Steffen Roth


Steffen Roth is an academic and author on management, economics, and sociology. He is currently Full Professor of Management at the La Rochelle Business School, and Adjunct Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Turku.

Academic Background

Roth earned his Diploma in Sociology from the Chemnitz University of Technology in 2002, his PhD in Economics and Management from the same university in 2010, and his PhD in Sociology from the University of Geneva in 2013. He holds a Habilitation in Economic and Environmental Sociology awarded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research.

Career

From 2010-2011, Roth was Visiting Professor and Open Society Institute and Soros Foundations Network Academic Fellow at the Yerevan State University Department of Sociology, where he still is Affiliate Professor. From 2012 to 2016 and 2017, respectively, he was tenured Assistant Professor of Management and Organization at the ESC Rennes School of Business and Visiting Professor at the International University of Rabat.

Research

Being a third generation social systems theorist influenced by the works of Niklas Luhmann, Roth's major research is on theories and applications of functional differentiation in modern societies. Roth was among the first to apply culturomics in sociology, with one major result of this research being that the definition of modern societies as capitalist or economized may be inappropriate. Roth is furthermore engaged in research on multifunctional organizations and markets. He also published on innovation as well as on next strategies for post-capitalism and degrowth.

Service to the Scientific Community

Roth is Associate Editor of Kybernetes, the Field Editor for social systems theory of Systems Research and Behavioral Science, and a Member of the Editorial Board of the Journal Cybernetics and Human Knowing.