Mannheim, Karl

Karl Mannheim was born in Budapest, Hungary, on March 27, 1893, into a middle-class Jewish family. He received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Budapest and early in his academic career worked under the renowned Marxist György Lukács. Following the takeover of Hungary in 1919 by a communist, anti-Semitic regime, Mannheim was forced to relocate to Heidelberg, Germany. It was here that he met his future wife and fellow academic (with a doctorate in psychology), Juliska Lang. In 1930, he was appointed to the position of director of the College of Sociology at Goethe University in Frankfurt, sharing a building with the famed Institute of Social Research and its critical theorists. Again, however, when Hitler came to power, anti-Semitism forced Mannheim to flee his home in 1933 for England. He lectured at the London School of Economics and later held a full professorship at the University of London. Suffering from a heart defect from birth, Mannheim died on January 9, 1947, at the age of 53.

It might seem as though Mannheim was cursed from birth; however, many of his “curses” turned out to be blessings in disguise, at least for his intellectual career. Although his Jewish background forced him to relocate many times, this relocation helped expose him to a variety of ideas. There is a marked transition in his work from philosophy (Hungary) to sociology (Germany) and finally to the application of sociology (England). It was also his refugee status that probably led him to one of his most formative ideas, the “socially unattached intelligentsia” (discussed later).

Although Mannheim is not considered by many to be an important figure in sociology, a number of aspects about his career and contribution to the field run counter to this argument. Most important, Mannheim is the person primarily responsible for the creation of the subfield of the sociology of knowledge. Additionally, it was Mannheim's persistence that helped this subfield establish itself, and it is considered an important area of study today.

[Page 470]Given the early guidance of Lukács, it is no wonder that one sees a heavy Marxian influence on Mannheim's work. In fact, he credits Marx with creating the forerunner to the sociology of knowledge with his theories on ideology. The key to distinguishing Mannheim from Marx, however, is that Mannheim created the sociology of knowledge largely in opposition to Marx's theories of ideology. Thus, although Marx believed that ideologies were consciously undertaken distortions of reality that sought to benefit the ruling economic class, Mannheim believed that many distortions are not conscious but rather emerge from certain social blocs and consequently are one-sided and appear to reflect self-interestedly the interests of that class. Such ideologies, however, are not necessarily rooted in economics (e.g., they can be based on generations, political viewpoints, or race) and are not necessarily blatant attempts at hegemonic control. Consequently, Mannheim defined the sociology of knowledge as the study of “the relationship between human thought and the conditions of existence in general” (1936:277).

Another distinguishing feature of Mannheim's approach was that it was markedly sociological (as opposed to ideological). For example, he favored an extrinsic perspective, one available primarily to “unbiased” sociologists, as opposed to an intrinsic perspective that tends more frequently to create biased interpretations. Furthermore, he believed that the individual actor is the mediator between the purely empirical social world and knowledge. This reflected Mannheim's concern with existentialism and the social determination of knowledge.

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