Gerhard Stapelfeldt
Encyclopedia
Gerhard Stapelfeldt is a German sociologist. He was a university teacher at University of Hamburg
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg is a university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by Wilhelm Stern and others. It grew out of the previous Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen and the Kolonialinstitut as well as the Akademisches Gymnasium. There are around 38,000 students as of the start of...

 until December 2010.

In 1979 Stapelfeldt published his PhD Thesis, a reconstruction and interpretation of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...

's Das Kapital
Das Kapital
Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Ökonomie , by Karl Marx, is a critical analysis of capitalism as political economy, meant to reveal the economic laws of the capitalist mode of production, and how it was the precursor of the socialist mode of production.- Themes :In Capital: Critique of...

 with special reference to Marx's further studies and writings.. Following this interpretation he then put its consequences into practice by developing a programme of depicting and interpreting political economy, from mercantilism
Mercantilism
Mercantilism is the economic doctrine in which government control of foreign trade is of paramount importance for ensuring the prosperity and security of the state. In particular, it demands a positive balance of trade. Mercantilism dominated Western European economic policy and discourse from...

, to Liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

, imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...

 and finally Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...

.

The focal point of his studies lies in the critical theory of society and the history of ideas while his theoretical point of reference is the Critical theory
Critical theory
Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...

 of the Frankfurt School
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...

, with theorists like Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer was a German-Jewish philosopher-sociologist, famous for his work in critical theory as a member of the 'Frankfurt School' of social research. His most important works include The Eclipse of Reason and, in collaboration with Theodor Adorno, The Dialectic of Enlightenment...

, Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist known for his critical theory of society....

 or Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse was a German Jewish philosopher, sociologist and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory...

, and of Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...

. Other major influences on his thinking come from Greek philosophy, Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel or Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...

. He teaches sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

 but also social history
Social history
Social history, often called the new social history, is a branch of History that includes history of ordinary people and their strategies of coping with life. In its "golden age" it was a major growth field in the 1960s and 1970s among scholars, and still is well represented in history departments...

, economic history
Economic history
Economic history is the study of economies or economic phenomena in the past. Analysis in economic history is undertaken using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and by applying economic theory to historical situations and institutions...

 and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

.

His major work is a three-part work, also his professorial dissertation, the Critique of Economic Rationality (Kritik der ökonomischen Rationalität), which describes the genesis as well as the logic, institutional and empirical structure of capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

 capitalism in the eras of state-interventionism
Interventionism
Interventionism may refer to:*Interventionism is a political term for significant activity undertaken by a state to influence something not directly under its control....

 and Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...

. It contains a general historical-philosophical part as well as examinations of the political economy
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...

 of the Federal Republic of Germany, the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 and world economy.

Among his current works is an analysis of the Euro crisis (http://www.kritiknetz.de). In this interpretation he shows and explains the history of the Euro and criticises that European policy mainly took the currency - and not political ideas - as EU-European identity.

Works

  • Das Problem des Anfangs in der Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, Campus, Frankfurt am Main / New York 1979
  • Peru - im Namen der Freiheit ins Elend, Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1984
  • Verelendung und Urbanisierung in der Dritten Welt, Breitenbach, Saarbrücken 1990
  • Kritik der ökonomischen Rationalität, Erster Band: Geschichte der ökonomischen Rationalisierung, Lit, Münster 1998, ²2004
  • Kritik der ökonomischen Rationalität, Zweiter Band: Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Lit, Münster 1998, ISBN 3-8258-3627-4
  • Der Merkantilismus. Die Genese der Weltgesellschaft vom 16. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert, Ça Ira: Freiburg 2001, ISBN 3-924627-73-8
  • Geist und Geld, Lit, Münster 2003
  • Theorie der Gesellschaft und empirische Sozialforschung. Zur Logik der Aufklärung des Unbewussten, Ça Ira, Freiburg 2004
  • Zur deutschen Ideologie, Lit, Münster 2005
  • Der Liberalismus. Die Gesellschaftstheorien von Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Ça Ira, Freiburg 2006, ISBN 3-924627-78-9
  • Der Aufbruch des konformistischen Geistes. Thesen zur Kritik der neoliberalen Universität, Kovac, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8300-2898-7
  • Mythos und Logos. Antike Philosophie von Homer bis Sokrates, Verlag Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8300-3250-2
  • Der Imperialismus – Krise und Krieg 1870/73 bis 1918/29, Erster Band: Politische Ökonomie, Verlag Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8300-3654-8
  • Der Imperialismus – Krise und Krieg 1870/73 bis 1918/29, Zweiter Band: Anthropologie und Rationalität, Verlag Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8300-3655-5
  • Das Problem des Anfangs in der Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie von Karl Marx. Zum Verhältnis von Arbeitsbegriff und Dialektik, 2. erw. Auflage (hgg. von Bastian Bredtmann und Hanno Plass), Verlag Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8300-3963-1
  • Kapitalistische Weltökonomie. Vom Staatsinterventionismus zum Neoliberalismus. Kritik der ökonomischen Rationalität. Vierter Band, erstes Buch. Verlag Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8300-4444-4.
  • Kapitalistische Weltökonomie. Vom Staatsinterventionismus zum Neoliberalismus. Kritik der ökonomischen Rationalität. Vierter Band, zweites Buch. Verlag Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8300-4774-2.

Further Reading

  • Katharina Böttcher/Ulrike Flader/Gerald Gönen/Paul Kramer (Hgg.): Wege zur Reflexion. Unbehagen – Aufklärung – Gesellschaftskritik. Für Gerhard Stapelfeldt zum 60. Geburtstag, Verlag Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8300-3220-5
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