Brunkhorst, Hauke 1945-

PERSONAL:

Born October 24, 1945, in Marne, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Education: Frankfurt University, Dr. Phil., 1978.

ADDRESSES:

Office—University of Flensburg, Institute of Sociology, Auf dem Campus 1, 24943 Flensburg, Germany.

CAREER:

University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany, professor of sociology, 1982-83; University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany, professor of educational sciences, 1983-84; Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Austria, visiting professor, 1985; Frankfurt University, Frankfurt, Germany, professor of sociology, 1985-86, professor of philosophy, 1987-89, 1994-95; Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany, professor of political theory, 1990-92; University of Duisburg, Duisburg, Germany, professor of political theory, 1992-94; Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut des Wissenschaftszentrums NRW, Essen, Germany, research fellow, 1995-96; University of Flensburg, Flensburg, Germany, professor of sociology, and head, Institute of Sociology, 1997—, head of studies, master's program in European Studies, 2006—. Visiting professor, Institute for Cultural Studies, University of Aarhus, 1998, and Institute for Political Science, University of Vienna, 2002. Research Fellow, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris, France, 2005.

WRITINGS:

Praxisbezug und theoriebildung: E. Kritik D. Modells entsubjektivierter Wiss., Haag & Herchen (Frankfurt, Germany), 1978.

Theorie, Interesse, Forschungsstrategien: Probleme krit. Sozialforschung, Campus-Verlag (New York, NY), 1978.

Herbert Marcuse zur Einführung, Edition SOAK im Junius Verlag (Hamburg, Germany), 1987.

Der Intellektuelle im Land der Mandarine, Suhrkamp (Frankfurt, Germany), 1987.

Der entzauberte Intellektuelle: über die neue Beliebigkeit des Denkens, Junius (Hamburg, Germany), 1990.

Theodor W. Adorno: Dialektik Der Moderne, Piper (Munich, Germany), 1990.

(Editor, with Micha Brumlik) Gemeinschaft und Gerechtigkeit, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag (Frankfurt, Germany), 1993.

Demokratie und Differenz: egalitärer Individualismus, Fischer Taschenbuch (Frankfurt, Germany), 1994.

Solidarität unter Fremden, Fischer Taschenbuch (Frankfurt, Germany), 1997.

(Editor) Demokratischer Experimentalismus: Politik in der komplexen Gesellschaft, Suhrkamp (Frankfurt, Germany), 1998.

(Editor, with Wolfgang R. Köhler and Matthias Lutz-Bachmann) Recht auf Menschenrechte: Menschenrechte, Demokratie und Internationale Politik, Suhrkamp (Frankfurt, Germany), 1999.

(Editor, with Peter Niesen) Das Recht der Republik, Suhrkamp (Frankfurt, Germany), 1999.

Adorno and Critical Theory, University of Wales Press (Cardiff, Wales), 1999.

Hannah Arendt, C.H. Beck (Munich, Germany), 1999.

(Editor) Globalisierung und Demokratie: Wirtschaft, Recht, Medien, Suhrkamp (Frankfurt, Germany), 2000.

Solidarität: von der Bürgerfreundschaft zur globalen Rechtsgenossenschaft, Suhrkamp (Frankfurt, Germany), 2002.

(Editor, with Gerd Grötzinger und Wenzel Matiaske) Peripherie und Zentrum in der Weltgesellschaft, Hampp (Munich, Germany), 2004.

Solidarity: From Civic Friendship to a Global Legal Community, translated by Jeffrey Flynn, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

(Editor, with S. Costa) Jenseits von Zentrum und Peripherie: Zur Verfassung der fragmentierten Weltgesellschaft, Ranier Hampp Verlag (Munich, Germany), 2005.

Habermas, Reclam (Stuttgart, Germany), 2006.

(Editor, with Gerhard Beestermöller) Folter: Sicherheit zum Preis der Freiheit, Beck (Munich, Germany), 2006.

Karl Marx: Der achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte—Kommentar, Suhrkamp (Frankfurt, Germany), 2007.

(Editor, with Wenzel Matiaske, Gerd Grözinger, and M. Neves) The European Union as a Model for the Development of Mercosur? Transnational Order between Economic Efficiency and Political Legitimacy, Rainer Hampp Verlag (Munich, Germany), 2007.

(Editor, with Rüdiger Voigt) Rechts-Staat: Hans Kelsens Rechts-und Staatsverständnis, Nomos (Baden-Baden, Germany), 2008.

Editor, "Zentrum und Peripherie" series, Rainer Hampp Verlag. Consulting editor, Acta Sociologica. Member of advisory boards of Ethik und Sozialwissenschaften and Philosophy and Social Science.

SIDELIGHTS:

Hauke Brunkhorst is a political scientist and sociologist—and one of the foremost political theorists working in modern Germany. He is an internationally acclaimed scholar of the works of the postwar German critics and philosophers Theodor W. Adorno, Hannah Arendt, and Herbert Marcuse, having written studies of each of them and their works. Adorno and Marcuse, as members of the Frankfurt School of sociologists and political scientists, were particularly important in the develop- ment of the eponymous neo-Marxist school, and helped shape the ideas that guided Germany away from Nazism. Brunkhorst currently holds the posts of professor of sociology and head of the Institute of Sociology at the University of Flensburg in Flensburg, Germany, but he had previously taught at institutions across Germany, including the University of Osnabrück, the University of Mainz, Frankfurt University, the University of Duisburg, and the Free University of Berlin. Brunkhorst also taught at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna, Austria, at the Institute for Cultural Studies at the University of Aarhus, and the Institute for Political Science at the University of Vienna, and held the post of research fellow at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut des Wissenschaftszentrums NRW in Essen and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris.

Brunkhorst's own work centers on the problems and issues facing a united Europe under the European Union. One of his books, Solidarity: From Civic Friendship to a Global Legal Community, deals with the question of how to form a single community from the many different cultures and communities that historically make up Europe. Brunkhorst, according to a Tikkun reviewer, finds in his research evidence that the very people that come together to protest the "new world order" established since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 could conceivably be the nucleus of a "transnational community that could serve as the foundation for a new democratic international order." While much of the discussion about the creation of "community" has come from the conservative side of the political spectrum, Brunkhorst (by using the term "solidarity," recalling the famous Polish trade union) creates a way of speaking about the creation of a community that crosses national borders by aiming his discussion at the relationship between democracy and community. "Much of the volume," declared Ethics & International Affairs reviewer William E. Scheuerman, "examines how early Western ideas of civic friendship, as found in the republican tradition of classical antiquity, and universal brotherliness, as articulated by the Judeo-Christian tradition, constitute an indispensable backdrop to modern universalistic ideas of solidarity, as they emerge most clearly in the French Revolution." The eighteenth-century revolutionaries, in other words, changed the discussion of the role of individuals in the state from one of "children under God," equal because of their subordinate status, to one of a "band of brothers," equal because of their common origins under a common father. This concept of "brotherhood" changes the classical political dialog, allowing, for instance, the rejection of the idea (held by the ancient Greeks and Romans) that basic inequalities (like slavery) were necessary for a democracy to flourish. "The French revolutionaries maintain the universalistic impulses of the Judeo-Christian tradition," Scheuerman explained, "while breaking with an otherworldly focus that had come to dominate Christianity as it made its peace with monarchy and social inequality in the Middle Ages." "Despite its many flaws, the European Union already provides some preliminary evidence that we might achieve popular sovereignty at the supranational level," Scheuerman stated. "What we need is ‘real democratic representation’ of the interests and voices of all those affected by global policies in transnational decision-making bodies." "Brunkhorst," Scheuerman concluded, "is relatively hopeful that human rights politics can play a constructive role in furthering this agenda, notwithstanding its ambiguities and potential perils."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Ethics & International Affairs, December, 2005, William E. Scheuerman, review of Solidarity: From Civic Friendship to a Global Legal Community, p. 113.

Modern Law Review, January, 2007, Nathan Gibbs, review of Solidarity, p. 170.

Political Studies, June, 2000, Paul Graham, review of Adorno and Critical Theory, p. 589.

Tikkun, January 1, 2006, review of Solidarity, p. 81.

ONLINE

University of Flensburg Bachelor & Master European Studies Web site,http://www.iim.uni-flensburg.de/ (March 20, 2008), "Head of Study: Prof. Dr. Hauke Brunkhorst."