Helena Flam (born 2 May 1951) is a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

-born sociologist and Professor of Sociology at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, known for her work on

social organization In sociology, a social organization is a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and social groups. Characteristics of social organization can include qualities such as sexual composition, spatiotemporal cohesion, leadership, s ...

emotion Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is currently no scientific ...

s and social movements.Jasper, James M.
Emotions and social movements: Twenty years of theory and research
." ''Annual Review of Sociology'' 37 (2011): 285-303.

Life and work

After leaving Poland for Sweden in 1969, Flam studied sociology at

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

) degree in 1977. She then obtained an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

M.Phil. The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's Department of Sociology in 1977, 1978 and 1982, respectively. Returning to Sweden, she did research at the Scandinavian Institutes of Administrative Research (SIAR) and

SIFO Kantar Sifo, previously TNS Sifo and Sifo Research International, is a Swedish company operating in the field of opinion and social research. Since 1967, Sifo has published its public opinion poll "Voter monitor" ( sv, Väljarbarometern) which a ...

as well as

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. The university rose to significance during ...

(1984–85). She then worked for the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences (1985–87).Prof. Dr. Helena Flam
at University of Leipzig, 2013. In 1987, inadvertently, her academic career in Germany began: she was first a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies,

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

, then assistant professor at the

University of Konstanz The University of Konstanz (german: Universität Konstanz) is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its main campus was opened on the Gießberg in 1972 after being founded in 1966. The university is Germany's ...

(1990-1993), and eventually full professor of sociology at the

. Flam's focus is on

political sociology Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how ...

, in particular social movement research, and the political dimension of

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

, including

institutional discrimination Institutional discrimination is discriminatory treatment of an individual or group of individuals by society or institutions, through unequal consideration of members of subordinate groups. These unfair and indirect methods of discrimination are ...

. She also contributed to the

sociology of emotions The sociology of emotion applies sociological theorems and techniques to the study of human emotions. As sociology emerged primarily as a reaction to the negative effects of modernity, many normative theories deal in some sense with emotion wit ...

and rule systems theory.

Books

* ''The Shaping of Social Organization: Social Rule System Theory with Applications.'' London: Sage, 1987. (edited with

Tom R. Burns Tom R. Burns (born 1937) is an American/Swedish sociologist, professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Uppsala in Sweden and founder of the Uppsala Theory Circle. Biography He grew up in Arkansas, and was in a Franciscan Monastery ...

) * ''States and Anti-Nuclear Movements.'' Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1994. (edited & contributed four chapters) * ''Mosaic of Fear: Poland and East Germany before 1989.'' Boulder, Colorado: European Monographs, 1995. * ''The Emotional 'Man' and the Problem of Collective Action.'' Berlin/New York: Peter Lang, 2000. * ''Pink, Purple, Green - Women’s, Religious, Environmental, and Gay/Lesbian Movements in Central Europe Today.'' Boulder, Colorado: East European Monographs, 2001 (edited) * ''Emotions and Social Movements.'' London: Routledge, 2005. (edited with Debra King & contributed two chapters) * ''Rule Systems Theory: Explorations and Applications.'' Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2008. (edited with Marcus Carson & contributed one chapter) * ''Theorizing Emotions: Sociological Explorations and Applications.'' Frankfurt a.M./New York: Campus, 2009. (edited with Debra Hopkins, Jochen Kleres, and Helmut Kuzmics & contributed one chapter) * Methods for Exploring Emotions. London. Routledge, 2015. (edited with Jochen Kleres, also contributed three chapters)

References

External links

Flam's personal page at Leipzig University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flam, Helena 1951 births Women sociologists German sociologists Living people Columbia University alumni Lund University alumni Swedish emigrants to Germany