Max Haller (sociologist)

Max Haller (born March 13, 1947 in Sterzing , South Tyrol / Italy) is a sociologist with Italian and Austrian citizenship. He studied and worked in Vienna and Mannheim and taught from 1985 until his retirement in 2015 as o. Univ.-Prof. at the Karl-Franzens-University Graz. Since 1994 he has been a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences . He lives in Vienna and Graz.

Curriculum and academic activities

Brief curriculum vitae and academic background

Max Haller was born on March 13, 1947 in Sterzing (South Tyrol / Italy) as the son of the farmer Max Haller and his wife Anna, nee. Tschopfer, born. In the years 1930–39 she worked as a teacher at a so-called "catacomb school" during the time of Italian fascism. After attending elementary school in Telfes and secondary school and the academic lyceum in Brixen, he studied sociology, philosophy and psychology in Vienna. 1972–74 Haller completed post-graduate studies in sociology at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) in Vienna; 1974–1979 he was assistant and most recently head of the sociology department there. 1980–83 he worked at the University of Mannheim as an employee and deputy head of the project "Comparative analyzes of the social structure with mass data" (VASMA). 1983–84 Haller was scientific director at the Center for Surveys, Methods and Analyzes (ZUMA) in Mannheim. In 1984 he completed his habilitation in sociology at the University of Mannheim. In 1985 he was appointed full professor of sociology at the University of Graz, where he researched and taught until his retirement at the end of September 2015. Haller held several visiting professorships in Austria, Italy and the USA. From 1986 to 1989 he was President of the Austrian Society for Sociology (ÖGS) . He currently teaches at the Universities of Vienna, Salzburg, Graz, Budapest and Prague and conducts research together with sociologists at the Universities of Graz and Vienna and at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Max Haller is widowed; he was married 1977–2006 to Martha, b. Full of rooms and has three sons.

Research and Teaching

In the course of his scientific career, Haller has continuously applied for and managed large research projects. At the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna this was the study on inequality in Austria (1977–1980), in Mannheim and Graz the collaboration in the establishment and ongoing implementation of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) 1984/85, as well as (in cooperation with Sociologists in Vienna and Linz) initiated the long-term project Social Survey Austria 1985/86 (replications 1993, 2003 and 2016). Haller's research group at the University of Graz was significantly involved in the development of the ISSP: It proposed important topics and led the corresponding drafting groups (Social networks 1986, Religion 1991, National identity 1995, Leisure time and sport 2007). The Austrian working group also organized two of the annual working conferences of the ISSP project, most recently the anniversary conference in Vienna in 2009 (this resulted in the most comprehensive anthology to date on the worldwide ISSP project The International Social Survey Program 1984-2009. Charting the Globe 2009). In addition, Haller initiated smaller, more practical and application-oriented research projects, several of them within the framework of the Working Group on Social Research and Social Planning Styria ; as well as in the context of university courses and research internships, which were often combined with excursions (to Brussels, South Tyrol, Ethiopia).

Haller worked as a lecturer and visiting professor at several German (Mannheim, Heidelberg) and Austrian universities (Klagenfurt, Innsbruck, Salzburg). In 1999 he taught at the University of California, Sta. Barbara; 2003–2005 as "Professore di fama internazionale" at the University of Trento (Italy), in 2009 and 2010 at the St. Augustine University of Tanzania in Mwanza. In 2000 he gave Max Weber guest lecture at the University of Heidelberg. Most recently, Haller was visiting professor at Corvinus University Budapest and Charles University in Prague. Haller completed longer research stays at the Science Center for Social Research (WZB) in Berlin and scientific institutions in France, Czechoslovakia, Belgium and Canada. As "International Scholar of the OSI Europe Foundation" he visited the sociological institutes of the Ukrainian universities of Lviv, Kiev and Kharkov in 2006/09. He gave around 280 lectures at scientific conferences at home and abroad and on other occasions.

Professional political activities

As president of the "Austrian Society for Sociology" (1986–89), Haller organized the Austrian Sociologists' Day in Graz in 1987 on the subject of "Society at Borders. Social Structure and Social Awareness in Eastern and Western Europe". In this context he proposed the establishment of a "European Sociological Association" and headed the founding committee that was subsequently established (together with David Lane, Cambridge). In 1988 he organized (together with Wolfgang Zapf and Hans-Joachim Nowotny) the first trilateral sociology congress of the German-speaking countries in Zurich. In order to establish contacts with sociologists in Eastern Europe, he organized conferences in Cracow in 1989, in Vienna in 1998 and in Graz in 2014. In 2016, together with colleagues in Vienna, he founded the "Vienna Society for Sociology".

Max Haller was or is a member of numerous national and international sociological societies ("Austrian Society for Sociology", sections of the "German Society for Sociology", "European Sociological Association", "American Sociological Association", "International Sociological Association"). He is a member of the scientific advisory board of numerous scientific journals such as the Swiss Journal for Sociology , von Corvinus, the Journal of Sociology and Social Policy (Budapest), European Societies , the Cologne Journal for Sociology and Social Psychology , the European Sociological Review , and the Encyclopedia of Racial and Ethnic Relations , from Sociologia e Politiche Sociali (Bologna). Haller is also a member of the scientific advisory board of numerous domestic and foreign research institutions.

Awards and recognitions

• 1976 Leopold Kunschak Prize for the dissertation on women in work, family and society
• 1989 Admission to the band Aufbruch in die Internationalität as one of 30 Austrian scientists
• 1994 Corresponding member of the "Austrian Academy of Sciences"
• 2002–2003 call as "professore di fama internazionale" at the University of Trento (Italy)
• 2006 Best Paper Award from Social Indicators Research (for the article How social realations can produce life satisfaction )
• 2010 Best Publication Award for an International Scholar of the section "Global and Transnational Sociology" of the "American Sociological Association" (for the book The International Social Survey Program 1984-2009)
• 2010 Inclusion in the Dictionary of Eminent Social Scientists of the Mattei-Dogan Foundation , Paris
• 2011 honorary member of the "European Sociological Association"
• 2012 Festschrift for the 65th birthday: Crossing Borders, Shifting Boundaries. National and Transnational Identities in Europe and Beyond , Frankfurt / New York: Campus Verlag 2012 (Ed. By Franz Höllinger and Markus Hadler)

Main focus of the scientific work

Social structure, social inequality and social change

The main focus of Max Haller's scientific work is the analysis of social structure, social inequality and mobility, as well as their perception by the citizens against the background of equality orientations in Austria (Haller 1982, 1987, 1996, 2008), in South Tyrol (Haller 2016) and in a European-American comparison (Haller 1985, 1989). It is always important to him to link theoretical perspectives with empirical analyzes. Based on Max Weber, he differentiates between two different processes of reproduction of social inequality: on the one hand, through processes of social closure and class formation in the education system, on labor markets, in organizations and in collective relationships; on the other hand, through processes of social stratification, where parent-child relationships and homogamous patterns of partner choice reproduce unequal social situations over generations (Haller 1981, 1983). Both processes work against the background of social ideologues of equality and inequality, which help to determine whether people perceive inequality more critically or affirmatively.

From the beginning, Haller also dealt with the relationships between class structure or stratification and other aspects of the reproduction of inequality, such as above all ethnic-national differentiation (Haller 1993). Most recently, he wrote a comprehensive study of how ethnic differentiation and ethnically based processes of exploitation and exclusion contribute to the enormous international differences in the national structures of income distribution. The central thesis is that economic inequality depends on how ethnicity and social class interact. To this end, a typology of stratification systems is developed and it is shown that economic inequality explodes when ethnically based exploitation and social stratification coincide (Haller 2016). This question was also examined in a study on South Tyrol (Atz, Haller and Pallaver 2016/2017).

Sociology of European Integration

A second research area of ​​Max Haller is European integration. The central question of this and other work on this topic (Haller 1994, 2001, 2009) is to what extent European integration actually benefits all members of the population, as the EU repeatedly propagates. It shows that European integration is viewed very differently in different European countries and that in almost all countries there is also a considerable gap between the goals of the elites and the ideas of the citizens.

Max Haller also examined the relationship between national and European identity and the determinants of national pride in Austria and in international comparison (Haller 1996, 2006, 2014) as well as general questions of regional and supranational, economic-political integration and the role of Regions here (Haller 2011, 2014). A conference of the German-Italian Society for Sociology in Trento, organized by Haller, dealt with the topic of “Identity and Borders of Europe”, from which an extensive volume resulted (Haller 2014). In this context, the relationship between language, social and national identity from a theoretical (Haller 2009) and empirical perspective (Haller 2015; Haller and Berghammer 2018) was discussed.

International comparison: theory, methodology, exemplary analyzes

The comparison between different societies and cultures, described by René König as the methodical royal road of sociology, played a central role in Haller's research from the start. Almost all of his research topics are treated from this perspective and he has also made independent contributions to the theory and methodology of international comparison (Haller 2002; Haller and Hadler 2004/05). With the development of worldwide, representative social surveys, a milestone in comparative social research has been reached. The objection that these research programs only captured superficial, often changing attitudes was empirically investigated (and refuted) by comparing volunteering in Austria and Australia (Haller, Brandl and Gross 2009). In all comparative studies it was argued and with the help of data from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) it was shown that e.g. For example, religious, environmental and political attitudes and behaviors in a country can only be explained with reference to its specific structural and institutional features (Haller and Höllinger 2007, 2009; Haller and Troy 2003; Haller and Hadler 2008, 2011).

Sociological Theory and Sociology of Science

Haller always tries to systematically relate his empirical analyzes to relevant theoretical concepts and approaches. He wants to overcome the often lamented gap between pure theorists and theory-less empiricists in today's sociology. In the book Sociological Theory in Systematic-Critical Comparison (2003/2006) he gives a comprehensive overview of the most important theoretical paradigms of modern sociology against the background of Weber's concept of sociology as a science of reality. In a series of essays, specific theoretical problems are dealt with, such as the role of norms and values ​​(Haller 1987, 2013), the relationship between functional, causal and historical explanations (Haller 2000) and the explanatory power of rational choice theory (2001).

Haller deals with sociological topics in several papers. For example, in a study on the development of social science research in Austria (Haller, Knorr and Zilien 1981). The question of why Austria produced significantly more Nobel Prize winners in the first half of the 20th century than in the second half was also examined (Haller, B. and M. Wohinz 2002). Further topics are science as a profession and the (very one-sided) international communication patterns in sociology (Haller 2013, 2016).

Selected publications

On the area of ​​"social structure, social inequality and ethnic differentiation"

• "Marriage, Women and Social Stratification. A Theoretical Critique," American Journal of Sociology , Vol. 86, H. 4, 1981, pp. 766-795
• Class formation and social stratification in Austria (with contributions by E. Dimitz, P. Findl and P. Mitter), Frankfurt and New York: Campus Verlag, 1982
• Theory of class formation and social stratification , Frankfurt and New York: Campus Verlag, 1983
• "Patterns of Career Mobility and Structural Positions in Advanced Capitalist Societies. A Comparison of Men in Austria, France and the United States", (with W. König, P. Krause, K. Kurz), American Sociological Review , Vol. 50, No. 5, 1985, pp. 579-603

• "Social structure and stratification hierarchy in the welfare state. On the topicality of the vertical paradigm of inequality research", Zeitschrift für Soziologie , Jg. 15, H. 3, 1986, S. 167-187
• Class structures and mobility in advanced societies. A comparative analysis of the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, France and the United States of America , Frankfurt and New York: Campus Verlag, 1989
• "Social Mobility in Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. An Investigation of the Effects of Industrialization, Socialist Revolution, and National Uniqueness", (with T. Kolosi and P. Robert) in: M. Haller (ed.), Class Structure in Europe , Armonk, NY and London, 1990, pp. 153–197 (also in: International Journal of Sociology , Vol. 19, 1990, No. 4)
• "Class and Nation as Complementary and Competing Foundations of Collective Mobilization", Soziale Welt , Vol. 44, H. 1, 1993, pp. 30–51
• Ethnic Stratification and Socioeconomic Inequality around the World. The End of Exclusion and Exploitation? Ashgate, Farnham / Surrey (UK) 2016 (in collaboration with Anja Eder)
• Ethnic differentiation and social stratification in South Tyrol. Results of an empirical research project , Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag, 2016 (Ed. With Hermann Atz and Günter Pallaver)
• Higher Education in Africa. Findings and Challenges for Development, Mobility and Cooperation , Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne (UK), 2017 (Ed. With Anne Goujon and Bernadette Müller-Kmet)
• Migration and Integration - Facts or Myths? Seventeen key words put to the test, Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 2019 (Ed.)

To the area "Austrian Society"

• Values ​​and ways of life in Austria. Results of the 1986 Social Survey (Ed., With Kurt Holm), R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich / Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna, 1987
• Austria in transition. Values, ways of life and quality of life 1986 to 1993, (Ed., With K. Holm et al.), Vienna: Verlag für Geschichte und Politik / Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, 1996
• Austria at the turn of the century. Social values ​​and quality of life 1986–2004 , Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2005 (Ed., With Wolfgang Schulz and Alfred Grausgruber)
• Austrian society. Social structure and social change , Frankfurt am Main and New York: Campus Verlag 2008

To the area "National and European Identity, European Integration"

• Europe where? Economic integration, social justice and democracy , (Ed., With P. Schachner-Blazizek), Graz: Leykam Verlag, 1994
• "The dissolution and building of new nations as strategy and process between elites and people. Lessons from historical European and recent Yugoslav experience", International Review of Sociology , vol. 6, no. 2, 1996, pp. 231-247
• Toward a European Nation? Political Trends in Europe. East and West, Center and Periphery , (Eds., With R. Richter), Armonk, NY and London: ME Sharpe, 1994
• Identity and national pride of the Austrians. Social causes and functions - formation and transformation since 1945 - international comparison (ed.), Vienna, Cologne and Weimar: Böhlau, 1996
• The Making of the European Union. Contributions of the Social Sciences , Berlin, Heidelberg and New York: Springer Verlag, 2001
• "National and European Identity. A study of their meanings and interrelationships", Revue Francaise de Sociologie , vol. 47, 2006, No. 4, pp. 817–850 (with Regine Ressler)
• "Language and Identity in the Age of Globalization". In: Mohamed Cherkaoui & Peter Hamilton, eds., Raymond Boudon - a Life in Sociology. Essays in Honor of Raymond Boudon , Vol. I, Oxford: The Bardwell Press, 2009, pp. 183-196
• "The Nation State and War", in: Swiss Journal of Sociology / Swiss Journal of Sociology , 35 (1), 2009, pp. 11–30
• "Is the European Union legitimate? To what extent?", ISSJ International Social Science Journal LX (60), 2, 2009, p. 223-234
• European integration as an elite process. The end of a dream? Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, 2009 ( European Integration as an Elite Process. The Failure of a Dream? Routledge 2008)
• Identità e confini dell 'Europa / Identity and borders of Europe. Annali die Sociologia / Soziologisches Jahrbuch 18, Milano: Franco Angeli and Berlin: Duncker & Humblot , 2014 (ed.)
• "Why empires build walls. The New Iron Curtain between Africa and Europe", in: Alberto Gasparini, ed., The Walls between Conflict and Peace , Leiden / Boston: Brill 2016, pp. 98-125

To the area "International comparison: theory, methodology, empirical analyzes"

• "Kinship and social networks in modern societies: a cross-cultural comparison among seven nations" (with Franz Höllinger), European Sociological Review , vol. 6, No. 2, 1990, pp. 103-124
• "Female Employment and the Change of Gender Roles: The Conflictual Relationship between Participation and Attitudes in International Comparison", International Sociology , vol. 9, No. 1, 1994, pp. 87–112 (with Franz Höllinger)
• "Theory and method in the comparative analysis of values. Critique and Alternative to Inglehart", in: European Sociological Review , vol. 18, No. 2, 2002, pp. 139-158
• "Europe and the Arab-Islamic World. A Sociological Perspective on the Socio-cultural Differences and Mutual (Mis-) Perceptions between two Neighboring Cultural Areas", Innovation , vol. 15, No. 3, 2003, pp. 285-311
• "Is the nation state outdated? Considerations and facts about the most sensible unit or level of analysis in international comparative social research", AIAS-Informations , Vol. 23, H. 3/4, 2004/05, pp. 141–161 (with Markus Hadler )
• "How Social Relations and Structures Can Produce Life Satisfaction and Happiness. An International Comparative Analysis", Social Indicators Research , 75 (2006): 161–216 (with Markus Hadler)
• "Christian religion, society and the state in the modern world", innovation. The European Journal of Social Science Research , vol. 20, 2007, No. 2, pp. 133–156 (with Franz Höllinger and Adriana Valle-Höllinger)
• The International Social Survey Program, 1984-2009. Charting the Globe , ed., Gem. with Roger Jowell and Tom W. Smith, London and New York: Routledge, 2009
• "Global activism and nationally driven recycling: The influence of world society and national contexts on public and private environmental behavior", International Sociology , 26 (3), 2011: 315-345 (together with Markus Hadler)
• "From socialist equality to capitalist stratification: How people see ist", in: Corvinus Journal of Sociology and social policy vol. 5 (1), 2014, 1, 3–34 (with Felix Riedl)
• "Sport and social inequality - new findings from an international comparison", in: Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 67, 2015: 57–82 (with Tanja Rohrer)

To the area "Sociological Theory and Sociology of Science"

• Social science research in Austria. Production conditions and utilization relationships (with Karin Knorr and HG Zilian), Verlag für Jugend und Volk, Vienna, 1981
• Sociological theory in a systematic-critical comparison , Leverkusen: Leske + Budrich / UTB, 1st edition 1999; 2nd edition 2003
• "The Model of Science and Research Policy of the European Union in Perspective", in: The Making of the European Union. Contributions of the Social Sciences , Max Haller, ed., Berlin / Heidelberg / New York: Springer Verlag, 2000, pp. 363–392
• Careers and Contexts. Austria's Nobel Prize Winners and Scientists in Historical and International Comparison , Vienna: Passagen Verlag 2002 (with Birgit and Margot Wohinz)
• "Max Weber and Sociology Today - A Contradictory Relationship", Soziologische Revue , Vol. 33 (2010), Issue 4, pp. 459–469
• Science as a profession. Inventory - diagnoses - recommendations. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2013 (Ed.)
• "The economy - natural or social science? Philosophical and sociological considerations on an old controversy", in: Dieter Bögenhold (Ed.), Sociology of the Economic. Old and new questions , Wiesbaden: VS Springer, 2014, pp. 31–65
• "Scientific communication between universalism and national exclusivity", in: Helmut Staubmann (Ed.), Sociology in Austria - International entanglements , Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press 2016, pp. 29–65

Web link

• Page from Max Haller at the University of Graz