Mathieu Deflem, Editor Google Scholar | ResearchGate | ORCID
Featuring autobiographical essays by Martin Albrow, Karin Knorr Cetina, Diane E. Davis, Pierpaolo Donati, Leon Grunberg, Horst J. Helle, Eiko Ikegami, Tiankui Jing, Hyun-Chin Lim, Ewa Morawska, Richard Münch, Saskia Sassen, Joachim J. Savelsberg, Piotr Sztompka, Edward A. Tiryakian and Ruut Veenhoven.
Scroll down for PDF copy.
Published by Ashgate in Aldershot, UK, 2007. ISBN: 0754670376.
SYNOPSIS
This volume brings together sixteen leading international sociologists to share their experiences of becoming practitioners in the field. Selected for their comparative and transnational interests and experiences, the contributors include: Martin Albrow, Karin Knorr Cetina, Diane E. Davis, Pierpaolo Donati, Leon Grunberg, Horst J. Helle, Eiko Ikegami, Tiankui Jing, Hyun-Chin Lim, Ewa Morawska, Richard Münch, Saskia Sassen, Joachim J. Savelsberg, Piotr Sztompka, Edward A. Tiryakian and Ruut Veenhoven.
Each contributor provides an auto-biographical review of their journey into the discipline with special attention paid to the intellectual and social-political contexts in which their work matured. Each chapter concludes with comments on the future direction in which they see their area of sociology heading. These original and reflective contributions provide fascinating insights into the careers of sociologists living in a global age.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: SOCIOLOGISTS IN A GLOBAL AGE [online]
Mathieu Deflem
Part I — TRAVERSING WORLDS
UNFINISHED WORK: THE CAREER OF A EUROPEAN SOCIOLOGIST
Martin Albrow, London School of Economics, UK
GOING GLOBAL
Karin Knorr Cetina, Universität Konstanz, Germany
BETWEEN WORLDS: MARGINALITIES, COMPARISONS, SOCIOLOGY
Joachim J. Savelsberg, University of Minnesota, USA
THE URBAN IS POLITICAL: MY JOURNEY FROM THE MIDWESTERN SUBURBS TO THE WORLD’S LARGEST CITIES (AND BACK?)
Diane E. Davis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
GOING DIGGING IN THE SHADOW OF MASTER CATEGORIES [PDF]
Saskia Sassen, The University of Chicago, USA
Part II — EVOLVING WORKS
SOCIOLOGY — PASSION AND PROFESSION
Richard Münch, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, Germany
THE MAKING AND REMAKING OF A SOCIOLOGIST
Ewa Morawska, University of Essex, UK
A SERENDIPITOUS CAREER [pdf]
Leon Grunberg, University of Puget Sound, USA
TOWARDS A MORE DEMOCRATIC AND JUST SOCIETY: AN EXPERIENCE OF A SOCIOLOGIST FROM KOREA
Hyun-Chin Lim, Seoul National University, South Korea
BUILDING A RELATIONAL THEORY OF SOCIETY: A SOCIOLOGICAL JOURNEY
Pierpaolo Donati, University of Bologna, Italy
FOR A BETTER QUALITY-OF-LIFE
Ruut Veenhoven, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Part III — (TRANS)FORMING SELVES
COMING IN FROM THE COLD: MY ROAD FROM SOCIALISM TO SOCIOLOGY
Piotr Sztompka, Jagiellonian University, Poland
MY SOCIOLOGICAL PRACTICES AND COMMUTING IDENTITIES
Eiko Ikegami, The New School for Social Research, USA
A JOURNEY INTO SOCIOLOGY [pdf]
Horst J. Helle, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany
MY EFFORTS TO EXPLORE THE SECRET OF CHINESE DEVELOPMENT
Tiankui Jing, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China
HAVE SOCIOLOGICAL PASSPORT, WILL TRAVEL
Edward A. Tiryakian, Duke University, USA
REVIEWS
Published Reviews
The authors in this collection range from Germany, the Netherlands, Korea, China, Italy and Poland to the United Kingdom and the United States... The collection is simply too varied to do justice, in a review, to all these personal accounts.
— Eduardo de la Fuente, Thesis Eleven (2009)
Deflem’s edited volume convenes 17 biographical accounts of renowned sociologistss... Echoing Mills’ idea of the sociological imagination, the current edition of sociologists’ biographical perspectives convincingly demonstrates the intertwining of personal, historical, political and theoretical dimensions and how they unfold in the lives and works of sociologists.
— Elisabeth Simbuerger, European Societies (2008)
Trattandosi di una raccolta di autobiografie, l'attenzione del lettore si concentra immediatamente sulle ragioni di questa soluzione, insieme euristica, metodologica e stilistica, che il curatore giustifica fin dalle primissime pagine introduttive.
— Luca Martignani, Sociologia e Politiche Sociali (2008)
Mathieu Deflem has had the good idea to take up the metaphor of globalisation and travels when looking at sociologists’ lives. This is certainly a good perspective: good sociologists travel nowadays a lot, although sociologists of my generation (born directly after the war) do not often have similar itineraries as those of the previous generation who had to flee from Nazi Germany, for example. Their travels are far more benign, and mainly voluntary...
— J.P. Roos, Acta Sociologica (2008)
Personal biography matters in research, even though it’s only a recent development that more sociologists have begun to give equal billing to their research topics and their personal lives... This unique edited collection features the intellectual development of 16 global scholars selected by editor, Mathieu Deflem... Globalization is etched into the personal lives of contributors who recount poignant struggles to have their work accepted and to find communities of like-minded scholars.
— Rosanna Hertz, Contemporary Sociology (2008)
Whatever their origins, the editor and his contributors should be thanked for allowing us to see who they were, are, and might be, as sociologists in their own local and global settings.
— David Pearson, New Zealand Sociology (2007)
Advance Reviews
Mathieu Deflem has created an exciting, wide reaching, and unusual book. Sociologists write about the need to bring light into the tangles and confusions of societies in turbulent change. In spite of all their adventures in global change, they are most dedicated to the value of sociology: to contribute clear knowledge of society. And this book shows it.
— Burkart Holzner, University of Pittsburgh
Sociology in the period after the second world war produced a distinctive set of of international scholarly careers, resulting in part from the changed role of the United States and the partition between east and west produced by the Cold War. This collection of autobiographies brings together a number of fascinating lives which took advantage of these new possibilities. The contingencies of scholarlship and the ways in which personalities and styles shaped and were shaped by these new circumstances come through clearly. An excellent contribution to our understanding of the personal side of global scholarship in a pivotal time.
— Stephen P. Turner, University of South Florida
PUBLICATION
Published in 2007, this book is now freely available in PDF format.
You can also check online stores for a print copy of this book.
See other edited books by Mathieu Deflem.
Published Reviews
The authors in this collection range from Germany, the Netherlands, Korea, China, Italy and Poland to the United Kingdom and the United States... The collection is simply too varied to do justice, in a review, to all these personal accounts.
— Eduardo de la Fuente, Thesis Eleven (2009)
Deflem’s edited volume convenes 17 biographical accounts of renowned sociologistss... Echoing Mills’ idea of the sociological imagination, the current edition of sociologists’ biographical perspectives convincingly demonstrates the intertwining of personal, historical, political and theoretical dimensions and how they unfold in the lives and works of sociologists.
— Elisabeth Simbuerger, European Societies (2008)
Trattandosi di una raccolta di autobiografie, l'attenzione del lettore si concentra immediatamente sulle ragioni di questa soluzione, insieme euristica, metodologica e stilistica, che il curatore giustifica fin dalle primissime pagine introduttive.
— Luca Martignani, Sociologia e Politiche Sociali (2008)
Mathieu Deflem has had the good idea to take up the metaphor of globalisation and travels when looking at sociologists’ lives. This is certainly a good perspective: good sociologists travel nowadays a lot, although sociologists of my generation (born directly after the war) do not often have similar itineraries as those of the previous generation who had to flee from Nazi Germany, for example. Their travels are far more benign, and mainly voluntary...
— J.P. Roos, Acta Sociologica (2008)
Personal biography matters in research, even though it’s only a recent development that more sociologists have begun to give equal billing to their research topics and their personal lives... This unique edited collection features the intellectual development of 16 global scholars selected by editor, Mathieu Deflem... Globalization is etched into the personal lives of contributors who recount poignant struggles to have their work accepted and to find communities of like-minded scholars.
— Rosanna Hertz, Contemporary Sociology (2008)
Whatever their origins, the editor and his contributors should be thanked for allowing us to see who they were, are, and might be, as sociologists in their own local and global settings.
— David Pearson, New Zealand Sociology (2007)
Advance Reviews
Mathieu Deflem has created an exciting, wide reaching, and unusual book. Sociologists write about the need to bring light into the tangles and confusions of societies in turbulent change. In spite of all their adventures in global change, they are most dedicated to the value of sociology: to contribute clear knowledge of society. And this book shows it.
— Burkart Holzner, University of Pittsburgh
Sociology in the period after the second world war produced a distinctive set of of international scholarly careers, resulting in part from the changed role of the United States and the partition between east and west produced by the Cold War. This collection of autobiographies brings together a number of fascinating lives which took advantage of these new possibilities. The contingencies of scholarlship and the ways in which personalities and styles shaped and were shaped by these new circumstances come through clearly. An excellent contribution to our understanding of the personal side of global scholarship in a pivotal time.
— Stephen P. Turner, University of South Florida
PUBLICATION
Published in 2007, this book is now freely available in PDF format.
You can also check online stores for a print copy of this book.
