Karl Mannheim

Karl Mannheim (born March 27, 1893, Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now in Hungary]—died January 9, 1947, London, England) was a sociologist in Germany before the rise of Adolf Hitler and then in the United Kingdom who is remembered for his “sociology of knowledge” and for his work on the problems of leadership and consensus in modern societies.

After teaching at the Universities of Heidelberg (1926–30) and Frankfurt am Main (1930–33), Mannheim lectured on sociology at the London School of Economics, University of London (1933–45), and was professor of the philosophy and sociology of education at that university’s Institute of Education (1945–47).

His sociology of knowledge broadened Karl Marx’s notion that the proletariat and bourgeoisie develop different belief systems. In Mannheim’s view, social conflict is caused by the diversity in thoughts and beliefs (ideologies) among major segments of society that derive from differences in social location. Ideas and beliefs are rooted in larger thought systems (Weltanschauungen), a phenomenon Mannheim called relationism. He elaborated on these concepts in Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge (1929). In the posthumously published Freedom, Power, and Democratic Planning (1950), Mannheim tried to reconcile his dislike of totalitarianism with his growing belief in the need for social planning. Mannheim’s relationism never adequately confronted charges that it verged on relativism; it also failed to explain how scientific knowledge arises.