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.
DEMOCRACY
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.
Climate and Capital: Challenges of Democracy Today
Craig Calhoun, Dilip Gaonkar, Lars Tønder, Sofia Näsström
DEBATE / Craig Calhoun, Dilip Gaonkar, Lars Tønder, Sofia Näsström and Camil Ungureanu (OV En)
Rethinking the Social Question
Sofia Näsström / Craig Calhoun and Dilip Gaonkar
DEBATE / Sofia Näsström, Craig Calhoun, Dilip Gaonkar and David Casassas (OV En)
Book Reviews Degenerations of Democracy (selected)
Jan Zielonka
Steven E. Zipperstein
Beverly Crawford
Craig Calhoun, sociólogo estadounidense: “La desigualdad es un problema para la democracia”
“Inequality is a problem for democracy.”
Paula Escobar - 19 MAY 2023
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).
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.
Recent Publications
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.
