Ralf Dahrendorf Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences 2007

At its meeting in Oviedo, the Jury for the 2007 Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences, made up of Mr. Lluis Xabel Álvarez, Mr. Gonzalo Anes, Mr. Rogelio Blanco, Mr. Raúl Bocanegra, Ms. María Emilia Casas Baamonde, Ms. Adela Cortina, Mr. Ángel Gabilondo, Mr. José Luis García Delgado, Mr. Manuel Jesús González, Mr. Luis González Seara, Ms. Carmen Iglesias, Mr. Juan Antonio Martínez Camino, Mr. Adolfo Menéndez, Mr. Aurelio Menéndez Menéndez, Mr. Manuel Menéndez, Ms. Ana Rosa Migoya, Mr. José Manuel Otero Novas, Mr. Mariano Puig Planas, Mr. Rafael Puyol, chaired by Mr. Manuel Fraga Iribarne with Mr. Juan Vázquez as secretary, has decided to bestow the 2007 Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences on Dr. Ralf Dahrendorf.

Professor Dahrendorf has had an excellent career teaching at prestigious universities, especially in Germany and the United Kingdom, where he has been a director of the London School of Economics and Political Science and a warden of St. Anthony´s College at Oxford. Concurrently, he has carried out extensive research work, publishing books and articles of renown on contemporary society, and in particular, on Europe and the welfare state. He has taken part in public life as a member of the German Parliament and as a Commissioner of the European Union.

In addition to his great contributions to the Social Sciences, the Jury wishes to honour his concern for a Europe based on open and cosmopolitan societies, where rights and liberties take root and are defended within a new international order, which will ensure that vital opportunities are spread universally, within a democracy where justice and the law are firmly established.

Oviedo, 11th July 2007