Participants

Ulrich Beck

(1944-2015) Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics. He is considered one of today’s most outstanding sociologists in the field of studying the pernicious effects of the processes of modernisation and globalisation, including environmental problems. In his latest research he focused on working conditions in the context of global capitalism and the concept of cosmopolitanism. He coined expressions that have now become classics in sociological thought, for example “risk society”, “second modernity” and “reflexive modernisation”, concepts he developed in books such as Risk Society (published in Spanish as La sociedad del riesgo, Paidós, 1998); What is Globalization? (¿Qué es la globalización? Paidós, 1998); Democracy without Enemies (La democracia y sus enemigos, Paidós, 2000); Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and its Social and Political Consequences (La individualización: el individuo institucionalizado y sus consecuencias sociales y políticas, Paidós, 2003); Cosmopolitan Vision (La mirada cosmopolita o la guerra es la paz, Paidós, 2005); Reinventing Europe: A Cosmopolitan Vision (Reinventar Europa. Una visión cosmopolita, Breus CCCB, 2006); Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order (Modernización reflexiva. Política, tradición y estética en el orden social moderno, Paidós, 2008); The Brave New World of Work (Un nuevo mundo feliz: la precariedad del trabajo en la era de la globalización, Paidós, 2009), and others. In one of his latest essays, German Europe (published in Spanish as Una Europa alemana, Paidós, 2012) he offered a critical approach of the economic crisis and the role of Germany in the European project.  An intellectual of international renown, he regularly wrote for such publications as the dailies El País and The Guardian.

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