Cornelia Koppetsch

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Cornelia Koppetsch (2019)

Cornelia Koppetsch (born March 13, 1967 in Werdohl / Westphalia ) is a German sociologist .

Her focus areas are political sociology, inequality research and family and gender research. She teaches at the Technical University of Darmstadt . Koppetsch gained media attention with her theses on the rise of the new right-wing parties , then with the fact that at the end of 2019 two of her books were taken off the market by the publishers after allegations of plagiarism .

Life

Cornelia Koppetsch's father worked in the postal service as a deliverer, the mother is a housewife. Her sister is a Protestant pastor in Dortmund. Koppetsch went to the Bergstadt-Gymnasium in Lüdenscheid . After graduating from high school, Koppetsch began studying sociology, psychology and philosophy at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen . After completing her intermediate diploma in 1988, she moved to the University of Hamburg and graduated in psychology in 1992. Afterwards, Koppetsch was a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation until 1996 and worked on her dissertation on science at universities. A German-French comparison . In 1996, she was at Martin Kohli and Lepenies at the Free University of Berlin to Dr. phil. PhD . From 1995 to 1998 she was a research assistant at the PH Freiburg , and in 1998 she became a research assistant at the University of Lüneburg . Together with Günter Burkart, she published a study on gender relations in couple relationships in a milieu comparison ( The Illusion of Emancipation. On the reproduction of gender norms in couple relationships in a milieu comparison ). The habilitation followed in 2006 with a study on work and identity in transition: The ethos of the creative. From civil profession to the culture of the new capitalism and received the Venia Legendi for sociology.

Koppetsch held various visiting professorships, including at the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago (USA) and at the Humboldt University in Berlin . Since 2009 she has been Professor of Gender Relations, Education and Lifestyle at the Technical University of Darmstadt . Her research focuses on political sociology, middle class and inequality research, and gender research.

Various works by Koppetsch deal with the current change in lifestyle and emotional worlds in the middle class. In their opinion, insecurities and fears of decline, which have been caused by the accelerated change and globalization of Western societies, play a central role. In this context, she also deals with the contemporary escalation of ideological and political disputes.

Koppetsch is a co-founder of a milieu comparative approach in gender research that relates the persistence of traditional roles in gender relations to the effectiveness of latent gender norms. This approach does not explain gender relations through biological or anthropological differences, but assumes that there are latent correspondences between men and women with regard to the “right” manhood or womanhood. Another focus is on the change in academic occupational fields in the creative and knowledge economies.

The society of anger

content

With the study The Society of Anger. Right-wing populism in the global age , Koppetsch presented in 2019 an attempt to explain the social causes of the new right-wing parties in Europe and the USA. The rise of the new right-wing parties can therefore be traced back to an epochal upheaval: the transition from industrial modernity to global modernity, which is shaped by cultural, economic and political border openings. This change has produced winners and losers across all social milieus and has produced a socio-moral split in society that manifests itself in the political arena as a “cultural conflict”. The line of conflict runs between those who are transnational, cosmopolitan and those who struggle with the rapid disappearance of the old, nationally organized industrial modernity. According to Koppetsch, this second group sees itself as a loser and feels drawn to right-wing populists. It does not matter whether the perceived loss is of a cultural or economic nature. Among the voters of the AfD, one finds abandoned industrial workers whose professional knowledge no longer counts in the digitized knowledge society, but also representatives of the old educated middle class who suffer from dwindling cultural sovereignty. There are also former citizens of the GDR who mourn their life story as "devalued". This has become a “cross front of the losers”, heterogeneous in itself, but united by resentment against the globalized world. The opposite pole is formed by a cosmopolitan elite that benefits from globalization in both economic and cultural terms and praises openness, but which actually demarcates itself from everything else in its gentrified, urban enclaves. The book was published by Transcript- Verlag in 2019 and attracted media attention. The manuscript had previously been rejected by Suhrkamp- Verlag.

Allegations of plagiarism

In 2019 the book was nominated for the Bavarian Book Prize. After allegations of plagiarism became known, the jury withdrew its nomination before the award ceremony, to which Koppetsch had appeared. Jury member Sandra Kegel justified the decision on the basis of "pending proceedings on the allegations that certain formulations do not correspond to the scientific comment". Among other things, Koppetsch was accused of having taken over not only the term “neo-communities”, but also literal passages from his book The Society of Singularities without citing sources from the sociologist Andreas Reckwitz . 26 positions were objected to after research by the FAZ . Koppetsch admitted errors and later justified the errors with time pressure. The publisher then took the book off the market. Shortly afterwards it was announced that the first edition of the book also contained 12 passages from the book Die Republik der Angst (Rowohlt) by Frank Biess , which Transcript Verlag had known since summer 2019. After researching various media, Koppetsch's book also contains plagiarism by Herfried Münkler , Oliver Nachtwey , Klaus Kraemer , Aladin El-Mafaalani , Sighard Neckel , Wendy Brown , Zygmunt Bauman , Maurizio Bach and Slavoj Žižek, among others .

Discussion about plagiarism and the form of scientific work

media

After the plagiarism allegation became known, a lively discussion began in the media. Jochen Zenthöfer argues in the FAZ: “There is no citation style and no case law that considers the methods used by Koppetsch to be permissible. This also applies to the non-fiction genre. "Knut Cordsen says on Bayerischer Rundfunk:" In music one would probably speak of a 'mashup': an amalgamation of sentences and formulations from various other authors into a text that is then passed off as one's own . "Alexander Cammann wrote in the ZEIT:" It is about takeovers, appropriations and disguises which, for example, a professor cannot let her students get away with in seminar papers, but which are otherwise also not permitted in books. " Gustav Seibt , who already wrote the work in July 2019, however, defended the citation style on the grounds that the book was a synthesis in which summary references at the end were sufficient. Michael Angele also points out that the term “neo-communities” existed before Reckwitz. He considers the citation to be formally incorrect, but cannot identify any plagiarism intentions. Armin Nassehi considers the book to be a great scientific achievement, but the citations errors are unforgivable.

At the end of November 2019 it was reported that Koppetsch's book The Return of Conformity. Forays through the endangered center from 2013 contained plagiarism by various authors, including Hartmut Rosa and cabaret artist Vince Ebert . Campus Verlag then took the book off the market. Koppetsch's habilitation thesis The Ethos of the Creative is (as of December 2019) searched for plagiarism by VroniPlag Wiki .

Response from TU Darmstadt

At the Technical University of Darmstadt, a commission of inquiry was set up in December 2019 under the chairmanship of the philosopher Petra Gehring , which systematically pursued the "suspected scientific misconduct" in the case of Koppetsch and consolidated and continued the plagiarism checks of their various books. This came to the conclusion in August 2020 that Koppetsch's relationship to his own empiricism was also unclear according to scientific standards, as important information on the comprehensibility of his own empirical data used would be missing in the books. In the books Die Wiederkehr der Konformität and Die Gesellschaft des Zorns as well as four more recent articles by Koppetsch, the commission identified 111 plagiarism points. 49 different authors were plagiarized. It is therefore not a matter of individual citation errors, but rather of "a large number of irregularities [...] that are widely distributed over all checked texts", "good scientific practice has been seriously disregarded". Koppetsch is attested to having a "consistently unsuccessful way of working". The commission comes to the conclusion: “There remains the image of a question of the foreign authorship for years as a result of a ruthless author who defies the rules of good scientific practice.” As a result, the TU Darmstadt announced that it would initiate disciplinary proceedings against Koppetsch . The German Society for Sociology (DGS) stated that it would not initiate its own investigation and that it would follow the conclusions of the investigation commission; she also expressed her "concern" about the case.

The results of the commission caused a renewed discussion in the features section. Gustav Seibt refers in the Süddeutsche Zeitung to the peculiarity of Die Gesellschaft des Zorns . This work is not a qualification document, rather the aim was to develop an overarching thesis. He doubts that it will become worthless if the author "has used foreign knowledge and formulations for individual arguments without properly marking them". Seibt accuses the Darmstadt Commission of Inquiry of a lack of internal differentiation of “scientific practice”, but emphasizes: “It is always necessary to quote correctly.” He concludes his contribution: “But the independence of a service can also consist in putting together a new image.” Also in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, however, Felix Stephan praises the work of the commission: The "relentless [...] report now exposes its plagiarism [...] and resolutely defends scientific standards". He puts the case in a larger context: "Recently, the Spiegel journalist Claas Relotius and the Wirecard founder Markus Braun showed that impostors can only succeed in an environment whose control systems fail." Jochen also comments in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Zenthöfer appreciates the work of the commission: “The disciplinary proceedings of the TU Darmstadt against Cornelia Koppetsch sets new standards in scientific hygiene. [...] The groundbreaking justification will change the way we deal with scientific fraud [...]. "

Publications (selection)

Monographs

Editorships

Essays

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berliner with Werdohl roots explains right-wing populism , come-on.de, June 10, 2019.
  2. ^ TU Darmstadt: Prof. Dr. Cornelia Koppetsch. Professorship for gender relations, education and lifestyle
  3. ↑ Edith Kresta: Sociologist on the urban middle class: “Many leftists are fooling themselves” . In: taz . July 8, 2018 ( taz.de [accessed July 9, 2018]).
  4. ^ Adam Soboczynski: The longing for restoration. Hardly anyone explains the upheavals of our time as brilliantly as the sociologist Cornelia Koppetsch , Die Zeit , 23/2019.
  5. ↑ Jens Balzer: The lateral front of the losers . In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur , July 18, 2019.
  6. ↑ Tobias Becker: Cornelia Koppetsch and allegations of plagiarism: rise and fall of a bestselling author. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. December 6, 2019, accessed December 14, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Marie Schoess: Bayerischer Book Price: accusation of plagiarism against Koppetsch. November 7, 2019, accessed November 7, 2019 .
  8. ↑ 2019 - Bavarian Book Prize. November 7, 2019, accessed November 11, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Non-fiction bestseller: “The Society of Anger” is suspected of plagiarism . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed November 7, 2019]).
  10. ↑ a b c d e f g h Tobias Becker: Cornelia Koppetsch and allegations of plagiarism: the rise and fall of a bestselling author. In: SPIEGEL ONLINE. December 6, 2019, accessed December 14, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Sociologist Cornelia Koppetsch under suspicion of plagiarism. Retrieved November 9, 2019 .
  12. ^ Thomas Thiel: Society diagnosis with concealed sources . November 8, 2019, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed December 20, 2019]).
  13. ↑ Jochen Zenthöfer: Sociologist under pressure: University of Darmstadt investigates Koppetsch plagiarism. In: FAZ.NET , November 25, 2019.
  14. ↑ Alexander Cammann: Pending proceedings. In: The time. November 13, 2019, accessed December 20, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Knut Cordsen: Suspicion of plagiarism: Why Koppetsch quoted improperly. In: Bayerischer Rundfunk. November 10, 2019, accessed December 22, 2019 .
  16. ^ Thomas Thiel: Society diagnosis with concealed sources . November 8, 2019, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed December 20, 2019]).
  17. ↑ Jochen Zenthöfer: Analysis of Koppetsch's plagiarism: Veils and pawns sacrifices . November 8, 2019, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed December 20, 2019]).
  18. ↑ Knut Cordsen: Suspicion of plagiarism: Why Koppetsch quoted improperly. In: Bayerischer Rundfunk. November 10, 2019, accessed December 22, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Alexander Cammann: Pending proceedings. In: The time. November 13, 2019, accessed December 20, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Gustav Seibt: Transverse Fronts of Losers. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. July 1, 2019, accessed November 11, 2019 .
  21. ↑ Did Cornelia Koppetsch plagiarism? FAZ and SZ see it differently - 9punkt - The Debattenrundschau from November 9th, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Michael Angele : Two quotes for a great sociologist . In: der Freitag , issue 46/2019.
  23. ↑ Jochen Zenthöfer: Sociologist under pressure: University of Darmstadt investigates Koppetsch plagiarism . In: FAZ.net , November 25, 2019.
  24. ↑ Jochen Zenthöfer: Plagiarism in the second book: The collages of Cornelia Koppetsch . In: FAZ.net , November 21, 2019.
  25. ↑ New hardship for Cornelia Koppetsch. In: Börsenblatt. November 25, 2019, accessed December 20, 2019 .
  26. ↑ Technische Universität Darmstadt: Offense against good scientific practice. In: Press release 46/2020. August 11, 2020, accessed on August 12, 2020 .
  27. ^ Jochen Zenthöfer: Disciplinary proceedings against Cornelia Koppetsch. In: FAZ.net . August 11, 2020, accessed on August 11, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Plagiarism allegations against Prof. Dr. Cornelia Koppetsch. In: DGS website. August 14, 2020, accessed on August 17, 2020 .
  29. ↑ Gustav Seibt: The Koppetsch case. An incomplete judgment , Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 187/2020 of August 14, 2020, p. 15. Online .
  30. ↑ Felix Stephan: It's about everything. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. August 11, 2020, accessed on August 17, 2020 .
  31. ↑ Jochen Zenthöfer: Plagiarism by the dozen. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine. August 12, 2020, accessed August 17, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Koppetsch, Cornelia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Werdohl , Westphalia