Prof. Dr. Jens Beckert

Director

Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Paulstr. 3 | 50676 Cologne | Germany
Phone: +49 221 2767-208
Fax: +49 221 2767-418

Personal homepage

Research Interests

Role of the economy in society, especially based on the study of markets; organizational sociology; sociology of inheritance; sociological theory

Research Projects

Project area "Sociology of Markets"

Selected Publications

Beckert, Jens, and Lisa Suckert. 2020. "The Future as a Social Fact: The Analysis of Perceptions of the Future in Sociology." Poetics, published online December 9, 2020.
Beckert, Jens. 2019. "Markets From Meaning: Quality Uncertainty and the Intersubjective Construction of Value." Cambridge Journal of Economics, Published online August 16, 2019.
Beckert, Jens, and Richard Bronk (eds.). 2018. Uncertain Futures: Imaginaries, Narratives, and Calculation in the Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Beckert, Jens. 2018. Imaginierte Zukunft: Fiktionale Erwartungen und die Dynamik des Kapitalismus. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.
Beckert, Jens, and Matías Dewey (eds.). 2018. The Architecture of Illegal Markets: Towards an Economic Sociology of Illegality in the Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Beckert, Jens. 2016. Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Beckert, Jens. 2017. "Die Historizität fiktionaler Erwartungen. MPIfG Discussion Paper 17/8. Köln: Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung.
Beckert, Jens, Jörg Rössel, and Patrick Schenk. 2017. "Wine as a Cultural Product: Symbolic Capital and Price Formation in the Wine Field." Sociological Perspectives 60 (1): 206-222.
Beckert, Jens. 2013. Erben in der Leistungsgesellschaft. Frankfurt a.M.: Campus.
Beckert, Jens. 2013. "Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations in the Economy." Theory and Society 42 (3): 219-240.
Beckert, Jens. 2011. "Where Do Prices Come From? Sociological Approaches to Price Formation." Socio-Economic Review 9 (4): 757-786.
All Publications ...

Vita

since 2005	Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
since 2005	Member of the Faculty of Economics and Social Science, University of Cologne
2003-2005	Professor of Sociology at the University of Göttingen
2003	Habilitation in sociology at the Freie Universität Berlin
2002-2003	Associate Professor of Sociology at the International University Bremen
1996	Dr. phil. in sociology, Freie Universität Berlin
1993-2002	Various research positions at Freie Universität Berlin, Princeton University and Harvard University
1991; 1993	MA in Sociology from the New School for Social Research; MBA at the Freie Universität Berlin

Professional Activities (Selected)

Consulting Editor, Historical Social Research
Editor, European Journal of Sociology
Editorial boards of the journals Socio-Economic Review, Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, Geschichte und Gesellschaft, and Economic Sociology: European Electronic Newsletter

Awards and Honors (Selected)

2019: Theodor Heuss Professor, New School for Social Research, New York
2018: Leibniz Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; German Research Foundation)
2010 : Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
2008: First Prize of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation for Articles in the Social Sciences in 2007 for: Jens Beckert/Mark Lutter, "Wer spielt, hat schon verloren? Zur Erklärung des Nachfrageverhaltens auf dem Lottomarkt" (Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 59, 2, 240-270, 2007)
Oct. 2007-Jan. 2008: Fernand Braudel Fellow, European University Institute, Florence
2005: Best Law Book of the Year, awarded by Neue Juristische Wochenschrift for: Jens Beckert, "Unverdientes Vermögen" (Frankfurt a.M., Campus, 2004)
2005: Prize of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Academy of Science, donated by the Commerzbank Stiftung