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Ulrich Beck (1944-2015), one of the most creative and innovative sociologists the profession has seen, was Professor for Sociology at the Ludwig-Maximilian University Munich (LMU), British Journal of Sociology Visiting Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Professor at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH) in Paris. In 2012 Ulrich Beck received an Advanced Investigator Grant for ‘Methodological Cosmopolitanism – In the Laboratory of Climate Change’ from the European Research Council. Beck was the editor of the series ‘Edition Second Modernity’ at Suhrkamp and co-editor of the social-scientific journal ‘Soziale Welt’.
His book ‘Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity’, first published in 1986 was translated into more than 25 languages. The term ‘risk society’ coined in that book established his international reputation extending it also far beyond academic circles. Twenty years later he renewed and extended his diagnostic theory in the monograph ‘World at Risk: In Search of Lost Security’ under the banner of terrorism, climate catastrophies and financial crisis.
The ‘theory of reflexive modernization’ which Ulrich Beck developed contains three complex arguments: the theorem of world risk society, the theorem of forced individualization, and the theorem of multifaceted modernization or cosmopolitization. All three theorems are radicalized forms of a modernization dynamic which at the beginning of the 21st century, when turned against itself, is dissolving First Modernity.
In his scientific works Ulrich Beck engaged, among other things, with the themes of: (World) Risk Society and Manufactured Uncertainties, Individualisation and Social Inequality; Globalism and Globalization, Cosmopolitanism and Cosmopolitization, Methodological Nationalism and Methodological Cosmopolitanism in the Social Sciences.
Ulrich Beck published regularly about current topics in renowned national and international newspapers and magazines.
Curriculum Vitae
| 1944 | Born in Stolp/Pomerania; childhood in Hanover |
| 1961-1962 | Foreign exchange student, American Field Service (AFS); High School Diploma in Springfield, Min., USA |
| 1966 | Started university, studying Law in Freiburg; transferred to the LMU Munich after one term to study Sociology, Philosophy, Psychology and Political Science; Scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes) |
| 1972-1979 | LMU Munich, Research Fellow at the Research Centre on ‘Social Scientific Perspectives on Occupational Change, Labour Market and Work Conditions’, financed by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – DFG) |
| 1974 | 1974 Dr. Phil. in Sociology at the LMU Munich on ‘Objectivity and Normativity: The Theory-Praxis Debate in Modern German and American Sociology’ (submitted in 1972 at the University of Munich and published by Rowohlt: Reinbek near Hamburg) (summa cum laude) |
| 1979 | 1979 Habilitation at the LMU Munich on ‘Social Reality as the Product of Social Labor: Foundations for a Subject-Centered Sociology of Labor and Professions’ (submitted in 1978 at the University of Munich, unpublished) |
| 1979-1981 | Professor of Sociology at the University of Münster |
| 1980-2014 | Co-Editor of the journal ‘Soziale Welt’ |
| 1981-1992 | Professor of Sociology at the University of Bamberg |
| 1981-1988 | Founding Director of the National Research Centre ‘Uses of Social Science’, financed by the German Research Foundation (DFG) |
| 1989-1990 | Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, Essen (KWI, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut in Essen) |
| 1990-1991 | Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin) |
| 1992-2014 | Professor of Sociology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU Munich) |
| 1995-1997 | Member of the Commission for Future Questions established by the State of Bavaria and the State of Saxony |
| 1995-1997 | Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Wales College of Cardiff |
| 1997-2014 | Editor of ‘Second Modernity’, book series published by Suhrkamp |
| 1999-2009 | Founding Director of the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 536) ‘Reflexive Modernization’ at the LMU Munich, financed by the German Research Foundation (DFG) |
| 2005 | Offer of the Chair for Sociology, University Cambridge, as successor to Anthony Giddens |
| 2011 | Member of the Ethics Commission of the German Government on the evaluation of nuclear energy and its alternatives |
| 2011-2014 | Professor at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris |
| 2013-2014 | Principal Investigator of the European Research Council (ERC) project: ‘Methodological Cosmopolitanism – In the Laboratory of Climate Change’ |
Honorary Doctorates
- 2013: Sofia University St.-Kliment-Ohridski/Bulgaria
- 2013: National University of San Martín (UNSAM), Buenos Aires/Argentina
- 2011: University of Lausanne/Switzerland
- 2011: Varna Free University/Bulgaria
- 2010: University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt/Germany
- 2007: National University for Distant Education (UNED), Madrid/Spain
- 2006: University of Macerata/Italy
- 1996: University of Jyväskylä/Finland
Prizes
- 2014: Lifetime Achievement Award – For Most Distinguished Contribution to Futures Research (Research Committee on Futures Research, International Sociological Association)
- 2014: Otto von der Gablentz Prize, Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam
- 2009: “Mondi Migranti-Carige”, international prize for Migration Studies of the Universities of Milan and Genoa
- 2006: Prize for outstanding achievement awarded by the Research Institute of the Nobel Museum in Stockholm
- 2005: Schader-Prize of the Schader-Stiftung for the Humanities, Darmstadt
- 2004: Prize of the German Sociology Association (DGS)
- 1999: Cicero-Prize for public speaking
- 1999: German-British Forum Awards (with Anthony Giddens)
- 1997: Culture Prize of the City of Munich
- 1997: Prix spécial Risques – Les Echos – Paris