Werner Rammert

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Werner Rammert (born March 24, 1949 in Oelde ) is a German sociologist .

Educational biography

Werner Rammert studied social sciences , business administration and sociology at the universities in Bochum and Bielefeld and at Northwestern University, Illinois from 1969 to 1973 . He received his diploma in sociology in 1973 from the University of Bielefeld with Peter Weingart and Niklas Luhmann . From 1975 to 1978 he worked as a research assistant at the Sociological Research Institute (SOFI) in Göttingen in the field of industrial and work sociology. He then worked as a lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University until 1984. There he was co-founder and managing director of the research center "Future of Work". Rammert received his doctorate in 1981 with Gert Schmidt and Claus Offe . The topic of his dissertation was "Social Dynamics of Technological Development". In 1988 he completed his habilitation ( venia legendi in sociology) with the subject "A Sociological Perspective on Technology" with Gert Schmidt, Peter Weingart, Burkart Lutz and Niklas Luhmann.

Teaching

Werner Rammert followed the call to the Free University of Berlin in 1993 as professor of sociology. From 1996 he was Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences and Managing Director of the Institute for Sociology. In 1999 he was appointed professor of sociology and technology research at the Technical University of Berlin .

research

Along with Hans Linde , Bernward Joerges and Karl H. Hörning, Werner Rammert is one of the protagonists of the sociology of technology in Germany. From 1982 to 1992 he was co-editor of the yearbook “Technology and Society”. He came up with a functionalist-inspired definition of technology that asserts the “functional operating scheme” against the “material artifact character”. He identifies a process of “mechanization”: “A connection of actions becomes technical because it is released from other meaningful references, such as the expectation of an answer or the sensible execution of a previously agreed process, and the combination of the detached elements is exclusively under organized from the point of view of interlocking and functioning ”. In this way he greatly expanded his understanding of technology.

As a result, he shaped the debate about the "agency" of technology significantly. Based on a criticism of the minimalist concept of action in actor-network theory , together with Ingo Schulz-Schaeffer, he developed a gradualized concept of action that also allows technical devices to be “agency”. They differentiate between three levels of action: changing influence, freedom of choice and intentionality, according to which both human actors and technical artifacts can be graded according to their respective contributions to action. This gradual understanding of action has attracted attention beyond sociology and has stimulated discussions.

A new research focus of Rammert is the phenomenon of innovation, which has shaped modern society so much that it can be called an "innovation society". Here, technical, economic and social innovations are closely interwoven. The opposite of technical innovations are not social innovations, but non-technical innovations (such as artistic, legal). Institutional innovations, for example, should be viewed as social innovations in the narrower sense.

Based on the functional differentiation of modern societies, he postulates a new type of social differentiation: fragmental differentiation. He derives this new term from Andrew Abbott's reflections on a fractal history of the discipline, but uses it analytically and socially. This is intended to capture the increasingly detailed, situational social integration across traditional functional systems (such as science, business, politics, art), which takes place in the form of practices and networks.

other activities

Werner Rammert was co-editor of the yearbook "Technology and Society" from 1982 to 1992. From 1984 to 1990 he was the managing editor of the Zeitschrift für Soziologie . From 1992 to 1997 he was chairman of the science and technology research section of the German Sociological Society . In 1999 he founded the DFG research program “ Socionics ” with others . From 2001 to 2010 he was the spokesman for the interdisciplinary research center “Technology and Society” at the TU Berlin.

Publications

  • The importance of technology for the genesis and structure of modern science . Wissenschaftsforschung - Science Studies Report 1, Bielefeld: B. Kleine-Verlag 1974 (2nd edition 1981)
  • Engineering, technology and technical intelligence in history and society. A documentation and evaluation of historical, sociological and economic research to justify social science technology research . Wissenschaftsforschung - Science Studies Report 3, Bielefeld: B. Kleine-Verlag 1975 (2nd edition 1981)
  • together with Littek, W./Wachtler, G., Introduction to Work and Industrial Sociology . Frankfurt a. M .: Campus 1982, (2nd extended edition 1983)
  • Social dynamics of technical development. Theoretical-analytical considerations on a sociology of technology using the example of "science-based industry" . Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag 1983.
  • The innovation dilemma. Technology development in the company . Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag 1988.
  • (Ed.), Computer Worlds - Everyday Worlds. How does the computer change social reality? , Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag 1990.
  • together with Böhm, W./Olscha, C./Wehner, J., On dealing with computers in everyday life. Case studies on cultivating a new technique . Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag 1991.
  • Technology from a sociological perspective. State of research - theoretical approaches - case studies. An overview . Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag 1993.
  • (Ed.), Sociology and Artificial Intelligence. Products and problems of a high technology . Frankfurt a. M .: Campus 1995.
  • (Ed.), Technology and Social Theory . Theory and Society series. Frankfurt a. M .: Campus 1998.
  • together with M. Schlese, G. Wagner, J. Wehner, R. Weingarten: Knowledge machines: Social construction of a technical medium. The example of expert systems , Frankfurt / M. 1998, ISBN 3-593-35979-0
  • Technology from a sociological perspective 2. Culture - Innovation - Virtuality , Opladen 2000, ISBN 3-531-13499-X
  • together with G. Knauthe, K. Buchenau, F. Altenhöner (eds.): Collective identities and cultural innovations. Ethnological, sociological and historical studies , Leipzig 2001, ISBN 3-935693-33-8
  • together with Schubert, C. (ed.), Technografie. On the microsociology of technology . Frankfurt a. M .: Campus 2006.
  • together with I. Schulz-Schaeffer (ed.): Can machines act? Sociological contributions to the relationship between humans and technology , Frankfurt / M. 2002, ISBN 3-593-37154-5
  • Technology - action - knowledge. On a pragmatic technical and social theory , Wiesbaden 2007
  • Technology - action - knowledge. On the pragmatic technical and social theory (2nd edition with new foreword and abstracts), Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2016.
  • together with A. Windeler, H. Knoblauch, M. Hutter (eds.), Innovationsgesellschaft heute. Perspectives, fields and cases . Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2016.
  • together with A. Windeler, H. Knoblauch, M. Hutter (eds.), Innovations Society today.

Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2017

Secondary literature

  • Valentin Janda: Werner Rammert. Against technical or social reductions , in: D. Lengersdorf, M. Wieser (ed.), Schlüsselwerke der Science & Technology Studies, Wiesbaden: Springer 2014, pp. 205–219

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Werner Rammert: Mechanization and media in social systems. Approaching a sociology of technology. In: P. Weingart (Ed.), Technology as a social process. Frankfurt am Main 1989: pp. 128–173, here: p. 134.
  2. ↑ Ibid., P. 135.
  3. ↑ Werner Rammert & Ingo Schulz-Schaeffer: Technology and action. When social action is divided between human behavior and technical processes. In: Werner Rammert & Ingo Schulz-Schaeffer (eds.): Can machines act? Sociological contributions to the relationship between humans and technology. Frankfurt / Main, New York 2002, pp. 11-64.
  4. ↑ Gunther Teubner: “Electronic agents and great apes. To expand the actor's status in law and politics ”. In: Paolo Becchi / Christoph Beat Graber (eds.): Interdisciplinary Paths in Basic Legal Research, Zurich 2007, pp. 1–30.
  5. ↑ Werner Rammert, Arnold Windeler, Hubert Knoblauch, Michael Hutter (eds.), Innovation Society Today: Perspektiven, Felder und Cases, Wiesbaden 2016.
  6. ↑ Werner Rammert: The innovations of society. In: J. Howaldt (Ed.), Social Innovation. On the way to a post-industrial innovation paradigm. Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 21-51, here p. 40.
  7. ↑ Werner Rammert: Two paradoxes of an innovation-oriented knowledge policy. Linking heterogeneous and utilizing tacit knowledge. In: W. Rammert, Technology - Action - Knowledge. To a pragmatic technical and social theory. Wiesbaden 2007, pp. 191-212; Jan-Hendrik Passoth and Werner Rammert: Fragmental Differentiation and the Practice of Innovation. How more and more fields of innovation emerge. In: Werner Rammert, Arnold Windeler, Hubert Knoblauch, Michael Hutter (eds.), Innovation Society Today: Perspektiven, Felder und Cases, Wiesbaden 2016, pp. 39–68.
  8. ↑ Andrew Abbott: Chaos of disciplines, Chicago 2001.
personal data
SURNAME Rammert, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Oelde