Swedberg, Richard
ProfessorMy education is in law as well as in sociology; and my two main areas of research are economic sociology (including law and the economy) and sociological theory. From early on I have been fascinated by sociological theory, especially the classics, and I have written on various aspects of the works of Tocqueville, Saint-Simon, Durkheim and Weber. In the early 1980s I became interested in economic sociology, and I have had the pleasure of seeing this field grow from next to nothing into one of the major subfields in contemporary sociology. One goal in my work in economic sociology has been to get the field accepted and set it on a firm middle-range and pluralistic course. I have tried to accomplish this in various ways - by putting together conferences, anthologies, a reader, a handbook, and so on. My latest work in this vein is a work entitled Principles of Economic Sociology (2003).
research
research and scholarship focus
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Economic Sociology
Law and Economy
Sociological Theory
Classical Sociological Theories
primary investigator of
affiliations
faculty appointment in
- Sociology (SOC) | Cornell department
member of graduate field
- Sociology | graduate field
teaching
teaches
- SOC 6260 - Controversies in Economic Sociology (W 01:25:PM-04:25:PM) | fall 2009 class
- SOC 3750 - Classical Theory (TR 11:40:AM-12:55:PM) | fall 2008 class
- SOC 4190 - Seminar on Georg Simmel (W 01:25:PM-04:25:PM) | fall 2008 class
background
educational background
- MM.L. ("Juris kandidat"), Faculty of Law, Stockholm University June 1970;
- Ph D, Department of Sociology, Boston College May 1978.
professional background
- Professor of Sociology Stockholm University, 1996
- Chair of the Section for Economic Sociology at the American Sociological Association (2005-2006).
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany (2005-).
- Member of the Sociological Research Association (2005-).
featured in
publications
selected publications (listing in progress)
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(ed. with Victor Nee) The Economic Sociology of Capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005.
Interest. London: Open University Press, 2005.
A Max Weber Dictionary. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2005.
(ed. with Neil Smelser), The Handbook of Economic Sociology, 2nd, rev. ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2005.
(ed.), New Developments in Economic Sociology. 2 vols. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Principles of Economic Sociology. Princeton University Press, 2003.
(ed.) Entrepreneurship: The Social Science View. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
(ed.) Max Weber: Essays in Economic Sociology. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.
Max Weber and the Idea of Economic Sociology. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.
Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory. (edited with Peter Heström) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
The Handbook of Economic Sociology. (edited with Neil Smelser) Princeton and New York: Princeton University Press and Russell Sage Foundation, 1994; 2nd ed. forthcoming in 2004.
(ed.) Explorations in Economic Sociology. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1993.
The Sociology of Economic Life. (edited with Mark Granovetter) Boulder, Co: Westview Press, 1992; 2nd and enlarged ed. 2001.
Joseph A. Schumpeter: His Life and Work. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
(ed.) Joseph A. Schumpeter:The Economics and Sociology of Capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Economics and Sociology: On Redefining Their Boundaries. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Economic Sociology: Past and Present (Sage, 1987)