Dear colleagues,

It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear friend and colleague, Professor Dr. Georg Krücken, passed away on Monday, October 7, 2024, at the University Hospital of Hannover, with his partner Anna Kosmützky by his side and after a farewell to his family and loved ones. Earlier this year, Georg was diagnosed with cancer. He was full of hope for six months, but the vicious illness did not recede. He will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

Georg was widely recognized as a leading sociologist in the field of higher education research. His scholarship has been foundational to a novel organizational perspective on science, situating universities at the forefront and focusing on the dramatic changes that have transformed today’s universities. He also made major contributions to the advancement of sociological institutionalism at a time when this line of thinking was less known in Europe. He conducted remarkable empirical research, employing a broad range of sophisticated methods, while consistently aligning his work with his passion for advancing institutional theory.

Georg was raised and educated in a small town in North Rhine-Westphalia and subsequently attended the University of Bielefeld, where he pursued studies in sociology and philosophy. During his time at the University of Bielefeld, he spent a year at the University of Bologna. After his PhD, he became research assistant at the University of Bielefeld, specializing in the sociology of science. Prior to his appointment as director of the Center for Higher Education (INCHER) at the University of Kassel, he was professor at the University of Speyer. During this time, he returned to Italy as a visiting professor and research fellow, spent a year in Paris, and visited Stanford on several occasions.

Georg was a highly successful researcher. He developed a research program that has made a substantial contribution to the advancement of institutional theory. His research highlights modern actorhood and the ways it is related to a world which increasingly constructs manifold competitions, not confined to markets but spreading to manifold domains and also in the pursuit of status and attention. Trained as a sociologist of science, universities became the primary focus of his empirical investigations. He published extensively and had a profound impact on higher education research. Until shortly before his death, Georg was active as researcher and mentor. 

Georg was of utmost importance for our network that formed around sociological neo-institutionalism. Together with Peter and Renate, Georg was one of the initiators of the network twenty years ago with the aim of promoting exchange between the then truly few researchers across various disciplines in the German-speaking academia who were working on this theory, and to form a community that would both reconnect the theory with its German-speaking roots and contribute to its further development. When the network became open to international scholars, Georg’s research interests and communities enriched every year’s workshop. Georg was involved in the organization of each of our annual workshops. Our New Institutionalism network would not exist or have lasted without his insights, energy, inspiration, kindness, jokes, and laughter. 

As colleagues, we mourn not only the loss of an esteemed member of our scientific community but also the departure of a kind and engaging individual. Those of us who had the privilege of meeting him will remember him as a passionate and constructive discussant, always eager to provide guidance and support especially to younger scholars. His presence brought warmth and energy to our gatherings. 

Georg was such a kind, generous, and wonderful person. He gave so much of his time, both as an intellectual and as a friend. We will immensely miss him. 

Raimund Hasse, Renate Meyer, and Peter Walgenbach