Reiner Grundmann (born 29 September 1955 near Freudenstadt), is Professor of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at the University of Nottingham and Director of its interdisciplinary STS Research Priority Group. He is a German sociologist and political scientist who has resided in the UK since 1997. Previous appointments include Aston University and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
Life and academic career Grundmann took his A-levels at Schelztor Gymnasium in Esslingen. He studied sociology in Berlin and received his doctorate 1989 at the European University Institute (EUI), Florence (Italy). His habilitation about environmental policy on the ozone layer challenge took place at Bielefeld University in 1998 under the auspices of Peter Weingart from the Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld. Grundmann held post-doctoral positions, at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, at the Graduate college Risk and private law at the University of Bremen, and at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne. In 1997 he took up a position at Aston University and is since 2012 at the University of Nottingham.
Grundmann's interest in the role of expertise in modern society is influenced by frameworks such as Post-normal science and Roger Pielke Jr.'s Honest broker. Both are in line with basic works in the sociology of science and technology doubting a direct influence of "certain knowledge" or "settled science" on political decision making, which is being discussed as the linear model of science policy interaction.von Storch, H., Meinke, I., Stehr, N., Ratter, B., Krauß, W., Pielke, R., Grundmann, R., Reckermann, M., & Weisse, R. (2011): Regional Climate Services illustrated with experiences from Northern Europe. Zeitschrift für Umweltpolitik und Umweltrecht, 34(1), 1-15. His work challenges widespread believes in global success or failure of environmental policy as result of scientific consensus, or as an outcome of corporate power. In contrast, he shows the relevance of transnational policy networks.
Social theory
Marxist view on ecology Grundmann started his academic career with an analysis of the legacy of Marx's theory for the understanding of environmental problems. This work was a direct product of his PhD research at the EUI in Florence, in the late 1980s under the supervision of Steven Lukes. Grundmann described ecology as being no longer confined to the realms of biology since the 1970s. The term, as it had been coined in the 1870s by Ernst Haeckel, a German biologist and monist, was about a branch of biology dealing with the interaction of organisms and their surroundings. The current use of the term started to put the interaction of pollution in a political context and was later to describe a political movement as well. The thesis was published by Oxford University Press in 1991 and a related article by Grundmann himself Available online. and an answer and review of the study by Ted Benton appeared the following year in the New Left Review. The basic approach used Hans Magnus Enzensberger's Zur Kritik der politischen ÖkologieA Contribution to the Critique of Political Ecology, the title being a pun on a famous Marx study published in 1973 in the German KursbuchHans Magnus Enzensberger (1973), Zur Kritik der politischen Ökologie', Kursbuch, 33 I It has been translated in English in Ted Benton's Greening of Marxism in the 1990s.Enzensberger, Hans Magnus (1973): A Critique of Political Ecology, in: T. Benton (Hg.), The Greening of Marxism, New York, 1996, S. 17-49.
Grundmann saw orthodox Мarxist thinking being caught between Marx's disrespect for the idiocy of rural life and his belief in a resurrection of nature. He attempted to identify problems which could be still dealt with convincingly with Marx's thought and approach. Grundmann dealt in detail with Marx and Engels' discourse on the 'domination over nature', which he claims of being of value. Grundmanns explicit advocacy of the term is exemptionalThe Political Economy of Development and Environment in Korea, A new framework for environmental analysis, Jae-Yong Chung, Richard J. Kirkby, Routledge, 25.07.2005, p. 10. and his introduction into the topic has been quoted as late as 2010 by leading Chinese scholars as being wonderful. Online as: Grundmann avoided depicting the domination as being a precondition of destruction, but allowed for interpretations as mastery or stewardship. Grundmann's defence of 'mastery over nature' as a metaphor in ecologically informed socialism was however not in line with Ted Benton's interpretation of the domination term used by Marx. Benton was positive about Grundmann cutting through a lot of sloppy thinking in the 'ecocentric' camp. He furthermore acknowledged that Grundmann's interpretation of Marx view of our relation to nature is insofar specific compared to e.g. Francis Bacon and Nietzsche, since in Marx's view that 'man should make an impact on the world'. Such mastery, according to Grundmann, would be better interpreted as in mastering a musical instrument. Grundmann concluded "that the pursuit of productivity and the development of a healthy environment need not be mutually exclusive," arguing that only specific technologies, not technology as such, lead to environmental degradation.Entry of the doctorate at Cadmus Reiner Grundmann: Marxism and Ecology Oxford, Clarendon Press/New York, Oxford University Press, 1991, Marxist introductions URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1814/24716
Whilst the book received some praise and critical attention at the time, it was published at a difficult historical juncture—after the fall of communism there was little enthusiasm for theoretical frameworks inspired by Marx. This has changed, and the forthcoming Chinese translation and recent reviews and papers about Grundmann's Marxist ecology published in China控制自然与历史唯物主义的重构——格伦德曼的生态马克思主义思想述评 Cai Huajie, Lin Meiping: Reconstruction of nature control and historical materialism:a review of Reiner Grundmann's ecological Marxist thought, Journal of Wuhan University of Science and Technology (Social Science Edition), 2010(03), in Chinese格伦德曼对马克思自然观的阐释——兼论马克思主义和生态学 Xiong Min (School of Marxism, Zhongnan University of Economics & Law, Wuhan 430073, Hubei, China) Grundmann's Interpretation of Marxist Nature-view Wuhan University Journal (2009/06)英国生态学马克思主义关于马克思的"自然极限"理论的阐释 Ni Ruihua (Zhongnan University of Economics and Law) British Eco-Marxism Interpreting Marx's Theory of Natural Limits, Conference, The National Research Base for World Marxism and Thought Trends at Fudan University, China 2010-11-18, in Chinese indicate an ongoing interest in the topic.
Sustainability and Werner Sombart In the years that followed, he moved away from social theory and started engaging with issues about environmental sustainability from the viewpoint of science and technology studies. This move was inspired by the insight of Karl Marx that technology reveals the active transformation of nature, performed by humans and their social forms of organization.'Technology reveals the active relation of man to nature, the direct process of the production of his life, and thereby it also lays bare the process of the production of the social relations of his life and of the mental conceptions that flow from these relations.' Footnote 4 in Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume 1, trans. Ben Fowkes, Penguin Classics (London, New York: Penguin Books, 1990), p. 493.
A partial return to social theory was prompted by the co-operation with Nico Stehr with whom Grundmann worked since the late 1990s. Their common work on Werner Sombart led to a re-evaluation of the legacy of this pioneering German sociologist, examining in particular his low salience in the postwar period.'Why is Werner Sombart not part of the core of classical sociologists? From fame to (near) oblivion' Journal of Classical Sociology 1 (2): 257–287. Reviewer Lutz Kaelber from the University of Vermont referred to Stehrs and Grundmanns edition of Werner Sombart's Economic Life in the Modern Age as a valuable and accessible addition to the Anglo-American literature on Werner Sombart.
Sustainability and large technical systems
The study of science and technology related issues led him to research large technical systems, which he did during his time at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) in the early 1990s. His special interest was focused on the future of automobility.Grundmann, Reiner; Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH (Ed.): Kommunikation und technische Infrastruktur: über Schienen, Straßen, Sand und Perlen. Berlin, 1993 (Schriftenreihe der Forschungsgruppe "Große technische Systeme" des Forschungsschwerpunkts Technik - Arbeit - Umwelt am Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung 93-501). URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-30922. In the mid-1990s he spent three years at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne where he studied the efforts to protect the ozone layer (see as well ozone depletion and global warming). Transnational environmental policy - reconstructing Ozone was published in German in 1999 and in 2001 in English. It challenged widespread historical accounts which tend to explain the policies either as a result of scientific consensus, or as an outcome of corporate power. In contrast, it shows the relevance of transnational policy networks. The successful Montreal Protocol is often taken as an exemplar case which serves as the model for an (so far elusive) climate treaty. Grundmann claims that several problematic lessons have been drawn from this case.(2005) Ozone and Climate: Scientific consensus and leadership, Science, Technology, and Human Values 31(1): 73-101 . The book entry quotes Jim Lovelock stating This readable book is the best treatment of the subject published so far and F.Sherwood Rowland with Stimulating and thought-provoking. Grundmann, Reiner:Transnational environmental policy: reconstructing ozone Routledge studies in science, technology, and society, , http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9781134592241_sample_543801.pdf Page ii
Science and technology Studies Grundmann contributed to Science, technology and society (STS) with books about the role of experts and the power of scientific knowledge. He sees a role of science as agenda setter in the political process but stays in line with basic STS assumptions about the failure of the linear model of science and policy interaction.Compare the discussion of Collins and Evans Roger Pielke's Honest Broker assumed with regard to climate studies, that the linear model still is overwhelmingly persistent. The assumption, that STS studies critical of the linear model would automatically translate into practice would echo the very linear model under scrutiny, In a contribution to a volume in Knowledge and Democracy in 2015 Grundmann stated that those previous scholarly critiques already converted into governments attempting to improve management of public expectations on technological risk assessments.
Role of Experts