Hermann Strasser

Hermann Strasser

Hermann Strasser (born November 28, 1941 in Altenmarkt im Pongau ) is an Austrian sociologist and publicist .

life and work

Strasser studied economics at the University of Innsbruck , graduated there in 1964 and, after studying at the Free University of Berlin , was awarded a doctorate in 1967. rer. oec. PhD (PhD supervisor: Clemens August Andreae ). In 1968 Strasser went to the USA on a Fulbright scholarship, completed postgraduate studies in sociology at Fordham University in New York City , where he received a Ph.D. in sociology (doctoral supervisor: Werner Stark ). In 1971/72 he was visiting professor at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma , Norman. From 1972 to 1977 he was a research assistant in the Sociology Department at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna. In 1976 he completed his habilitation in sociology at the University of Klagenfurt under Paul Kellermann and Friedrich Fürstenberg .

In 1977 he was offered the chair of sociology at what was then the University of Duisburg , now the University of Duisburg-Essen , Duisburg. He retired on March 1, 2007.

His teaching and research focus are: sociological theory, cultural sociology and social structure analysis (inequality, change, unemployment, drug use, deviant behavior, civic engagement).

One of Strasser's main concerns is to understand sociology as a central social science that deals with society and its parts as a group on the structural and action level. It must therefore be empirically broad, theoretically founded and generally understandable. Sociology should not see itself only as a “theater critic”, because economic activity is also based on social and cultural conditions, nor can it only become a mere “scrap usher” in order to deal with the topics of interpersonal relationships, informal groups, values ​​and social issues, which economists do not like Work on inequality.

According to him, sociology is based on three substantive pillars: sociological theory, research into social inequality and social change . His book and magazine publications range from the reasons for the differences between sociological theories (e.g. The Normative Structure of Sociology, 1976) to the question of the causes, extent and forms of social inequality (e.g. End of class society? 1990) to the connection between order and change in human society (e.g. Introduction to the Theories of Social Change, 1978).

For Strasser, people are meaningful storytellers, because people have to build their own world and uncover it with the help of language. His life-history-based experience therefore has a high level of legitimacy . In a biography , the main characters in the story take the step from contemporary to contemporary witness .

This is how Strasser established his interest in writing speeches for managers and politicians, as well as company, family and personal biographies in the 1980s . For this purpose he founded a writing workshop and called it V · E · R · B · A · L, from which a number of biography projects emerged in which he acted as a project manager and / or as an author. In addition to over 300 articles in domestic and foreign journals, he is the author or editor of more than 30 books. Last but not least, a commemorative publication on his 65th birthday, published by his long-time colleague Gerd Nollmann, documents the content and breadth of his scientific interest. He is also an irregular commentator for leading daily newspapers and interview partner for radio and television stations. In 2014 his autobiography was published, in which he spans everything from his curriculum vitae and the portraits of his companions to the political, social and economic events of his childhood and youth as well as his study, teaching and research stays in Austria, Germany and the USA his appointment to the chair at the then comprehensive university in Duisburg.

Fonts

Authorship

• The Normative Structure of Sociology (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976, port. 1978)
• Introduction to the theories of social change (Neuwied: Luchterhand, 1979, engl. 1981)
• Problems of industrial society (Stuttgart: Klett, 1985)
• End of class society? (Regensburg: Transfer-Verlag, 1990)
• Architects and engineers design their city. 100 years of the Düsseldorf Architects and Engineers Association (Düsseldorf: Richter Verlag, 1993)
• Coca's curse: On the social career of cocaine (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1994)
• Unemployed in Duisburg (Duisburg: Sokoop-Verlag, 1996)
• Modern Germany (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000)
• The Journey of the Century: The Turcks from Westphalia (Frankfurt / M. Et al .: Peter Lang Verlag, 2001)
• "This is a zoo out there and we are the tamers": Police officers in conflict with ethnic minorities and social fringe groups (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2008)
• Heads of the Ruhr: 200 years of industrial history and structural change in the light of biographies (Essen: Klartext Verlag , 2009)
• Hans Weber - dreams of life. 3. Edition. (Bühl: ikotes, 2016)
• Permit, bury! Seventeen short stories that are not just absurd (Duisburg: Gilles & Francke Verlag, 2012)
• The creation of my world: from the sitting kitchen to the chair . Autobiography. 3rd edition (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016)

Editorships

• Determinants and Controls of Scientific Development (Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1975)
• Science management: Social processes in science development (Frankfurt / New York: Campus Verlag, 1976)
• The social construction of alienation (Frankfurt / New York: Campus Verlag, 1977)
• Realizing Social Science Knowledge: The Political Realization of Social Science Knowledge and Research: Toward New Scenarios - A Symposium in Memoriam of Paul F. Lazarsfeld (Würzburg / Vienna: Physica Verlag, 1983)
• The analysis of social inequality: continuity, renewal, innovation (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1985)
• Social inequality and social policy: legitimation, effect, program (Regensburg: Transfer Verlag, 1986)
• Status Inconsistency in Modern Societies (Duisburg: Sociological Cooperative, 1986)
• Change and Strain in Social Hierarchies: Theory and Method in the Study of Status Inconsistency (New Delhi: Ajanta Books International, 1993)
• In Search of Community: Essays in Memory of Werner Stark, 1909-1985 (New York: Fordham University Press, 1993)
• It's hard to say. On the theory and empirical evidence of long-term unemployment (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1997)
• Worlds of globalization: culture and society in an unleashed world (Cologne: von Halem Verlag, 2003)
• The individualized self in modern society (Frankfurt / M .: Campus Verlag, 2004)
• Terminus America? Social science interior and exterior views (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2005)
• Believe in what Religion between the search for meaning and the struggle for culture (Essen: Klartext Verlag, 2007)
• Brunhilde Jakisch, My heart is like a young horse: poems of love affliction and heartbreak . Written and edited by Hermann Strasser (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016)

Web links

• Literature by and about Hermann Strasser in the catalog of the German National Library
• personal homepage at the University of Duisburg-Essen
• VERBAL

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Social structure and social analysis . Social science research between data, methods and concepts. Festschrift for Hermann Strasser on his 65th birthday. Edited by Gerd Nollmann. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2007. 391 S. ISBN 978-3-531-14935-6
2. ↑ So z. B. Peter Ludwig, Deutsche Babcock AG, Mast-Jägermeister AG, Turck family, Georg Dietrich, Hans Weber.
3. ↑ So Die Welt, Rheinische Post, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, WAZ .
4. ↑ Among others from DLF, WDR, NDR, BR, Radio Duisburg, Radio 7, RTL, SAT1, ORF.
5. ↑ Hermann Strasser, The Creation of My World: From the Sitting Kitchen to the Chair. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. 632 pp. ISBN 978-1-500-63025-6