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== Positions and activities ==
Grundmann has contributed to three areas of research: social theory, sustainability topics,
RG started his academic career with an analysis of the legacy of Marx’s theory for the understanding of environmental problems. This work was a direct product of his PhD research which he performed at the EUI in Florence, in the late 1980s under the supervision of Steven Lukes. The thesis was published by Oxford University Press in 1991 and a related article appeared in the same year in the New Left Review. Whilst the book received some praise and critical attention at the time, it was published at a difficult historical juncture—after the fall of communism there was little appetite for theoretical frameworks inspired by Marx. In subsequent years this has changed, and the forthcoming Chinese translation indicates a growing interest in the topic.
In the years that followed, Grundmann moved away from social theory and started engaging with issues about environmental sustainability. This move was inspired by the insight of Marx that technology reveals the active transformation of nature, performed by humans and their social forms of organization.
Grundmanns believes in an important role of scientists in [[Post-normal science]] but doubts a direct influence of "certain knowledge" or "settled science" in political decision making.<ref name = RG>Grundmann [http://www.mpifg.de/pu/mpifg_book/mpifg_bd_39.pdf Technische Problemlösung, Verhandeln und umfassende Problemlösung, (eng. technical trouble shooting, negotiating and generic problem solving capability)] in Gesellschaftliche Komplexität und kollektive Handlungsfähigkeit (Societys complexity and collective ability to act), ed. Schimank, U. (2000). Frankfurt/Main: Campus, p.154-182 [http://pubman.mpdl.mpg.de/pubman/faces/viewItemFullPage.jsp;jsessionid=1F12495443EF6AC95BFF12F29F3C4829?itemId=escidoc%3A1235032%3A2&view=EXPORT book summary at the Max Planck Gesellschaft]</ref> According Grundmann, technology assessment seems to be more of a problem than a subject of research for some classical sociology approaches.<ref>see Grundmanns paper on Technology as a Problem for Systems Theory</ref>▼
The study of science and technology related issues led him to research large technical systems, which he did during his time at the WZB in Berlin in the early 1990s. His special interest was focused on the future of automobility. In the mid 1990s he spent three years at the MPI in Cologne where he studied the efforts to protect the ozone layer. This research was based on interviews with scientists, policy makers, and experts, in the USA and Germany. It was published in German in 1999 and in 2001 in English. This work is unique in its challenge to widespread historical accounts which tend to explain the success of ozone policies either as a result of scientific consensus, or as an outcome of corporate power. The successful Montreal Protocol is often taken as an exemplar case which serves as the model for an (so far elusive) climate treaty. Grundmann claims that much depends on the prospects for climate policy, if we regard the ozone case as a precedent and which lessons we wish to draw from it.
A partial return to social theory was prompted by the co-operation with Nico Stehr with whom Grundmann worked together 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 is Werner Sombart not part of the core of classical sociologists? From fame to (near) oblivion’ Journal of Classical Sociology 1 (2): 257–287 Grundmann and Nico Stehr).</ref> Together with Stehr, Grundmann published various pieces on the role of knowledge and expertise in modern societies. Two monographs in 2012 are testament to these efforts.
He examined, among other topics, the role of social sciences with regard to environmental challenges, namely the [[ozone depletion]] problem and [[climate change]]. He has provided contributions about transnational policy networks and the role of science activists and under the [[Post-politics]] inspired title "what may the sheep safely know?" referred to aspects of [[knowledge policy]] and democracy.
Over the past years he has become very interested in the media discourse on climate change, taking up an earlier interest.<ref>(2000a) ‘National elites and transnational discourses in the Balkan war: a comparison between the French, German and British establishment press’ European Journal of Communication 15 (3): 299-320 (with Sue Wright and Dennis Smith).</ref> Together with computational linguists and sociologists he has started comparative analysis of climate change reporting in various countries.
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His position have been discussed on the theoretical level in a controversy with Klaus Peter Japp about [[Niklas Luhmann]]s [[system theory]] and [[Ulrich Beck]]s [[risk society|risk sociology]] and the role of more or less activist or "happy scientists" (as in Nietzsches [[The Gay Science]]) in there.<ref>[http://www.zfs-online.org/index.php/zfs/article/viewFile/3009/2546 ZfS, Jg. 28, Heft 1 (1999) Wo steht die Risikosoziologie?] [ZfS, Jg. 28, Heft 4 (1999) [Wer hat Angst vor F. Nietzsche? Replik on Klaus-Peter Japp answer]</ref> Grundmann asks sociologists more to take actual actors in regulation processes into account.
He is a coauthor of [[The Hartwell Paper]] and togehter with [[Hans von Storch]] blogger at Klimazwiebel.<ref>[http://klimazwiebel.blogspot.de/2013/09/the-coming-crisis-of-climate-science.html Thursday, September 19, 2013, The coming crisis of climate science? by Reiner Grundmann]</ref>. He has
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Grundmanns thesis about Marxism and Ecology is still of interest, especially in Asia. He concluded "that the pursuit of productivity and the development of a healthy environment need not be mutually exclusive."<ref>[http://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/24716 Entry of the doctiorate at Cadmus]</ref>
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