Craig J. Calhoun
A comparative and historical sociologist and social theorist, Calhoun is also engaged in anthropology, communications, economics, history, international studies, political science, philosophy, and science and technology studies. Calhoun’s current research focuses on contemporary transformations, and possible futures: for the political economy of the modern world-system, for universities and knowledge institutions, for democracy, and for shifting structures of social solidarity from local communities to nations, transnational relations, and the reorganization of regions. More philosophically, he is exploring the relationship between transformation and transcendence in understanding human existence itself.
Degenerations of Democracy
with Charles Taylor and Dilip Gaonkar
(Harvard University Press 2022)
Three leading thinkers analyze the erosion of democracy’s social foundations and call for a movement to reduce inequality, strengthen inclusive solidarity, empower citizens, and reclaim pursuit of the public good.
Book Reviews Degenerations of Democracy (selected)
Craig Calhoun, sociólogo estadounidense: “La desigualdad es un problema para la democracia”
Paula Escobar - 19 MAY 2023
Degenerations of Democracy: Response to Comments.
"While writing Degenerations, Dilip Gaonkar, Charles Taylor, and I debated whether to be more pointed in showing the problems contemporary democracies face or in touting our preferred solutions. We shared a sense of real alarm, and this has only grown in the year and a half since the book was finished."
Recent Publications
Calhoun, C. (2023). Immanuel Wallerstein and the Genesis of World-Systems Analysis Journal of World-Systems Research (forthcoming)
Calhoun, C. (2023). Degenerations of Democracy: Response to Comments. Critical Sociology, 49(2), 331–340. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205221146
Calhoun, C. (2022). For Sociology: May Our Arguments Unite Us. Critical Sociology, 48(2), 197–203. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205221075652
Craig Calhoun is the author or co-author of nine books including Neither Gods nor Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in China; Critical Social Theory: Culture, History, and the Challenge of Difference; Roots of Radicalism and Does Capitalism Have a Future? (with Immanuel Wallerstein, Randall Collins, Georgi Derluguian and Michael Mann). He has also edited more than twenty volumes and published over 150 peer-reviewed papers, articles and chapters.
Books
His newest book is Degenerations of Democracy, with Charles Taylor and Dilip Gaonkar (Harvard University Press 2022). He is also the editor, with Benjamin Fong, of The Green New Deal and the Future of Work (Columbia University Press, 2022) and, with a group of his former students, of two of the most widely used anthologies in the field: Classical Sociological Theory and Contemporary Sociological Theory, now in their 4th edition.
Projects
Democracy has been a goal of popular struggles throughout the modern era. In the late 20th century, it was widely viewed as the obvious path for progress in government. Today it is challenged not only by authoritarian regimes and other competitors but also by internal degenerations and upheavals.
Biography
Craig Calhoun is currently University Professor of the Social Sciences at Arizona State University. Prior to joining ASU, he served as President and Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), President of the Berggruen Institute, and President of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). He was also on the faculty of NYU (where he founded the Institute for Public Knowledge), Columbia University, and UNC-Chapel Hill (where he founded the University Center for International Studies and served as Dean of the Graduate School).