Ingo Mörth (born May 1, 1949, in Grades/ Austria) is an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n sociologist.

Biography

Ingo Mörth studied 1968-1976

business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

and

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

at the

Johannes Kepler University Linz The Johannes Kepler University Linz (German: ''Johannes Kepler Universität Linz'', short: ''JKU'') is a public university in Austria. It is located in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria. It offers bachelor's, master's, diploma and doctoral degre ...

(JKU) and achieved his PhD in

there in 1977. He started his scientific career in 1973 as an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

at the Department of General Sociology and Social Philosophy at the JKU, and spent a term as

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting scientist, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic fo ...

at the

Central Connecticut State University Central Connecticut State University (Central Connecticut, CCSU, Central Connecticut State, or informally Central) is a public university in New Britain, Connecticut. Founded in 1849 as the State Normal School, CCSU is Connecticut's oldest publi ...

New Britain, Connecticut New Britain is a city in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. It is located approximately southwest of Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. The city is part of the Capitol Planning Region, Connecticut, Capitol ...

in 1978. After achieving his "

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

" (= venia docendi) for sociology in 1984 at the JKU he taught as

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

(since 1997) and

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

(since 2002) at the Department of Sociology at the

, where he also was head of the Institute of Cultural Economics and Cultural Research. He retired from the

in 2011, but is still affiliated as lecturer and researcher there

Work

His main working areas are

Sociological theory A sociological theory is a that intends to consider, analyze, and/or explain objects of social reality from a sociological perspective,Macionis, John and Linda M. Gerber. 2010. ''Sociology'' (7th Canadian ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson ...

sociology of culture The sociology of culture, and the related cultural sociology, concerns the systematic analysis of culture, usually understood as the ensemble of symbolic codes used by a member of a society, as it is manifested in the society. For Georg Simmel, ...

sociology of art The sociology of art is a subfield of sociology that explores the societal dimensions of art and aesthetics. Scholars who have written on the sociology of art include Pierre Bourdieu, Vera Zolberg, Howard S. Becker, Arnold Hauser (art historian ...

, sociology of media,

sociology of religion Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology. This objective investigation may include the use both of Quantitative research, quantit ...

, research in

leisure Leisure (, ) has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, Employment, work, job hunting, Housekeeping, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as ...

and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

and in the

sociology of education The sociology of education is the study of how public institutions and individual experiences affect education and its outcomes. It is mostly concerned with the public schooling systems of modern industrial societies, including the expansion of ...

. He is known beyond the German-speaking scientific community especially in the fields of a

sociological theory A sociological theory is a that intends to consider, analyze, and/or explain objects of social reality from a sociological perspective,Macionis, John and Linda M. Gerber. 2010. ''Sociology'' (7th Canadian ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson ...

and

. His theory of religion is a theory of contingency of human

existence Existence is the state of having being or reality in contrast to nonexistence and nonbeing. Existence is often contrasted with essence: the essence of an entity is its essential features or qualities, which can be understood even if one does ...

covered by transcending concepts of meaning, thus making different systems of meaning comparable as religious equivalents. His theory of

society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

as theory of

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

defines culture as a main thread of change in modern and

post-modern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experi ...

societies, whereas his empirical research looks into the intertwinedness of culture, tourism and leisure. Mörth founded and developed together wit
Gerhard Fröhlich
three multilingual online websites on famous social scientists:

Pierre Bourdieu Pierre Bourdieu (, ; ; ; 1 August 1930 – 23 January 2002) was a French sociologist and public intellectual. Bourdieu's contributions to the sociology of education, the theory of sociology, and sociology of aesthetics have achieved wide influ ...

Norbert Elias Norbert Elias (; 22 June 1897 – 1 August 1990) was a German-Jewish sociologist who later became a British citizen. He is especially famous for his theory of civilizing/decivilizing processes. Life and career Elias was born on 22 June 1 ...

and

Clifford Geertz Clifford James Geertz (; August 23, 1926 – October 30, 2006) was an American anthropologist who is remembered mostly for his strong support for and influence on the practice of symbolic anthropology and who was considered "for three decades&n ...

. Recently Mörth concentrated on theory and research in the Sociology of Media and the Sociology of Arts, and he was also involved in the planning and development of several projects in the field of arts and culture.

Publications (selection)

*''Die gesellschaftliche Wirklichkeit von Religion. Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Religionstheorie'', Stuttgart etc. 1978: Kohlhammer, (title: "The social reality of religion: principles of a general theory of religion") *''Religionssoziologie'' (with Friedrich Fürstenberg), in: René König (ed.): Handbuch der empirischen Sozialforschung, vol. 14: Religion, Bildung, Medizin, Stuttgart 1979: Enke, pp. 1–84, (title: "Sociology of religion", in: "Handbook of emiprical sociology") *''The Sociology of Religion als Critical Theory'', in: Acts of the 15th CISR Conference, Venice 1979: Religion and Politics, CISR acts vol. 15 (1979), pp. 263–266 *''La sociologie de la religion comme Théorie Critique (L'École de Francfort)'', in
Social Compass
International Review of Sociology of Religion/ Revue internationale de sociologie de la religion, vol. XXVII (1980) no. 1, pp. 27–50 () *''Lebenswelt und religiöse Sinnstiftung. Ein Beitrag zur Theorie des Alltagslebens'', München 1986: tuduv, (title: "Life-world and religious meaning: a contribution to the sociology of everyday life") *''Kultur im Lebensraum Stadt. Theoretische und empirische Perspektiven am Beispiel

Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

'' (ed. wit
Wilhelm Rausch
, Linz 1986: Trauner, (title: "Culture in urban space: theoretical and empirical perspectives by the example of Linz/Austria") *''Zeit als Strukturelement von Lebenswelt und Gesellschaft'' (ed. with Friedrich Fürstenberg), Linz 1986: Trauner, (title: "Time as structure of life-world and society") *''Fondamenti e linee di sviluppo di una teoria critica della religione'', in: Alberto Bondolfi
Roberto Cipriani

Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas ( , ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German philosopher and social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt S ...

, Benjamin R. Mariante, Ingo Mörth
Roberto Vinco
La teoria critica della religione. Il fenomeno religioso nell' analisi della Scuola di Francoforte, Edizioni Borla, Roma 1986, pp. 116–182, *''Elements of Religious Meaning in Science-Fiction-Literature'', in
Social Compass
International Review of Sociology of Religion/ Revue internationale de sociologie de la religion, vol. XXXIV (1987) no. 1, pp. 27–50 () *''NEW AGE – Neue Religion? Theoretische Überlegungen und empirische Hinweise zur sozialen Bedeutung des Wendezeit-Syndroms'', in: Max Haller, Hans-Joachim Hoffmann-Nowotny, Wolfgang Zapf (eds.): Kultur und Gesellschaft. Verhandlungen des 24. Deutschen Soziologentages, des 11. Österreichischen Soziologentages und des 8. Kongresses der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Soziologie in Zürich 1988, Frankfurt/M. etc. 1989: Campus, pp. 297–320, (title: "New Age – new religion? Theoretical and empirical considerations on the social significance of the new age syndrom") *''Review on: Beckford, James A.: Religion and Advanced Industrial Society, London 1989'', in: European Sociological Review, vol. 7 (1991) no. 1, pp. 93–95 () *''Der unendliche Prozeß der Zivilisation. Zur Kultursoziologie der Moderne nach

'' (hg. mit Helmut Kuzmics), Frankfurt/M. etc. 1991: Campus, (title: "The never ending process of civilisation: on the sociology of culture after Norbert Elias") *Über die Neuausgabe eines wichtigen Buches:

Thomas Luckmann Thomas Luckmann (; October 14, 1927 – May 10, 2016) was an American-Austrian sociologist of German and Slovene origin who taught mainly in Germany. Born in Jesenice, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Luckmann studied philosophy and linguistics at the ...

"Die Unsichtbare Religion", in: Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Soziologie/ Revue suisse de sociologie, vol. 19 no. 3, pp. 627–634, (title: "On the re-edition of an important book: Thomas Luckmann's 'Invisible religion'") () *''Das symbolische Kapital der Lebensstile. Zur Kultursoziologie der Moderne nach

'' (ed. wit
Gerhard Fröhlich
, Frankfurt/M. etc. 1994: Campus (title: "The symbolic capital of life-styles: on the sociology of culture after Pierre Bourdieu") *''Kulturerlebnis Stadt. Theoretische und praktische Aspekte der Stadtkultur'' (ed. with Birgit Brandner
Kurt Luger
, Wien 1994: Picus, (title: "Experiencing culture in urban environments: theoretical and practical aspects of urban culture") *''Symbolische Anthropologie der Moderne. Kulturanalysen nach

'' (ed. wit
Gerhard Fröhlich
, Frankfurt/M. etc. 1998: Campus, (title: "Symbolic anthropology of modernity: cultural analyses after Clifford Geertz") *''Kunst und Tourismus im ländlichen Raum. Chancen und Risken'' (editor), Linz 1999: KUWI-Verlag, (title: "Art and tourism in rural areas: chances and risks") *''UTOPIA 2001: Space Odysseys as Religion'', in: Organdi Quartlery. An online peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal, issue no. 3, October 2001 () *''Kulturtourismus – Kultur des Tourismus: Eine Verbindung von Kulturen?'' (editor), in: Trans no. 15, April 2004, online only (title: "Cultural tourism and the culture of tourism: a way of bringing cultures together?") () *''Niedrigqualifizierte in Oberösterreich – der Weg in die Weiterbildung'' (with others), Linz 2005: Amt der oö. Landesregierung (title: "Less qualified people in Upper Austria and their way into continuing education") *''Wissensspeicher, Suchmaschinen und Orte des Lernens. Zur Zukunft der Bibliotheken im Bildungssystem'', in: Christian Enichlmayr (Hg.): Bibliotheken – Fundament der Bildung, Tagungsband 28. öst. Bibliothekartag, Linz & Weitra 2005: Oö. Landesbibliothek & Bibliothek der Provinz, (title: "Knowledge tanks, search engines and places of learning: on the future of libraries in the educational system") *''Lagebericht: Bildung und Beschäftigung in der oö. Tourismus- und Freizeitwirtschaft'' (with others), WKOÖ Sektion Tourismus & Freizeit, Linz 2007 (title: "Report on vocational training and work situation in the Upper Austrian tourism and leisure sector") *''The shoe-lace breaching experiment'', in: Figurations. Newsletter of the Norbert Elias Foundation, no. 27 (June 2007), pp. 4–6 () *''Contingency (religious studies)'', in: Hans Dieter Betz, Don S. Browing, Bernd Janowski, Eberhard Juengel (eds.): Religion past and present. Encyclopedia of theology and religion, Boston Mass. & Leiden 2008: Brill, vol. 3, (Chu-Deu), p. 211 *''Der Dritte Mediensektor in Oberösterreich. Eine Reichweiten- und Potenzialanalyse Freier Radios & TV-Sender'' (with Gusenbauer, Michaela; Tremetzberger, Otto; Vojvoda, Alexander), Linz 2011: edition Radio FRO, (title: "The third sector of media in Upper Austria. An analysis of reach and potential of free radios and TV stations") *''Knotenpunkte für Wissen, Kommunikation und Identität'', in: OPAC - Fachzeitschrift für BibliothekarInnen, Vol. 5, Nummer 3 (2015), pp. 26–27 () (title: "Libraries: Central hubs for knowledge, communication and identity") *''Donaustrand und Heiliges Land. Auf den Spuren von Pilgern, Forschungsreisenden und Kreuzfahrern in Linz, in: »Im Land des Herrn«. Franziskanische Zeitschrift für das Heilige Land (hg.: Kommissariate des Heiligen Landes im deutschen Sprachraum, München), 77. Jahrgang 2023, Nr. 1 (title: "From the shore of the Danube to the Holy Land. On the tracks of pilgrims, researchers and crusaders coming from

"). *''Bibliographie/ Media- und Webographie Dr. Max Reisch, zusammengestellt und kommentiert von ... Ingo Mörth'', in: Max-Reisch-Archiv (

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

: hg. von Dipl.-Ing. Peter Reisch, online; title: "A Biblio-, Media- and Webography of works by Max Reisch, compiled and commented by Ingo Mörth".bibliography Max Reisch by Ingo Mörth online
/ref>

References

further informations *Wuggenig, Ulf: Jumping of the Shoulders of Giants? Cultural and Arts Sociology in German-Speaking Countries, Newsletter Sociology of Culture, American Sociological Association, vol. 18 no. 3 (spring 2004), pp. 1–11 *Stausberg, Michael; The study of religion(s) in Western Europe (II): Institutional developments after World War II, in: Religion, Volume 38, Issue 4, December 2008, pp. 305–318

External links

*
Works by Ingo Mörth
in the catalogue of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Ingo Mörth in the Social Science Open Access Repository - SSOARPersonal homepage (mostly in German)Entries for Ingo Mörth in the FODOK research database of the University of LinzHomepage of the Institute of Cultural Research at the JKU, whose head Mörth was until 2011 (in German)Infos on Mörth at the Institute of Cultural Research at the JKU (in German)The HyperBourdieu-online-worldcatalogue (multilingual)The HyperElias-online-worldcatalogue (multilingual)The HyperGeertz-online-worldcatalogue (multilingual)The Guardian/UK on Mörth and Elias
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morth, Ingo Living people Austrian sociologists 1949 births Johannes Kepler University Linz alumni Academic staff of Johannes Kepler University Linz Sociologists of art