Peter Weingart

Life and academic career

Peter Weingart studied sociology and economics from 1961 until 1967 at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg and Freie Universität Berlin. Till 1968, he was University Fellow at Princeton University in New Jersey and received a doctorate 1969 at the Freie Universität Berlin. The thesis was about the American scientific lobby in the process of research planning.

Weingart had various assignements with the Berlin University and was science expert for the German unions economic institute in Düsseldorf and directed the center of Science research at Bielefeld University. 1973 he received a tenure in Bielefeld. In the mid 1980s, he received various fellowships at Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and Harvard University. From 1989 till 2009 he was again in Bielefeld. Since 2015 Weingart has held the South African Research Chair in Science communication at Stellenbosch University.

Weingart is member of Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg, the Hanseatic League Institute for Advanced Study. He was among the editors of Scientometrics, Minerva (journal) and International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. and publisher of Yearbook Sociology of the Sciences and advisor for Suhrkamp Verlag.

Positions and interests

Weingart started early to examine the production of knowledge and its interaction with politics and the media. His book Wissen Beraten Entscheiden (knowledge, advice, decide) described forms of science advice to politics in Germany. He wrote as well a book about the science base for the German eugenics studies and their interaction with Racial hygiene policy.

For the present, Weingart states a higher importance of PR agencies intermediating between science and public and saw a trend of a more 'public science' within a postindustrial information society. The medias role as fourth estate increases and influences science findings already in its production state. It may be attractive for some scientists, to use their celebrity status in the media as means of gaining acceptance for their findings or for their preferred fields of study. Such celeb bonuses weaken however peer review controlling mechanisms. Weingart saw the hype about of Daniel Goldhagens books in Germany as such an example.

Weingart took as well the climate change debate as an example, where the public announcement of findings may backfire. The public debate about climate change in Germany was on its heights around 1986, when the energy committee of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft (AKE) predicted a climate catastrophy rendering earth a dead planet within 50 years. The scientists asked in parallel to increase nuclear power stations to reduce CO2 emissions. When metereologists started to criticize the alarmist tone, the AKE toned down its conclusions to climate change instead of climate desaster. However the public scene kept using the alarmist conclisions first and later on doubted scientists overall credibility on the topic.

Weingart prefers science communication to provide proof of uncertainties and ignorance combined with established facts. The basic aspects of "Verwissenschaftlichung der Gesellschaft – Politisierung der Wissenschaft" (a scientification of society and politization of science) go hand in hand.

Selected papers