsetzen kann im alltäglichen Leben. Im Optimalfall wird das schon zu einer besseren Gesellschaft führen. Ich denke, dass so grundlegende Werte immer positiv ausgerichtet sind. En: Was garantiert diese Ehrlichkeit und Loyalität (…) in deinem persönlichen Leben? L: Das stärkt die Beziehung, die man zueinander hat. Und die Freundschaft, ja das Verhältnis zueinander. Das macht es ja noch enger.

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En: Dass man sich stärkere Bindungen erarbeitet? Dass man harmonisch lebt und nicht ständig etwas hinterfragen muss? L: Das man sich fallen lassen kann bei der Person. Man verbringt mehr Zeit und kann sich mehr fallen lassen. Man weiß, was der andere macht. Man ist in das Leben integriert. En: Würdest du sagen, dass du etwas Bewahrenswertes in deiner Arbeit schaffst? L: Ja, würde ich schon sagen. En: Was wäre das. L: Ich hoffe, dass ich in meiner Arbeit erreiche, dass bei anderen Menschen etwas hängenbleibt, dass die sich bewahren, wie ich geholfen habe, ein kleines bisschen mehr. Im Krankenhaus ist das etwas ziemlich Wichtiges. So kleine Sätze oder Wörter, die dann von den Patienten kommen, das ist schon immer wieder schön, zu hören, wie wenn jemand sagt, ich freue mich, dass sie da sind. Und man merkt, der hat sich wirklich auf mich gefreut und man weiß, dass ist das, worauf er sich freut, weil der liegt da den ganzen Tag und hat nicht so schöne Gedanken, weil es ihm gesundheitlich gesehen nicht gut geht. Ja und dass man einfach für die Menschen da ist und eine Stütze ist, einfach nur, dass die etwas loswerden können und wenn es nur ist, dass sie Probleme bei einem ausschütten. Und die dann aber auch wirklich voranzubringen. Bei mir jetzt therapieren. En: Denen zu helfen, etwas Gesundheit zu erlangen? L: Oder auch Lebensqualität. Es geht da ganz viel um Lebensqualität. Oder auch Essen. Das hat ja auch etwas mit Lebensqualität zu tun. Essen, trinken, sich ausdrücken können, sprechen können. En: Da ist quasi etwas Bewahrenswertes bei den Menschen durch ihre Krankheitsgeschichte verlorengegangen, wie die Sprache oder das Essen. L: Und das zu therapieren, das gibt einem auch positive Gefühle. Wenn man da Fortschritte erreicht, da am allermeisten. Aber wie gesagt, wenn kleine Sätze von den Patienten kommen. So eine Kleinigkeit. Wenn die sagen, das hat mir total weitergeholfen, für mich oder ich konnte mich total ausschütten bei ihnen und jetzt geht es mir besser. Da hat man vielleicht Therapeutisch gesehen, Logopädisch gesehen nicht viel erreicht aber für den Menschen selbst war das genau das Richtige, was der gebraucht hat. Wenn man so in Erinnerung bleibt als jemand, der für einen da war, da ist glaube ich, etwas Bewahrenswertes. En: Was würdest du sagen, ist die Gefahr, wenn man sich auf etwas konzentriert, was man denkt, es sei bewahrenswert aber vielleicht es nicht mehr ist. L: Dass man zu viel nachdenkt und in dem Film ist, was kann ich jetzt tun, was längerfristig bleibt und dann irgendwann etwas zerdenkt und dann total gefangen ist in dem Gedanken. En: Dass man quasi zu sehr mit der Vergangenheit beschäftigt ist und nicht mit dem, was gerade jetzt passiert? L: Ja, aber letztendlich ist es das Schönste, wenn du abends ins Bett gehst und dann fällt dir ein, was passiert ist und du denkst, Mensch es war richtig schön, was heute passiert ist oder was Person X gesagt hat und dann merkst du, dass du etwas Gutes getan hast oder etwas passiert ist, was dir im Gedächtnis bleibt, für immer.

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En: Welches persönliche Objekt spiegelt etwas Bewahrenswertes wider? L: Finde ich schwierig das auf ein Objekt zu begrenzen, weil Dinge, die objektmäßig bleiben, sind so Erinnerungen wie Fotos. Das hat man ja neuerdings auf dem Handy oder Laptop. Wenn man mal ehrlich ist, das mittlerweile. Da sind meine Erinnerungen. Wenn ich mein Handy oder Laptop verlieren würde, alle Fotos, Videos mit Freunden, Bildern aus Urlauben und das wäre weg, das wäre richtig schlimm. En: Und die Fotos und Video guckt man sich an? L: Ich habe das oft, dass ich mit meinen Freunden darüber nachdenke oder wenn wir über die Schulzeit nachdenken, guck mal in der Abschlusswoche, das war eine richtig schöne Zeit. Guck mal, was wir alles gemacht haben und wo wir im Urlaub waren und kannst du dich an die und die Person erinnern und ich habe das und das Foto, sowas halt. Wahrscheinlich wäre es das oder ausgedruckte Fotos. English Interpretation  Elisa explains that family and friends are the most preservable. This is especially true in the times of hectic and crises. Within enjoying the preservable things one can get a necessary distance to the stressors of life. No matter of the crisis, this is what remains for Elisa. To make something preservable requires work for Elisa—work that is sometimes not part of the actual job requirements. Creating a meaningful connection is such an endeavor. Judith Transcript En: Was denkst du, wenn du an den Begriff bewahrenswert denkst? J: Menschen. En: Was ist das in deinem persönlichen Leben (…) bewahrenswert. Das was dir spontan in den Sinn kommt. J: Ist damit gemeint, was ich mir für meine Zukunft bewahren möchte oder was ich weitergeben möchte. En: Beides. Du kannst anfangen, mit dem, was du möchtest. J: Was ich mir selbst für die Zukunft bewahren möchte, irgendwie ist das ein bisschen abstrakt. Ich denke an Eigenschaften oder Erfahrungen, die man in der Vergangenheit gemacht und daraus gelernt hat und vielleicht seine Schlüsse gezogen hat und daran gewachsen ist. Vielleicht auch Charakterstärken, die sich mit der Zeit ausgebildet haben. Das Positive, was ich erreicht habe, für die Zukunft aufbewahren will. Wenn ich gelernt habe, besser mit anderen oder mit mir, dass ich mir solche Sachen aufbewahren will, dass ich das weiterhin in der Zukunft machen will. En: Was wären das für Eigenschaften, beispielsweise? J: Auf jeden Fall, Selbstreflexion, selbstreflektiert zu sein. Dinge kritisch zu hinterfragen und was ich mit der Zeit lernen musste, dass man von jedem Menschen gemocht werden will, z.B. oder gemocht werden muss, dass es kein Anspruch sein muss, den ich früher hatte. Dass ich irgendwie so Einstellungen oder Erkenntnisse, zu denen ich gekommen bin mit der Zeit, dass ich das beibehalte,

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dass ich mir das sagen muss, dass ich mir das bewusst mache, damit das fortbesteht. En: Du hättest gerade Menschen erwähnt. Inwieweit spielt das eine Rolle, wie man Freundschaften bewahren will (…)? Wie äußert sich das? J: Wenn ich daran denke, dass ich Freundschaften bewahren will oder wenn ich an besondere Freundschaften denke, dann ist das manchmal so, als ob so ein Film in meinem Kopf laufen würde und die einzelnen Momente, die man genossen hat, dass die mir so ins Gedächtnis ploppen, wie Flashbacks so ein bisschen. Und dass mir das ein warmes Gefühl gibt und ich dafür dankbar bin. Und genau dieses Gefühl, was ich dann wieder habe in solchen Momenten und mir das bewusst mache, genau dieses Gefühl will ich bewahren und für die Zukunft weiter haben oder mit anderen Menschen. En: Wie kann man sich das bewahren? J: Indem man selbst etwas für die Freundschaft tut. Indem man sich bewusst macht, wie schön das ist, was man daran schätzt und dass man das dann aktiv mitgestaltet. Dass es auch weiterhin fortbesteht. Dass man sich weiterhin mit den Leuten trifft und herausfindet, was tut mir gut und was ist jetzt genau das Besondere und dass man das so ein bisschen, darauf guckt. Was ist es jetzt, was ich brauche und mir guttut. Wie schaffe ich es, das fortbesehen zu lassen. En: An was denkst du noch, was du bewahren oder fortführen willst? J: Tatsächlich denke ich auch viel an Werte, weil für mich ist die Frage, was ist mir wichtig und da kommen wir extrem die Menschen in den Sinn, Familie und Freunde und auf der anderen Seite, welche Werte sind dir wertig, welche Werte würdest du weitergeben wollen, wenn man Kinder oder Neffen haben würde oder sonst irgendwas. Das sind so die zwei zentralen Sachen. En: Was wären das für Werte? J: Mut, z.B, mutig zu sein. Gegen die Angst gegen zu gehen oder durch die Angst durchzugehen. Dann auf jeden Fall Umsicht oder Nachsicht mit sich selbst oder mit anderen. Sich selbst treu bleiben, vielleicht auch. Und so klassische Werte wie Liebe, Geborgenheit, das Gefühl möchte ich weitergeben. Gefühl von Sicherheit und sichfallenlassen können, du selbst sein zu können. En: Spannend. Was könnten denn Nachteile sein, wenn man zu viel Sachen bewahren will? (…). J: Ich glaub, man darf den Fokus nicht zu eng werden lassen. Man darf sich nicht versteifen. Ich glaube, dass die Kehrseite zu rigide oder strikt wird in seiner Sacht, d.h. dass man wie so einen Tunnelblick hat, weil ich XY bewahren will oder weitergeben oder durchsetzen und dass man vielleicht weniger flexibel dadurch wird oder weniger offen. En: Wie z.B. bei einer Freundschaft? J: Dass es zu starr wird. En: Dass man vielleicht getrennte Wege gehen muss. J: Wenn man sich zu viel auf Sachen fokussiert, man nicht mehr so offen ist einen anderen Blickwinkel einzunehmen, weil man eben so festgefahren ist. Ja. Und dass sich eben dadurch Freundschaften trennen oder wichtige andere Werte nicht weitermitgegeben werden. Es kann ja auch sein, dass sich das für mich ändert,

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dass ich in 10 Jahren auf die Frage anders antworten will. Ich glaube nicht, dass das unbedingt ein starres Konstrukt sein muss und dass es sich verändern darf. En: Wie sich das bei Freunden auch verändern kann? Dass sich die Freunde oder man sich selbst ändert und man getrennte Wege geht. J: Also, es ist etwas Dynamisches. Es hat eine Dynamik. Ja und dass mir als Kind andere Dinge in einer Freundschaft wichtig waren wie jetzt. En: Spannend. Hättest du sonst noch Punkte, die du zu dem Thema ansprechen möchtest (…)? Was fällt dir noch ein? J: Ich glaube, dass mir später Dinge dazu einfallen würden und man länger darüber nachdenkt und dass ich es spannend finde, dass für verschiedene Menschen verschiedene Dinge bewahrenswert sind und das etwas Schönes ist. (…) Und dass es vollkommen okay ist, wenn unterschiedliche Menschen unterschiedliche Dinge bewahrenswert finden. En: Wenn du jetzt auf dein Zimmer guckst, gibt es ein Objekt, das etwas Bewahrenswertes ist? J: Ich gucke auf meine Schranktür und die ist übersät mit Fotos. Fotos aus meiner Jugend, Konzertkarten hängen da. Da hängen Sprüche, die ich schön finde. Fotos aus einem Fotoautomaten. Von Reisen. Von Feiern und dass sind alles Momente, in denen ich glücklich war und Freundschaften und Menschen, die ich bewahrenswert finde. Diese ganze Kleiderschrankwand ist für mich bewahrenswert. Das spiegelt alles wieder, was ich unter bewahrenswert verstehe. Familie, meine Opa und Oma, Bruder. En: Freunde sehe ich. J: Freunde. Einfach am Leben sein. En: Bleibst du auch manchmal davorstehen und staunst? J: Oft. Gefühl von Dankbarkeit überkommt mich. Und dass man sich glücklich schätzen kann. En: Positive Emotionen? J: Ganz viele positive Emotionen. Dass einem das oft in eine gute Stimmung versetzt. Manchmal auch ein Hauch von Melancholie, weil man denkt der Moment ist vorbei und man sich wieder so fühlen will, gerade wenn man sich nicht so gut fühlt. Aber meistens positive Emotionen. English Interpretation  Friends are preservable for Judith. But this includes constant relationship work and to figure out one’s needs in the respective relationship. Traits, values, and lessons are preservable insofar as they are central for a given situation in the present—for Judith, this would be going beyond angst, to show empathy and respect toward the social other. Yet, there might be also something negative when preserving something such as becoming too rigid and not wanting to let go of something. For Judith, you need to be flexible and be open about other perspectives.

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Caleb Transcript En: Was verstehst du unter dem Begriff bewahrenswert? Was kommt dir spontan in den Sinn? Du kannst dir Zeit lassen. P: Bewahrenswert sind prinzipiell ideelle Werte. En: Was z.B.? P: Ehrlichkeit, Toleranz, Respekt. Hilfsbereitschaft. En: Wie kann man die Werte weitergeben? Wie kann man sie lehren? (…). P: Weitergeben kann man die durch die Erziehung und Vorleben. En: Vorleben in welcher Hinsicht? P: Dass man selber diese Werte schätzt und beachtet, ja vertritt. En: Was würdest du sagen, ist für dich momentan bewahrenswert in deinem Leben? Neben den Werten? P: Die Gesundheit. Weil ohne Gesundheit ist alles nichts. En: Wie versucht man sich die Gesundheit zu bewahren? Welche Wege gibt es da? P: Durch entsprechendes Verhalten, ja gesundes Leben. Ein Teil ist Veranlagung. Einen anderen Teil kann man dazu beitragen und einen anderen Teil durch gesundheitsbewusstes Verhalten. En: Und dazu zählt? P: Bewegung, Sport, Ernährung. En: Würdest du sagen, dass in deinem Beruf die Gesundheit etwas Bewahrenswertes ist (…)? P: Auf jeden Fall. Gehört auch zu den ideellen Werten. Wobei ist ja ein Zwischending, zwischen Ideell und Gegenständlich. Weil Gesundheit kann man ja auch sehen. Werte kann man nicht wirklich sehen, sehen vielleicht schon aber nicht anfassen. En: Gesundheit ist sehr materialisiert? P: Ja, mehr als andere ideelle Werte. En: Wenn du als Job als Apotheker Menschen hilfst, Gesundheit zu bewahren oder zu fördern, würdest du sagen, dass das etwas Bewahrenswertes ist? P: Auf jeden Fall, jaja. Bewahrenswert und motivierend. Ja. En: Und würdest du sagen im Bezug dazu, dass du die zweite oder dritte Generation bist, diese Apotheke zu leiten? Was hat dich motiviert? Tradition oder ist es eher aus mir gekommen, dass ich bei meinen Eltern gesehen habe, der Job macht mir Spaß. P: Ja es gab zwei Motivationen. Einmal naturwissenschaftliches Interesse und zum anderen die Möglichkeit, Geld zu verdienen. Beides hat es dann stark beeinflusst. Zusammen. En: Würdest du auch sagen, dass naturwissenschaftliches Interesse, das du als junger Erwachsener ausgebildet hast, dass du das versucht hast in deinen Job zu lenken. P: Ja auf jeden Fall. Das findet sich im Job wieder. Von daher war das förderlich für die Berufswahl oder interessant. En: Würdest du sagen, dass du dir das Interesse an diesen naturwissenschaftlichen Dingen bewahrt hast, dass du mit diesen täglich umgehst.

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P: Da hatte ich Glück, dass das zusammengepasst hat. Gut, ich meine ich habe es durch die Berufswahl ein wenig in die Richtung gelenkt. Aber so konnte ich es natürlich auch bewahren oder dran festhalten. En: Was würdest du sagen, als du die Apotheke von deiner Mutter übernommen hast. Wie war der Übergang zwischen dem Alten, das geht und dem Neuen, das kommt. Was behältst du an der Führung, wie sie die Apotheke geleitet hat und was hast du Neue mitgebracht. Wie sind da die Entscheidungen gefallen? Oder hat sich das ergeben? P: Ja, bewahrenswert, also die Tradition, die weitergeführt werden sollte, war die persönliche Hinführung oder bzw. Hinwendung zum Patienten, persönliche Kontakte. Was ganz interessant war, bei einer Vielzahl von Stammkunden war das auch gut zu machen oder etwas besser oder schöner als in einer Laufapotheke, wo jeden Tag andere Kunde sind. Da ist das in einer örtlich behafteten Apotheke schöner, weil man die Leute mehr und mehr kannte und sich denen zuwenden konnte und an deren Leben teilhaben konnte. Das war auch vorher so und das sollte auch weitergelebt werden. Ja, das was man heute machen musste war so ein bisschen die Digitalisierung. En: EDV? P: EDV, ja weil das immer mehr und mehr Einzug genommen hat. En: Würdest du sagen, dass das Neue, das du annehmen musstest durch den gesellschaftlichen Wandel, dass das mehr erleichtert oder die Dinge schwerer macht. P: Im Grunde genommen, erleichtert es die Arbeit. Es wird nur erschwert durch eine zunehmende Bürokratisierung. Das, was die Digitalisierung an Erleichterung bringt wird konterkariert durch die zunehmende Bürokratisierung, sodass es in Summe gar nicht so viel leichter ist als vorher. Das ist nicht schuld der Digitalisierung. Das ist schuld des Systems. Die Digitalisierung ist im Grunde genommen keine schlechte Bewegung. En: Bürokratisierung in der Hinsicht, dass jeder Schritt nachgezeichnet wird? P: Nein, dass das Gesundheitswesen in der Abrechnungstechnik sehr kompliziert ist. Dass wir viele Krankenkassen haben und für jede Krankenkasse andere Bestimmungen haben und das insgesamt sehr schwierig ist für die Abrechnung und für das Tagesgeschäft. Das macht diese Bürokratisierung insbesondere aus. En: Das ist jetzt ein Punkt (…), der nicht wünschenswert ist oder wo man sich wünschen würde, der nicht bewahrt (…) werden sollte. P: Das stimmt. En: Wie kann man Schritte einleiten (…), um Widerstand zu leisten? P: Das ist sehr schwierig, weil die Bürokratie sich natürlich selbst am Leben erhält, weil von der Bürokratie Leute leben und die wollen nicht, dass die Bürokratie abgeschafft wird und das System schlanker wird. Dann würden sie an ihrem eigenen Ast sägen. Man muss halt durch politische Argumentation versuchen, bestimmte bürokratische Hürden abzubauen und dadurch auch die Einsparmöglichkeiten des Systems aufzuzeigen. Das ist sehr schwierig. En: Und was würdest du sagen, ist ein negativer Aspekt ist von etwas Bewahrenswertem (…)? Wenn man sich etwas bewahren will, was eigentlich

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nicht mehr bewahrenswert ist? Wie z.B. eine Freundschaft, an der man festhält, die aber einem keinen Return of Investment gibt (…). P: Der Nachteil ist höchstens, dass man zu länge an etwas festhält, das nicht mehr in die Zeit passt, weil man es aus Gewohnheit tut und nicht reflektiert, dass es im Prinzip nicht mehr angemessen ist oder nicht mehr gut ist oder bewahrenswert und man durch diese Tendenz zum Bewahren oder Festhalten bestehende Dinge vergisst, bestimmte Dinge zu hinterfragen oder zu reflektieren. Das ist vielleicht ein Nachteil. Aber das gilt allgemein. (…) Es gilt allgemein, dass man zu eingefahren oder unflexibel wird. En: Im Job ist es auch teilweise so, dass man sich etwas bewahrt, obwohl es nicht mehr bewahrenswert ist. P: Das nennt man Betriebsblindheit. En: Im Beruf würde das der freie Markt regeln, weil dann die Kunden ausbleiben? P: Z.B, aber dann müsste man aus solchen Entwicklungen die richtigen Schlüsse ziehen. En: Aber es hätte in erster Linie auch Konsequenzen, wenn man auf Dinge guckt, die nicht mehr bewahrenswert sind. P: Dann muss man bestimmte Sachen hinterfragen. En: Wichtig ist, dass man hinguckt und die Schlüsse daraus zieht. P: Oder sich von jemandem helfen lässt von außen, weil der etwas unbefangener nachdenkt über bestimmte Dinge als man selbst das tut. Das ist schonmal hilfreich. Also zu mindestens im Leben als auch im Beruf, sich jemanden in den Betrieb holt und man fragt, was kann man verbessern und was kann man noch tun und dann sagt der, das und das würde ich sofort anders machen und man sich denkt, warum habe ich das nicht schon längst gemacht, weil der Vorschlag vernünftig ist. Es kann aber auch sein, dass der Vorschlag nicht vernünftig ist, weil er nicht alle Zusammenhänge kennt. Aber generell sind diese Vorschläge sinnvoll, weil man aus seinen üblichen Denkmustern herauskommt. English Interpretation  For Caleb, values are preservable—ideal values such as honesty, tolerance, and fairness. One’s interests are preservable for Caleb insofar as they are an important catalyst to make something out of one’s passions—in the work domain, for instance. Yet, when it comes to work, Caleb has made the experience that bureaucracy hinders him to work in a meaningful way and to preserve that. This means that one should also become aware of what is not preservable in one’s life and to act counter those developments—even if this includes a political involvement. Ryan Transcript En: Was würdest du unter dem Begriff bewahrenswert verstehen? En: Du kannst dir Zeit lassen. P: Etwas, das ich schon habe und langfristig halten möchte. Und was mir persönlich guttut.

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En: Und was wäre das in deinem persönlichen Leben? P: Freunde. Und guter Ausgleich. Guter Ausgleich in meinem Alltag. En: Bezogen auf die Freunde, wenn das als etwas für dich etwas Bewahrenswertes ist, wie erreicht man, dass es bewahrenswert bleibt. P: Indem man sich selbst darum kümmert. En: Wie kümmert man sich drum? P: Indem man Interesse zeigt, nachfragt, auch wenn es einen nicht interessiert. Ja halt auf Leute zugehen und über seinen Schatten springt. En: Und indem man sich z.B. Zeit nimmt und Prioritäten einnimmt? P: Ja. En: Und du hattest gesagt über seinen Schatten springen. Das heißt, dass man dann auch Konflikte aus dem Weg räumt. P: Ja oder selber nicht irgendwo verbissen hängenbleibt. Angenommen, man hat jetzt jemanden, der sich länger nicht meldet und das würde mich stören, und ich mir denke, wenn du dich nicht meldest, dann hast du Pech gehabt, aber anstatt dessen sage ich, dann melde ich mich und bohre nach. En: Weil du dann denkst, mir liegt an der Freundschaft so viel? P: Ja und weil es sonst auseinanderbrechen würde. En: Würdest du auch sagen (…), dass man irgendwann den Cut zieht: Ich habe das mehrmals gemacht und dann kam nichts zurück; dass man dann sagt, das ist nicht mehr bewahrenswert. Gibt es solche Situationen für dich? P: Ein bisschen. Ich versuche schon, dass es in einer Schwebe ist, dass man jetzt nicht einen Haken an die Person macht und ich mache da gar nichts mehr, sondern, dass man sich mit dem Zustand abfindet. Auf der anderen Seite kennt man Leute, wo das völlig normal ist, dass die sich nicht melden. Das hat dann nichts zu bedeuten. En: Würdest du auch sagen, dass die Musik etwas Bewahrenswertes für dich ist? P: Ja, aber ich weiß nicht, ob ich da etwas für machen muss. Musik hören auf alle Fälle. Musik selber machen; ja. En: Aber ist es nicht so, dass wenn du ein Instrument spielst und nicht übst, und du dir die Fähigkeiten nicht bewahren kannst. P: Ja es ist so. Aber z.B. im Moment zu vorher, die letzten zwei Jahre, habe ich jeden zweiten Tag etwas gespielt. Und halt auch neue Sachen gelernt. Seitdem ich nach Paderborn gezogen bin, spiele ich vielleicht einmal im Monat Gitarre und ein wenig mehr Klavier, aber das hat schon deutlich nachgelassen. Und es gab keinen Fortschritt mehr, eher ein Rückschritt. Aber ich würde nicht sagen, dass mir etwas fehlt zur Zeit. Auf der anderen Seite, in letzter Zeit, habe ich die Lücke dann durch Tennis gefüllt oder mit Sport generell. Das meinte ich eben mit Ausgleich, vernünftiger Ausgleich von deinem Tag. En: Das ist interessant, was du sagst. Im Prinzip, dass ich in gewissen Lebenssituationen der Fokus dann verschieben kann, auf die Dinge, die man sich behalten will (…). Hauptsache man hat dann z.B. diesen Ausgleich, aber dieser kann sich flexibel nach Tennis oder in die Musik verschieben. P: Ja. Ich meine die Sachen verschwinden ja nicht. Es ist ja nicht so wie in einer Freundschaft, wo du nichts mehr machst, und dann geht die Freundschaft viel-

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leicht weg. Meine Gitarre hängt an der Wand und die kann ich jederzeit runterholen. En: Die Fähigkeiten gehen ja in einem gewissen Maß zurück, aber ein Grundrepertoire bleibt vorhanden, auf dem man aufbauen könnte. P: Ja. En: Wenn du später an deinen Beruf denken würdest, würdest du sagen, dir ist es wichtig, etwas Bewahrenswertes mit deinen Händen zu schaffen? P: Intuitiv, ja. Aber kann natürlich alles auch sehr vergänglich sein. Je nachdem, was man da jetzt macht. Aber generell, wenn du für etwas leidenschaftlich arbeitest, willst du auch, dass es Sinn und Zweck hat, am besten eine langfristige Wirkung. En: Sinn und Zweck, in welcher Hinsicht? Sozial? P: Ja, glaube schon. En: Quasi, dass es mehr als Broterwerb wäre. P: Doch schon für andere Menschen. Wenn ich jetzt überlege, man hat Geld zu Verfügung und ich arbeite mit dem Geld, dann soll damit etwas Positives geschaffen werden, für andere. En: Würdest du sagen, sich auf etwas zu versteifen, was tendenziell bewahrenswert ist, könnte auch Nachteile mit sich bringen? P: Ja, weil versteifen immer Nachteile mit sich ziehen kann. Aber es ist jetzt schwierig, das auf etwas zu übertragen. Ich denke, dass wäre ein Punkt, wo man selber merkt, ob einem etwas noch guttut. Und wenn ich merke, dass es mir nicht mehr guttut, dann ist es auch nicht mehr bewahrenswert. En: Es hat z.B. negative Auswirkungen auf mich? P: Ja. En: Dass man dann sich versucht davon zu distanzieren? P: Das einfach loszulassen, an nichts festhalten, was sowieso am absteigenden Ast ist, wo ich langfristig weiß, dass wird nichts mehr. En: Wenn du an das Wort bewahrenswert denkst (…), kommt dir z.B. ein spezielles Objekt, Gegenstand in den Sinn? Manche Leute sagen Fotos z.B., Souvenir von einer Reise oder so. Hättest du etwas, was dir einfallen würde? P: Gegenstand ehrlich gesagt nicht. Klar es gibt viele Dinge, die bewahrenswert sind. Aber ich habe den Begriff sehr ultimativ eingestuft. En: Hohe Erwartungen an den Begriff? P: Dann verbinde ich das nicht mit einem Gegenstand. En: Ideelle Dinge. P: Ja, wenn man das auf Freunde bezieht, das was da ist. English Interpretation  For Ryan, friends are the most preservable asset in life. But in order to make that preservable, one needs to continuously work on the respective relationship, e.g., prioritize that relationship. But making something preservable also includes for Ryan to overcome difficulties in a relationship such as when one decides to have less contact. This means that one should not force the relationship to be permanent but to be open about a time where the other wants to re-intensify the contact. But there is a danger when conserving too much—one could hold on to something that is not preservable anymore.

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Sascha Transcript En: Was verstehst du unter dem Begriff bewahrenswert? P: Ich würde tatsächlich sagen Tradition und Kultur und vielleicht auch Kunst irgendwo, was zusammengehört. En: Wie erreicht man Tradition und Kultur? P: Durch gesellschaftliches Miteinander und humanitäres Verständnis auf einer Ebene. Das wäre es eigentlich. En: Wie würdest du deinen Kindern Tradition und Kultur weitergeben? P: Die Werte, die ich selber gelernt habe von meinen Eltern und vielleicht gesehen habe, und z.B. durch Literatur, sei auf religiöser und kultureller Ebene. En: Das heißt dann, dass mit den Kindern diese Werte zuführt und diese ermutigt, diese zu lesen, z.B. indem man sie im Bücherregal stehen hat. P: Oder im Kindel. En: Du hast von Werten gesprochen, die dir wichtig wären, dann auch weiterzugeben. Was wären das für Werte? P: Loyalität, ich würde jetzt mal sagen Ehrgefühl, das, was ich als Menschlichkeit sehen würde. Verständnis und halt das Gute im Menschen zu sehen. En: Wie definiert sich das in einer Alltagssituation zum Beispiel? P: Man sieht jemanden der Hilfe braucht, platter Reifen z.B. und man hilft aktiv oder man fragt zumindest, ob man helfen kann, dass man sich irgendwo verständigt und die Person nicht auf sich alleine gestellt lässt. En: Dir wäre es dann auch wichtig, diese Werte an deine Kinder weiterzugeben? P: Auf jeden Fall. En: Wie kann man diese Werte am besten seinen Kindern weitergeben? P: Durch aktives Zeigen und Vorleben. En: Quasi, dass man selbst Beispiel dieser Werte ist und sich die Kinder daran orientieren können? P: Genau, die Kinder müssen es ja irgendwo lernen und sehen können, bevor sie das dann adaptieren und verstehen an sich. Wenn man es Kindern nicht zeigt, können sie es auch nicht lernen. Das ist dann auch nicht zwangsläufig etwas, das man aus einem Buch lernen kann. Natürlich kannst du dir, wie gesagt, etwas anlesen oder aneignen, aber dass dann in die Praxis umzusetzen, ist natürlich ein anderer Schritt. En: Was wäre für dich (…) noch bewahrenswert? P: Freunde. Gute Freunde, die aber für mich tatsächlich in dem Moment zur Familie gehören, weil Familie für mich ein übergeordneter Begriff ist, der nicht unbedingt Blutsverwandtschaft ausdrückt, sondern eher Nähe, z.B. ein Onkel muss nicht unbedingt so zu einer Familie gehören in einem übertragenen Sinne, wie ein guter Freund. En: Dass man sich Freunde bewahrt oder diese Wichtigkeit von Freundschaft bewahrt, wie erreicht man diesen Zustand? P: Durch Verständnis. Durch Loyalität, Vertrauen. Sehr großes Vertrauen natürlich. Das wären so die drei Grundpfeiler, für mich. En: Und indem man z.B. was in die Freundschaft investiert, in etwa Zeit?

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P: Ja, natürlich. Zeit, Geld, alles. All diese Faktoren gehören zu einer Freundschaft dazu. Manche mehr als andere. Aber es hat halt irgendwo einen Wert; manche schätzen, sagen wir mal, eher monetäre Mittel als andere. Da kommt es halt darauf an, die richtige Ebene zu finden. Was ist einem besonders wichtig an einer Freundschaft? Was will man am meisten investieren? Zeit ist ein großer Faktor. En: Das heißt, dass man sich individuell auf den Freund einlässt. Für den anderen ist Zeit wichtig und ich muss mich bei ihm mehr sehen lassen und für andere sind andere Dinge wichtiger? P: Genau. Natürlich hat die einzelne Persönlichkeit an sich Vorrang, ich als Individuum lege Wert auf diesen oder jenen Faktor und das Gegenüber auf einen anderen Faktor, dann fokussiere ich mich auf den anderen, damit ich auf meinen Freund zugehen kann. En: Das ist dann für dich Basis von dem Verständnis, von dem du gesprochen hast? P: Genau, dieses Miteinander. En: Dass dieses Miteinander dann auch harmonisch ist. P: Das Verständnis für die gegenüberstehende Partei. En: Und für die Prioritäten der gegenüberstehenden Partei? P: Genau. En: Würdest du später sagen, dass dir im Beruf wichtig ist, etwas Bewahrenswertes zu schaffen? P: Gutes Arbeitsumfeld. Gutes Arbeitsklima vor allem. Da ist es tatsächlich wichtig, dass ein kollegiales Miteinander verbindet. Auf privater Ebene ist das natürlich nicht wie eine Freundschaft. Aber dass man trotzdem ein Klima entwickeln kann, das einem zeigt bzw. Hilft, sich in der Position dort sowohl in beruflicher als auch in menschlicher Hinsicht sich weiterentwickelt, etwas dazulernen kann. En: Diese Harmonie im Arbeitsleben wäre bewahrenswert, weil man so viel Zeit auf der Arbeit verbringt? P: Das ist ein interessanter Punkt. Ich lasse das jetzt mal einfließen. Im Endeffekt reden wir darüber, die meisten Menschen haben eine 40 Stunden Woche. Das bedeutet bei 40 Stunden Arbeit viel Zeit bei der Arbeit verbringt und weniger Zeit bei der Familie hat. So wird dann auch deine Arbeit zur Familie, bzw. Die Menschen bei der Arbeit zu einer Familie. Nicht so sehr wie deine eigentliche Familie und Freunde. Aber das Miteinander ist wichtig. Man muss sich ein Klima schaffen können. Aus diesen Gründen ist das wichtig für mich. En: Was passiert, wenn dieses Klima nicht geschaffen werden kann? P: Oh. Dann haben wir einen ganz großen Kindergarten. En: Was macht der Kindergarten? Erschwert er die Arbeit? P: Ein negatives Arbeitsumfeld wird die Arbeit erschweren, wird dich psychisch sowie physisch belasten, definitiv, einfach durch die Mehrarbeit und auch diesen Stress, den du auf der Arbeit hast, wirst du mit nach Hause nehmen und das wird die Beziehung zu deinen anderen Menschen verschlechtern und beeinflussen. Und das ist natürlich negativ. En: Das heißt, dass harmonische Miteinander auf der Arbeit oder in diesem harmonischen Arbeitsklima zu arbeiten, ist wichtig, um sich seine eigene Gesundheit zu bewahren?

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P: Genau. Ich meine, um ein gesundes Leben an sich führen zu können. Wir reden im Endeffekt um eine 40 Stunden Woche. Wenn mehr Arbeit ist, dann reden wir über einen sechsten Tag. Wenn dort die Stimmung nicht stimmt, für mehrere Tage am Stück z.B., dann nimmt man das irgendwo mit. Man kann das nicht so einfach ausschalten. Man versucht es aber es ist nicht so einfach. En: Würdest du auch sagen, dass der Begriff bewahrenswert auch negative Facetten hat? P: Ja natürlich. So kann man sich, eig assoziert man das mit positiven Aspekten. Aber es können auch schlechte Dinge für bewahrenswert gehalten werden. Kommt auf die Person an, die darüber spricht und das Umfeld, in der die Person spricht. So ist es z.B. sagen wir z.B. für einen extremen Radikalen Moslem, für den sind seine Traditionen, seine Kultur bewahrenswert, die aber mit den Werten nicht übereinstimmen. Das wäre dann nicht unbedingt bewahrenswert. En: Wie kann man solche Konflikte z.B. lösen? P: Nicht zwangsläufig durch Assimilation, aber eventuell durch Integration. Und so wie es bei einem Kind wäre, tatsächlich zu zeigen, worauf legen wir Wert als Gesellschaft, dass man daran gemeinsam arbeitet. Natürlich hat diese Person natürlich diese Werte von anderen Personen mitbekommen. Die muss man überarbeiten oder gemeinsam drüberschauen. Eventuell gibt es daneben aber auch einen positiven Aspekt, den man sich für die gesamtgesellschaftlichen Entwicklung abschauen kann. En: Wenn ich dich nach einem Objekt fragen würde, das z.B. etwas bewahrenswertes symbolisiert, würde dir dazu etwas einfallen. P: Ein Objekt, im Sinne von etwas Greifbarem? En: Etwas Gegenständliches, ja. P: Die Statue von Jesus in Rio finde ich cool. Die beeindruckt mich immer wieder aufs Neue. Nicht, weil ich eine religiöse Verbindung dazu habe, sondern weil sich viele andere Menschen damit assoziieren können, z.B. auch eine Moschee, je nachdem wie sie aufgebaut ist; dann ist sie ein Sinnbild und die Religion vermittelt und aufzeigt. Solche Kulturgüter sind bewahrenswert. Religion oder Glauben sind ziemlich wichtig. Ohne Glauben haben die Menschen keine Träume. Ohne Träume keine Zukunft. En: Mosche ist ein interessantes Kulturgut. Du gehst hin, weil du in erster Linie beten willst, aber die Mosche hat ja viele Zwecke; man trifft Gleichgesinnte z.B.? P: Man hat viele verschiedene Aktivitäten, sei es interkulturell, zwischen den Gläubigen. Man macht viele andere Dinge, man setzt sich mal zusammen, unterhält sich, man macht Filmabende. Habe ich dir ja schon früher erzählt? En: In der Mosche? P: Ja. En: Quasi als sozialer Austausch und Treffpunkt? P: Wie ein Jugendtreff. So unter Aufsicht. Mit vielen Kindern. Man ist ja alleine. En: Und es ist dann wichtig auch, diese Orte zu bewahren, wo die Leute hingehen können? P: Genau, so wie in einer Synagoge oder in einer Kirche oder einer freikirchlichen Gemeinde. Ich finde es interessant, auf was für Menschen man trifft. Man

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bekommt verschiedene Eindrücke, weil verschiedene soziale Gruppen vertreten sind, Geringverdiener, reiche Menschen. Da hast du den Mittelstand, irgendwo. Da hast du gut ausgebildete Menschen, eher weniger gut ausgebildete Menschen. Ist ein cooler Austausch, muss nicht immer gleichgesinnt. Das ist ein Punkt, wo du auf Diskussion stoßen kannst, aber das hilft auch, dass man sich weiterentwickelt. English Interpretation  For Sascha, harmony is preservable. But this harmony is central for a variety of action spheres for the participant. Work, friends, and family should all work together in harmony. But the most important things that are preservable are concrete locations such as a mosque where people pray together, meet, socialize, and discuss family issues. Things that help people to satisfy a variety of needs are the most preservable for Sascha. Marissa Transcript En: Was verstehst du unter dem Begriff bewahrenswert? Du kannst alles sagen. Alles, was dir einfällt. K: Bewahrenswert ist etwas, was mir wichtig und hoch und heilig ist und ich an meine Kinder weitergeben möchte. En: Was ist in deinem Leben bewahrenswert? K: In meinem Leben bewahrenswert ist, dass mir jeder Sekunde bewusst, wo ich lebe und dass ich auf der Sonnenseite des Lebens geboren bin, dass ich mir einfach die Zufriedenheit, die dadurch entstanden ist, bewahre und nicht denke, ich könnte immer mehr, immer weiter und höher und dass ich meinen Kindern einfach ein Vorbild sein will und das weitergeben möchte. Meine Werte. En: Was sind diese Werte? K: Diese Werte sind Bildung. Diese Werte sind der Umgang mit der Erde, dass man sonst mit vielen Dingen die Erde zerstören kann. Die Werte sind Frieden, dass man friedlich miteinander lebt, dass man Probleme lösen kann und dass meine Kinder verstehen, dass sie jederzeit kommen können, wenn sie Mist gebaut haben und dass man das irgendwie geraderücken kann. En: Was fällt dir noch ein, was Bewahrenswert in deinem Leben wäre? Du hast von Werten gesprochen. K: Ja, im Prinzip, die Gesetze. Das Halten an die Gesetze. Der Glaube ist bewahrenswert. En: Was denkst du verschafft man sich, wenn man sich an die Dinge hält, die bewahrenswert sind? Was sind die Vorteile, wie wenn man die Werte weitergibt oder man sich an Richtlinien hält? K: Dass wir alle zusammen auf der Welt leben können. Sonst würde es gar nicht klappen. En: Dass man in Harmonie miteinander Leben kann? K: Natürlich wird sich Streit nicht vermeiden lassen aber, dass man trotzdem es schafft, zusammen auf dieser Welt friedlich zu leben und lernt, sich gegenseitig

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zu tolerieren und zu akzeptieren. Nicht alles, was ich mache, muss richtig sein aber ich versuche es nach bestem Wissen und Gewissen. Andere versuchen es auch und man muss tolerieren, wie andere sind, solange sie Gesetze und Regeln einhalten. En: Und du hast gerade gesagt, dass Familie ein wichtiger Punkt ist, der bewahrenswert ist? Kannst du dazu mehr sagen? K: Ja, ich finde Familie gibt einem etwas. En: Was zum Beispiel? K: Es gibt einem Geborgenheit; es ist ein Stück Heimat. Es gibt dir den Vorteil, dass du sozusagen immer einen Zufluchtsort hast, dass du aufgefangen wirst von deiner Familie, dass du akzeptierst wirst, wie du bist und dass du natürlich, indem du älter wirst, trotzdem durch deine Kinder jung bleibst und auf dem Neuesten Stand bleibst. En: Wenn das bewahrenswert ist, wie schafft man, dass es wichtig bleibt? Dass man sich Zeit dafür nimmt? K: Dass man feste Rituale einhält. Also das ist z.B. ganz wichtig. Zeit ist manchmal ein Problem. Aber es ist wichtig, insofern ist es schon toll, wenn man als Familie noch bereit ist, Urlaub zusammen zu machen. Dann hat man mal im Urlaub Zeit zusammen. Gewisse Rituale wie an Weihnachten, einer schmückt den Tannenbaum und gibt das so weiter, dann ist das ein Ritual, das einfach schön ist und Sicherheit gibt. En: Würdest du sagen, dass du in deiner Arbeit etwas Bewahrenswertes schaffst? Dass das damit zusammenhängt? K: Ja, natürlich, klar. Also ich finde an erster Stelle muss Arbeit Spaß machen. Sonst kann man es sein Leben lang nicht ausüben. Die Arbeit gibt einem natürlich auch Erfüllung. Gut, sie macht einen auch zufrieden. Genau, man sollte vielleicht auch – weil du von bewahren sprachst – man sollte nicht darüber nachdenken, wie viel Geld verdiene ich damit, sondern sehen, dass schon ein Stück Erfüllung dabei sein muss. En: Erfüllung und auch bei deinem Job interessant, die soziale Komponente? Dass man Menschen hilft? K: Dass man Menschen Wege begleitet. Man sieht, dass es manchen besser geht. Man leidet mit, wenn es manchen schlechter geht oder ist traurig, wenn sie versterben. Aber man hat irgendwie, versucht zu helfen. En: Hast du ein Objekt, was für dich Bewahrenswert ist? K: Mehrere Sachen, eigentlich. En: Du hast von dem roten Elefanten gesprochen. Was spiegelt der wider für dich? K: Der rote Elefant spiegelt wider bedingungslose Liebe. Den habe ich geschenkt bekommen als ich meinen Mann kennengelernt habe und der jetzt auf jede Reise mitgeht. Der mehr gesehen hat als meine Kinder und der dafür steht, dass ich im Prinzip so geliebt werde wie ich bin, immer noch. Und das möchte ich gerne eigentlich auch vermitteln, dass man sich in dieser heutigen Gesellschaft nicht verstellen muss, sondern sein kann, wie man ist, denn nur so kann man geliebt werden.

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109

English Interpretation  Family is one of the most preservable things for Marissa. But this only comes into being by rituals—eating together and doing vacations together. Moreover, working for a higher cause is something meaningful for the participant that she wants to preserve.

Appendix B: Codes and Themes for Transcripts Codes Themes Memories for positive emotions, childhood, people that died a Definition of while ago, memories with parents something conservable Social contacts, friends, yet making a difference between Conserving friends and false friends. Looking for true friends and friendships terminating friendship with false friends, finding a balance between give and take within a friendship Preserving memories (positive emotions), remaining a part of Preserving family my daughter’s life. Remaining a mother, providing support if needed. Joint travels, experiences, activities such as eating together Activities within nature, nature as a place of positive emotions Preserving nature Negative experiences can be negatively preservable; a bad job Dangers of a experience; people that were toxic, yet can guide as appeal to conservable not let that happen another time attitude House, memories of how child grew up, personal taste, Conservable wanting that child enjoys that later, too object

References ll. 2–14

ll. 15–33

ll. 34–46, 67–70

ll. 50–54 ll. 71–86

ll. 89–94

Anna Codes Codes Foundation of society, taking time for family, planning activities such as travels, board games, sports, cultivating contact, permanently, intergenerational contact Acceptance of spatial separation, preserving contacts for own parents if they become older Cheerfulness to overcome difficult life situations. Being authentic and loyal to this trait. Being cheerful even if it might cause interpersonal confusion Respect, understanding but also discussions, being loyal to one’s opinion and communicating about one’s issues Role changes, when grandchildren were little more of some help, now sometimes more disturbing than of help, respecting the autonomy of children, their agenda, acceptance of role change

Themes Family

References ll. 2–3, ll. 27–43, 86–93

Conserving ideal values

ll. 3–15

Conserving love ll. 19–24 Conserving the role of a grandmother

ll. 45–62

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Codes Establishing a personal relationship with nature, smartphone pictures, spending time in nature, relaxation, meditation, getting a sense for the value of nature by means of education, e.g., parents that do plan activities with their children in nature (hiking). Nature is polyvalent, e.g., for sports but also for meditation

Themes Nature is worth preserving

References ll. 63–81

Aurelia Codes Codes Preserving a dialect, yet difficult if there is no teaching; children understand but can’t speak it; sometimes negative evaluations Doing joint activities; overcoming difficulties of aging; phone exchange; mobility is important when being older Meeting brother, yet he had an accident. Driving to him or asking children to get a ride, being a part of the family member’s life. Supporting one’s family, if necessary, with knowledge and skills, cooking, baking, or sewing Autonomy by sewing, cooking, or baking

Themes Preserving language Preserving friendships Preserving family

References ll. 4–27

Preserving skills

ll. 70–89

ll. 30–55 ll. 57–69, 70–89

Berta Codes Codes Honesty, tolerance, respect, helpfulness Live these values and integrate them in everyday actions Preserving one’s health by sport, diet, and active life, preserving the health of other human beings, source of motivation Preserving scientific interests by choosing a job that motivates me, choosing a job that guarantees to earn a living Customer proximity, establishing close contacts with one’s village, getting to know one’s customer and being a part of their life Bureaucratization, billing technique that slows down activities, getting involved with politics to show benefits of non-bureaucratization Becoming too rigid, too inflexible, not questioning things, not being able to reflect appropriately Within one’s job operational blindness, not doing justice to current developments and job-related demands Asking for help, asking for people to step in one’s job and showing strengths and weaknesses, danger of not knowing the actual business, further development

Themes Conserving ideal values

References ll. 3–10

Conserving material values

ll. 12–26

Preserving one’s interests ll. 26–40 and passions Preserving job traditions, meaningfulness of one’s job Example of something not preservable

ll. 45–50

Dangers of being too conservable

ll. 78–83

Preserving social exchange

ll. 93–99

ll. 56–74

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Caleb Codes Codes Something stable in a hectic and rapidly developing time, positive anchor in troubled waters

Themes Definition of something conservable Important to relax, to shift attention, to disperse oneself, to Preserving exchange, to have a fun time, yet important to take oneself time friends for friends Loyalty and honesty are traits that remain important in every Preserving traits time. Yet, some traits demand constant reflection, development, adaption, and actualization depending on the conditions Humor, love, and being active are important values that could lead to a better society These values are important to foster relationships Providing support, helping the social other, listening to their Preserving problems (extra-role behavior), being there for them, helping meaningful work patients to regain something preservable such as language, eating and drinking (intra role behavior), positive emotions, having a purpose Thinking too much, getting stuck in the past, being trapped in Dangers of a maladaptive thoughts conservable attitude Smartphone, photos, videos, sometimes look over those with Conservable friends, laugh or remember, positive emotions object

References ll. 2–7

ll. 13–20

ll. 23–40

ll. 51–71, 78–81

ll. 71–77

ll. 83–93

Elisa Codes Codes Betrayal, lies, dirt Honesty, openness, high expectations for the term

Themes Definition of something conservable or not conservable (ideal values) Preserving health, workforce of my wife, my Definition of something workforce, house, preserving something that requires conservable (material activity or overcoming resistances values) Cohesion, not pampering one’s own family, having Preserving family high demands on my family members for their own development, accompanying one’s family and being supportive. Demand and encourage depending on family member’s age Taking time for family Understanding the different members in their unique being, clarifying disagreements, and helping to solve them Common activities such as traveling, sports, and birthdays

References ll. 5–9

ll. 15–18, 25–28 ll. 55–62, 64–67, 69–79, 82–88

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Codes Themes Preserving antipathies, cultivating a form of polite Disadvantages of a disagreement, not turning it into a physical fight, conservable attitude ignoring it, letting it go, conserving something that is not compatible anymore with one’s life such as friends

References ll. 91–108, 120–131

Julius Codes Codes Something I want to hold on to and that I want to transmit Traits that were adaptive in the past and might be adaptive in the future, something that I learnt to be such as being self-reflective or self-aware, not being liked by everyone Preserving memories with friends, source of positive emotions Caring for the friendship, negotiating friendship, shaping friendships, what is good for me and what is not Transmitting values such as care, love, transcending anxiety, courage, being loyal to oneself, feeling secure, and having an inner compass Not becoming too rigid, inflexible, or static, not becoming aware of other perspectives, trying to re-define the phenomenon as something dynamic Different people have different things that are considered preservable. Acceptance and beauty. Unity in diversity Photo wall, aphorisms, pictures, memories, positive emotions, being a part of life

Themes Definition of something conservable Preserving traits and experiences

References ll. 1–6

Preserving friendships

ll. 30–34

Preserving values

ll. 36–44

Dangers of a conservable attitude

ll. 46–61

ll. 7–19

Developing a pluralistic ll. 64–67 attitude toward something conservable Conservable object ll. 69–82

Judith Codes Codes Something that I already have and that I want to hold on to and that is good for me Friends, good work-life balance, need to care about the thing that is to preserve Showing interest, asking even if no interest. Approaching people and overcoming one’s pride, taking oneself time and invest something in friendships Solving conflicts, proactively, and approaching the other even if there are disagreements

Themes References Definition of ll. 1–3 something preservable Friends and work-life ll. 6–27 balance as something preservable

113

Appendixes Codes Playing music, no progress if no training. There are times where there is no real progress and where other interests are predominating. Natural flow of life. Yet, there is always a basis where I can rely on. Guitar is always accessible on my wall Sport as a work-life balance to reach inner harmony

Themes Music as something preservable

Sport as something preservable Helping others, doing something positive, sustainable Work as something development of something meaningfully preservable Being too rigid, inflexible, static, stiff. Yet one can realize if Dangers of a something is not good anymore by means of negative conservative attitude emotions or social consequences, letting go of the old No real object, friends, ideal values Conservable objects

References ll. 29–39

ll. 38–39 ll. 49–59

ll. 61–68

69–77

Ryan Codes Codes Tradition, culture by way of interacting with one another as well as understanding the social other Live these values and integrate them in everyday actions, by means of books, for example Loyalty, sense of honor, humanity, understanding, seeing the true good of the human being; helping the social other such as if there is an accident. Transmitting these values by means of living and enacting them, constantly Friends become family; some friends are closer than uncles. Preserving friendship by being loyal, understanding the other, and trusting him/her Investing time and money Showing deep respect for the personality of the other Preserving a healthy working climate, being friendly and polite toward each other, being able to learn from each other professionally as well as humanly, having a harmonious togetherness with each other instead of a physical and physique stressful working climate, good working climate that helps to have a good work-life balance Not being able to assimilate oneself to the everyday culture (such as radical Muslims) and to live peacefully with each other, working together on how to negotiate values, and being honest that not all values are bad Religious buildings and statues such as the Cristo Redentor or a mosque. Helps people to connect, to meet, and to learn from each other. Intercultural learning as well as different SESs are intermingled. Developmental opportunities

Themes Definition of something conservable Transmission of something conservable Conserving ideal values

References ll. 1–6

Conserving friendships

ll. 32–56

Conserving a meaningful atmosphere within one’s work setting

ll. 58–83

Dangers of being too conservable

ll. 85–98

Example of a conservable object

ll. 100–121

ll. 7–12

ll. 17–30

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Sascha Codes Codes Something sacred and important and that I want to transmit my children General life satisfaction; being a role model to my family, being enough and sufficient for this world Education, dealing with nature appropriately. Living peacefully, solving problems jointly, and being a strong orientation for my children Tolerance, acceptance, holding on to laws Family provides love, home, security, and acceptance but also helps to remain young Taking oneself time for family, being loyal to traditions and rituals such as feasts, travels, and activities Work needs to be fun; fulfillment, not only an opportunity for gaining money, being social, helping the other, providing support, being there for the social other, feeling with them Red elephant was a gift of her husband, which symbolizes unconditional love, genuine acceptance, and being loved for who you are

Themes Definition of something conservable

References ll. 1–3, 5–8

Conserving ideal values and laws

ll. 10–13, 14–25

Conserving family ll. 30–40

Conserving meaningful work

ll. 43–52

Conservable object ll. 53–60

Marissa Codes

Appendix C: Codes and Themes Summary Across Transcripts Codes (extract) Honesty, openness, helpfulness, respect Live these values and integrate them in everyday occurrence Cohesion, support, company, having demands, encourage, love, security, relaxation, intergenerational contact, common activities, discussion, negotiation Common activities, experiences, caring for the other, showing understanding, respect his/her personality, mobility: reaching out to my friends, investment of time and money, having fun, relaxation, disperse oneself, having an anchor Close contacts with people; being part of their lives; developmental opportunities; job needs to have a purpose for individual fulfillment; sustainable development of something worth striving for Getting stuck in the past, too much self-reflection, too rigid, too inflexible, too static, no development, losing touch with the future, too blind, preserving something not preservable

Themes Conserving ideal values Preserving family

Quantity Seven mentions Six mentions

Preserving friendships

Six mentions

Preserving the job’s Five meaningfulness mentions

Dangers of a conservable attitude

Seven mentions

115

Appendixes Codes (extract) Conserving someone’s house, caring for something in order to preserve it, preserving my workforce, preserving health, conserving cultural goods or religious goods like a mosque, conserving skills, conserving photo wall, all requiring constant care or activity Nature is preservable because it is polyvalent for meditation, sports, relaxation, and physical and psychological well-being Language, feasts, rituals, skills Mother, grandmother, grandparents, change in the characteristics of the role, needs to be developed and adjusted toward the age of my relative, helps to conserve love

Themes Conserving material values or objects

Quantity Six mentions

Preserving nature

Three mentions Preserving Three traditions mentions Conserving specific Three roles mentions

 ppendix D: Interview Schedule Based A on the Partnership Model 1. Greetings. 2. Information sheet + consent form. 3. Verbal information of being audio-recorded. 4. Questions. What does conservativism mean for you? Answer. Follow-up question. What is conservable in your life? Answer. Follow-up question. What are important conservative elements for you that you do not want to miss in your life? Answer. Follow-up question. What is the advantage/disadvantage of a conservative culture? Answer. Follow-up question. How does your conservative attitude might impact your interactions with your family, partner, or co-workers? Answer. Follow-up question.

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Turn to object: Tell me about an object that mirrors what is conservable in your life. How does it relate to you? Answer. Follow-up question. Taking photos of objects if verbal consent. 5. Further questions. 6. Distributing debrief sheet.

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Index

A Actualization of meaning, 44

H Homo activus, 40, 44–45, 78 Homo socialis, 39, 42, 45, 78

C Conservative culture, 3, 5, 10–18, 42, 44, 45, 47–51, 64–66 Conservativism, 3, 17, 42, 48, 65, 73

I Ideal values, 12, 21, 43, 101, 109–111, 113, 114 Introspectionextrospection, 15

D Danger’s of a conservative attitude, 8, 10, 24, 31, 32 Drive for meaningfulness, 29 Dynamic methodology, 15

M Meaningfulness, 29–31, 33, 39, 42, 43, 52, 57–59, 61, 63, 64, 70–72, 74, 77, 110, 114 Meaning making, 17, 31, 33, 42, 51 Mythfantasm interaction, 52, 65, 69, 74 Myths, 50–56, 59–61, 63–66, 68–71, 73, 74, 76–78

E Ecological psychology, 5, 33, 47, 51, 58, 74

N Need structure, 11, 50, 54, 70, 71, 73, 78

F Fantasms, 50–57, 61, 63–66, 68–71, 73, 74, 76–78 Friends/family, 24, 34, 39–41, 43, 96

P Personenvironment interaction, 48, 49 Personological needs, 65 Polyvalence, 50, 52, 64, 66, 74 Privatesocial needs, 71, 74, 78

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024 E. Freiherr von Fircks, Conservativism: A Cultural-Psychological Exploration, SpringerBriefs in Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51205-6

123

124 S Symbolic Action Theory, 48–52, 54, 75, 78 T Thematic analysis, 16

Index Traditions, 5, 9, 10, 12–14, 18, 33–34, 38, 39, 41, 43, 45, 48, 77, 99, 100, 104, 110, 113–115 Trajectory equifinality model (TEM), 18, 22, 23, 25, 28, 34