Randall Collins, Ph.D. The Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor in Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Education

1963 A.B. Harvard College

1964 M.A., Psychology, Stanford University

1969 Ph.D., Sociology, University of California Berkeley

Research:

• Sociological Theory
• Macro-Historical Sociology of Political and Economic Change
• Micro-Sociology: Face-to-Face Interaction
• Sociology of Intellectuals
• Social Conflict (Especially Violent Conflict)

Extra Academic

Earlier in his career, Collins left academia on multiple occasions to be a writer. His one successful novel was The Case of the Philosopher’s Ring, featuring Sherlock Holmes (source: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/theory@madison/papers/ivwCollins.pdf).

Selected Publications

2004. Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton University Press.

2004. “Rituals of solidarity and security, and processes of mass hysteria, in the wake of terrorist attack.” Sociological Theory 21

2003. “A Network-location Theory of Culture.” Sociological Theory 21: 69-73.

2003. “Fuller, Kuhn, and the Emergent Attention Space of Reflexive Studies of Science.” Social Epistemology 17: 145-150.

2003. “Sociology and Philosophy.” in Craig Calhoun, Chris Rojek, and Bryan Turner (eds.) International Handbook of Sociology. London: Sage.

2003. “The Durkheimian Movement in France and in World Sociology.” in Jeffrey Alexander and Phil Smith (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to Durkheim. Cambridge Univ. Press.

2003. “Mann’s Transformation of the Classical Sociological Traditions.” In John A. Hall and Ralph Schroeder (eds.), An Anatomy of Power: The Social Theory of Michael Mann. Cambridge Univ. Press.

2002. “Introduction.” with Mauro Guillen, Paula England, Marshall Meyer. in The New Economic Sociology: Developments in an Emerging Field. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

2002. ‘On the Acrimoniousness of Intellectual Disputes.’ Common Knowledge 8: 47-70.

2002. “Geopolitics in an Era of Internationalism." Social Evolution and History Journal vol. 1

2002. "Conflict Theory and Interaction Ritual: the Microfoundations of Conflict Theory." (with Jörge Rössel) In Jonathan Turner (ed.), Handbook of Sociological Theories. New York: Plenum Publishers.

2002. “Credential Inflation and the Future of Universities.” In Steve Brint (ed.), The Future of the City of Intellect. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Excerpted in Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 2002.

2002. “Black’s Contributions to a General Theory of Conflict.” essay Contemporary Sociology 31: 655-58.

2000. "Comparative and historical patterns of education." In Maureen T. Hallinan (ed.), Handbook of the Sociology of Education. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 213-239.

2000. "Situational Stratification: A Micro-macro Theory of Inequality." Sociological Theory 18

1999: Macro-History: Essays in Sociology of the Long Run. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

1999. Macro-History: Essays in Sociology of the Long Run. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

1988: The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

1998. "Democratization in World-Historical Perspective." In Ralph Schroeder Weberian Political Sociology: Democracy, Nationalism and Modernization. London: Macmillan.

1998. The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Russian edition 2002. Italian, Chinese and Spanish editions forthcoming.

Living people | American academics