Theda Skocpol

Theda Skocpol (born May 4, 1947 in Detroit, Michigan) is a sociologist and political scientist at Harvard University, presently serving as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Influential in sociology as an advocate of the historical-institutional and comparative approaches, Skocpol has written widely for both popular and academic audiences.

Related Topics:
May 4 - 1947 - Detroit, Michigan - Sociologist - Political scientist - Harvard University - Dean - Graduate School of Arts and Sciences - Historical-institutional - Comparative

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skocpol's undergraduate education was at Michigan State University (B.A., 1969). She went on to Harvard (Ph.D., 1976), where she studied with Barrington Moore Jr. In 1979, she published States and Social Revolutions, a comparative analysis of political revolutions in Russia, France, and China. Some of her subsequent work focused on methodology and theory, including the co-edited volume Bringing the State Back In, which heralded a new focus by social scientists on the state as an agent of social and political change.

Related Topics:
Michigan State University - B.A. - 1969 - Ph.D. - 1976 - Barrington Moore Jr. - 1979 - States and Social Revolutions - Russia - France - China - Bringing the State Back In - State

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the early 1980s, she publicly alleged that Harvard had denied her tenure because she was a woman, a charge which was found to be justified by an internal review committee in 1981, by which point she was teaching at the University of Chicago. In 1985, Harvard offered her a tenured position (its first ever for a female sociologist), which she accepted.

Related Topics:
1981 - University of Chicago - 1985

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In more recent years, her work has focused specifically on the United States, including the award-winning Protecting Soldiers and Mothers, a historical analysis of the American welfare state. She has also focused on civic engagement, spearheading research charting the history of voluntary associations over the last two centuries. Her 2003 work, Diminished Democracy, seeks to explain the decline of American civic participation in recent decades. In this area, she has differed strongly with her Harvard colleague Robert Putnam and other social capital theorists, in highlighting the role of institutional changes (include state policies) in shaping civic life.

Related Topics:
United States - Protecting Soldiers and Mothers - Welfare state - Civic engagement - 2003 - Diminished Democracy - Robert Putnam - Social capital

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Her works and opinions have been associated with the structuralist school. As one example, she argues that social revolutions can best be explained given their relation with specific structures of agricultural societies and their respective states. She gives equal importance to the role of international forces, specially their influence on state and social structures of a given society. Such an approach, differs greatly from more "behaviorist" ones, which tend to emphasize on the role of "revolutionary populations" "revolutionary psychology" and/or "revolutionary consciousness" as determinant factors of revolutionary processes.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She has been married to Bill Skocpol, an experimental physicist at Boston College, since 1967, with whom she has a son, Michael Allen.

Related Topics:
Physicist - Boston College - 1967

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~