Name
DREHER, Jochen
Position and Affiliated Institution
Sociologist, Researcher, University of Konstanz, Germany
Degree
Dr. rer. soc., Sociology
Education and Academic Employment
| Academic Employment: | |
| 2005~present | Chief Executive Officer of the Social Science Archive Konstanz (Alfred Schütz Memorial Archive) |
| 2012~2013 | Deputy Professor of Sociology with a focus on Gender Studies, University of Konstanz |
| 2010 | Management of the Project: “Edition of Writings by Heinrich Popitz, General Sociological Theory” supported by the excellence cluster “Cultural Foundations of Integration” (EXC 16), University of Konstanz |
| 2009~2013 | Management and coordination of the university partnership: “New Perspectives of Theory of Culture” of the University of Konstanz with Latin America (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Columbia; sponsored by the DAAD), together with Prof. Dr. Bernd Stiegler, Dr. Kirsten Mahlke and Dr. Silvana Figueroa-Dreher |
| 2006~2010 | • Research project: Phenomenology, Social Sciences and the Arts. Director of research project together with Prof. Michael D. Barber (St. Louis University, USA, funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) |
Research Topic
Critical Phenomenology of the Life-World: Construction and Constitution of Power
Phenomenology and Critical Theory are two of the most influential streams of thought of the 20th and 21st Century. Both disciplines are interdisciplinary and deal with ontological, ethical, and epistemological problems as far as sociality, historicity, and society are concerned. Even though they possess theory-related similarities, their relationship is characterized by tensions and discrepancies. This research focus discusses the tensions between the two disciplines and as well as current approximations. Critical Theory has the standpoint, specifically following Axel Honneth and Hartmut Rosa, that critique needs to be based on everyday experience of the individual actors with the capacity for “innerworldly transcendence.” A critical phenomenological perspective will be developed which is specifically based on the concept of the life-world and the concept of relevance. The aim of this focus is to achieve a standpoint that takes into consideration the subjective viewpoint of the Other and allows to analyze the lifeworldly constitution of phenomena as social inequality, justice, power and violence as well as the subjective and intersubjective experiences of alienation, reification and suffering.
Fields of Research Interests
Phenomenology, Sociology of Knowledge, Sociology of Culture, Sociological Theory, Theory of Power, Qualitative Social Research, Theory of Action, Critical Phenomenology
Academic Publications
- Dreher, Jochen, Alexis Gros und Hartmut Rosa (Hg.) (2023): Phänomenologie und Kritische Theorie, Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp (in preparation).
- Dreher, Jochen (2023): “Phenomenology of Power: Reflections on Social Construction and Subjective Constitution”, in: The Palgrave Handbook of Macrophenomenology and Social Theory, hg. v. Carlos Belvedere und Alexis Gros, Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 85-100.
- Dreher, Jochen (ed.) (2021): Mathesis universalis – Die aktuelle Relevanz der „Strukturen der Lebenswelt“, Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
- Dreher, Jochen (2022): “Phenomenology of the Stranger: The Relational Concept of Strangeness”, in: Schutzian Research 14, pp. 91-107.
- Dreher, Jochen (2021): “Life-World, Relevance and Power – Phenomenology and Social Critique”, in: Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale, N. 124, pp. 110-122.
- Dreher, Jochen, Andreas Göttlich (2018): “Mediated Power: Technical Action and Power of Data Constitution”, in International Political Anthropology, Vol. 11, N0. 1, pp. 11-28.
- Dreher, Jochen (2016): “The Social Construction of Power. Reflections Beyond Berger/Luckmann and Bourdieu”, in: Cultural Sociology 10(1), pp. 53-68.
- Dreher, Jochen (2016): “Symbolic Reality Construction: A Bridge between Phenomenological Individualism and Pragmatic Realism”, in: Schutzian Research, Vol. 8, pp. 121-137.
Affiliated Academic Organizations
The Alfred Schutz Archive at Waseda
The International Alfred Schutz Circle for Phenomenology and Interpretive Social Science
Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences (SPHS)
