A simple answer to the question what makes happy, WiSo educational sociologist Professor em. Dr. Heiner Meulemann (in the current FAZ interview) cannot give either. No one can give a serious answer to this question, but anyone who has been researching life historys and value change for more than 40 years has an expertise that makes him a sought-after authority in his field.

Last but not least, Professor Meulemann has outstanding long-term insight into the changes in political and social attitudes in European countries. With regard to personal happiness, for example, it seems, as he describes in the above-mentioned interview, that people consider internal factors such as diligence and effort to be more important for their success in life than external factors such as happiness or parental care, and that this attitude also remains stable over 40 years.

An interesting lecture can therefore be expected when Heiner Meulemann will give a lecture on "Secularisation or return of religion in Germany, Europe and elsewhere" on 6 November 2019. How this topic area is related to the increasing number of high school graduates and the socially determined differences in the actual access to higher education is one of the questions that the lecture will clarify and which will make sociology an exciting science.

The lecture is part of the public lecture series "100 Years of Sociology". Admission is free.

Event dates:

„Säkularisierung oder Wiederkehr der Religion in Deutschland, Europa und anderswo“ ("100 Years of Sociology" lecture series - Understanding Society - Current Research from the Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology)
Prof. em. Dr. Heiner Meulemann
6 November 2019, from 18:00 - 19:30 o'clock
Lecture hall B (Lecture hall building, Universitätsstraße 35, 50931 Köln)

• Further information on the lecture by Prof. em Dr. Heiner Meulemann (german)