Prof. Dr. Volker Bornschier
Academic Vita
Volker Bornschier was born in Witten-Ruhr, Germany, in 1944. Following his MA and PhD studies at the University of Zurich (sociology, economics and social psychology) he finished his habilitation in sociology in 1976 (a post-doctoral qualification required for professorship in German-speaking countries). At the Department of Sociology within the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he has taught and undertaken research as a professor since 1981. Since 2009 he is professor of sociology emeritus at the University of Zurich.
He is a founder member of the World Society Foundation and was its president from 1983 - 1996. This foundation was established by Peter Heintz to promote worldwide research into many different aspects of world society.
He was director of the Sociological Institute of the University of Zurich from 1997 to 2000 and was actively engaged in various international bodies, organising, for instance, aspects of four World Congresses of Sociology. He also served as a reviewer for social science journals and for research funding agencies.
His academic activities at the University of Zurich, using a team-based approach, were research-oriented and included projects supported in particular by the SNF (Swiss National Science Foundation). Developing young scientific talent has, for decades, been of particular interest to him.
He has produced and published 22 books (including many monographs), some of them with co-authors. In addition he has published 130 articles in leading social science journals, encyclopaedias, and volumes. In 2001 he was awarded a Fritz Thyssen Foundation Prize for one of the best social science essays in the German language published in 2000.
Various of his works have, besides having been published in German and/or English, been translated and published in Chinese, Spanish, French and Italian.
In June 2004 he was honoured by his staff and many international colleagues with an international Symposium, The Future of World Society, held at the University of Zurich, on the occasion of his 60th birthday. On May 14, 2009, he delivered his Farewell Lecture at the occasion of his emeritation (see the pdf of the published version and the press release in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung). He lives in Málaga (Spain), Cortona (Italy) and Zurich (Switzerland).