Randall Collins, Ph.D. is the Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor in Sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

 at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 and a member of the Advisory Editors Council of the Social Evolution & History

Social Evolution & History

Social Evolution & History is a peer-reviewed academic journal focused on the development of human societies in the past, present and future. In addition to original research articles, Social Evolution & History includes critical notes and a book review section. It is published in English twice a...

Journal. He is considered to be one of the leading non-Marxist conflict theorists

Conflict theory

Conflict theories are perspectives in social science that emphasize the social, political or material inequality of a social group, that critique the broad socio-political system, or that otherwise detract from structural functionalism and ideological conservativism...

 in the United States,

Education

• 1963 A.B. Harvard College
  Harvard College
  Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
  
  
• 1964 M.A., Psychology, Stanford University
  Stanford University
  The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
  
  
• 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 (sociology of knowledge)
• Social Conflict (Especially Violent Conflict)

Writing career

Earlier in his academic career, Collins left academia on several occasions to write fiction. One of his novels is The Case of the Philosopher’s Ring, featuring Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

. http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/theory@madison/papers/ivwCollins.pdf

Publications

• 2008. Violence. A micro-sociological Theory. Princeton University Press
  Princeton University Press
  -Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
  
  . ISBN 0691133131
• 2004. Interaction Ritual Chains. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691123896
• 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 University Press
  Cambridge University Press
  Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
  
  .
• 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 University 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, pp. 118-139.
• 2002. "Conflict Theory and Interaction Ritual: the Microfoundations of Conflict Theory." (with Jörg 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." [review 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.
• 1998. "The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change." Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University. ISBN 0674001877 (Russian edition 2002. Italian, Chinese, and Spanish editions forthcoming. Esmail Yazdanpour is now translating it into Persian.)
• 1998. "Democratization in World-Historical Perspective." In Ralph Schroeder Weberian Political Sociology: Democracy, Nationalism and Modernization. London: Macmillan.
• 1985-1994. "Four Sociological Traditions." Oxford University Press, Inc. ISBN 0-19-508208-7.
• 1979. "The Credential Society: An Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification." New York : Academic Press. ISBN 0121813606.
• 1975. "Conflict Sociology: Toward an Explanatory Science." New York: Academic.

External links

• Randall Collins' blog The Sociological Eye