Areas of Research/Interest: Urban studies; media and cultural production; risk and disaster; race; theory.
Bio:
Eric Klinenberg is Professor of Sociology at New York University. His first book, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, won six scholarly and literary prizes (as well as a Favorite Book section from the Chicago Tribune) and was praised as “a dense and subtle portrait” (Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker); “a remarkable, riveting account” (American Prospect); “intellectually exciting” (Amartya Sen); and a “trenchant, persuasive tale of slow murder by public policy” (Salon). A theatrical adaptation of Heat Wave premiered in Chicago in 2008, and a feature documentary based on the book is currently in production. Klinenberg’s second book, Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media, was called “politically passionate and intellectually serious,” (Columbia Journalism Review), “a must-read for those who wonder what happened to good radio, accurate reporting and autonomous public interest” (Time Out New York), and “eye-opening …required reading for conscientious citizens” (Kirkus). Since its publication, he has testified before the Federal Communications Commission and briefed the U.S. Congress on his findings. Klinenberg is currently working on two new projects. One, a study of the problem of urban security, examines the rise of disaster expertise, the range of policy responses to emerging concerns about urban risk and vulnerability, and the challenge of cultivating a culture of preparedness. The other project is a multi-year study of the extraordinary rise in living alone. He reported on parts of this research in a recent story for NPR’s This American Life, and is now working on a book, Alone in America, which will be published by The Penguin Press. In addition to his books and scholarly articles, Klinenberg runs the NYU Urban Studies seminar, and writes for popular publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, The London Review of Books, The Nation, The Washington Post, Mother Jones, The Guardian, Le Monde Diplomatique, and Slate.
Select Publications:
"Blaming the Victims: Hearsay, Labeling, and the Hazards of Quick-Hit Disaster Ethnography." American Sociological Review 71/4, August 2006: 689-698. "Looting Homeland Security." Rolling Stone. "Beyond 'Fair and Balanced.'" Rolling Stone. "When Chicago Baked." Slate. "Disasters: Natural and Social." In These Times. "Introduction: Cultural Production in a Digital Age" (with Claudio Benzecry). The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 597 (January 2005). "Convergence: News Production in a Digital Age." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 597 (January 2005). "Channeling into the Journalistic Field: Youth Activism and the Media Justice Movement." In Rodney Benson and Eric Neveu (Editors). Pierre Bourdieu and the Sociology of the Journalistic Field (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004). "Overheated." Contemporary Sociology 33/5: 521-528, 2004. "Dying Alone: The Social Production of Urban Isolation." Ethnography 2/4: 499-529, 2001. "Bodies That Don't Matter: Death and Dereliction in Chicago." Body and Society 7/3: 121-136, 2001. (Reprinted in Bodies as Commodities, London: Sage, 2002.) "The Political Economy of Whiteness Studies."Souls 4/4: 52-55, 2002. "Information et Production Numerique." Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales 134: 66-75, 2000. "Denaturalizing Disaster: A Social Autopsy of the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave." Theory and Society 28: 239-295, 1999. (Revised and reprinted in Philippe Bourgois and Nancy Scheper-Hughes (Editors), Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology (London: Blackwell, 2003). "Bourgeois Dystopias", a review essay of Dolores Hayden, Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, 1820-2000, and A Field Guide to Sprawl. The Nation (June 28, 2004). "Neo-Catastrophism, a review essay of Thomas Bender, The Unfinished City: New York and the Metropolitan Idea, and Mike Davis, Dead Cities. London Review of Books (October 9, 2003). "Strength in Numbers." Review of James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds. The Washington Post Book World (September 7, 2004). "To Have and Have Not." Review of Sir Michael Marmot, The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects our Health and Longevity. The Washington Post Book World (August 1, 2004). "Contestation de l'ordre médiatique, Le Monde Diplomatique (April 2004). "Fear and the City: After Madrid, Does Urban Life Have a Future?" New Statesman (March 22, 2004, cover story). |
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