Michael Schumann (sociologist)

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Michael Schumann (born February 24, 1937 in Lüben ) is a German industrial sociologist and was professor of sociology at the University of Bremen from 1975 to 1985 and then until 2002 at the University of Göttingen .

Live and act

In the 1950s / 1960s he studied sociology in Frankfurt am Main with Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer . In 1960/61 he was federal chairman of the Socialist German Student Union ( SDS ). From 1962 to 1964 he was a research assistant at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main.

As a student intern in the education department of IG Metall, he worked with Hans Matthöfer , the head of the department, in the Ford campaign in the early 1960s . With this company-related trade union project, among other things, the extremely low level of organization (approx. 5 percent at the beginning of the campaign) in the Ford works in Cologne was to be improved.

In the 1960s he carried out an industrial sociological study with Horst Kern , which was published in 1970 as Industrial Work and Workers Consciousness and received far beyond the field. In the early 1980s, a follow-up study was also carried out with Horst Kern, which in 1984 was called The End of the Division of Labor ? has been published. Both studies are considered standard works of industrial sociological research. The central finding of industrial work and workers' consciousness was the polarization of qualifications among industrial workers and has significantly influenced subsequent studies. Also the one with the publication The End of the Division of Labor? The term “new production concepts” introduced into the industrial sociological discussion found a broad reception in the discipline because it called into question the Taylorist paradigm for the analysis of modern production.

In 1968 Schumann co-founded the Sociological Research Institute in Göttingen , in which he has been active since then as managing director (1969–1996), president (since 1997) or consultant and senior president (since 2011).

Fonts

  • with Horst Kern : industrial work and worker awareness. Part I + II, European Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1970, ISBN 3-434-00221-9 .
  • with Frank Gerlach and Albert Gschlössl: Using the example of the September strikes . Beginning of the working class reconstruction period? European Publishing House , Hamburg 1971, ISBN 3-434-00162-X .
  • with Horst Kern: The end of the division of labor? CH Beck, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-406-30307-2 .
  • with Volker Baethge-Kinsky, Martin Kuhlmann, Constanze Kurz, Uwe Neumann: Trend report on rationalization. Sigma, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89404-368-7 .
  • Metamorphoses of industrial work and worker consciousness. Critical industrial sociology between analysis of Taylorism and participation in shaping innovative labor policy. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2003, ISBN 3-89965-008-5 .
  • with M. Kuhlmann, F. Sanders, H.-J. Sperling: VW-Auto 5000: A new production concept. The German answer to the Toyota way? VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2006.
  • with Hartmut Meine, Hans-Jürgen Urban: Dare more economic democracy. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-89965-452-3 .
  • The century of industrial work. Sociological knowledge and outlook . Beltz Juventa, Weinheim 2013. ISBN 978-3-7799-3040-2 .

Literature about Michael Schumann

  • Oskar Negt : The unfinished business of utopia. For Michael Schumann's 80th birthday . In: Frankfurter Rundschau of February 24, 2017, p. 31.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Werner Abelshauser : After the economic miracle. The trade unionist, politician and entrepreneur Hans Matthöfer. Dietz Nachf., Bonn 2009, p. 131 ff.
  2. ^ Klaus Peter Wittemann: Ford Action. On the relationship between industrial sociology and IG Metall in the sixties. Schüren, Marburg 1994.
  3. ↑ See e.g. B. Thomas Malsch , Rüdiger Seltz (Ed.): The new production concepts on the test bench. Edition sigma, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-924859-20-5 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schumann, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German industrial sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Lüben