Richard Münch (sociologist)

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Richard Münch (born May 13, 1945 in Niefern ) is a German sociologist .

Live and act

After studying and doing a doctorate (1971) at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg , Münch completed his habilitation in 1972 at the University of Augsburg . He then accepted a position at the University of Cologne (1974–1976) and then held a full professorship at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf (1976–1995) and, since 1995, at the Otto Friedrich University in Bamberg . He made several guest residencies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In 2013, Münch retired. Since 2015 he has been Senior Professor for Social Theory and Comparative Macrosociology at the Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen .

Münch's main areas of work are sociological theory, historical-comparative sociology and sociological diagnosis of the present.

Building on Talcott Parsons

Münch was initially a relatively orthodox representative of the structural functionalism founded by Talcott Parsons and his systems theory . He made a decisive contribution to defending Parsons' “ grand theory ” in Germany both against the competition of actor-centered approaches ( symbolic interactionism , theory of rational decision ) and against Niklas Luhmann's system theory . Münch is considered to be the "most American" German sociologist.

In Theory of Action (1982) Münch drafts a reconstruction of the theories of Talcott Parsons as well as Émile Durkheims and Max Webers , using the AGIL scheme ( four functions paradigm ) created and modified by Parsons as a frame of reference. The central statement is that functional differentiation into autonomous systems is not a “fundamental building principle of modernity ” (according to reviewer Bernhard Giesen ), but “a secondary process whose emphasis tends to hide the integrative core of the modern order”. Parsons had been accused by critics ( symbolic interactionism , theory of rational decision ) of neglecting the micro level of individual action compared to the macro level of social norms and structures. Münch, on the other hand, emphasizes the “coexistence of individual action autonomy and social order” as the “central idea of ​​modernity”.

In Die Kultur der Moderne (1986, 2 vols.), Münch tries to show the development of modern society since the 17th century using the examples of Great Britain , the USA , France and Germany . In doing so, he assigns each of these countries a function of Talcott Parsons' AGIL scheme , which characterizes the national variety of modern culture in an ideal-typical manner. The USA is characterized in all areas of society by the dominance of the market economy and the resulting competitive thinking (market culture), France by the claim to rule of the central state (state culture), Great Britain (see gentlemen's agreement ) by a culture of compromise, Germany (see poets and thinkers ) of cultural striving for consensus (as opposed to compromise) that is as scientifically founded as possible. Münch transfers this analytical grid to various concrete problem areas, such as the analysis of differences in the environmental policy of the national societies compared.

The 'old European thinking' strikes back - criticism of Luhmann's "old German state centrism"

The fact that Münch sees the central driving force of modernity in the permanent tension between reality and his own normative claims distinguishes him significantly from Niklas Luhmann . According to Luhmann, there are no society-wide, binding values: in the economic system only solvency counts; in politics only power etc. In contrast, following Parsons, Münch emphasizes interpenetration , i.e. mutual penetration of the values ​​of the individual functional systems with the help of symbolically generalized communication media (for him money , power, reputation, cultural symbols, “values”). Luhmann emphasizes the autopoietic closedness of the systems, Münch especially the openness to the communication media of the other systems. However, the cultural system with its normative “values” remains implicit. Luhmann's criticism of normative social theories as Aristotelian, "old European thinking" rejects Münch; Luhmann's theory is rather "old German", constructed "from the point of view of the administrative lawyer" and therefore contains a "secret state centrism".

The modern age - despite and because of increasingly intensive communication an "incomplete project" (criticism of Habermas)

In the 1990s, Münch turned away from theoretical and historical sociology and focused more on empirical contemporary diagnosis. In two works on the "Communication Society" (1992, 1995) he emphasized the intensification of global communication flows and their importance for the development of modernity , the central nature of which he sees in permanent, dialectical self-criticism because of the failure to fulfill one's own promises. Unlike Jürgen Habermas , Münch sees modernity not only as an “unfinished”, but also as an “unfinished project”. Attempts to explain modernity as "realized" resulted in totalitarianism ; of Communism was such a project.

Even if Münch is closer to Habermas than Luhmann, he rejects his critical, applied system theory (“colonization of the lifeworld by the systems”), since it ultimately does not offer a theoretically secure alternative to Luhmann's affirmative system theory, nor its own “ grand theory ”. Habermas' draft of the “ ideal speech situation ” is also naive-utopian; In the unleashed communication society there is no going back to a contemplative, educated bourgeois discourse, in which only the better argument counts. At best, with this utopia in mind, one can and must try again and again to curb the “inflation of words” to which these as a symbolically generalized communication medium are subject, as is money.

At the same time, however, Münch rejects postmodern theories ; He considers it to be as resigned as social esotericism , inspired by New Age or Buddhism , which considers the attempt to reshape society according to normative aspects to have finally failed and with a laissez-faire mentality promotes retreat into inwardness .

Model of modern society: USA or a post-national Europe?

In his more recent book publications, inspired by Émile Durkheim's De la division du travail social , Münch, who until then had at least implicitly assumed that Europe was mostly behind in terms of modernity compared to American society, turned to the increasingly integrating European societies with more positive interest.

Europe now tends to appear as a place of a “more moderate” modernity , which is more able to mitigate its destructive consequences through solidarity . A reception of ideas from the criticism of globalization may also become noticeable.

According to his analysis in “The Academic Elite ”, German university policy is increasingly following the American model without having understood it. The strengths of the German university system are increasingly being destroyed; the methods used to evaluate scientific quality are questionable and are not reflected sufficiently critically. Power structures could be established which lead to funding flowing into the same channels over and over again, thus fatally strengthening existing structures.

Quotes

  • Criticism of Luhmann's systems theory : his theory “ can neither be used as a [...] description of the reality of modern societies nor as a starting point for solving their problems. The [whole] is based on a [...] confusion of analytical construction and empirical reality that was not noticed by the master himself, his interpreters and critics. One can analytically construct how economics, politics, law and science would function autopoietically . However, concrete social action is always a network of economy, politics, law and science at the same time. [...] Especially in modern society, the empirical systems (or better: fields of action) of business, politics, law and science [...] are interpenetration zones of systems that can only be separated analytically, but empirically always [...] interact ”. ( Dialectics of the communication society , p. 172 f.)

Fonts

  • 1972: Mental System and Behavior. Basics of a general theory of behavior ( dissertation ). Mohr-Siebeck , Tübingen ISBN 3-16-533292-4
  • 1973: Social theory and ideology criticism ( habilitation thesis ). Hoffmann and Campe , Hamburg ISBN 3-455-09090-7
  • 1976: Theory of Social Systems. An introduction to basic concepts, assumptions and logical structure. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen ISBN 3-531-21365-2
  • 1976: Legitimacy and Political Power. West German, Opladen ISBN 3-531-11375-5
  • 1982: Basic Sociology: Sociology of Politics . West German, Opladen ISBN 3-531-11439-5
  • 1982: Theory of Action. To reconstruct the contributions by Talcott Parsons, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber . Suhrkamp , Frankfurt ISBN 3-518-28304-9
  • 1984: The Structure of Modernity. Basic pattern and differential design of the institutional structure of modern societies . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt ISBN 3-518-28578-5
  • 1986: The culture of modernity. Vol. 1: Your foundations and their development in England and America, Vol. 2: Your development in France and Germany . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt ISBN 3-518-28679-X
  • 1991: Dialectics of the communication society . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt ISBN 3-518-28480-0
  • 1993: The Europe project. Between nation state, regional autonomy and global society . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt ISBN 3-518-28703-6
  • 1994: Sociological Theory Vol. I: From the 1850s to the 1920s, Vol. II: From the 1920s to the 1960s, Vol III: Development Since the 1960s . Nelson Hall, Chicago ISBN 0-8304-1394-4
  • 1995: Dynamics of the communication society . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt ISBN 3-518-28781-8
  • 1996: Risk Policy . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt ISBN 3-518-28842-3
  • 1998: Global dynamics, local living environments . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt ISBN 3-518-28942-X
  • 2001: Open spaces. Social integration on either side of the nation state . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt ISBN 3-518-29115-7
  • 2001: Democracy at Work. A Comparative Sociology of Environmental Regulation in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the United States. Praeger Publishers (Greenwood Press), Westport (Connecticut) (with Christian Lahusen , Markus Kurth , Cornelia Borgards, Carsten Stark and Claudia Jauß)
  • 2001: Open spaces. Social integration on either side of the nation state. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt
  • 2001: The Ethics of Modernity. Formation and Transformation in Britain, France, Germany and the United States. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham MD
  • Nation and Citizenship in the Global Age. From National to Transnational Civil Ties. Palgrave-MacMillan, London 2001
  • Sociological theory. Campus, Frankfurt
  • 2005: Fundamentals and basic categories of the state and social development of France , in Adolf Kimmel, Henrik Uterwedde, Ed .: Country Report France. History, politics, economy, society. VS Verlag 2., revised. Edition Wiesbaden ISBN 3-531-14631-9 , pp. 19–44
  • 2007: The academic elite. For the social construction of scientific excellence . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt ISBN 978-3-518-12510-6
  • 2008: The Construction of European Society. On the dialectic of transnational integration and national disintegration . Campus, Frankfurt ISBN 3-593-38651-8
  • 2009: The regime of liberal capitalism. Inclusion and exclusion in the new welfare state . Campus, Frankfurt ISBN 3-593-38894-4
  • 2009: The European Regime of Liberal Democracy. Regulation, Law and Politics in the Multilevel System . Routledge, London ISBN 978-0-415-48581-4
  • 2009: Global elites, local authorities Education and Science under the regime of PISA, McKinsey & Co . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt ISBN 978-3-518-12560-1
  • 2011: Academic Capitalism, On the Political Economy of University Reform . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt ISBN 978-3-518-12633-2
  • 2011: The Regime of Free Trade, Development and Inequality in World Society . Campus, Frankfurt ISBN 978-3-593-39521-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ also BpB ISBN 3-89331-574-8 . Again in the new edition. 2012, only from BpB, ISBN 3-8389-0264-5 , pp. 32–46
personal data
SURNAME Münch, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Niefern near Pforzheim