Reti­re­ment of Prof. Dr. Georg Kneer

In February 2026, Prof. Dr. Kneer will retire. For two decades, he has shaped the univer­sity – through his scho­larly approach, great huma­nity and tire­less commit­ment to an open, fair and reflec­tive academic community.

After studying socio­logy, poli­tical science and modern history at the Univer­sity of Münster, Kneer completed his PhD in 1994 on the inter­play between social theory and social analysis in the works of Jürgen Habermas, Michel Foucault and Niklas Luhmann – a theme that would accom­pany and shape his subse­quent academic work. He completed his habi­li­ta­tion in 2004.

Since 1 September 2001, Georg Kneer has been Professor of the Scien­tific Foun­da­tions of Design at the HfG. His teaching covered virtually all degree programmes and a wide variety of topics: scien­tific foun­da­tions and methods, commu­ni­ca­tion theory, the socio­logy of design, the socio­logy of arti­fi­cial multi-agent systems, and much more besides. As an author and editor, he set stan­dards far beyond the HfG. His publi­ca­tions on the great thin­kers of the 20^th century – Latour, Foucault, Luhmann, Habermas – are among the key refe­rence points in socio­lo­gical and social-philo­so­phical discourse. His major works and co-edited volumes include, amongst others:

• Die Patho­lo­gien der Moderne (1990)
• Niklas Luhmanns Theorie sozialer Systeme: Eine Einfüh­rung (1993)
• Sozio­lo­gi­sche Gesell­schafts­be­griffe (1997)
• Klas­si­sche Gesell­schafts­be­griffe der Sozio­logie (2001)
• Georg Kneer: Institution/​Organisation. Über die Para­doxie des Orga­ni­sie­rens, in: Stephan Moebius , Andreas Reck­witz (Hg.): Post­struk­tu­ra­lis­ti­sche Sozi­al­wis­sen­schaften (2008)
• Hand­buch Sozio­lo­gi­sche Theo­rien (2009)
• Sozio­lo­gi­sche Kontro­versen (2010)

However, Georg Kneer has made a name for himself not only as a rese­ar­cher. As Equa­lity Officer since 2018, he has been a committed, reliable and persua­sive advo­cate in many commit­tees for the visi­bi­lity, advance­ment and reco­gni­tion of female professionals.

A high­light of this commit­ment is the equa­lity concept ​‘Form follows Diver­sity’, adopted in 2025 and posi­tively reviewed in 2026, which was deve­loped largely under his leader­ship and enabled the HfG to successfully parti­ci­pate in the ​‘Profes­so­rin­nen­pro­gramm 2030’ (Women Profes­sors Programme 2030), a joint initia­tive of the Federal Ministry of Rese­arch, Tech­no­logy and Space and the State of Baden-Würt­tem­berg. This opens up a new and effec­tive avenue for the univer­sity to expand career oppor­tu­ni­ties for female rese­ar­chers and further streng­then gender equa­lity at an insti­tu­tional level.

We would like to thank Prof. Dr Georg Kneer for his great commit­ment to the HfG and wish him all the best for this new chapter in his life!