Mustafa Emirbayer

Last updated

Mustafa Emirbayer
Born
Alma mater University of California, Davis (B.A.)
Harvard University (M.A.) (Ph.D.)
Known for Social network analysis, relational sociology
AwardsLewis A. Coser Award, Clifford Geertz Award
Scientific career
FieldsSociology
Institutions University of Wisconsin–Madison
Doctoral advisor Nathan Glazer
Other academic advisors Theda Skocpol, Daniel Bell, David Riesman
Doctoral students Matthew Desmond, Mimi Sheller, Jacques Berlinerblau, Shamus Khan

Mustafa Emirbayer is an American sociologist and professor of sociology at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is known for his theoretical contributions to social network analysis, and is "one of the most vocal advocates of the relational approach in the social sciences." [1] In 2009 he won the Lewis A. Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda-Setting from the American Sociological Association.

Contents

Career

Emirbayer was born in Detroit, Michigan, to parents of Turkish and Crimean Tatar descent. He also spent part of his childhood in Santa Barbara, California, and his high school years in Mexico City, Mexico. [2] He attended the University of California, Davis and received his BA in psychology (with minors in English and History) in 1980. He originally enrolled in the graduate program in psychology at the University of Michigan, where he first took coursework from the sociologist Charles Tilly. He soon realized that he wanted to study sociology as he felt psychology at the time neglected culture, institutions and history. [2] Emirbayer went on to receive his MA in 1985 and PhD in 1989 from Harvard University, both in sociology. His dissertation was "Moral Education in American, 1830–1990" under the direction of Nathan Glazer (chair), Daniel Bell, David Riesman, and Theda Skocpol.

Emirbayer attended Harvard shortly after the "revolution" in social network analysis, [3] and later at The New School, along with colleagues Charles Tilly and Harrison White, he played a key role in The New York School of relational sociology. [4] In 2015, he became the editor-in-chief of the journal Sociological Theory . [5]

Major contributions

When he was at the New School for Social Research, along with co-author Jeff Goodwin, Emirbayer won the 1994 Clifford Geertz Award for Best Article in Cultural Sociology [6] for the article “Network Analysis, Culture, and the Problem of Agency”. [7]

Inspired by discussions at a series of mini-conferences organized by Harrison White at the Lazarsfeld Center, [8] Emirbayer began to write a systematic statement regarding the "relational turn" he felt was necessary for sociology. [2] In 1997 he published the Manifesto for Relational Sociology [9] in the American Journal of Sociology , which brought various social theorists together under one label.

His most-cited publication, with Ann Mische, is their 1998 article "What is Agency?" [10] In the article, the authors apply "relational pragmatics" to demonstrate the "dynamic interplay" of routine, purpose and judgement in explaining human agency.

In 2009 he was elected to the Chair of the Sociological Theory Section of the American Sociological Association. Also in 2009 he won the Lewis A. Coser Award for Theoretical Agenda-Setting. [11]

In 2014, Emirbayer was a keynote speaker at Yale's Center for Cultural Sociology special conference on "Advancing Cultural Sociology". [12]

Related Research Articles

Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of society", established in the 18th century. In addition to sociology, it now encompasses a wide array of academic disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, economics, human geography, linguistics, management science, communication science, psychology and political science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of sociology</span> Overview of and topical guide to sociology

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the discipline of sociology:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of academic disciplines</span> Academic fields of study or professions

An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of knowledge, taught and researched as part of higher education. A scholar's discipline is commonly defined by the university faculties and learned societies to which they belong and the academic journals in which they publish research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social exchange theory</span> Generalization theory explaining social behaviour regarding society and economics

Social exchange theory is a sociological and psychological theory that studies the social behavior in the interaction of two parties that implement a cost-benefit analysis to determine risks and benefits. The theory also involves economic relationships—the cost-benefit analysis occurs when each party has goods that the other parties value. Social exchange theory suggests that these calculations occur in romantic relationships, friendships, professional relationships, and ephemeral relationships as simple as exchanging words with a customer at the cash register. Social exchange theory says that if the costs of the relationship are higher than the rewards, such as if a lot of effort or money were put into a relationship and not reciprocated, then the relationship may be terminated or abandoned.

In the field of sociology, cultural capital comprises the social assets of a person that promote social mobility in a stratified society. Cultural capital functions as a social relation within an economy of practices, and includes the accumulated cultural knowledge that confers social status and power; thus cultural capital comprises the material and symbolic goods, without distinction, that society considers rare and worth seeking. There are three types of cultural capital: (i) embodied capital, (ii) objectified capital, and (iii) institutionalised capital.

Relationalism is any theoretical position that gives importance to the relational nature of things. For relationalism, things exist and function only as relational entities. Relationalism may be contrasted with relationism, which tends to emphasize relations per se.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social movement theory</span> Interdisciplinary social study

Social movement theory is an interdisciplinary study within the social sciences that generally seeks to explain why social mobilization occurs, the forms under which it manifests, as well as potential social, cultural, political, and economic consequences, such as the creation and functioning of social movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harrison White</span> American sociologist (born 1930)

Harrison Colyar White is the emeritus Giddings Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. White played an influential role in the “Harvard Revolution” in social networks and the New York School of relational sociology. He is credited with the development of a number of mathematical models of social structure including vacancy chains and blockmodels. He has been a leader of a revolution in sociology that is still in process, using models of social structure that are based on patterns of relations instead of the attributes and attitudes of individuals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mathematical sociology</span> Interdisciplinary field of research

Mathematical sociology is an interdisciplinary field of research concerned with the use of mathematics within sociological research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology</span> Social science that studies human society and its development

Sociology is the scientific and systematic study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. Regarded as a part of both the social sciences and humanities, sociology uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order and social change. Sociological subject matter ranges from micro-level analyses of individual interaction and agency to macro-level analyses of social systems and social structure. Applied sociological research may be applied directly to social policy and welfare, whereas theoretical approaches may focus on the understanding of social processes and phenomenological method.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agency (sociology)</span> Refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices

In social science, agency is the capacity of individuals to have the power and resources to fulfill their potential. For instance, structure consists of those factors of influence that determine or limit agents and their decisions. The influences from structure and agency are debated—it is unclear to what extent a person's actions are constrained by social systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social network</span> Social structure made up of a set of social actors

A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors, sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for analyzing the structure of whole social entities as well as a variety of theories explaining the patterns observed in these structures. The study of these structures uses social network analysis to identify local and global patterns, locate influential entities, and examine network dynamics.

Omar Lizardo is an American sociologist who is LeRoy Neiman Term Chair Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was previously professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame (2006-2018), and co-editor of the American Sociological Review. In 2020, Lizardo became a member of the board of reviewing editors of the journal Science. He has also served on the editorial board of the journals Social Forces, Sociological Forum, Poetics, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, Theory and Society, Sociological Theory, and Journal of World-Systems Research.

Ann Mische is an American sociologist and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame and a Professor of Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. She is particularly known for her contributions to political sociology, relational sociology, social networks, and contentious politics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Relational sociology</span>

Relational sociology is a collection of sociological theories that emphasize relationalism over substantivalism in explanations and interpretations of social phenomena and is most directly connected to the work of Harrison White and Charles Tilly in the United States and Pierpaolo Donati and Nick Crossley in Europe.

John W. Mohr (1956-2019) was an American sociologist and Professor of Sociology at University of California-Santa Barbara. He was widely cited in the subfields of the sociology of culture, organizational sociology, institutional analysis, and social network analysis. His focus was on "developing applications of formal methods of relational (network) analysis to the study of discourse in institutional systems." He was considered a "pioneer in modeling cultural forms," and in 1996, he won the Clifford Geertz Award for Best Article in Cultural Sociology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Desmond</span> American sociologist

Matthew Desmond is a sociologist and the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton University, where he is also the principal investigator of the Eviction Lab. Desmond was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2022. He was formerly the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierpaolo Donati</span>

Pierpaolo Donati is an Italian sociologist and philosopher of social science, who is considered one of the main exponents of relational sociology and a prominent thinker in relational theory.

Relational mobility is a sociological variable that represents how much freedom individuals have to choose which persons to have relationships with, including friendships, working relationships, and romantic partnerships in a given society. Societies with low relational mobility have less flexible interpersonal networks. People form relationships based on circumstance rather than active choice. In these societies, relationships are more stable and guaranteed, while there are fewer opportunities to leave unsatisfying relationships and find new ones. Group memberships tend to be fixed, and individuals have less freedom to select or change these relationships even if they wished to.

References

  1. Erikson, Emily (2013). "Formalist and relationalist theory in social network analysis" (PDF). Sociological Theory. 31 (3): 219–242. doi:10.1177/0735275113501998. S2CID   19492749 . Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 "Emirbayer's Bio". www.ssc.wisc.edu. Archived from the original on February 19, 2015. Retrieved July 18, 2014.
  3. "Chapter 2 -- intro".
  4. "BIO". ssc.wisc.edu. Archived from the original on July 31, 2010.
  5. Goldberg, Chad Alan (September–October 2015). "Sociological Theory Welcomes New Editor Mustafa Emirbayer". Footnotes. American Sociological Association. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
  6. "Section On Culture Past Award Recipients". March 8, 2011. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  7. Emirbayer, Mustafa; Goodwin, Jeff (1994). "Emirbayer, Mustafa, and Jeff Goodwin. "Network analysis, culture, and the problem of agency." American Journal of Sociology (1994): 1411–1454". American Journal of Sociology. 99 (6): 1411–1454. doi:10.1086/230450. JSTOR   2782580. S2CID   143965662.
  8. Mische, Ann (2011). "Relational sociology, culture, and agency". In John Scott; Peter J. Carrington (eds.). The SAGE Handbook of Social Network Analysis. pp. 80–97.
  9. Emirbayer, Mustafa (1997). "Manifesto for Relational Sociology". American Journal of Sociology. 103 (2): 281–317. doi:10.1086/231209. JSTOR   231209. S2CID   143961131.
  10. Emirbayer, Mustafa, and Ann Mische. "What is agency? 1." American Journal of Sociology 103.4 (1998): 962–1023. www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/231294
  11. "ASAnet.org". Theory Section Awards Recipients History. November 3, 2010.
  12. "CCS Anniversary Conference ~ Advancing Cultural Sociology ~ Spring 2014 | Center for Cultural Sociology". Archived from the original on October 23, 2014. Retrieved October 18, 2014.