Research Institute for Sustainability Helmholtz Centre Potsdam

Prof. Dr. Barbara Adam

Prof. Dr. Dr. Barbara Adam

Affiliate Scholar

Prof Dr Dr Barbara Adam, FAcSS, FLSW is Emerita Professor at Cardiff University, Wales, UK. Social time has been the intellectual project throughout her academic career, which facilitated a unique perspective and produced path-breaking publications on the subject, resulting in five research monographs, five edited books and a large number of articles in which she sought to bring time to the centre of social and socio-environmental analysis. Two of her books have been awarded book prizes and she successfully competed for numerous social theory-based research grants. She held Fellowships in Italy and UK, the Max Weber Professorship at Munich University and the prestigious ESRC Professorial Fellowship (2003-2007), which enabled her to explicitly focus on the social relations of the future. In 1992 she founded the journal Time & Society, which she edited for ten years and has been supporting ever since as Consulting Editor. Her work is read and taught across the disciplines from the Arts and Humanities to the Social and Environmental Sciences.

  • 2014: Emerita Professor, Cardiff University
  • 1987 - 2014: Lecturer, SL, Reader, Professor at School of Social Sciences Cardiff University
  • 2007: DSCEcon, Cardiff University
  • 1987: PhD, University of Wales
  • 1983: BSCEcon, University of Wales, College Cardif

  • Social time, time theory
  • Socio-environmental theory
  • Social approaches to the future, futures theory & methodolog

Publications at the RIFS

Publications prior to joining the RIFS

Bücher / Books:

  • Adam, B. (2007): with Groves, C. Future Matters. Action, Knowledge, Ethics. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 218 pp., ISBN 978-90-04-16177-1 (hc)
  • Adam, B. (2004): Time, Polity Key Concepts Series, Cambridge, UK & Malden, MA: Polity Press, 184 pp. ISBN 0-7456-2777-3 (hc) ISBN 0-7456-2778-1 (pb)
  • Adam, B. (1998): Timescapes of Modernity. The Environment and Invisible Hazards, London/New York: Routledge, 250 pp., ISBN 0415162742 (hb) ISBN 0415162750 (pb)
  • Adam, B. (1995): Timewatch: The Social Analysis of Time, Cambridge: Polity Press, 193 pp., ISBN 0-7456-1021-X (hb) & ISBN 0-7456-1021-2 (pb); Williston, VT: Blackwell, 224 pp., 0-7456-1020-X (hb) & 0-7456-1461-2 (pb)
  • Adam, B. (1990): Time and Social Theory, Cambridge: Polity; Philadelphia: Temple UP 192 pp., ISBN 0-7456-0740-3 (hb) & ISBN 0-7456-1407-8 (pb)

Artikel / Articles:

  • Adam, B. (2017): 'Time by design', New Geographies 09, 43-45. ISBN 978-1-45150-7-22
  • Adam, B. (2014): 'Future matters for ageing research' in Imagining Futures. Methodological Issues for Research in to Ageing. J Bornat and R.L. Jones eds., Open University, pp. 11-25. ISBN 978 0 90413914 3
  • Adam, B. (2013): 'Sustainability through a temporal lens: Time, future, process' in Netzwerk Vorsorgendes Wirtschaften eds., Wege vorsorgenden Wirtschaftens, Marburg: Metropolis Verlag, pp.115 - 133 ISBN 978-3-89518-971-5
  • Adam, B. (2012): 'Globalization and the future', Encyclopedia of Globalization, Volume 2, Georg Ritzer ed., 713-718 ISBN 9781405188241
  • Adam, B. (2012): 'Sustainability and gender from a time-ecological perspective' in Hofmeister, S., Katz, C. and Moelders, T. (Hrsg.) Geschlechterverhaeltnisse und Nachhaltigkeit. Die Kategorie Geschlecht in den Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaften. Opladen: Barbara Budrich, pp.304 - 312 ISBN 978-3-8474-0010-3, eISBN 978-3-86649-563-0
  • Adam, B. (2011): 'Towards a Twenty-First-Century sociological engagements with the future', Insights, 4/11, 1-18, ISSN 1756-2074 online
  • Adam, B. (2011): 'Wendell Bell and the sociology of the future: Challenges past, present and future', Futures 43: 590 - 595, ISSN 0016-3287
  • Adam, B. (2010): 'History of the future: Paradoxes and challenges', Rethinking History 14/3: 361 -378, ISSN 1364-2529 print, ISSN 1470-1154 online
  • Adam, B. (2009): 'Futures in the making: Sociological practice and challenge', in Jeffries, V. ed. Handbook of Public Sociology. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, pp. 429 - 445 ISBN 978-0-7425-6646-0
  • Adam, B. (2009): 'Cultural future matters: An exploration in the spirit of Max Weber's methodological writings', Time & Society 18/1: 7 - 25, ISSN 0961-463X
  • Adam, B. (2008): 'Future matters. Futures known, created and minded', 21st Century Society, Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences, 3/2: 109 - 224, ISSN 1745-0144
  • Adam, B. (2004): 'Memory of futures', KronoScope 4(1): 297-315 ISSN 1567-715x

  • 02/2016: Timescapes, futurescapes, Design Ecol, Paris, Keynote
  • 05/2015: Memory of the Future, ESA & ISA Congress, Naples, Keynote
  • 11/2012: Sustainability through a Temporal Lens, Vorsorgendes Wirtschaften 10th Anniversary, Berlin, Keynote
  • 06/2012: Futures Theory & Methodology ERC Paris, Keynote
  • 09/2011: Governing Innovative Technology Futures, Vienna University, Keynote
  • 02/2010: Zeitvielfalt in der Evolution aus gesellschaftstheoretischer Sicht, Vortragsreihe Berlin-Brandenburgischen Wissenschaftsakademie, Keynote
  • 10/2008: Time & Identity, Italian Sociological Assoc. Congress, Milano, Keynote
  • 10/2008: Generali Executive Forum, Cologne, Keynote

  • 2011: Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, UK
  • 2009: Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, UK
  • 1995: J T Fraser Prize awarded by the International Society for the Study of Time for `A Book of Excellence in Time Studies'
  • 1990: Philip Abrams Memorial Prize awarded by the British Sociological Association for `Best First Book

  • Time & Society (Founder & Consulting Editor)