Johann P. Arnason, born 1940 in Iceland, studied philosophy, history and sociology in Prague and Frankfurt. He taught sociology in Heidelberg and Bielefeld from 1972 to 1975, and at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, from 1975 to 2003. He has been a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and at the University of Leipzig, and a research fellow of the Alexander v. Humboldt-Stiftung, the Swedish Institute of Advanced Studies, the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (Essen), the Lichtenberg-Kolleg in Göttingen and the Max-Weber-Kolleg in Erfurt.
He is now emeritus professor of sociology at La Trobe University and teaches every winter semester at the Faculty of Humanities. His research interests centre on social theory and historical sociology, with particular emphasis on the comparative analysis of civilizations.
His publications include:
Praxis und Interpretation – Sozialphilosophische Studien. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1988.
The Future that Failed: Origins and Destinies of the Soviet Model. London: Routledge, 1993.
Social Theory and Japanese Experience: The Dual Civilization. London: Sage, 1997.
Civilizations in Dispute: Historical Questions and Theoretical Traditions, Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2003.
Eurasian Transformations, Tenth to Thirteenth Centuries: Crystallizations, Divergences, Renaissances (co-edited with Björn Wittrock). Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2004.
Axial Civilizations and World History (co-edited with S.N. Eisenstadt and Björn Wittrock). Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2005.
Domains and Divisions of European History (co-edited with Natalie Doyle). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010.
The Roman Empire in Context: Historical and Comparative Perspectives (co-edited with Kurt Raaflaub). Oxford, Malden: 2011.
Nordic Paths to Modernity (co-edited with Björn Wittrock). Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books.
