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Department of Political Science and Public Administration

ALEXANDROS-ANDREAS KYRTSIS

Post: Professor Emeritus

Section: Social Theory and Sociology

Expertise: Sociology

 

Contact information

Electronic mail: akyrtsis[at]pspa.uoa[dot]gr

 

Curriculum Vitae

Alexandros-Andreas Kyrtsis is a Professor of Sociology, Emeritus (active in the University of Athens till 2019). His main fields of research are sociology of technology with special reference to social and organisational informatics, economic sociology and social studies of finance, social history of ideas, and social theory of urban and geographical space. He has held teaching appointments at the University of Zurich; the University of Crete, where he was also adviser to the President, responsible for the organisation of the School of the Social Sciences; at the Universities of Thessaly and the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences. He was visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT - Program in Science Technology and Society), the London School of Economics and Political Science, at the University of Edinburgh, at the Institute of Advanced Studies on Science, Technology & Society in Graz, and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. He has been commissioned consultancy and research projects for the Greek General Secretariat for Research and Technology, the European Commission, as well as for the financial and the information technology sector (Alpha Bank Greece, Hellenic Bankers Association, Unisystems Ltd, National Bank of Greece, Swiss Re).

Book publications

  1. (2014): Handbook of European Sociology (co-edited with Sokratis Koniordos). London and New York: Routledge.
  2. (2010): Financial Markets and Organizational Technologies: System Architectures, Practices and Risks in the Era of Deregulation (Edited volume). Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Banking and Financial Institutions.
  3. (2008): Technology and Organisation in the National Bank of Greece 1950-2000. Athens: Publications of the Historical Archive of the National Bank of Greece (in Greek, pp. 367).
  4. (2006): Constantinos A. Doxiadis: Texts, Design Drawings, Settlements, Athens: Ikaros (pp. 501).
  5. (2002): Technological Design and the Social Organization of the Digital Enterprise. Athens: Metaixmio (in Greek, pp. 477).
  6. (1999): Sociological Theory of Development (Edited Volume), Athens: Nisos Publications.
  7. (1996): Sociological Thought and Ideologies of Modernization in Interwar Greece, Athens: Nisos Publications.
  8. (1983): Regionales System und globalgesellschaftlicher Wandel, Diessenhofen: Verlag Rüegger.

Other selected publications

  1. “Die griechische Soziologie in deutscher weltanschauungsphilosophischer Gefangenschaft“. In: Jannis Pissis, Dimitris Karydas (Eds.), Deutschland und Griechenland im Spiegel der Philosophiegeschichte – Transfers im 20. Jahrhundert. Berlin: Edition Romiosini, 2018, pp. 93-119.
  2. "The Rise and Decline of Treaty Reinsurance: Changing roles of Reinsurers as Financial Service Providers". In N.-V. Haueter & G. Jones (eds.), Managing Risk in Reinsurance: From City Fires to Global Warming. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, pp. 144-181.
  3. "Die griechische Gesellschaft unter dem Druck der Krise". In U.-D. Klemm / W. Schultheiß (ed.), Die Krise in Griechenland. Frankfurt a.M. / New York: Campus, 2015, pp. 54-69.
  4. "Außenpolitik einer europäischen Provinz? Griechische Außenpolitik seit der Finanzkrise". WeltTrends - Das außenpolitische Journal, 2015, 103(23): 24–28.
  5. "The late ascent of the U.K. to a sociological great power: A comment from the margins". In Koniordos, S. and A.-A. Kyrtsis (eds.), Handbook of European Sociology. London and New York: Routledge, 2014, pp. 391-406.
  6. "Introduction" (with S. Koniordos). In: Koniordos, S. and A.-A. Kyrtsis (eds.), Handbook of European Sociology, London and New York: Routledge, 2014, pp. 1-12.
  7. "Reconstruction and the Modernization of the Tourist Gaze". In Aesopos, Y. (ed.), Tourism Landscapes: Remaking Greece. Catalogue of the Greek Pavilion, 14th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, 2014, pp. 120-135.
  8. "Coping with messiness and fogginess in financial information management: Material and social aspects of representations in proprietary trading and custodial services". In V. Lemieux (ed.), Financial Analysis and Risk Management: Data Governance, Analytics and Life Cycle Management, Berlin - Heidelberg: Springer, 2013, pp. 157-186.
  9. "Immoral panic and emotional operations in times of financial fragility". In J. Pixley (ed.) New Perspectives on Emotions in Finance, London: Routledge, 2012, pp. 49-65.
  10. "Insurance of Techno-Organizational Ventures and Procedural Ethics: Lessons from the Deepwater Horizon Explosion", Journal of Business Ethics, Vol.103, Supplement 1, (2011), pp. 45-61.
  11. "What role can contract law play in making risky technological projects safer and less expensive?" (with K. Webb and J. Brinkmann), Nordisk försäkringstidskrift / Scandinavian Insurance Quarterly, No. 4, 2011.
  12. Review Article "Two Procrustean Views on the Greek Crisis", South European Society and Politics, Vol. 16, No.4 (2011), pp. 575-580.
  13. Book Review: "New Frontiers in Science and Technology Studies by Steve Fuller", Sociological Research Online, Vol. 14, No.1, 2009.
  14. "Software Design Processes: A Note on Micro-Sociological Perspectives". In: Bammé, A. / Getzinger, G. / Wieser, B. (eds.), Yearbook 2007 of the Institute of Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society. München-Wien: Profil Verlag, 2008, pp. 193-223.
  15. "Context-aware uses of information technology and technophobia". In: Kouzelis, G. et al (eds.), Knowledge in the New Technologies. Frankfurt a. M. etc: Peter Lang, 2005, pp. 71-88.
  16. "Space, Information, and Social Networks of Innovation Finance". In: Schamp, E. W. and Theirstein, A.(eds.) (2003), Innovation, Finance and Space. Frankfurt Studies in Economic and Social Geography (Special Issue), No. 72. pp. 29-44.
  17. "Transdisciplinarity and Innovation in Banking", in: Scholz, R.W. et al. (Eds), Transdisciplinarity: Joint Problem-Solving among Science, Technology and Society. Zurich: Haffmans Sachbuch Verlag, Vol.II, 2000, pp.65-69.
  18. "The cultural background of quantitative research on public understanding of science and technology", in: Dierkes, M. / von Grote, Cl. (Eds.) Public Opinion and Public Debates. Berlin: WZB-Publications, 1998, pp.3-22. (with G. Kouzelis and V. Koulaidis.)
  19. "Greek interbellum modernizers and the sociological idea", International Sociology,1998. No.3, Vol.13, 311-324.
  20. "Greek Sociology: Does it really exist?", European Sociologist, Summer 1996, pp.10-11.

Conference papers

  1. “From Lobbyists to Backstage Diplomats: How Insurers in the Field of Third Party Nuclear Liability Shaped Science Diplomacy” (with Maria Rentetzi), Workshop on “Nuclear Diplomacies: Their Past, Present, and Future”, SOKENDAI, Hayama, 9-11 November 2018.
  2. "The Sociology of Ekistics and the spatial and technological dimensions of post-WWII Modernity: A note on the Delos deliberations", Symposium on Ecistiks, Delos Network, University of Birmingham, March 17, 2018.
  3. "Innovation and model governance in financial reinsurance", Conference on 'Performativity and Model Governance of Actuarial Models', Paris, FMSH, Febr. 13-14, 2018.
  4. "Organizing markets with conspiracies: Fictionality, Social Dilemma Resolution, and Collusion in the Case of the LIBOR rigging". SCORE International Conference on Organizing Markets, Stockholm School of Economics, October 16-17, 2014.
  5. "Insurance, Reinsurance, and Technologies of Financial Anti-Fragility: A Note on the Origins of Junk Bonds and CDOs". Annual Conference of the European Association of Banking and Financial History, 13 June 2014, Swiss Re, Rueschlikon, Switzerland.
  6. "Mechanisms and Complexity: Boudon’s non-deterministic theory of history and its relationship to social network analysis". Conference on the Legacy of Raymond Boudon – ETH Zurich, 29-30 May 2014.
  7. "Politics of organizational risk management and suboptimal social-dilemma resolution", 15th International Conference on Social Dilemmas, ETH Zürich, July 10-13, 2013.
  8. "Web Rhetoric: Intentionality and textuality on the web pages of insurance and reinsurance companies", Workshop "How the Web shapes what we believe and know, how we learn and what we are", Center for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Bielefeld, February 15-17, 2012.
  9. "Coping with Messiness and Fogginess in Financial Information Management: Material and social aspects", Interdisciplinary Workshop on Records and Information Management for Financial Analysis and Risk Management: Governance, Analytics and Life Cycle Management, Center for the Investigation of Financial Electronic Records (CiFER), Vancouver, August 24 & 25, 2011.
  10. "Legal-Risk Perception and Crisis Management in Complex Projects: Contracts, Project Finance Vehicles, and Insurance Underwriting as Attractors", Workshop on Complex Projects: Legal Risk Management, Contracts, and Insurance, Oslo, Norwegian Business School, August 19 & 20, 2011.
  11. "Insurance of Techno-Organizational Ventures and Procedural Ethics", Workshop on Insurance and Business Ethics, Munich, Munich Re, February 18 & 19, 2011.
  12. "The socio-logic of the IT Marketplace and long-term relationships between banks and IT firms" (with A. Kaniadakis), 4th Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems, Athens University of Economics and Business, 25-27 September 2009.
  13. "Financialisation, organisational politics, and operational risk management in banking and finance", 19th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE): Capitalism in Crisis, Paris, Sciences Po, 16-18 July 2009.
  14. "The Global Financial Crisis as a Challenge to Sociological Theory", Plenary Speech at the 2009 Interdisciplinary Social Science Conference, University of Athens, 8-11 July, 2009.
  15. "Shifting contracts, operational risk, and regulatory mythologies", Key Note Address at the Conference on Societal Risk in a Legal Perspective, University of Oslo - Faculty of Law, 15-16 June, 2009.
  16. «Discours cinématographiques et espaces urbains des récits quotidiens». Communication : Journée d'études «Ville et cinéma», Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Galerie Colbert, Paris, 12-12-2008.
  17. "Financial Deregulation and Technological Change". International One-Day Conference on "Global Change and Information Technology for Financial Institutions: The Turn of the Seventies", Historical Archives of the National Bank of Greece, Athens, November 29, 2008.
  18. "Unsettlement and Urban Self-Identity", Paper presented at the Conference "La ville intermédiale / The Intermedial City", McGill University, Montréal, October 9-11, 2008.
  19. "The Risk of Compliance. Compliance Officers and the Transfer of Regulatory Tensions into Financial Organisations". Paper Presented at the International Sociological Association World Forum of Sociology Barcelona, September 4-8, 2008.
  20. "Diagrammatic Rhetoric in Business and Architecture", Paper presented at the Conference "Imagining Business". Oxford University, Said Business School, June 26-27, 2008.
  21. "Context-awareness, emotional tensions and operational risk perception" Paper presented at the "Risk & Rationalities Conference", Queen's College, Cambridge, March 29-31, 2007.
  22. "Reflexive Modernization and Spatial Planning: Ideology, Rhetoric and Networking" Paper presented at the International Workshop "Space and Progress. Ekistics and the Global Context of Post-World War II urbanization and architecture". Athens, Benaki Museum, December 1-2, 2006.
  23. "Redefining Networks and Games: Figurational Sociology and the critique of static interactionism" Paper presented at the conference "Elias in the 21st Century", April 10-12, 2006, Beaumont Hall, University of Leicester, UK..
  24. "Strategies of abstraction. The case of theory and research on communities of action in virtual economic transaction networks". Paper presented at the International Conference of the European Sociological Association, Research Network on Social Theory, "What is Theory for?", Paris, September 16-17, 2004.
  25. "Social choices and the discursive embeddedness of economic decisions". Paper presented at the International Conference of the European Sociological Association, Research Network on Economic Sociology, "Economic Sociology: Problems and Prospects", Rethymno, September 8-10, 2004.
  26. "Transnational financial networks and the social geography of power". Paper presented at the International Conference: The Future of World Society, Zurich, 23-24 June 2004.
  27. "The computerisation of Greek banks: Human and organizational aspects". Paper presented at the Conference of the European Association for Banking History "The Human Factor in Banking: Entrepreneurs, Managers, Organisation and Personnel", Athens, June 2006.
  28. "The Bank and The IT-Company. A Greek case of organisational co-evolution (1975-2000)". Paper presented at the Accounting and Finance Research Unit Workshop, The Open University Business School, 27 June 2003.