Mannheim, Karl

(born March 27, 1893, Budapest, Austria-Hungary—died Jan. 9, 1947, London, Eng.) Hungarian sociologist. Mannheim taught in Germany (University of Heidelberg, 1926–30; Frankfurt am Main, 1930–33) before the rise of Adolph Hitler. He was invited to England by political scientist Harold Laski and for the rest of his career taught there (London School of Economics, 1933–43; University of London, 1943–47). He helped found the sociology of knowledge, the study of how knowledge is produced and maintained in societies. He emphasized the role that ideology plays in shaping knowledge, a view he discussed in his major work, Ideology and Utopia (1929).

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