Thomas Martin Baumgartner (born 1943) is a Swiss

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

, known for his pioneering work in social systems theory with Walter F. Buckley, Tom R. Burns and others.

Life and work

Baumgartner started his academic career at the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant coll ...

, where he received his PhD in economics 1976 with the dissertation ''The political economy of international economic exchange and development : a systems approach to the structuring of the international economic system''. After his promotion Baumgartner was affiliated with the

University of Quebec A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". U ...

at Montreal as visiting professor, with the University of Louvain in Belgium, and with the Institute of Sociology of the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

, ending up as research consultant in

Zurich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, Switzerland, in the late 1980s, where in the 1990s he worked the IUSA, the Creato-network for environmental planning in Zurich, the Öko-Institut in Freiburg (Germany), and the Institut für ökologische Wirtschaftsforschung (Heidelberg, Germany). In the early 1970s Baumgartner collaborated with Tom R. Burns and a number of other researchers, such as Walter F. Buckley, Matthew Cooper,

Philippe DeVille Philippe R. DeVillé (born 5 August 1944) is a Belgian economist, and Emeritus Professor of Economics at the Université catholique de Louvain, University of Louvain, known for his contributions in the field of socioeconomic systems theory in coll ...

, David Meeker, and Bernard Gauci, among others. They have been developing a new theory complex, which came to be referred to as actor-system dynamics (ASD), a new social systems theory, substantially different from Parson's systems theory and the systems theory later developed by

Niklas Luhmann Niklas Luhmann (; ; December 8, 1927 – November 11, 1998) was a German sociologist, philosopher of social science, and systems theorist. Niklas Luhmann is one of the most influential German sociologists of the 20th century. His thinking was ...

Publications

Books, a selectionFor his latest work in German in the 1980s and 1990s, se
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/ref> * 1975. ''Multi-level, dialectical social action : an open systems theory perspective''. With Walter F. Buckley and Tom R. Burns * 1976. ''The Political Economy of International Economic Exchange and Development: A Systems Approach to the Structuring of the International Economic System''. University of New Hampshire. * 1982. ''Power, Conflict, and Exchange in Social Life: An Actor-oriented Systems Theory of the Structuring and Dialectics of Social Systems''. With Walter F. Buckley and P. DeVille. Institute of Sociology, Uppsala. * 1984. ''Transitions to alternative energy systems : entrepreneurs, new technologies, and social change''. Edited with Tom R. Burns. * 1985. ''Man, decisions, society : the theory of actor-system dynamics for social scientists''. With Tom R. Burns and

. * 1986. ''Shaping of socio-economic systems : the application of the theory of actor-system dynamics to conflict, social power, and institutional innovation in economic life''. With Tom R. Burns and Philippe DeVille; Preface by Amitai Etzioni. * 1987. ''Politics of energy forecasting : a comparative study of energy forecasting in Western Europe and North America''. Edited with Atle Midttun. * 1997. ''Partizipation als Entscheidungshilfe : Pardizipp, ein Verfahren der (Langfrist-)Planung und Zukunftsforschung''. With Peter H. Mettler

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baumgartner, Thomas 1943 births Living people Swiss economists Systems scientists Academic staff of the Université du Québec à Montréal University of New Hampshire alumni University of New Hampshire faculty Academic staff of the University of Oslo