Jens O. Zinn

Jens O. Zinn is T.R. Ashworth Associate Professor of Sociology in the School of Social and Political Sciences. Before he joined the University of Melbourne in 2009, he worked at the Social Contexts and Responses to Risk priority Network (SCARR) in the UK (2003-8), and the collaborative research centres Reflexive Modernisation in Munich (1999-2002) and Status Passages and Risks in the Life Course in Bremen (1995-99).

Jens founded several international research networks on the Sociology of Risk and Uncertainty (SoRU) with the European Sociological Association (RN22, 2005) and the International Sociological Association (TG04, 2006). In 2015 he was awarded the prestigious Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel award by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for his scholarly achievements.

In 2023-24 he pursued his theoretical work on a Fellowship at the Institute of Advanced Studies/Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst/Germany. Since 2024 he is heading an interdisciplinary study group Learning about Risk and Crisis at the institute.

His research is driven by the question why social engagement with risky uncertainties seems often unreasonable and ignorant of available knowledge. However, even when knowledge is acknowledged and uncontested it remains often difficult to agree on best solutions. With growing complexity and volatility of knowledge, it becomes even more challenging to manage the unknowns of the future. Jens’ research aims to find better ways of managing the challenges of today’s (risk) societies when the state of exception has become the new normal.

The various research projects Jens conducted cover mainly three topics:

Biographical planning and decision making.
Everyday understanding and responses to risk including risk-taking.
Discourse semantics of risk, specifically historical changes.

Research activities include the transition into the labour market of young adults, British Ex-Servicemen managing risk and uncertainty, a social policy research initiative on social inclusion and the life course, a project on efficient strategies of climate change adaptation, discourse semantic analysis of risk in the New York Times and the Times.