Ralf Dahrendorf

Ralf Dahrendorf (1929–2009) was a German-British sociologist, liberal politician, and public intellectual. He developed a theory of social conflict centered on authority relations and held senior positions in British and European public life.

Authority: The recognized or enforced capacity to direct others’ actions within a social relationship. Dahrendorf treated authority as the source of social conflict in organizations.
Imperatively coordinated association: An organization whose members are ordered through authority relations and enforceable rules. Dahrendorf used these associations as the settings where authority conflicts arise.
Karl Marx: A nineteenth-century philosopher and political economist whose work analyzed capitalism, class struggle, and historical change. Dahrendorf retained class conflict while rejecting ownership as its sole foundation.
London School of Economics: A London university specializing in the social sciences. Dahrendorf served as its director from 1974 to 1984.
Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society: Ralf Dahrendorf’s 1959 book presenting a conflict theory of class based on authority relations. It established his influential alternative to ownership-centered accounts of class.
Social conflict: Struggle between individuals or groups over incompatible interests, power, or resources. His sociology made conflict a normal, enduring feature of social order.
Latent interests: Shared interests implied by a group’s structural position but not yet consciously organized. They describe the potential opposition built into unequal authority relations.
Ralf Dahrendorf’s conflict theory: A sociological theory explaining conflict through unequal authority in organized social relationships. This named formulation sets out the model most closely associated with Dahrendorf.
European University Institute: A postgraduate research institute in Florence focused on European and social sciences. He was its rector from 1975 to 1984.
The Modern Social Conflict: Ralf Dahrendorf’s 1988 book examining conflict, citizenship, and social change in modern societies. It extends his analysis from organizational authority to wider political and social struggles.

Linked from 3 pages