Prof. Dr. Erwin Scheuch is the former President of the German Sociological Association; former President of the Association of Sociological Research Institutes; former President of the International Institute of Sociology; former Executive of the International Sociological Association; Founder of "Bund Freiheit der Wissenschaften" (Federation for Freedom of the Sciences); board member of the Social Affairs Unit (England); former Director of the Central Archive for Empirical Social Research in Cologne (Germany); President of the Cologne Association for Social Research; President of the German Association for Communications Research.