| Sinus-Milieus | Short description |
|---|---|
| Leading Milieus | |
| Conservative Upscale Milieu | The older, structurally conservative elite: classical ethics of responsibility and success, as well as claims to exclusivity and status; desire for order and balance; self-image as a stable rock amidst the tide of postmodern arbitrariness; erosion of social leadership role. |
| Post-Materialist Milieu | The sovereign educated elite with post-material roots: self-determination and self-development, as well as orientation towards the common good; advocates of sustainability, inclusion, and diversity; self-image as rational and humanistic. |
| Performer Milieu | The efficiency- and progress-oriented technocratic elite: global economic thinking; liberal social perspective based on personal freedom and responsibility; self-image as lifestyle and consumption trendsetters; high affinity for all things tech and digital. |
| Future Milieus | |
| Expeditive Milieu | The ambitious creative bohemians: urban, hip, digital, cosmopolitan, and networked; in search of new frontiers and unconventional experiences, solutions, and successes; skilled at self-expression and self-branding; self-image as postmodern movers and shakers. |
| Neo-Ecological Milieu | The drivers of global social change: optimism and an upbeat mentality combined with a pronounced awareness of planetary challenges; open to new value syntheses (disruption and pragmatism, success and sustainability, party and protest); self-image as progressive realists; environmentally aware and climate-conscious lifestyle. |
| Modern Mainstream | |
| Adaptive-Pragmatic Middle Class Milieu | The modern mainstream: willingness to adapt and perform; utilitarian thinking, but also a desire for fun and entertainment; strong need for anchoring and belonging; some dissatisfaction and uncertainty regarding current social developments; self-image as flexible pragmatists. |
| Consumer-Hedonistic Milieu | The consumption- and entertainment-focused lower middle class: fun in the here and now; self-image as cool lifestyle mainstream; strong need for recognition; balance of professional adaptation vs. hedonistic escapism; sometimes annoyed by the dictates of sustainability and political correctness. |
| Precarious Milieu | The lower class striving for orientation and participation: trying to keep up with the standard of living of the broad “middle class”, but burdened by social disadvantages and exclusions; feeling of being left behind; bitterness and resentment; self-image as a hard worker and hardy fighter. |
| Traditional Mainstream | |
| Nostalgic Middle Class Milieu | The harmony-oriented middle- and working-class centre of society: desire for secure circumstances and an appropriate status; self-image as the social middle-field, but growing sense of alienation and unwillingness to compromise; perceived loss of learned rules and certainties; longing for the “good old days”. |
| Traditional Milieu | The security- and order-loving older generation: entrenched in traditional petit-bourgeois and/or working-class culture; undemanding adaptation to necessities; increasing acceptance of the new sustainability norm; self-image as the upstanding and respectable “salt of the earth”. |
