Stefan Beck (social anthropologist)

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Stefan Beck (born August 13, 1960 - March 26, 2015 in Sydney ) was a German social anthropologist and folklorist . He was Professor of European Ethnology at the Humboldt University in Berlin . His scientific work is considered to pave the way for social anthropological science and technology research in German-speaking countries. Through many years of field research , he also made important contributions to the medical anthropology of Cyprus .

Life

In 1984, Stefan Beck completed a degree in administrative management in Stuttgart. He then completed a degree in empirical cultural studies and modern history at the University of Tübingen , which he completed in 1992 with a master's degree. He received his doctorate in social sciences in 1996 , also from the University of Tübingen. From 1998 to 2003 Beck was a research assistant at the Universities of Tübingen and Darmstadt as well as at the Humboldt University in Berlin . Between 1999 and 2000 he was visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley . After Beck was appointed to a junior professorship at the Institute for European Ethnology at the Humboldt University in Berlin in 2003, he became a full professor there four years later . In 2009 and 2010 he was visiting professor at Manchester University .

On March 26, 2015, Stefan Beck died unexpectedly while on vacation in Sydney. He is buried in Marbach am Neckar .

Stefan Beck was married to the cultural anthropologist Gisela Welz .

plant

After Stefan Beck initially dealt with workers ' culture , workers' movements and war memorials during his studies, his master’s thesis dealt with time experience and the handling of time in flexible shift work , for which he carried out ethnographic research at IBM .

In his doctoral studies he devoted himself to the mechanization of everyday life , which he examined historically and from the perspective of practical theory. In the resulting dissertation, dealing with technology , Beck also criticized the nostalgic perspective of folklore of the time on materiality and everyday life against the background of increasing technological developments. He opposed the, in his view, outdated technical approach to technology and technology with a research approach that was characterized by ethnographic everyday research and concepts from science and technology studies as well as practical social and cultural theory.

During his time as a research assistant and professor at the Institute for European Ethnology at the Humboldt University in Berlin, his research focus was increasingly on medical practices. Among other things, he worked on transplant and reproductive medicine , somatography , neurosciences and gerontology as well as biomedicine in general . Together with Jörg Niewöhner , he established a collaborative research group for social anthropological research in and with the life sciences at the Humboldt University in 2004 , in which numerous researches, later especially with psychiatry and in psychiatric institutions, were carried out. This research collaborative, referred to by Beck and his colleagues as a research laboratory, still exists today under a different name and with an expanded research focus. Stefan Beck worked particularly intensively with Michi Knecht , Jörg Niewöhner and Estrid Sørensen . With Jörg Niewöhner and Estrid Sørensen, he published the first German-language social anthropological introduction to science and technology studies in 2012.

From the end of the 1990s and until his death in 2015, Stefan Beck conducted intensive ethnographic field research on biomedicine and human genetics in Cyprus . He conducted on-site research on, among other things, genetic analyzes in cystic fibrosis , biobanks , disease prevention programs and organ transplants , and worked with various local scientists, patients and other stakeholders. In collaboration with specialist colleagues from his research environment both in Cyprus and in Germany, Beck repeatedly compared the local conditions and the knowledge gained with other countries in Europe. He is the author and co-author of more than twenty articles resulting from fieldwork in Cyprus.

Internationally, Stefan Beck was in contact with anthropologists Paul Rabinow , Margaret Lock , Dominic Boyer and Sharon Macdonald, among others .

effect

The scientific work of Stefan Beck is considered to pave the way for the establishment and development of social anthropological science and technology studies in German-speaking countries. He also contributed to the development of the subject of folklore towards a stronger focus as empirical cultural studies.

His many years of field research and scientific work in Cyprus are considered pioneering for the establishment of medical anthropology on the island.

Stefan Beck's methodological approach and type of analysis is called phenomenography by the researchers with whom he worked for many years . In 2019, members of the research collaborative, originally co-established by Beck, published a collection of works in memory of Beck, in which articles by him are printed and numerous ethnologists as well as social and cultural anthropologists from German-speaking and American countries comment on his work.

Fonts (selection)

Monographs

  • Postmodern times: About time experiences and time handling with flexible shift work (=  studies & materials of the Ludwig-Uhland-Institut of the University of Tübingen . No. 13 ). Tübingen Association for Folklore, Tübingen 1994, ISBN 3-925340-85-8 .
  • Dealing with technology: cultural practices and cultural studies research concepts (=  time horizons . No. 4 ). Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-05-002860-2 , doi : 10.18452 / 617 .

Essays

  • The importance of the materiality of everyday things . In: Rolf Wilhelm Brednich , Heinz Schmitt (Hrsg.): Symbols: To the meaning of the signs in the culture . Waxmann, Münster 1997, ISBN 3-89325-550-8 , pp. 175-185 .
  • Recombinant practices: work as a subject of European ethnology . In: Journal of Folklore . tape 96 , no. 2 , 2000, pp. 218–246 , doi : 10.18452 / 19537 , urn : nbn: de: kobv: 11-d-4736141 .
  • Relational materialities: Notes on the potential of actor-network theory for technology research . In: Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (ed.): Technology research: Between reflection and documentation . Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences, Bern 2004, ISBN 3-907835-48-4 , p. 176-181 .
  • Medicalizing Culture (s) or Culturalizing Medicine (s)? In: Regula Valerie Burri, Joe Dumit (Ed.): Medicine as Culture: Instrumental Practices, Technoscientific Knowledge, and New Modes of Life (=  Routledge Studies in Science, Technology and Society . No. 6 ). Routledge, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-415-95798-4 , pp. 17-33 (English).
  • Nature | Culture: Reflections on a Relational Anthropology . In: Journal of Folklore . tape 104 , no. 2 , 2008, p. 161–199 , doi : 10.18452 / 19539 , urn : nbn: de: kobv: 11-d-4736209 .
  • with Andreas Roepstorff and Jörg Niewöhner : Enculturing Brains Through Patterned Practices . In: Neural Networks . tape 23 , no. 8–9 , 2010, pp. 1051-1059 , doi : 10.1016 / j.neunet.2010.08.002 (English).
  • On the benefits of "science and technology studies" for European ethnology . In: Reinhard Johler , Max Matter , Sabine Zinn-Thomas (eds.): Mobilities: Europe in motion as a challenge for cultural analysis research . Waxmann, Münster 2011, ISBN 978-3-8309-2495-1 , pp. 333-335 .
  • Comments on material-discursive environments of knowledge work . In: Gertraud Koch , Bernd Jürgen Warneken (ed.): Knowledge work and work knowledge: On the ethnography of cognitive capitalism . Campus, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2012, ISBN 978-3-593-39783-2 , pp. 27-39 .
  • The Problem of Expertise: From Experience to Skilful Practices to Expertise - Ecological and Pragmatist Perspectives . In: European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy . tape 7 , no. 1 , 2015, p. 8–23 , doi : 10.4000 / ejpap.346 (English).
  • with Martina Klausner, Milena D. Bister, Jörg Niewöhner: Choreographies of clinical and urban everyday life: results of a collaborative ethnography with social psychiatry . In: Journal of Folklore . tape 111 , no. 2 , 2015, p. 214-235 , doi : 10.18452 / 18544 .
  • with Sebastian Peter, Alexandre Wullschleger, Lieselotte Mahler, Ingrid Munk, Manfred Zaumseil, Jörg Niewöhner, Martina Klausner, Milena Bister, Andreas Heinz: Chronicity in everyday psychiatric care: a research collaboration between social psychiatry and European ethnology . In: Journal of Psychiatry, Psychology and Psychotherapy . tape 64 , no. 1 , 2016, p. 7-18 , doi : 10.1024 / 1661-4747 / a000255 .
  • From practical theory 1.0 to 3.0. Or: how analog and digital practices should be related. In: Laboratory Anthropology of Environment | Human Relations (Ed.): After Practice: Thinking through Matter (s) and Meaning Relationally (=  Berliner Blätter . No. 81 ). tape 2 . Panama Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-938714-65-2 , pp. 9-27 .

Editorships

  • Technogenic proximity: Ethnographic studies on media use in everyday life (=  ethnographic and ethnological studies (Berliner Blätter) . No. 3 ). LIT Verlag, Münster 2000, ISBN 3-8258-5000-5 .
  • with Michi Knecht (Ed.): Body Politics - Biopolitics (=  Berliner Blätter . No. 29 ). LIT Verlag, Münster 2003.
  • with Jörg Niewöhner and Christoph Kehl (eds.): How does culture get under your skin? Emergent practices at the interface of medicine, life and social sciences (=  Embodiments / MatteRealities . No. 1 ). Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-89942-926-8 , doi : 10.14361 / 9783839409268 .
  • with Michi Knecht and Maren Klotz (eds.): Reproductive Technologies as Global Form: Ethnographies of Knowledge, Practices, and Transnational Encounters (=  Own and Foreign Worlds . No. 19 ). Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-593-39100-7 (English).
  • with Jörg Niewöhner and Estrid Sørensen (eds.): Science and Technology Studies: A social anthropological introduction (=  VerKbodyungen / MatteRealities . No. 17 ). Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-8376-2106-8 , doi : 10.14361 / transcript.9783839421062 .

literature

  • Violetta Christophidou-Anastasiadou: Eulogy for Stefan Beck, 1960–2015 . In: The Cyprus Review . tape 28 , no. 1 , 2016, p. 21–30 (English, cyprusreview.org [accessed April 3, 2020]).
  • Gisela Welz : Stefan Beck's Contribution to the Medical Anthropology of Cyprus . In: The Cyprus Review . tape 28 , no. 1 , 2016, p. 121–132 (English, cyprusreview.org [accessed April 3, 2020]).
  • Laboratory Anthropology of Environment | Human Relations (Ed.): After Practice: Thinking through Matter (s) and Meaning Relationally . 2 volumes. Panama Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-938714-64-5 and ISBN 978-3-938714-65-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Prof. Dr. Stefan Beck. In: Institute for European Ethnology at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Archived from the original on April 3, 2020 ; accessed on April 3, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Obituaries of Stefan Beck | Tagesspiegel mourning. April 12, 2015, archived from the original on April 3, 2020 ; accessed on April 3, 2020 (German).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Tanja Bogusz, Estrid Sørensen: Obituary: Stefan Beck (1960--2015) . In: EASST Review . tape 34 , no. 2 , 2015, p. 35–38 (English, easst.net [accessed on April 3, 2020]).
  4. ↑ a b Stefan Beck - Laboratory: Anthropology of Environment | Human relations. Archived from the original on April 3, 2020 ; accessed on April 3, 2020 (English).
  5. ^ A b c Costas S. Constantinou, Constantinos Phellas, Yiannis Papadakis: In Memory of Stefan Beck . In: The Cyprus Review . tape 28 , no. 1 , 2016, p. 16-19 (English, cyprusreview.org [accessed April 3, 2020]).
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g Prof. Dr. Stefan Beck: Curriculum Vitae. In: Institute for European Ethnology at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Archived from the original on April 3, 2020 ; accessed on April 3, 2020 .
  7. ↑ a b Stefan Beck, dealing with technology , p. 2
  8. ↑ Obituaries of Stefan Beck | trauer.marbacher-zeitung.de. Archived from the original on April 3, 2020 ; accessed on April 3, 2020 (German).
  9. ↑ Prof. Dr. Gisela Welz. In: Institute for Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Archived from the original on April 3, 2020 ; accessed on April 3, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Stefan Beck, Postmodern Times
  11. ↑ a b c Stefan Beck, dealing with technology
  12. ^ A b Wolfgang Kaschuba: Introduction to European Ethnology . 3. Edition. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-50462-0 , p. 234-235 .
  13. ^ A b About - Laboratory: Anthropology of Environment | Human relations. Archived from the original on April 3, 2020 ; accessed on April 3, 2020 (English).
  14. ↑ Prof. Dr. Stefan Beck: Publications. In: Institute for European Ethnology at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Archived from the original on April 3, 2020 ; accessed on April 3, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Science and Technology Studies - A Social Anthropological Introduction. Transcript Verlag, archived from the original on April 3, 2020 ; accessed on April 3, 2020 .
  16. ↑ a b c d Gisela Welz, Stefan Beck's Contribution to the Medical Anthropology of Cyprus
  17. ↑ a b c Violetta Christophidou-Anastasiadou, Eulogy for Stefan Beck, 1960–2015
  18. ↑ Jörg Niewöhner, Patrick Bieler, Maren Heibges, Martina Klausner: Phenomenography: Relational Investigations into Modes of Being-in-the-World . In: The Cyprus Review . tape 28 , no. 1 , 2016, p. 67–84 , doi : 10.18452 / 18404 (English, cyprusreview.org [accessed April 3, 2020]).
  19. ↑ Jörg Niewöhner: Phenomenography: Meaningful ethnography beyond the human scale . In: Karl Braun, Claus-Marco Dieterich, Thomas Hengartner, Bernhard Tschofen (eds.): Cultures of the senses: Approaches to the sensuality of the social world . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-8260-6339-8 , p. 78-95 .
  20. ^ Laboratory Anthropology of Environment | Human Relations, After Practice
personal data
SURNAME Beck, Stefan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ethnologist and folklorist
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1960
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 2015
Place of death Sydney