Ralf Dahrendorf

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Ralf Dahrendorf

Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, KBE, (born May 1, 1929) is a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and politician.

He was born in Hamburg, the son of Lina and the late Gustav Dahrendorf, a social democrat member of the German Parliament. He studied philosophy, classical philology and sociology at Hamburg University between 1947 and 1952, became a doctor of philosophy and classics (Dr. phil.) in 1952. He continued his academic research at London School of Economics as a Leverhulme Research Scholar in 1953-54, gaining a PhD in 1956. He was a professor of sociology in Hamburg (1957-60), Tübingen (1960-64) and Konstanz (1966-69).

From 1969 to 1970 he was a member of the German parliament for the Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party) (the German liberals), and a Parliamentary Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1970 he became a Commissioner in the European Commission in Brussels. From 1974 to 1984 he was director of the London School of Economics, when he returned to Germany to become Professor of Social Science, Konstanz University (1984-86).

1967-1970 he was Chairman of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie, resigning it when he took up his office at Brussels.

He settled in the United Kingdom in 1986, becoming a Governor of the London School of Economics, and also from 1987 to 1997 Warden of St Antony's College at the University of Oxford, succeeding the historian Sir Raymond Carr.

Having adopted British citizenship in 1988, in 1993 he was granted a life peerage and was created Baron Dahrendorf of Clare Market in the City of Westminster by Queen Elizabeth II. He sits in the House of Lords as a cross-bencher. On July 11, 2007, he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Studies.

His famous book Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society (1959) argued that Marx defined class too narrowly and in a historically-specific context. Instead of describing the fundamental differences of class in terms of property, Dahrendorf claimed that power was at the root of differences in class. Thus, society could be split up into "order takers" and "order givers".

In January 2005, he was appointed a Professor of the Research Centre for Social Research in Berlin.

[edit] See also

[edit] Works available in English

Dahrendorf, Ralf. (1959) Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
"The Modern Social Conflict". University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1988

[edit] Works available in German

Die angewandte Aufklärung: Gesellschaft u. Soziologie in Amerika. Piper, München 1962
Homo Sociologicus: ein Versuch zur Geschichte, Bedeutung und Kritik der Kategorie der sozialen Rolle. Westdeutscher Verlag, Köln/Opladen 1965
Gesellschaft und Demokratie in Deutschland. Piper, München 1965
Konflikt und Freiheit: auf dem Weg zur Dienstklassengesellschaft. Piper, München 1972, ISBN 3-492-01782-7
Pfade aus Utopia: Arbeiten zur Theorie und Methode der Soziologie. Piper, München 1974, ISBN 3-492-00401-6
Lebenschancen: Anläufe zur sozialen und politischen Theorie. Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch, Frankfurt a.M. 1979, ISBN 3-518-37059-6
Die neue Freiheit: Überleben und Gerechtigkeit in einer veränderten Welt. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a.M. 1980, ISBN 3-518-37123-1
Die Chancen der Krise: über die Zukunft des Liberalismus. DVA, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-421-06148-3
Fragmente eines neuen Liberalismus. DVA, Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3-421-06361-3
Der moderne soziale Konflikt: Essay zur Politik der Freiheit. DVA, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-421-06539-X
Die Zukunft des Wohlfahrtsstaats. Verl. Neue Kritik, Frankfurt a.M. 1996
Liberale und andere: Portraits. DVA, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-421-06669-8
Liberal und unabhängig: Gerd Bucerius und seine Zeit. Beck, München 2000, ISBN 3-406-46474-2
Über Grenzen: Lebenserinnerungen. Beck, München 2002, ISBN 3-406-49338-6
Auf der Suche nach einer neuen Ordnung: Vorlesungen zur Politik der Freiheit im 21. Jahrhundert. Beck, München 2003, ISBN 3-406-50540-6
Der Wiederbeginn der Geschichte: vom Fall der Mauer zum Krieg im Irak; Reden und Aufsätze. Beck, München 2004, ISBN 3-406-51879-6
Werner Bruns, Döring Walter (Hrsg): Der selbstbewusste Bürger. Bouvier Verlag
Engagierte Beobachter. Die Intellektuellen und die Versuchungen der Zeit, Wien: Passagen Verlag 2005.
Versuchungen der Unfreiheit. Die Intellektuellen in Zeiten der Prüfung . München 2006, ISBN 3-406-54054-6