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Ulrich Beck
Sign in to saveGerman sociologist & scholar (1944–2015)
Ulrich Beck was a German sociologist who became influential for his ideas about modern risks and uncertainties in contemporary society. His work matters because it shaped how scholars and policymakers understand challenges like environmental threats and technological dangers that affect entire populations.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Ulrich
- Family name
- Beck
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Germany
- Place of birth
- Słupsk
- Place of death
- Munich
- Spouse
- Elisabeth Beck-Gernsheim
- Occupation
- economist
- Languages spoken
- German
- Notable work
- risk society
- Field of work
- sociology
- Image
- Beck-St-Gallen-Symposium.png
- Work location
- Munich
Show 8 more facts
- date of death
- 2015-01-01
- Commons category
- Ulrich Beck
- date of birth
- 1944-05-15
- cause of death
- myocardial infarction
- manner of death
- natural causes
- name in native language
- Ulrich Beck
- on focus list of Wikimedia project
- WikiProject Climate change
- archives at
- German Literature Archive Marbach
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Ulrich Beck ( German: [bɛk]; 15 May 1944 – 1 January 2015) was a German sociologist, and one of the most cited social scientists in the world during his lifetime. His work focused on questions of uncontrollability, ignorance and uncertainty in the modern age, and he coined the terms "risk society" and "second modernity" or "reflexive modernization". He also tried to overturn national perspectives that predominated in sociological investigations with a cosmopolitanism that acknowledges the interconnectedness of the modern world. He was a professor at LMU Munich and also held appointments at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH) in Paris, and at the London School of Economics.
Life
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ulrich Beck” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.