Georges Friedmann

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Georges Philippe Friedmann (born May 13, 1902 in Paris , † November 15, 1977 ibid) was a French sociologist . After the Second World War, he established a sociological approach to work processes that was strongly oriented towards humanism .

During his academic career, he was mainly associated with the elite university École des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris .

Life

Friedmann attended the famous Henry IV Lycée in Paris . After graduating in chemistry, he entered the École normal supérieure , a well-known Parisian university, in 1921 . During the war he was a Marxist intellectual and sympathized with the communist party. Much of his work is devoted to the relationship between worker and machine in the industrialized societies of the first half of the 20th century. Friedmann's final resting place is in the cemetery of the municipality of Vallangoujard , Canton Pontoise , Département Val-d'Oise , near his country estate Mezieres (district of Vallangoujard).

Act

Sociologist, thought leader and mediator

His work and publications such as Le travail en miettes ( The work in pieces ) from 1956 have meant that he was often perceived as a pure sociologist who only dealt with work phenomena . It is true that since 1931 he has been intensively concerned with the problems that arose in the course of the mechanization of work . In 1946, his work, Problems of Industrial Mechanization , heralded a new era of sociology in France. Friedmann is known for this as a sociologist who dealt with work phenomena. However, his qualities as a facilitator and thought leader in sociology are often overlooked. At this point he was already known among his American colleagues and, conversely, made their work known in France. But his achievements also go beyond the sociology of work. At the beginning of the 1960s he discovered another field of activity: communication and cultural mass phenomena. At the head of the Center for Sociological Studies, he initiates and organizes a large number of studies.

Intellectual in his time

During the rise of fascism in the 1930s, Georges Friedmann, like several other intellectuals of his time, was interested in the Soviet state model . To do this, he even learned Russian. Between 1932 and 1936 he made several trips to the Soviet Union . He wrote down his observations in two publications, in which he also expressed his criticism of the regime in Moscow.

The signing of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact and the outbreak of World War II prompted him to take part in the Resistance alongside Jean Cassou . He describes his experiences in his Journal der Guerre (war diary), which was published by Gallimard in 1987, ten years after his death.

In the period after the Second World War he was one of the sympathizers of the USSR. Together with other like-minded comrades such as Vercors , Jean Cassou , André Chamson , he was one of the authors of L'Heure du choix , which was written in 1946 and published in 1947. The content of this publication can be summed up in one sentence: " The Soviet Union is not a good example, but a good model. "

philosopher

Georges Friedmann, a philosopher by profession, took care throughout his life to maintain the connections between sociology and occidental philosophy. He was enthusiastic about Leibniz and Spinoza . He laid down his reflections on the moral and philosophical order and the future of the technological society in 1970 in his book La puissance et la sagesse ("The power and wisdom").

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Homepage of the municipality of Vallangoujard

literature

  • Georges Friedmann: Problèmes humains du machinisme industriel , Paris (Gallimard) 1946. (German: Man in mechanized production , Cologne (Bund) 1952)
  • Georges Friedmann: Où va le travail humain? , Paris (Gallimard) 1950. (German: The future of work , Cologne (Bund) 1953)
  • Georges Friedmann: Le travail en miettes , Paris (Gallimard) 1956. (German: Limits of the division of labor , Frankfurt a. M. (EVA) 1959)
  • Georges Friedmann: Leibniz et Spinoza , Paris (Gallimard) 1962.
  • Georges Friedmann: La fin du peuple juif? , Paris (Gallimard) 1965. (German: The end of the Jewish people?, Reinbek (Rowohlt) 1968)
  • Pierre Grémion and Françoise Loison: Georges Friedmann. A sociologue dans le siècle. 1902-1977 , Paris (CNRS) 2004. ISBN 2-271-06234-9

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Friedmann, Georges
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Friedmann, Georges Philippe (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French sociologist and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH November 15, 1977
Place of death Paris