Kurt Lüscher

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Kurt Karl Lüscher (born July 6, 1935 in Lucerne ) is a Swiss sociologist . The emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Konstanz has emerged through his work on the sociology of the family and family policy , the child , intergenerational relationships and a theory of ambivalence .

Life

The son of a gardener studied at the Universities of Basel and Bern , where he received his doctorate from Richard F. Behrendt in 1964. rer. pole. received his doctorate and then continued his education at Columbia University (New York) and Cornell University (Ithaca NY). In 1967, Lüscher completed his habilitation in sociology at the University of Bern, where he took on an associate's position. In 1969/70 he was Visiting Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . From 1971 to 2000 he held a chair for sociology at the University of Konstanz . Since his retirement he has been teaching at the University of Bern, is active in adult education and policy advice and continues his work in the field of generation analysis and the sociology of culture and knowledge. Recently, he has focused on the scope of the concept of ambivalence in different disciplines and fields of practice. This work is funded by the excellence cluster “Cultural Foundations of Integration ” at the University of Konstanz.

Lüscher has been married since 1962, has three children and lives in Bern .

Work and effect

At the beginning of Lüscher's teaching and research activities, the focus was on educational and media sociology , for example in his dissertation on the "Profession of High School Teacher" (1965). Building on this, in his habilitation thesis he developed a frame of reference for the analysis of the “process of professional socialization” (1968). When he took over a chair at the University of Konstanz, he expanded his interests in socialization to include what happened in childhood. He worked closely with the American psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner on the development of the idea of ​​an “ecology of human development” and introduced a sociological perspective into it. He was also interested in the political implications of this approach and in 1979 launched the idea of ​​a “ social policy for the child”. At the same time, he carried out studies in the field of media sociology with an equally analogous socio-ecological orientation (including 1980). He took part in the debates about the effects of television and the opportunities and problems of its privatization. In 1973 he worked as a social science expert for the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) in the so-called " Lebach case " (1975). The interdisciplinary cooperation with the law has been activated again and again since then, for example with presentations at the German Juristentag (1982, 2002).

In the 1980s Lüscher turned increasingly to the sociology of the family and family politics. In 1989 Kurt Lüscher was entrusted with the management of a research focus “Society and Family” established by the state of Baden-Württemberg . Important topics of the conceptual and empirical work were the processes of starting a family, the living conditions of the family and family socialization , the design of intergenerational relationships, the public discourse about family (family rhetoric), the justification of family policy and the relationship between family and law. The scientific advisory board of the research focus included Ludwig Liegle (Tübingen) as chairman, Urie Bronfenbrenner (Ithaca), Wolfgang Glatzer (Frankfurt am Main), Charlotte Höhn (Wiesbaden), Franz-Xaver Kaufmann (Bielefeld), Lothar Krappmann (Berlin), Reinhart Lempp (Tübingen), Ilona Ostner (Göttingen) and Ingo Richter (Berlin). Scientists who have worked closely with Lüscher and published in the course of their training include Heribert Engstler, Peter Gross , Hans Hoch, Martin Kohli , Andreas Lange, Wolfgang Lauterbach, Frank Lettke and Franz Schultheis .

The long-term scientific memberships in addition to the specialist organizations include a. the scientific advisory board at the German Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) , the Federal Coordination Commission for Family Policy, the Network Generational Relations of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW) and the "Interdisciplinary Working Group Ambivalence".

Scientific approach

Even in his early work, Lüscher addressed the dynamics of individuality and sociality, initially in the analysis of social roles. In his dissertation, he characterized the “Profession of High School Teacher” (1965) the self-image of high school teachers in the area of ​​tension between pedagogical and technical competencies and expectations. In the subsequent work on socialization, he worked closely with the American social psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner (Cornell University, Ithaca NY) to develop the idea of ​​an interdisciplinary "ecology of human development" and supplemented this sociologically with the concept of "socialization knowledge" (1976). He later continued this orientation in his work on the sociology of the family, emphasizing the relevance of a polarizing “family rhetoric” (1995). At the same time, he tried to find an analytically fruitful, non-normative, contemporary understanding of family. That is why, in his definition of family, he emphasizes the tasks of lifelong structuring of relationships between parents and children in the multi-generational network and suggests that these be seen as prior to structuring relationships between parents (2012). As a result, he broadened the horizons of the work on the analysis of "intergenerational relationships in family and society", about which he wrote a monographic textbook together with Ludwig Liegle (2010).

In the course of this work, a specific interest in the concept of ambivalence was accentuated. The associated analytical orientation has been widely received in generational research since the 1990s as an alternative to the primarily normative orientation towards the concept of “solidarity”, among other things. a. initiated by a discussion forum in the "Journal of Marriage and the Family" (2002). It developed into an internationally widely accepted research direction. The approach is also being used in practice, for example in the projects on the “Dialogue between Generations”.

The idea that the typical experiences of polar areas of tension, oscillation, the search for meanings and the ability to act ("agency") is linked to the notion of the dynamic development of personal identity is constitutive for the understanding of ambivalence proposed by Lüscher. Accordingly, dealing with ambivalences appears not only to be stressful, but also to stimulate innovative ways of thinking and behaving. Extending this perspective, Lüscher is interested in the scope of the concept of ambivalence (2011) also in other disciplines and professional fields of activity such as B. in psychology, psychotherapy, political science, theology and literary studies is used and further developed. In this context he put the idea of ​​"homo ambivalens" (2010) up for discussion. This means that people are able to experience and shape ambivalences, at the same time be able to consider this ability critically and in turn be able to assess it "ambiguously".

Overall, Lüscher's scientific orientation is characterized by a sociologically based pragmatism. This point of view - taking interdisciplinary orientations into account - is developed theoretically and empirically in the analysis of different social relationships, fields of practice and politics.

Publications (selection)

As an author:

  • 1965: The profession of high school teacher. A sociological study of the shortage of high school teachers and ways to remedy it. Bern: Haupt (dissertation).
  • 1968: The process of professional socialization. Stuttgart: Enke (habilitation thesis).
  • 1975: Jurisprudence and Sociology. Cooperation in a specific legal case. In: Friedrich Kübler (ed.): Media Effect and Media Responsibility. Materials for interdisciplinary media research. Volume 1, Baden-Baden: Nomos, pp. 81-113, 145-165.
  • 1976: Urie Bronfenbrenner's path to ecological social research. An introduction. In: Urie Bronfenbrenner : Ecological socialization research. Stuttgart: Klett, pp. 6-32.
  • 1980: Media effects from a socio-ecological point of view. Contribution to the “Scientific Discussion” of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government, January 18, 1980. In: Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Kommunikationforschung (Ed.): Media Use; Media impact. Berlin: Volker Spiess, pp. 113–122.
  • 1995: What does family mean today? Theses on family rhetoric. In: Uta Gerhardt , Stephan Hradil, Dagmar Lucke, Bernhard Nauck (eds.): Family of the future. Living conditions and way of life. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, pp. 51-65.
  • 1998, with Andreas Lange: Children and their media ecology. Munich: KoPäd.
  • 2001: Sociological approaches to the family (= Konstanz University Speeches ). Konstanz: University Press.
  • 2003, with Ludwig Liegle : Generational relationships in family and society. Konstanz: University Press.
  • 2009, with Walter Dietrich and Christoph Müller: Recognize, endure and shape ambivalences. A new interdisciplinary perspective for theological and church work. Zurich: Theological Publishing House Zurich (TVZ).
  • 2010, with others: Generations, intergenerational relationships, intergenerational politics: a trilingual compendium. Bern, Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences.
  • 2010: "Homo ambivalens": a challenge for psychotherapy and society. In: Psychotherapist. Vol. 54, H. 2, pp. 1-10.
  • 2010: ambivalence of the generations. Generational dialogues as an opportunity for personal development. In: adult education. Vol. 56, H. 1, pp. 9-13.
  • 2010: Generational Potentials - A Conceptual Approach. In: Andreas Ette, Kerstin Ruckdeschel, Rainer Unger (eds.): Conditions and potentials of intergenerational relationships. Würzburg: Ergon Verlag.
  • 2010: Generational Policy - A Perspective. In: Kurt Lüscher, Markus Zürcher (eds.): On the way to a generation politics. Bern: Switzerland. Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences.
  • 2011, with Éric D. Widmer: Les relations intergénérationelles au prisme de l'ambivalence et des configurations familiales. In: Recherches familiales. Vol. 8, pp. 49-60.
  • 2011: Ambivalence: A "Sensitizing Construct" for the Study and Practice of Intergenerational Relationships. In: Journal of Intergenerational Relationships. Vol. 9, pp. 191-206.
  • 2011: Continue writing ambivalence. In: Forum of Psychoanalysis. Journal of Clinical Theory and Practice. Vol. 27, H. 4, pp. 373-393.
  • 2012: Family Today: Diverse Practice and Ambivalence. In: Family Dynamics. Vol. 37, H. 3, pp. 212-223.

As editor:

  • 1979: Social Policy for the Child. Stuttgart: Velcro-Cotta.
  • 1988: with Franz Schultheis and Michael Wehrspaun: The “postmodern” family. Family strategies and family policy in a transitional period (= Constance contributions to social science research. Vol. 3). Konstanz: University Press.
  • 1993, with Franz Schultheis: Generational relationships in “post-modern” societies. Konstanz: University Press.
  • 1995, with Phyllis Moen and Glen H. Elder : Examining Lives in Context. Perspectives on the Ecology of Human Development. Washington: APA.
  • 1999, with Felix Thürlemann : The art of building the University of Konstanz. A picture guide. Konstanz: University Press.
  • 2004, with Karl Pillemer: Intergenerational Ambivalences. New Perspectives on Parent-Child Relations in Later Life. Amsterdam u. a .: Elsevier.

literature

  • Wilhelm Bernsdorf , Horst Knospe (ed., 1984), Internationales Soziologenlexikon. Stuttgart: Enke, p. 515.
  • Andreas Lange, Frank Lettke (2005): Appreciation. Sociology in “discovery mode”. Kurt Lüscher on his 70th birthday on July 6, 2005. In: Cologne journal for sociology and social psychology . Vol. 57, H. 4, p. 771 f.
  • Andreas Lange, Frank Lettke (2007): Generations and Families. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Who is who? 42nd edition (2003/04). P. 902.
  2. ↑ From 2000 Frank Lettke († 2007) continued the research focus “Society and Family”.
personal data
SURNAME Lüscher, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lüscher, Kurt Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Lucerne , Switzerland