Content deleted Content added
RGrundmann (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
RGrundmann (talk | contribs) No edit summary |
||
Line 28:
Grundmann has contributed to three areas of research: social theory, sustainability topics, and the relation between knowledge and decision making. In most of his work he uses a comparative methodology. He received research grants on topics such as urban habitat sustainability (most recently from the [[Leverhulme Trust]]), climate change reporting in the media, the ozone controversy in science and society, and the future of the automobile.
Grundmann 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.<ref>
In the years that followed, Grundmann moved away from social theory and started engaging with issues about environmental sustainability through the lens of science and technology studies. 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.
The study of science and technology related issues led him to research large technical systems, which he did during his time at the [[Social Science Research Center Berlin]] (WZB) in the early 1990s. His special interest was focused on the future of automobility. In the mid 1990s he spent three years at the [[Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies]] 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 several problematic lessons have been drawn from this case.<ref>[http://sth.sagepub.com/content/31/1/73.abstract]{(2005) Ozone and Climate: Scientific consensus and leadership, Science, Technology, and Human Values 31(1): 73-101.
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.
Line 38:
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 in the comparative analysis of media discourses.<ref>(
Grundmann's interest in the role of expertise in modern society is influenced by frameworks such as [[Post-normal science]] and Roger Pielke's Honest broker. While he accepts the role of science as agenda setter in the political process, he 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>
| |||