Prof. Dr. Hartmut Rosa - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prizewinner 2023
Sociology, University of Jena and University of Erfurt
The Leibniz Prize goes to Hartmut Rosa in recognition of his groundbreaking work in the field of normatively based critical analysis of modern societies. His contributions to the question of which social dynamics promote or hinder the possibilities of a good life are read and discussed internationally in both academia and society at large. In his study Beschleunigung. Die Veränderung der Zeitstrukturen in der Moderne (2005), which was published under the English title Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity, Rosa provides a comprehensive, philosophically grounded sociological analysis of the dynamics of acceleration through time that shape modern societies while at the same time posing enormous challenges to the individuals in these societies. Rosa also developed a theory of “world relations”: partly as a critique of capitalist structures and their impact at the level of psychology and the living environment, and in dialogue with other critical theories, this gave rise to another comprehensive theoretical assessment – the book Resonanz. Eine Soziologie der Weltbeziehung (2016), which was published under the English title Resonance. A Sociology of our Relationship to the World. Rosa is regarded far beyond Germany as one of the most important social thinkers of our time.
Hartmut Rosa has been Professor of General and Theoretical Sociology at the University of Jena since 2005 and Director of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies at the University of Erfurt since 2013. He is the spokesperson for the Collaborative Research Centre/Transregio “Structural Change of Property”. After studying political science, philosophy and German language and literature in Freiburg and at the London School of Economics, Rosa obtained a doctorate at Humboldt University in Berlin in 1997. He worked in Mannheim, Jena and at the New School for Social Research in New York before gaining his post-doctoral lecturing qualification in Jena in sociology and political science. Rosa has held visiting professorships in Paris and New York.