Short-CV

Boris Holzer is a professor of General Sociology and Macrosociology at the University of Konstanz since 2016. He has been a Principal Investigator of the Centre for Human | Data | Society since 2022. He obtained a master’s degree in Sociology, Psychology and Computer Science at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University München in 1996. In 2001 he received his PhD in Sociology (thesis: Transnational Subpolitics and Corporate Discours) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Until 2019 he was a Principal Investigator of the Cluster of Excellence ‘Cultural Foundations of Integration’, currently he is a Principal Investigator of the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality” of the University of Konstanz and a member of the section Political Sociology of the German Sociological Association. Boris Holzer has expert knowledge in sociological theories of communication, the analysis of social and digital networks and the macrosociology of digitalization. His research focuses on network theory linking recent network analytic models with social theoretical considerations. He investigates social movements that address issues of transnational justice and civil society regulation, and has also monitored the emergence and development of new social movements in the context of the Corona pandemic

Research-related publications

• Holzer, B. (2018). Varieties and variations of functional differentiation. Soziale Systeme 23(1-2), 15-30.
• Holzer, B. (2010). Moralizing the Corporation: Transnational Activism and Corporate Accountability. Cheltenham, UK: E. Elgar.
• Holzer, B. (2010). Netzwerke [Networks]. Bielefeld: transcript (2nd edition).
• Holzer, B. (2008). Das Leiden der Anderen: Episodische Solidarität in der Weltgesellschaft [The suffering of others: episodic solidarity in world society]. Soziale Welt 59(2), 141-156.
• Holzer, B. (2007). Wie “modern” ist die Weltgesellschaft? [How “modern” is world society?] Soziale Systeme 13(1+2), 355-366.
• Holzer, B. (2007). Framing the corporation: Royal Dutch/Shell and human rights woes in Nigeria. Journal of Consumer Policy 30(3, Special Issue on Shopping for Human Rights), 281-301.
• Holzer, B. (2006). Political consumerism between individual choice and collective Action: social movements, role mobilization and signalling. International Journal for Consumer Studies 30 (Special Issue), 406-415.
• Holzer, B. (2005). Vom globalen Dorf zur kleinen Welt: Netzwerke und Konnektivität in der Weltgesellschaft [From the global village to the small world: networks and connectivity in world society], in Weltgesellschaft: Theoretische Zugänge und empirische Problemlagen (Special Issue of Zeitschrift für Soziologie), ed. by B. Heintz, R. Münch & H. Tyrell, Stuttgart: Lucius & Lucius, 314-329.
• Holzer, B., & May, S. (2005). Herrschaft kraft Nichtwissen? Politische und rechtliche Folgeprobleme der Regulierung neuer Risiken [Authority through ignorance? Consequences of the regulation of new risks]. Soziale Welt 56 (2/3), 317-335.
• Holzer, B., & Millo, Y. (2005). From risks to second-order dangers in financial markets: unintended consequences of risk management systems. New Political Economy 10(2), 223-245.
• Holzer, B. (2021). Zwischen Protest und Parodie: Strukturen der "Querdenken"-Kommunikation auf Telegram. In S. Reichardt (Ed.), Die Misstrauensgemeinschaft der Querdenker (pp. 125–157). Frankfurt/New York: Campus.
• Holzer, B. (2021): Communication, differentiation and evolution in the history of world society. In M. Albert & T. Werron (Eds.), What in the World? An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Global Social Change (pp. 63-79). Bristol: Bristol University Press.
• Holzer, B., & Stegbauer, C. (Eds.) (2019). Schlüsselwerke der Netzwerkforschung [Key works of network research]. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
• Holzer, B. & Sklair, L. (2021): Western Europe: planetary eurocentrism. In L. Sklair (Ed.), The Anthropocene in Global Media. Neutralizing the Risk (pp. 159–186). Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
• Holzer, B. (2020): Die kleine Welt der Pandemie. In: C. Stegbauer & I. Clemens (Eds.), Corona-Netzwerke – Gesellschaft im Zeichen des Virus (pp. 27–34). Wiesbaden: Springer.
• Holzer, B. (2015). The two faces of world society. In B. Holzer, F. Kastner & T. Werron (Eds.), From Globalization to World Society (pp. 37-60). London/New York: Routledge.
• Holzer, B. (2011). Die Differenzierung von Netzwerk, Interaktion und Gesellschaft [The differentiation of network, interaction and society]. In M. Bommes & V. Tacke (Eds.), Netzwerke in der funktional differenzierten Gesellschaft (pp. 51-66). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
• Holzer, B. (2011). Netzwerke [Networks]. In A. Niederberger & P. Schink (Eds.), Globalisierung: Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch (pp. 339-345). Stuttgart/Weimar: J.B. Metzler
• Holzer, B. (2010). Von der Beziehung zum System – und zurück? Relationale Soziologie und Systemtheorie [From relationships to systems – and back again? Relational sociology and systems theory]. In J. Fuhse & S. Mützel (Eds.), Relationale Soziologie (pp. 97-116). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
• Holzer, B. (2008). Netzwerke und Systeme: Zum Verhältnis von Vernetzung und Differenzierung [Networks and systems]. In C. Stegbauer (Ed.), Netzwerk-analyse und Netzwerktheorie. Ein neues Paradigma in den Sozialwissenschaften (pp. 155-164). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.