Reiner Grundmann is a German sociologist and political scientist who has resided in the UK since 1997.
21 Facts About Reiner Grundmann
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Reiner Grundmann studied sociology in Berlin and received his doctorate 1989 at the European University Institute, Florence.
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Reiner Grundmann started his academic career with an analysis of the legacy of Marx's theory for the understanding of environmental problems.
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Reiner Grundmann described ecology as being no longer confined to the realms of biology since the 1970s.
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Reiner Grundmann attempted to identify problems which could be still dealt with convincingly with Marx's thought and approach.
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Reiner Grundmann avoided depicting the domination as being a precondition of destruction, but allowed for interpretations as mastery or stewardship.
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Benton was positive about Reiner Grundmann cutting through a lot of sloppy thinking in the 'ecocentric' camp.
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Such mastery, according to Reiner Grundmann, would be better interpreted as in mastering a musical instrument.
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Reiner 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.
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Reiner Grundmann contributed to Science, technology and society with books about the role of experts and the power of scientific knowledge.
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Reiner Grundmann 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.
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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 Reiner Grundmann stated that those previous scholarly critiques already converted into governments attempting to improve management of public expectations on technological risk assessments.
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Reiner Grundmann thinks that there exists a mistaken belief that the presence of a scientific consensus will enable ambitious climate policies.
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Reiner Grundmann considers that a much praised study overstates the case for scientific consensus.
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Reiner Grundmann is in line with main STS scholars view that science hardly determines policy outcomes.
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Reiner Grundmann wrote about the legacy of the Climatic Research Unit email controversy and whether it revitalized or undermined climate science and climate policy.
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Reiner Grundmann stated a politicization of climate science which makes science, technology and society scholars feel uncomfortable with the topic of climate change.
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Reiner Grundmann identifies a problematic approach of climate scientists who believe to have a prerogative to make political suggestions in the field "which society at large should take up because scientists always know best" combined with a basic lack of actual feasible solution proposals.
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Reiner Grundmann sees climate change as a long term issue requiring more public involvement and debate, not less and asks social scientists to study the interaction between climate and society, Lever-Tracy was more about letting the climatologists having the lead.
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Mike Hulme noted that Reiner Grundmann pointed out some of the problems, with the circulation of IPCC knowledge or that he suggested that improvements need to be made, for example in form of improved communication.
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Reiner Grundmann wrote that besides the IPCC knowledge, it resulted in inaction in the United States, and that political agenda and high visibility of sceptical scientists in the media based on 'balanced reporting' led to a bias in climate change coverage in advantage of sceptical arguments.