70 Facts About Ralf Dahrendorf

Ralf Dahrendorf wrote multiple articles and books, his most notable being Class Conflict in Industrial Society and Essays in the Theory of Society.

Ralf Dahrendorf was known in the United Kingdom as Lord Dahrendorf.

Ralf Dahrendorf served as director of the London School of Economics and Warden of St Antony's College, University of Oxford.

Ralf Dahrendorf served as a Professor of Sociology at a number of universities in Germany and the United Kingdom, and was a Research Professor at the Berlin Social Science Research Center.

When Ralf Dahrendorf was only a teenager, he and his father, an SPD member of the German Parliament, were arrested and sent to concentration camps for their anti-Nazi activities during the Nazi regime.

One of the activities consisted of Ralf Dahrendorf distributing leaflets that were encouraging people not to join the regime.

Ralf Dahrendorf was a fellow student at the London School of Economics.

Nicola Ralf Dahrendorf has worked for the United Nations and as the West Africa Regional Conflict Adviser to the UK Government.

Ellen Ralf Dahrendorf, who is Jewish, has served on the board of the Jewish Institute for Policy Research, been chair of the British branch of the New Israel Fund, and is a signatory of the Independent Jewish Voices declaration, which is critical of Israeli policies towards the Palestinians.

Ralf Dahrendorf studied philosophy, classical philology, and sociology at Hamburg University between 1947 and 1952.

Ralf Dahrendorf was one of the founders of the University of Konstanz.

From 1968 to 1969, Ralf Dahrendorf was a member of the Parliament of Baden-Wurttemberg, and in 1968, his links with Harvard University began.

Ralf Dahrendorf decided to become a member of the Bundestag in 1969 during the time when Brandt formed his first SPD-FDP coalition government.

Ralf Dahrendorf was dedicated to the EU as a guarantor of human rights and liberty.

From 1974 to 1984, Ralf Dahrendorf was director of the London School of Economics, when he returned to Germany to become Professor of Social Science, Konstanz University.

In 1986, Ralf Dahrendorf became a Governor of the London School of Economics.

In 1982, Ralf Dahrendorf was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Ralf Dahrendorf chose this name to honour the School in this way, and as a sign of his liberal humour.

Ralf Dahrendorf sat in the House of Lords as a cross-bencher.

Between 2000 and 2006, Ralf Dahrendorf served as Chairman of the Judging Panel of the FIRST Award for Responsible Capitalism.

Ralf Dahrendorf received the FIRST Responsible Capitalism lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.

Ralf Dahrendorf insisted that even the most basic civil rights, including equality and freedom of expression, be given constitutional legitimacy.

Ralf Dahrendorf once said that his life was marked by a conflict between the obligation he felt to the country of his birth, Germany and the attraction he felt for Britain.

Ralf Dahrendorf favored laws and policies that encouraged personal freedom, a sense of citizenship and a broadening of social, economic and political opportunities.

Ralf Dahrendorf died in Cologne, Germany, aged 80, on 17 June 2009, after suffering from cancer.

Ralf Dahrendorf was survived by his third wife, three daughters, and one grandchild.

In 1959, Ralf Dahrendorf published in his most influential work on social inequality, Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society.

Ralf Dahrendorf asserted that Karl Marx defined class in a narrow and historically-specific context.

Ralf Dahrendorf believed in two approaches to society, Utopian and Rationalist.

Ralf Dahrendorf discusses literary utopias to show that the structural-functionalists idea of the social system is utopians in itself because it possess all the necessary characteristics.

Ralf Dahrendorf believes that the struggle for authority creates conflict.

Ralf Dahrendorf's theory defined class not in terms of wealth like Marx, but by levels of authority.

Ralf Dahrendorf combines elements from both of these perspectives to develop his own theory about class conflict in post-capitalist society.

Ralf Dahrendorf agrees with Marx that authority, in the 19th century, was based on income, and thus the rich bourgeoisie ruled the state.

Ralf Dahrendorf developed, cultivated, and advanced his theory of class conflict.

Ralf Dahrendorf proposes a symbolic model of class conflict with authority as the generic form of domination, combined with a strong systematic view of society and the structuration of class relationships.

Ralf Dahrendorf contends that post-capitalist society has institutionalised class conflict into state and economic spheres.

Conflict theorists like Ralf Dahrendorf often took the exact opposite view of functionalists.

In developing his conflict theory, Ralf Dahrendorf recognised consensus theory was necessary to fully reflect society.

Ralf Dahrendorf asserted that there has to be consensus to have conflict, as he said that the two were prerequisites for each other.

However, Ralf Dahrendorf did not believe the two theories could be combined into one cohesive and comprehensive theory.

Ralf Dahrendorf saw conflict in modern societies as stemming from more than just different individual interests and expectations.

Ralf Dahrendorf saw conflict arising from outgrowing the unavoidable tensions that modern societies have to negotiate and balance between the competing values of justice, liberty, and economic well-being, and between economic efficiency, identity, and security.

Ralf Dahrendorf sought to understand how societies could develop into just and prosperous nations.

Ralf Dahrendorf opposed those who studied authority on an individual level.

Ralf Dahrendorf was very critical of those who focused on the psychological or behavioral characteristics of the individuals who occupy such positions.

Ralf Dahrendorf went even further to say that those who adopted that approach were not sociologists.

Ralf Dahrendorf believed that Marx's theory could be updated to reflect modern society and Roman society.

Ralf Dahrendorf rejects Marx's two-class system as too simplistic and overly focused on property ownership.

Ralf Dahrendorf explains that latent interests are natural interests that arise unconsciously in conflict between superordinates and subordinates.

Ralf Dahrendorf defines manifest interests as latent interests when they are realised.

In conclusion, Ralf Dahrendorf believes that understanding authority to be the key to understanding social conflict.

Ralf Dahrendorf found the connection between these two concepts to be problematic for the conflict theory.

Ralf Dahrendorf believed that the basis of class conflict was the division of three groups of society: quasi groups, interest groups, and conflict groups.

Ralf Dahrendorf believed that under ideal circumstances, conflict could be explained without reference to other variables.

In contrast to Lewis Coser's ideas that functions of conflict maintained the status quo, Ralf Dahrendorf believed that that conflict leads to change and development.

Ralf Dahrendorf defined class as the difference between the dominating class and those who dominate.

Ralf Dahrendorf believed that in modern society, there were three types of classes: capitalists, workers and petite bourgeoisie.

Ralf Dahrendorf argues that society is composed of multiple units that are called imperatively coordinated associations.

Ralf Dahrendorf saw social conflict as the difference between dominating and subject groups in imperatively-coordinated associations.

Ralf Dahrendorf defined authority as a facet of social organisations and as a common element of social structures.

Ralf Dahrendorf believed that society had two aspects: consensus and conflict, static and change, order and dissension, cohesion and the role of power, integration and conflict, and lastly consensus and constraint.

Ralf Dahrendorf saw them all as equally the double aspects of society.

On that point, Ralf Dahrendorf asserted that society could not survive without both consensus and conflict.

Ralf Dahrendorf felt that way because without conflict, there can be no consensus, and although consensus leads to conflict, conflict leads to consensus.

Absent from Ralf Dahrendorf's theory were any significant discussions of culture, and therefore, citizenship and identity.

Unlike many of the other works published by social theorists in the 1950s, Ralf Dahrendorf's work acknowledges the same class interests that worried Marx.

Ralf Dahrendorf believed that class conflict could have beneficial consequences for society, such as progressive change.

Ralf Dahrendorf is recognised for being one of the best departures from the structural functionalist tradition of the 1950s.

The most recent winner of the Ralf Dahrendorf Prize was the Children Born Of War.