Just lucky? How our background shapes our path

Who in our society can truly help shape it—and who cannot? At our interactive booth, we’ll help you experience firsthand how unequally social, educational, and economic participation is distributed—and why starting opportunities play a decisive role in this.
Through a “birth lottery” featuring little lottery tickets, a quiz wheel on education and social participation, a bonus roulette wheel highlighting often-invisible environmental factors, and a dartboard symbolizing effort and personal skills, we demonstrate that not everyone starts with the same advantages. Some have access to support, guidance, and opportunities from the very beginning, while others must work hard to earn them or quickly hit roadblocks. Education, knowledge, and self-efficacy can open doors, but structural inequalities persist.
This is precisely where the issue lies: When participation is unevenly distributed, potential goes untapped, opportunities are lacking, and both social and economic development are held back. Equal opportunity is therefore not just a matter of fairness, but also a prerequisite for a healthy democracy and a strong economy.
Our booth is aimed particularly at teenagers and young adults, but is designed so that children, families, and other festivalgoers can also participate. The various stations provide an accessible entry point to issues of equal opportunity, education, and participation. A seating area also invites visitors to engage in conversation and reflection.
To complement this, we use simple voting tubes to visualize participants’ assessments before and after the activity. This not only fosters participation but also provides a direct moment of reflection: Who has access to opportunities, and what is needed so that more people can truly participate? Our booth makes educational inequality concrete, tangible, and open to discussion.