The German sociologist Ulrich Beck has died at the age of 70 years. This was confirmed by Suhrkamp Verlag in Berlin, who has published numerous books of the internationally recognized scientist. As the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, referring to the deceased’s family reported an eminent scientist, died on January 1 of a heart attack
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Beck coined the term “risk society” and the “second modernity” and is considered one of the most important, most influential and most cited sociologists of the present with an international reputation.
reach him since the eighties descriptions of the present, which met on the academic field also in politics very well received. The paved him a career that is granted only to a few sociologists. Many politicians gathered at him food for thought.
So Beck in 2011 by German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) in the Ethics Committee of the Federal Government for a “Secure Energy Supply” called, which dealt with the use of nuclear power, and given the nuclear disaster at Fukushima the question put to, whether the benefits of nuclear power outweigh their risks. Despite dire predictions, Ulrich Beck is an optimist remained -. To the last
“risk society” in 35 languages translated
Beck was particularly interested in the fundamental change in modern government-authored companies, particularly in the character of the globalization and the resulting consequences for the economy, politics and culture. A particular concern of his sociology was to overcome the interpretation framework of the nation-state within the territorial limits in favor of a cosmopolitan thinking beyond national borders.
His first time in 1986 published book “Risk Society. Towards a New Modernity” has been translated into more than 35 languages and updated with the book “world risk society” of 2007. It made him internationally well known far beyond academic circles.
Steep theses: Victory of the West poses risks such as terrorism
In his book on the risk society Beck points out the dangers of modern Western societies, which can not be compensated by the state. Risks and loss of control of the state and its institutions in the globalized world remained until recently his subject, inter alia, in the debates on the digital surveillance and global warming.
One of the central theses Becks is that the modern Society does not suffer from their defeats, but to their victories: The global terrorism, Beck, is a consequence of the victory of Western modernity in relation to other social and cultural forms. The climate crisis is threatening, according to Beck because industrialization has been so successful. Mass unemployment follows from the productivity gains. . And the age pyramid sprinkle social systems, because the medicine let people live longer
Beck’s comments on the social construction of global risks in the “second modernity” found much approval: Because the risk – as the anticipation of a possible catastrophe – impossibility of quantifying depended be his felt extent of the definition. It could dramatized or minimized, transformed or be denied. And it must be visible, such as a hurricane, which is explained as the harbinger of global warming.
Criticism of safety laws after September 11
However, Beck was also critical of the policy, he was trying to advise: The global world risks, argued the sociologist escape the controllability. He criticized the policy sometimes staging the terror and fear of terrorism use since the attacks of 11 September 2001 to bring uninhibited safety laws and government monitoring instruments on the way.
But even with humor, catchy images and traction published Beck – occasionally with his wife and colleague Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim – a bestseller after another. In “The Normal Chaos of Love” (1990) and “distance love: life forms in the Global Age” (2011), the couple described the destruction of traditional values and commitments, as well as the consequences of individualisation
Research in Munich. London and Paris
Beck was born on May 15, 1944 in Stolp in Pomerania. After moving the family to the West he grew up with his four sisters in Hanover. After completing his studies in the fields of sociology, philosophy, psychology, and political science in Munich, he received his PhD in 1972. From 1973 to 1979 he worked as a research assistant at the University of Munich. Seven years later he completed his habilitation there in sociology.
After professorships in Münster and Bamberg, he was appointed in 1992 to the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, where he became a professor of sociology. As director of the Institute of Sociology he remained there until his retirement (2009). He also held professorships at the London School of Economics (LSE), in Cardiff and the Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme in Paris. A number of other foreign universities awarded him an honorary doctorate, also Beck has received numerous awards.
Evaluation from the ranks of the SPD
The SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel said in Berlin, with Beck lose German and European politics, especially the social democracy, a pioneer of policy and “precise analyst and valued advisor, who took up especially current social conditions and developed action orientation of scientific reflection and passed out.”
“We were all in the last thirty years, influenced by his paradigmatic concepts and theorems that stimulated not only the international research, but also the political discourse.” Gabriel added: “His criticism of the wrong answers to the crisis in Europe under the heading ‘Merkiavelli’ is all present in a special way.”
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