Ulrich Brand (political scientist)

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Ulrich Brand

Ulrich Brand (born April 15, 1967 in Mainau ) is a political scientist and has been a professor for international politics at the University of Vienna since September 2007 . He works on questions of capitalist globalization, its criticism and possibilities of political control, on international resource and environmental policy as well as on Latin America.

Life

Brand first studied business administration with a focus on tourism at the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Ravensburg . He finished his studies in 1989 with a diploma and an apprenticeship as a hotel manager. Brand then began studying political science and economics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main , which also took him to Berlin , Buenos Aires and Detroit . He also completed this course in 1996 with a diploma. In 2000 Ulrich Brand received his doctorate on the relationship between the state and non-governmental organizations in international environmental policy . Between 2001 and 2007 he worked as a research assistant in the field of "Globalization and Politics" at the University of Kassel . In 2006 he was there with the work The political form of globalization. Habilitation for social forces and institutions in an internationalized state .

He is active in the board of trustees of the Solidarity Modern Institute , in the Federal Coordination of Internationalism (BUKO) and in the scientific advisory board of Attac Germany. Since May 2011 he has been co-editor of the political-scientific monthly magazine Blätter for German and international politics .

Brand is a member of the Association for Critical Social Research as well as the Austrian Society for Political Science (ÖGPW) and the German Association for Political Science (DVPW). In the DVPW he acted as spokesman for the political economy section from 2006 to 2012. From 2012 to 2014 he was head of the Institute for Political Science at the University of Vienna, from 2011 to 2013 academic director of the master’s course in Higher Latin American Studies at the University of Vienna .

plant

Brand considers the ecological question interlinked with its prerequisites and social conditions. The prevailing public discussions often deal with excessive growth in finite space ( environmental economics ). However, there is no simple juxtaposition of nature and society, rather the appropriation of nature is always also a concrete, social relationship, which is why this ruling dispositive ( Foucault ) of the public discussion must be questioned. Brand thinks that the crisis of the modern way of life is both an ecological and a social one and that this socio-ecological crisis should be understood with a political ecology and not with a conventional view of overuse of the planet. His theoretical work is part of discussions on critical state and hegemony theory ( Antonio Gramsci , Nicos Poulantzas ), regulation theory and political ecology.

Brand deals with issues of social-ecological transformation in the multiple crisis from 2007 , such as how the Global North lives at the expense of the Global South . In structured everyday life (consumption, mobility, communication and nutrition) there is disproportionate use of the global workforce and the global resources of the emerging and developing countries, mediated by the world market.

This is from him and Markus knowledge as imperial lifestyle named, among which an imperial mode of production is understood (in resource commodities such as oil and country , but also labor) from the South extracted , consumed in the north and on the sink to be disposed of in the South . The consumption and production patterns on which this crisis is based seem difficult to politicize; on the contrary, they have become more solidified in the middle and upper classes of the north and are being defended externally. There is a rebellion, visible e.g. B. through the success of right-wing extremism (a rebellious self-submission according to Nora Räthzel ), but basic power relations remain untouched.

With imperial is meant the spatially unlimited reach and that this way of life supplants other ways of life. The concept of lifestyle extends the abstract concept of lifestyle to include everyday culture. Although this term is based on the regulation theory , it also includes everyday practices and everyday understanding according to Gramsci , since, according to him, the conditions for reproductive work are apparently becoming more and more favorable: In our society, life can still be viewed as worth living even with wage cuts. It is not the individual responsible consumer should be called here, that is too apolitical, even if this z. B. in the country often dependent on the motor vehicle.

Under the conditions of neoliberalism in the north, the costs for the reproductive work of the individual subject, i.e. the work to restore its own labor power , tend to be lower, even if, for example, through externalization (see Lessenich ) of the costs, so neoliberalism creates its own Consent, through cheaper cell phones or cheaper long-distance travel. This imperial mode of production appears hegemonic in the north, where the ecological effects are only quite mediated (extreme weather, storms), i.e. it is widely accepted and is even spreading. In contrast to the south, the consequences are even less threatening in the north.

According to Gramsci, hegemony is understood as the endeavor and the ability of the ruling class to present their own interests as those of the general public, for example with location and growth politics as an unquestionable goal. It is also important here to create counter-hegemonies in order to change the prevailing discourse of catastrophism (“It's already five before / after twelve”), which favors authoritarian , top-down solutions. Furthermore, the concept of the imperial way of life must be distinguished from a purely technologically oriented discourse ( electric car ) or from the responsible consumer ( neoclassical ), where the political act is limited to acts of purchase.

The way in which nature is appropriated can be understood with the term social relationship to nature . In the case of social needs, such as mobility, it can also be asked how the specific need for mobility can and will be served and what interests are behind it. Power and interests are written into the (also unconscious, cf. ' Habitus ') desires of the user. The imperial way of life is also status-oriented: the middle class delimits itself downwards through more consumption and serves as a model for them: this consumption spiral also drives CO 2 emissions.

One example is the use of the car and the interests of the automotive industry . The use of SUVs is also a processing of the ecological crisis, according to the motto: My children and I can get through the heavy rain safely. The focus here is on lifestyles that have already changed: In Vienna there are already more car-free households than car-owning households, so there are already tipping points . Another example of a silent rebellion is the restriction of meat consumption .

In the medium term, political ecology is not concerned with the goal of individual happiness, but with the conditions for a good life for everyone and an economy based on solidarity, oriented towards use values, which primarily does not rely on ( capitalist ) growth constraints , for example from financial markets , but rather an attractive one Focuses on a model of prosperity without an appeal to individual renunciation and consumerism . The actor here is not the state, but following an analysis of the changes made by Karl Polanyi , the diverse social movements ( care revolution , food sovereignty , right to the city, etc.).

See also

Fonts

  • Post-growth and counter-hegemony. Climate strikes and alternatives to the imperial way of life . VSA, Hamburg 2020, ISBN 978-3-96488-027-7 .
  • with Roland Atzmüller et al. (Ed.): Capitalism in Transformation. Movements and Countermovements in the 21st Century , Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 2019, ISBN 978-1-78897-423-3 .
  • together with Christoph Görg (Ed.): On the topicality of the state form. The materialistic theory of the state by Joachim Hirsch . Nomos, Baden-Baden 2018, ISBN 978-3-8487-4962-1 .
  • together with Alberto Acosta : Radical alternatives. Why you can only overcome capitalism by joining forces . Oekom, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-96238-014-4 .
  • together with Markus Wissen : Imperial way of life. On the exploitation of people and nature in times of global capitalism . Oekom, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-96006-843-3 .
  • together with Helen Schwenken and Joscha Wullweber (eds.): Analyze, criticize and change globalization. The critical science project . VSA, Hamburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-89965-724-1 .
  • Latin America's left. End of the progressive cycle? A pamphlet . VSA, Hamburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-89965-700-5 .
  • together with Roland Atzmüller, Joachim Becker, Lukas Oberndorfer, Vanessa Redak and Thomas Sablowski (eds.): Fit for the crisis? Perspectives of regulation theory . Westphalian steam boat, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-89691-925-0 .
  • together with Bettina Lösch, Benjamin Opratko and Stefan Thimmel (eds.): ABC of alternatives 2.0. VSA, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-89965-500-1 .
  • together with Isabell Radhuber and Almut Schilling-Vacaflor (eds.): Plurinational Demokration. Social and state transformation in Bolivia . Westphalian steam boat, Münster 2012, ISBN 978-3-89691-893-2 .
  • together with Michael Löwy (Ed.): Globalization et Crise Écologique. Une critique de l'économie politique par des écologistes allemands. Editions L'Harmattan, Paris 2012.
  • Post-neoliberalism ?: Current conflicts and counter-hegemonic strategies . VSA, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-89965-424-0 .
  • with Eva Hartmann and Caren Kunze (eds.): Globalization, Power and Hegemony: Perspectives of a Critical International Political Economy . Westphalian steam boat, Münster 2009, ISBN 978-3-89691-757-7 .
  • Global environmental policy and internationalization of the state: biodiversity policy from a strategic-relational perspective . Westphalian steam boat, Münster 2009, ISBN 978-3-89691-768-3 .
  • Counter-hegemony. Perspectives on strategies critical of globalization . VSA, Hamburg 2005, ISBN 3-89965-116-2 .
  • with Christoph Görg, Karin Blank, Joachim Hirsch and Markus Wissen : Post-Fordist natural conditions . Westphalian steam boat, Münster 2003, ISBN 3-89691-540-1 .
  • with Werner Raza (Ed.): Fit for Postfordism? Theoretical-political perspectives of the regulatory approach . Westphalian steam boat, Münster 2003, ISBN 3-89691-529-0 .
  • with Christoph Görg (Ed.): Myths of global environmental management. Rio + 10 and the dead ends of “sustainable development” . Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-89691-596-7 ( PDF - Objections 13).
  • with Alex Demirović , Christoph Görg and Joachim Hirsch : Non-governmental organizations in the transformation of the state . Westphalian steam boat, Münster 2001, ISBN 3-89691-493-6 .
  • with Achim Brunnengräber and Lutz Schrader : Global Governance. Alternative to neoliberal globalization? Westphalian steam boat, Münster 2000, ISBN 3-89691-471-5 ( PDF ).
  • Non-governmental organizations, the state and the ecological crisis. Contours of critical NGO research. The example of biological diversity . Westphalian steam boat, Münster 2000, ISBN 3-89691-473-1 .
  • with Ana E. Cecena (Ed.): Reflections of a Rebellion. “Chiapas” and a different understanding of politics . 2nd Edition. Westphalian steam boat, Münster 2000, ISBN 3-89691-460-X .
  • Chiapas and the International of Hope . Neuer ISP-Verlag, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-929008-34-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Big heads for big questions. In: Sheets for German and International Politics 5/11.
  2. ↑ The Viennese political scientist Ulrich Brand wants to initiate a debate about the western lifestyle. In: The Standard . November 26, 2009.
  3. ^ Members of the scientific advisory board. In: Attac. Retrieved July 13, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen: Social-ecological crisis and imperial way of life on the crisis and continuity of capitalist natural relationships , in: Reader BUKO 2013 in Meuchefitz, Wendland , pp. 13–16 (PDF)
  5. ↑ Climate change: The “good life” and its consequences In: orf.at
  6. ↑ Counter-hegemony as a strategic perspective (PDF; 596 kB) p. 51
  7. ↑ Ulrich Brand: Climate - Reorientation is necessary . In: The Friday issue 38/2019
  8. ↑ Ulrich Brand: The narrow-minded pursuit of profit ( Memento from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , July 27, 2014.
  9. ↑ Ulrich Brand: The great change towards the "green economy" . In: Die Presse, March 22, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Brand, Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German political scientist
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainau