A short introductory note on maritime sociology

Abstract

"The topic of the sea and society is not new to sociology. Some of the founding fathers of sociology have researched specific maritime spaces. For instance, in 1896 the German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies analysed the working conditions and wages of different maritime professions, as well as the major strike of 1896/97 in Hamburg (Tönnies 1897a, b). Today, Tönnies is regarded as the founder of Maritime Sociology (Fechner 2010). But also for other classical sociologists, maritime spaces were not unfamiliar. Norbert Elias was interested in studying the careers of naval professionals (Elias 1950) and intended to publish a book on that topic. Unfortunately, he did not finish his naval studies but some of his texts are available (Moelker 2003; Moelker, Mennell 2007). In contrast to other subfields of sociology, Maritime Sociology could not be established as a research network with an international Research Committee until today. The ad-hoc group 'Maritime Sociology: Polish and German Perspectives on a Sociology of Maritime Spaces' during the Congress of the German Sociological Association (DGS) in Trier (Germany) was the first attempt to refresh activities of Maritime Sociology in Germany and to start a Polish-German dialogue on maritime issues bringing together scholars from sociology to begin a discussion on the interrelations between society and the sea." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Kolodziej-Durnas, A. & Sowa, F. (2015): A short introductory note on maritime sociology. In: S. Lessenich (Hrsg.) (2015): Routinen der Krise - Krise der Routinen : Verhandlungen des 37. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie in Trier 2014 (Verhandlungen der Kongresse der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie, Bd. 37), p. 1564-1570.