Reiner Grundmann: Difference between revisions

| name = Reiner Grundmann

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| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1955|09|29|df=y}}

| birth_place = [[Freudenstadt]], West Germany

| residencenationality = [[Sutton Coldfield]], England = German

| awards =

| website = {{URL|https://nottingham.academia.edu/ReinerGrundmann}}
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'''Reiner Grundmann''', (born 29 September 1955 near [[Freudenstadt]]), is Professor of [[Science and Technology Studies]] (STS) at the [[University of Nottingham]] and Director of its interdisciplinary STS Research Priority Group.<ref name="STS ">{{cite web| url=http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/sciencetechnologyandsociety/index.aspx | title=STS Priority Group | accessdateaccess-date=29 August 2014 | author=STS}}</ref> He is a German sociologist and political scientist who has resided in the UK since 1997. Previous appointments include [[Aston University]] and the [[Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies]].

Grundmann took his A-levels at Schelztor Gymnasium in [[Esslingen am Neckar|Esslingen]]. He studied sociology in Berlin and received his doctorate 1989 at the [[European University Institute]] (EUI), [[Florence]] (Italy). His habilitation about environmental policy on the [[ozone layer]] challenge took place at the [[University of Bielefeld]] in 1998 under the auspices of [[Peter Weingart]] from the [[Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld]]. Grundmann held post-doctoral positions, at the [[Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin]], at the Graduate college Risk and private law at the [[University of Bremen]], and at the [[Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies]], Cologne. In 1997 he took up a position at [[Aston University]] and is since 2012 at the [[University of Nottingham]].<ref>{{Cite web|title = Reiner Grundmann - The University of Nottingham|url = http://nottingham.ac.uk/Sociology/People/reiner.grundmann|website = nottingham.ac.uk|accessdateaccess-date = 2015-05-09}}</ref>

Grundmann's interest in the role of expertise in modern society is influenced by frameworks such as [[Post-normal science]] and [[Roger Pielke Jr.]]'s Honest broker. Both are in line with basic works in the sociology of science and technology doubting a direct influence of "certain knowledge" or "settled science" on political decision making, which is being discussed as the ''linear model of science policy interaction''.<ref name=":8">von Storch, H., Meinke, I., Stehr, N., Ratter, B., Krauß, W., Pielke, R., Grundmann, R., Reckermann, M., & Weisse, R. (2011): [http://www.hzg.de/imperia/md/content/klimabuero/publikationen/zfu_1-2011_1-15.pdf&#x20; Regional Climate Services illustrated with experiences from Northern Europe.] Zeitschrift für Umweltpolitik und Umweltrecht, 34(1), 1-15.

</ref> His work challenges widespread believes in global success or failure of environmental policy as result of scientific consensus, or as an outcome of corporate power.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal|title = Book Review Essay: Science, Politics and International Environmental Policy|journal = Global Environmental Politics|date = August 1, 2002|issn = 1526-3800|pages = 118–123|volume = 2|issue = 3|doi = 10.1162/152638002320310554|first = Judith A.|last = Layzer|s2cid = 57559809}}</ref> In contrast, he shows the relevance of transnational [[Business networking|policy networks.]]<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title = Walter Rösch: Review of Reiner Grundmann: Transnationale Umweltpolitik zum Schutz der Ozonschicht. Frankfurt a. M./New York: 1999, in: Portal für Politikwissenschaft (political science portal), http://pw-portal.de/rezension/9996-transnationale-umweltpolitik-zum-schutz-der-ozonschicht_11820, published on 01.01.2006.|url = http://www.pw-portal.de/rezension/9996-transnationale-umweltpolitik-zum-schutz-der-ozonschicht_11820|website = www.pw-portal.de|accessdateaccess-date = 2015-05-09}}</ref>

Grundmann started his academic career with an analysis of the legacy of Marx’sMarx's theory for the understanding of environmental problems. This work was a direct product of his PhD research at the EUI in Florence, in the late 1980s under the supervision of [[Steven Lukes]]. Grundmann described ecology as being no longer confined to the realms of biology since the 1970s. The term, as it had been coined in the 1870s by [[Ernst Haeckel]], a German biologist and [[monism|monist]], was about a branch of biology dealing with the interaction of organisms and their surroundings. The current use of the term started to put the interaction of pollution in a political context and was later to describe a political movement as well. The thesis was published by [[Oxford University Press]] in 1991 and a related article by Grundmann himself<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Grundmann | first = Reiner | title = The ecological challenge to Marxism | journal = [[New Left Review]] | volume = I | issue = 194 | pages = 103–120 | date = May–June 1991 | url = http://newleftreview.org/I/187/reiner-grundmann-the-ecological-challenge-to-marxism | ref = harv }} [https://www.academia.edu/161499/The_Ecological_Challenge_to_Marxism Available online.]</ref> and an answer and review of the study by Ted Benton appeared the following year in the [[New Left Review]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal | last = Benton | first = Ted | title = Ecology, socialism and the mastery of nature: a reply to Reiner Grundmann | journal = [[New Left Review]] | volume = I | issue = 194 | pages = 62–64 | date = July–August 1992 | url = http://newleftreview.org/I/194/ted-benton-ecology-socialism-and-the-mastery-of-nature-a-reply-to-reiner-grundmann | ref = harv }}</ref> The basic approach used [[Hans Magnus Enzensberger]]'s ''Zur Kritik der politischen Ökologie''<ref>[[A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy|A Contribution to the Critique of Political Ecology]], the title being a pun on a famous Marx study</ref> published in 1973 in the German [[Kursbuch]]<ref>[[Hans Magnus Enzensberger]] (1973), Zur Kritik der politischen Ökologie', Kursbuch, 33 I</ref> It has been translated in English in Ted BentonsBentonќs ''Greening of Marxism'' in the 1990s.<ref>Enzensberger, Hans Magnus (1973): A Critique of Political Ecology, in: T. Benton (Hg.), ''The Greening of Marxism'', New York, 1996, S. 17-49.</ref>

Grundmann saw orthodox marxistМarxist thinking being caught between Marx's disrespect for the ''[[The Communist Manifesto|idiocy of rural life]]'' and his belief in a resurrection of nature. He attempted to identify problems which could be still dealt with convincingly with Marx's thought and approach. Grundmann dealt in detail with Marx and Engels' discourse on the 'domination over nature’nature', which he claims of being of value. Grundmanns explicit advocacy of the term is exemptional <ref>The Political Economy of Development and Environment in Korea, A new framework for environmental analysis, Jae-Yong Chung, Richard J. Kirkby, Routledge, 25.07.2005, p. 10.</ref> and his introduction into the topic has been quoted as late as 2010 by leading Chinese Scholars as being ''wonderful.''<ref name=":2">{{citation | last = Han | first = Lixin | contribution = 'Realisation of Purpose' and 'Domination of Nature' | editor-last = Huan | editor-first = Qingzhi | title = Eco-socialism as politics: rebuilding the basis of our modern civilisation | publisher = [[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] | location = Dordrecht New York | year = 2010 | isbn = 9789048137442 | postscript = .}}

In the years that followed, he moved away from [[social theory]] and started engaging with issues about environmental [[sustainability]] from the viewpoint of [[science and technology studies]]. This move was inspired by the insight of [[Karl Marx]] that technology reveals the active transformation of nature, performed by humans and their social forms of organization.<ref>[http://readingcapitalsydney.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/chapter-15-machinery-and-large-scale-industry-sections-1-4-2/#_ftnref ‘Technology'Technology reveals the active relation of man to nature, the direct process of the production of his life, and thereby it also lays bare the process of the production of the social relations of his life and of the mental conceptions that flow from these relations.’'] Footnote 4 in Karl Marx, [[Das Kapital|Capital: A Critique of Political Economy]], Volume 1, trans. Ben Fowkes, Penguin Classics (London, New York: Penguin Books, 1990), p. 493.</ref>

A partial return to social theory was prompted by the co-operation with [[Nico Stehr]] with whom Grundmann worked since the late 1990s. Their common work on [[Werner Sombart]] led to a re-evaluation of the legacy of this pioneering German sociologist, examining in particular his low salience in the postwar period.<ref>‘Why'Why is Werner Sombart not part of the core of classical sociologists? From fame to (near) oblivion’oblivion''' Journal of Classical Sociolog''y 1 (2): 257–287.</ref> Reviewer Lutz Kaelber from the [[University of Vermont]] referred to Stehrs and Grundmanns edition of Werner Sombart's ''Economic Life in the Modern Age'' as a ''valuable and accessible addition to the Anglo-American literature on Werner Sombart.''<ref>{{Cite web|title = Book Review: Sombart, Economic Life in the Modern Age|url = http://www.cjsonline.ca/reviews/sombart.html|website = www.cjsonline.ca|accessdateaccess-date = 2015-05-09|url-status = dead|archiveurlarchive-url = https://archive.istoday/20150512162825/http://www.cjsonline.ca/reviews/sombart.html|archivedatearchive-date = 2015-05-12}}</ref>

Grundmann contributed to '''[[Science, technology and society]]''' ('''STS''') with books about the role of experts and the power of scientific knowledge. He sees a role of science as [[agenda setting|agenda setter]] in the political process but stays in line with basicebasic STS assumptions about the failure of the linear model of science and policy interaction.<ref>Compare the discussion of Collins and Evans {{citation|periodical=Social Studies of Science|title=The Third Wave of Science Studies Studies of Expertise and Experience |volume=32|issue=2 |pages=235–296 |issn=0306-3127|date= 1 April 2002 |language=Germande |doi=10.1177/0306312702032002003 |last1=Collins |first1=H.M. |last2=Evans |first2=Robert|s2cid=145135881 }}</ref> Roger Pielke's [[Honest broker|Honest Broker]] assumed with regard to climate studies, that the linear model still is overwhelmingly persistent. The assumption, that STS studies critical of the linear model would ''automatically translate into practice'' would echo the very linear model under scrutiny,<ref>{{cite web |title=Mark B. Brown: Review of The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics by Roger S. Pielke, Jr., in Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy 46:4 (2008): 485-489.|url = http://www.csus.edu/indiv/b/brownm/Brown%20-%20Review%20of%20Pielke%20-%20The%20Honest%20Broker.pdf |access-date=2015-05-12 |work=www.csus.edu}}</ref> In a contribution to a volume in ''Knowledge and Democracy'' in 2015 Grundmann stated that those previous scholarly critiques already converted into governments attempting to improve management of public expectations on technological risk assessments.<ref>{{cite web |title=Marc Brown: Review of Knowledge and Democracy: A 21st Century Perspective, edited by Nico Stehr, in Contemporary Sociology 38:5 (2009): 452-453.|url = http://www.csus.edu/indiv/b/brownm/Brown%20-%20Review%20of%20Stehr%20-%20Knowledge%20and%20Democracy.pdf |access-date=2015-05-12 |work=www.csus.edu}}</ref>

In their book on [[Expert|expert knowledge]] (English translation in 2011: ''Experts: The knowledge and power of expertise''),<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|url = http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:gdKhaofcJeMJ:https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/CJS/article/download/11599/9022+&cd=3&hl=de&ct=clnk&gl=de|title = Book Review/Compte rendu: Nico Stehr and Reiner Grundmann. Experts: The Know-ledge and Power of Expertise. Key Ideas. New York: Rout-ledge, 2011, 148 pp. $110.00 hardcover (978-0-415-60803-9)|last = Young|first = Nathan|date = 2011|journal = Canadian Journal of Sociology |volume=36 |issue=3 |doi = |pmid = |access-date = 2015-05-05}}</ref> Grundmann and Stehr develop a specific concept of expertise. Contrary to common definitions that stress the centrality of scientists as experts, expertise is defined as mediating between knowledge production and knowledge application. With the expansion of knowledge intensive professions, ever more persons move into positions of experts—for some issues, some of the time. The rise of the [[knowledge society]] leads to a proliferation of knowledge sources which has not been sufficiently acknowledged by some dominant theories of expertise. A review in the ''[[Canadian Journal of Sociology]]'' pointed out that the book was published as part of Routledge’sRoutledge's “Key"Key Ideas”Ideas" series and was among the best books in this series, which attempt to both critically review the field and present arguments that reach beyond existing works.<ref name=":0" />

''Experts: The knowledge and power of expertise'' got positive reviews e.g. in socialnet.de.<ref>Thorsten Benkel University of Passau) 10.15.2010 review of: Nico Stehr, Reiner Grundmann: Expertenwissen. Velbrück Wissenschaft (Weilerswist) 2010. In: socialnet Rezensionen, ISSN 2190-9245, http://www.socialnet.de/rezensionen/10190.php, access 09.05.2015.</ref> [[Perlentaucher]] mentioned e.g. a positive review of [[:de:Alexander Kissler|Alexander Kissler]] in [[Süddeutsche Zeitung]], stating Stehr and Grundmann would have successfully started ''to plough a new field''.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Reiner Grundmann / Nico Stehr: Expertenwissen. Die Kultur und die Macht von Experten, Beratern und Ratgebern - Perlentaucher|url = https://www.perlentaucher.de/buch/reiner-grundmann-nico-stehr/expertenwissen.html|website = www.perlentaucher.de|accessdateaccess-date = 2015-05-09}}</ref> Climate change is a prominent current case which highlights the question about knowledge and decision making. Grundmann thinks that there exists a mistaken belief that the presence of a [[scientific consensus]] will enable ambitious climate policies. He considers that a much praised study overstates the case for scientific consensus.<ref>Cook et al., [[Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature]] [http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/2/024024/article]</ref> Grundmann is in line with main STS scholars view that science hardly determines policy outcomes.<ref>{{citation |periodical=Social Studies of Science |title=The Third Wave of Science Studies Studies of Expertise and Experience |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=235–296 |issn=0306–31270306-3127|date=1 April 2002 |language=Germande |doi=10.1177/0306312702032002003 |last1=Collins |first1=H.M. |last2=Evans |first2=Robert|s2cid=145135881 }}</ref> Examples such [[acid rain]] ,<ref>Maarten A. Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process, 1995. {{ISBN|9780198293330}}</ref> [[smoking ban|smoking regulations]],<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Grundmann | first1 = Reiner | year = 2013 | title = Debunking sceptical propaganda - Book review | url = | journal = BioSocieties | volume = 8 | issue = 3| pages = 370–374 | doi = 10.1057/biosoc.2013.15 | s2cid = 145249396 }}</ref> [[ozone depleting]] substances, [[genetically modified foods]]<ref>Susan Wright, Molecular Politics: Developing American and British Regulatory Policy for Genetic Engineering, 1972-1982 (1994). {{ISBN|9780226910659}}</ref> show how cultural, economic and political issues exercised a strong influence. Conversely, the presence of an international science consensus (through the IPCC) has led to different national policies, none of which is on track to achieving the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that the [[IPCC Summary for Policymakers]] postulate as necessary.<ref>Reiner Grundmann (2005) Ozone and Climate: Scientific consensus and leadership, Science, Technology, and Human Values 31(1): 73-101.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.ipcc14.de/berichte-1/ipcc-arbeitsgruppe-3/145-arbeitsgruppe-drei-veroeffentlicht-ergebnisse|title = IPCC Working group III|last = Schwarz|first = Susanne|date = 13 April 2014|websiteaccess-date = 29 August 2014|accessdatearchive-date = 3 May 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140503190458/http://www.ipcc14.de/berichte-1/ipcc-arbeitsgruppe-3/145-arbeitsgruppe-drei-veroeffentlicht-ergebnisse|url-status = dead}}</ref>

He wrote about the legacy of the [[Climatic Research Unit email controversy]] and whether it revitalized or undermined climate science and climate policy.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = The legacy of climategate: revitalizing or undermining climate science and policy? |journal = Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change|doi=10.1002/wcc.166|volume=3|issue = 3|pages=281–288|year = 2012|last1 = Grundmann|first1 = Reiner| s2cid=142862122 |doi-access = free}}</ref> His own experiences with peer review of another paper about the issue are described in an interview with [[Hans von Storch]] on Storch's Klimazwiebel blog.<ref name="hvSint">[http://klimazwiebel.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/interview-reiner-grundmann.html Tuesday, May 29, 2012 Interview with Reiner Grundmann by Hans von Storch]</ref> According von Storch's intro, Grundmann's paper ''Climategate and The Scientific Ethos''<ref name="CSG">{{Cite journal|url = |title = Climategate and the Scientific Ethos|last = Grundmann|first = Reiner|date = 2012|journal = Science, Technology, & Human Values|volume = 38|pages = 67–93|accessdate = |doi = 10.1177/0162243911432318|pmids2cid = 146731260}}</ref> faced severe resistance from social science journals before it was published in ''[[Science, Technology, & Human Values]]''.<ref name="hvSint" />

Grundmann and Stehr had themselves a controversy in the peer reviewed literature, when they clashed with Constance Lever-Tracy about the role of sociology in climate affairs. Grundmann stated a ''politicization of climate science'' which makes [[science, technology and society]] (STS) scholars feel uncomfortable with the topic of climate change.<ref name="rgclt" /> Grundmann identifies a problematic approach of climate scientists who believe to have a prerogative to make political suggestions in the field "which society at large should take up because scientists always know best"<ref name="hvSint" /> combined with a basic lack of actual<ref name="rgclt">{{cite journal | title=Climate Change: What role for Sociology? A Response to Constance Lever-Tracy' | author=Reiner Grundmann and Nico Stehr | journal=[[Current Sociology]] | year=2010 | volume=58 | issue=6 | pages=897–910 | doi=10.1177/0011392110376031| s2cid=143371210 }}</ref> feasible solution proposals.<ref name="hvSint" /> He sees climate change as a long term issue requiring more public involvement and debate, not less<ref name="hvSint" /> and asks social scientists to study the interaction between climate and society, Lever-Tracy was more about letting the climatologists having the lead.<ref name="rgclt" />

[[Mike Hulme]] noted that Grundmann (2007) pointed out some of the problems, with the circulation of IPCC knowledge or that he suggested that improvements need to be made, for example in form of improved communication.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mikehulme.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Hulme-Mahony-PiPG.pdf|title=Climate Change: what do we know about the IPCC?|author=Mike Hulme|year=2010}}</ref> Grundmann wrote that besides the IPCC knowledge, it resulted in inaction in the United States, and that political agenda and high visibility of sceptical scientists in the media based on ‘balanced'balanced reporting’reporting' led to a bias in climate change coverage in advantage of sceptical arguments. In Germany instead, science messaging and warnings from well known scientists prevailed and resulted in climate action.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://stsclimate.soc.ku.dk/papers/grundmannclimatechangeandknowledgepolitics.pdf|title=Environmental Politics Climate Change and Knowledge Politics|journal = Environmental Politics|volume=16|issue=3|author=Reiner Grundmann|pages=414–432|year=2007|doi=10.1080/09644010701251656|url-status=dead|archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826115142/http://stsclimate.soc.ku.dk/papers/grundmannclimatechangeandknowledgepolitics.pdf|archivedatearchive-date=2014-08-26|citeseerx=10.1.1.535.4984|s2cid=153866225}}</ref>

* (1991) ''Marxism and Ecology''. Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|0198273142}}

** In Russian: Власть научного значениязнания, Aletheia Publishers, Sankt Petersburg, {{ISBN|978-5-9905769-3-3}}.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.zu.de/universitaet/presse/publikationen/stehr-macht-wiss-erkenntnisse.php|title = Publikation auf Russisch erschienen!|date = |accessdate = |website = Zeppelin university|publisher = |last = |first = }}</ref>

{{Reflist|2reflist}}

[[Category:Academic staff of Bielefeld University faculty]]