7 Books for a Better World | Inspiration from the vostel.de Team

Our world is made by men for men and tends to ignore half the population. Caroline Criado-Perez explains how this system works. She exposes the gender gap in the collection of scientific data. The resulting knowledge gap underlies the continuous and systematic discrimination against women, creating an invisible bias that has a profound impact on women’s lives. Powerful and provocative, Criado-Perez argues for a change in this system and makes us see the world with new eyes.

(ONLY IN GERMAN)

The approaching climate chaos, the increasing conflicts between rich and poor and the polarisation of our societies clearly show: carrying on as before is not an option. The prosperity model of the West is exacting its price. Maja Göpel illustrates which barriers to thinking we should remove in order to deal more wisely with natural resources, human labour and the mechanisms of the market in the future – beyond prohibition regimes and growth mania.

(ONLY IN GERMAN)

More and more people want to get involved in societal, social or ecological goals. But how do you really make a difference? There are many encouraging examples of this, which become clear in the authors’ conversations with Germany’s best-known activists. Luisa Neubauer (Fridays for Future), Carola Rackete (sea rescuer and conservationist), Philipp Ruch (Centre for Political Beauty) and many others talk about their work, their experiences, their fears and defeats, but above all about why activism is enriching – for society and for one’s own life.

(ONLY IN GERMAN)

“Can I touch your hair?”, “Can you get sunburnt?”, “Where are you from?”. People who ask such questions usually don’t mean any harm. But still: they are racist. White people often don’t want to hear why.
Alice Hasters explains it anyway. She describes urgently and patiently how racism shapes her everyday life as a black woman in Germany. It becomes clear that racism is not only a problem on the right-wing fringe of society. And confronting one’s own racism is painful at first, but the only way to overcome it.

(ONLY IN GERMAN)

This book follows a longing: for a language that does not reduce people to categories. For a way of speaking that allows them to exist in their many facets. For truly communal thinking in a polarising world. Kübra Gümüsay has long campaigned for equal rights and discourse at eye level. In her first book, she explores how language shapes our thinking and determines our politics. She shows how people become invisible as individuals when they are always seen as part of a group – and are only allowed to express themselves as such. But how can people really speak as people? And how can we all – in a time of increasingly harsh, hateful discourse – communicate with each other differently?

(ONLY IN GERMAN)

2021 is a year of caesuras. The Bundestag elections mark the end of the Merkel era after 16 years, and in a historic decision the Federal Constitutional Court strengthens the freedom rights of the younger generation. Ecology is finally at the centre of all future issues: economy, transport, nutrition, but also science, journalism and politics – elementary areas of society must be rethought. Major upheavals are on the horizon. Activist and deputy editor-in-chief, student and family man: Luisa Neubauer and Bernd Ulrich discuss the fateful questions of our days in an exciting, open and intelligent way. Because we still have a choice.