Society and Culture Atlas

How People Live Together
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme

Switch Atlas

Social Theorist

Claus Offe

Sociology

Claus Offe was a German political sociologist, born in 1940, associated with the Frankfurt School, who taught at universities in Germany and the United States with a focus on political economic analysis. He addressed a wide range of topics including the analysis of social crises, the welfare state, the transformation of Eastern Europe, European integration, unconditional basic income, civil society and the common good, and he was a founding member of the Greens and of the Hertie School. He died in 2025. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Birth Date
1940-03-16 1
Birth Year
1940 1
Death Date
2025-10-01 1
Death Year
2025 1
Birthplace
Berlin, Germany 1
Death Place
Berlin, Germany 1
Defining Contribution
contributions to understanding the relationships between democracy and capitalism 1
Notable Work
Strukturprobleme des kapitalistischen Staates 1
Connections

Associated With

Harvard University, Institutions and Social Structures
Source Claus Offe (Wikipedia)
Stanford University, Institutions and Social Structures
Source Claus Offe (Wikipedia)

Informed By

Jürgen Habermas, Social Theorists

Offe was a leading second-generation critical theorist closely associated with Habermas Frankfurt circle.

Practices Studied

Capitalism, Institutions and Social Structures
Source Claus Offe (Wikipedia)
Welfare State, Institutions and Social Structures
Source Claus Offe (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases

Nationality

Germany

Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.

Sources
1. Claus Offe (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section
    Claus Offe was a German political sociologist associated with the Frankfurt School who taught at universities in Germany and the United States, with a focus on political economic analysis.
  • Infobox, birth_date
    1940-03-16
  • Infobox, birth_date (year)
    1940-03-16
  • Infobox, death_date
    2025-10-01
  • Infobox, death_date (year)
    2025-10-01
  • Infobox, birth_place
    Berlin, Germany
  • Infobox, death_place
    Berlin, Germany
  • Life and career section, book sentence
    Strukturprobleme des kapitalistischen Staates
  • Life and career section, contributions sentence
    contributions to understanding the relationships between democracy and capitalism
  • Associated With: Harvard University, Article text
    He studied between 1969 and 1971 at the University of California at Berkeley on a Harkness fellowship, at Harvard University as a research associate at the Center for West European Studies, and at The New School in Greenwich, New York.
  • Associated With: Stanford University, Article text
    He worked as fellow and visiting professor at the Institutes for Advanced Study in Stanford, Princeton and the Australian National University.
  • Practices Studied: Welfare State, Article text
    He found new perspectives for a wide range of topics such as analysis of social crises, the welfare state, the transformation of Eastern Europe and European integration, unconditional basic income, civil society and the common good.
  • Practices Studied: Capitalism, Article text
    In a 1972 book, Strukturprobleme des kapitalistischen Staates, he analysed the structural problems caused by the internal contradictions of the capitalist state, keeping an intellectual independence from Marxist dogmas.
View the Source
Wikidata: Claus Offe
Wikidata Q62725, class allow-list match, case-insensitive label variant (w-bbfill-smallsix2-0926/resolve_ci.ps1)View the Source
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.