| I received my Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at San Diego. My primary areas of research are sociological theory, historical sociology economy, and culture. Over the last twenty-five years, my interest has been to demonstrate that the design of technology and material artifacts is not determined by some neutral logic of efficiency and functionality but by a complex process of social and cultural conflict. My first research focused on the origins and evolution of mass production in the automobile industry, revealing that this revolutionary production process was shaped in large part by class conflict. In my next project, I examined the aesthetics of American automobiles, showing that this cultural dimension was similarly shaped by the vicissitudes of social struggles in American society. The two books that resulted from this research have brought me international recognition as an scholar of the automobile industry. Currently, I am completing a comparative-historical research project focused on the relation of architecture to Fordist and post-Fordist production processes. Complementing this empirical research is my ongoing theoretical project to clarify and modify Pierre Bourdieu's theory of culture. In the future, I plan research to specify the general relation between class and culture.
I teach courses in introductory sociology, sociological theory, and the sociology of culture. In these courses, I delight in using my research findings to illustrate the broader structures and processes of social life.
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